'GOVERNMENT MUST PROTECT GARDENS AND GREEN SPACES'

'GOVERNMENT MUST PROTECT GARDENS AND GREEN SPACES' - BURT

November 25, 2008 3:10 PM

Solihull's MP, Lorely Burt today called on ministers to protect urban gardens and green space from developers following the government's rejection of Lords amendments to the Planning Bill designed to prevent garden grabbing.

Speaking after her intervention during the debate, Mrs Burt said:

"This is another lost opportunity for the government to protect high value property areas like Solihull from persistent and predatory planning applications to build on back gardens currently defined as brownfield sites.

"Just six weeks after I was elected in 2005 I introduced a Private Members Bill that would have gone far further than that which government now proposes to protect gardens and green spaces in urban areas from unwelcome development. Allowing for local referendums would have handed real power back to local communities.

"Any new approach to defining land use should not just include gardens, but also land laid out as public gardens and land used for the purposes of public recreation to stop local council's selling off green public spaces against the wishes of local people to fund capital projects."

"It is a travesty that much needed green space in urban areas is currently lumped into the category of brownfield land," added Lorely.

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Lorely Burt MP