Green Belt Protest Heads to Parliament

12.22.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 10th Oct 2008

Local protestors, angry at the Government's top down and intrusive Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS), took their message directly to Parliament today. If implemented, the RSS would result in an extra 2750 homes in the Lytchett Minster area and 700 more in Corfe Mullen, all without meaningful local consultation or additional infrastructure.

After a loud and vocal protest outside Westminster, representatives of the group, led by local MP Annette Brooke, presented a personal letter to Gordon Brown at Street. "It's blatantly obvious how strongly local people oppose these plans. Despite our attempts the Government has so far failed to listen to us, but I fully intend to change that," stated Annette.

The protest was well covered by the media, and in her second television interview of the day Annette called for the RSS to be scrapped. "I do not deny that we need more affordable housing, but this is totally the wrong way to go about it. The RSS is a fundamentally undemocratic piece of legislation. It is ill thought out, full of holes and insensitive to the needs of my constituents."

The situation worsened in the last few days when it was confirmed that brown field sites would not be prioritised above use of the green belt for new developments, giving developers the go ahead to sprawl out of existing urban areas. Annette Brooke spoke out strongly in that debate, as did a large number of Lib Dem MP's from across the south west.