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Aug 18th 2010 Fasten our Green Belt now!
Join us in telling Doncaster Council that we want the countryside east of the Borough to get proper protection in future plans!
Doncaster Council is currently updating its main planning policy – the Core Strategy. This sets out the overall plan of development in the Borough for the next 15 years. The Core Strategy will also determine what happens to Doncaster’s Green Belt.
We’re campaigning for a full Green Belt all the way around Doncaster. Valuable countryside on the eastern edge of Doncaster still doesn’t have proper planning protection and could easily be lost to development. The aim of Green Belts is to prevent urban sprawl by keeping land permanently open. The current boundaries of Doncaster’s Green Belt run north to south through the centre of the Borough, leaving eastern areas - including those around Armthorpe, Barnby Dun, Bradholme, Finningley, Hatfield and Thorne - exposed to the threat of being built on.
There are increasing pressures for distribution centres, roads and housing here. We know that Doncaster needs spaces for more homes and employment, but there are plenty of existing brownfield sites that should be regenerated first. Once countryside is built on, it’s gone forever.
Doncaster deserves a Green Belt all the way around it, and we have the chance to really make a difference. Doncaster Council’s consultation on its Core Strategy runs until 20 September. View it online and make your comments at www.doncaster.gov.uk/ldfcorestrategy. You can also make your comments via Doncaster's Public Acccess website.
Find out more about our Fasten Your Green Belt Campaign or contact John King to join us.
Aug 3rd 2010 Keep Armthorpe's green wedge
We're opposing plans for nearly 600 new houses and three large warehouses in countryside north of Armthorpe, Doncaster.
Developers have just submitted proposals to build on almost 30 hectares of land between Armthorpe and Edenthorpe.
This space is a crucial green wedge that separates these two settlements and stops them merging. It’s important that we keep our green corridors. They stop urban sprawl as well as providing valuable breathing spaces for local people.
The countryside under threat is used for farming, and is close to the attractive and valuable West Moor landscape. It is part of Doncaster Council’s Countryside Policy Area, and so protected from development in Doncaster’s own plans.
We alos think that the developers have got their figures wrong. They're arguing that their plans are necessary to meet government targets for a five year supply of housing land. However, the most recent survey shows that Doncaster has more than enough useful land for housing. So there is no need to build here!
Jun 1st 2010 Planning help
We're launching CPRE South Yorkshire's Planning Help service to give clear, impartial information and advice to local people about planning applications that could affect local countryside.
"We exist to look after our local landscapes,” explains John King, our Planning Officer. “So we’re not going to be able to give people advice about their own individual housing extensions! But if you’re worried about a planning application for, say, a new building development in an area of valued countryside then we can tell you about the steps you need to take to fight it.”
Although we have campaigned successfully to stop many developments that would compromise our landscapes, we've also supported planning applications for things like affordable housing and green energy projects.
“There may well be planning applications that people want to support too: for instance, plans for affordable housing, or expanding a village post office to keep it viable,” adds John King. “If you know there’s some opposition you might not want to keep quiet, and again we can talk through how to get involved in the planning system.”
Have a look at our Planning Help pages first - and then if you need to, give us a ring on 0114 266 5822 on Thursday afternoons between 2pm and 5pm.
Apr 20th 2010 NO TO YES!
Plans for a massive tourism development in the middle of Rotherham's Green Belt land will be decided again this spring.
We're urging people to write to Rotherham Council to reject outrageous and over-the-top proposals for the YES! Project at Rother Valley Country Park. Developers got initial planning permission five years ago for similar plans, but still haven’t started building yet. They now need to apply to renew permission to build a multimedia entertainment theatre, two “themed leisure experiences”, a convention and exhibition centre, health spa, extreme sports centre, high-tech golf driving range, plus a couple of hotels.
The development would take up 12 hectares of the well-used country park.
“We can see how things like a chocolate experience and brewing experience sound like exciting tourist attractions,” says our Planning Officer John King, “but it’s completely over-the-top to build such a massive development on precious, restored Green Belt land. There’s plenty of undeveloped brownfield land in Rotherham that are far more suitable, and could actually help regenerate urban areas.”
“Rother Valley Country Park lies in a valuable sliver of Green Belt that separates Rotherham, North East Derbyshire and Sheffield. Green Belt land is protected and plays a crucial role in preventing urban sprawl across this area of South Yorkshire, so we have to stop these outrageous plans,” he adds.
We're also warning that the YES! Project would cause local traffic problems. Developers are predicting 6 million visitors a year, and the plans include car parking for nearly 3,500 cars.
Mar 10th 2010 Bradholme saved
We are celebrating news that countryside near Thorne in Doncaster is safe…for the time being. Proposals for two huge distribution warehouses at Bradholme were kicked out by Doncaster Council last September, but local people were fully expecting the developers to appeal against this within six months and trigger a public inquiry.
“The deadline for an appeal has now passed, so the plans are dead in the water!” says John King, our Planning Officer. “These warehouses would have been over 80 feet high, and visible from the flat Humberhead levels. Employees arriving by car, plus over a thousand lorry movements a day, would have meant a huge increase in traffic and carbon dioxide emissions – so we’re really relieved that this distribution centre is not going ahead.”
We are still worried that Doncaster Council’s future planning policies could mean that Bradholme is at even more risk of being built on. The area has been identified as a strategic employment site in draft plans.
“Of course we support the idea of reducing unemployment in Doncaster. But one of the main reasons that these plans were rejected in the first place was because councillors were not convinced that the number of jobs promised would actually materialise,” says John.
“Doncaster Council should allocate brownfield sites for warehousing, and leave the Humberhead Levels alone. This is another example of why Doncaster should expand the Green Belt east. Without new Green Belt, all the land near the M18 and M180 could be covered by giant tin warehouses.”
