Protecting our countryside always has been and will forever be my top priority, writes the Conservative MP for Mid Buckinghamshire Greg Smith.

In recent weeks Buckinghamshire Council has launched the next stage of consultation regarding the local plan.  Let’s be clear what is going on here. Central Government, i.e. Labour have demanded we build 95,000 new dwellings in Buckinghamshire. That is a whopping 43 per cent increase in the underlying (and even then, still too high) presumption. 

Meanwhile, Labour’s mates in London have seen their housing target go down. This is straightforwardly bonkers. We simply do not have the space, well, not if we want to protect our previous open countryside, farmland, greenbelt, and Chilterns National Landscape. I do want to protect all those things, sadly the government doesn’t. To add insult to injury, not one penny is being offered up by central government to support hospitals, GPs, schools, roads, and everything else we would need to have such a catastrophic population increase in Bucks.

So, where do we go from here? A government that wants to concrete over Buckinghamshire and a council that categorically does not want to do any such thing but is under a legal duty to produce a local plan that conforms to central government diktat. First, we need to all have our voices heard in this latest consultation. Stand up against any development on our green spaces, be they technical greenbelt or open countryside alike. Secondly, find every reason and valid planning objection to stop developments that do build on our countryside. We are already seeing speculative applications, such as 220 units in Widmer End that would devastate the very greenbelt that separates Widmer End from Holmer Green.

When I look at some of the land up for comment, some is totally unacceptable, not least around Haddenham which has already grown beyond all recognition in recent years, devastating surrounding farmland and countryside. Let’s stop this – protect what we have – protect what makes Buckinghamshire so special, our rural identity.

I am ready for this fight – please join me and have your voice heard on the council website.

© Bucks Free Press