Liberal Democrats campaigning to preserve Green Spaces from Tory and Labour attacks

Liberal Democrat Cllr Ian Beardsmore has attacked the previous and current Secretaries of State John Prescott and Eric Pickles for failing to protect our Green spaces over the last decade.

Speaking at a Surrey-wide conference organised by CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England) he slammed both for selling out to developers and criticised the way housing demand was assessed. He went on to accuse the pair of being the Tweedledum and Tweedledee of an environmental disaster which had now reached crisis point.

Speaking after Ian added 'Spelthorne's Conservative Administration have been fully complicit in this policy of over development, but it is now being forced on those councils who have stood up for their residents by protecting their precious green space'.

Cllr Beardsmore attacked the way numbers for housing need were put together showing it was easy to double or triple count. He also asked serious questions about housing NEED as opposed to aspiration or demand. 'Just because everyone would like to live in a big house in the country does not mean we should dig up the country side to build those houses' he said.

Accepting that there may be exceptional cases where small amounts of Green belt may have to go he said it should only go to meet housing NEED. It is our most precious land and if it is to go it should be to meet the needs of the most people. He is worried that much Green Belt is going for luxury developments that will benefit very few.

He was particularly scathing about the way Developers did not develop land they already had, or did not build out existing planning permissions. This increased demand which was then used to lever more Green Space for development.