Battle to protect our countryside continues

Councillors throughout the east of England have rejected a request from Labour's John Prescott to find room for another 18,000 homes in the region over and above existing housing targets.

The conservative-controlled Regional Assembly has voted to build 11,000 more homes in Epping Forest but the detail is confused. The figure includes a speculative 6,000 at North Weald end and up to 2,000 as part of Harlow's growth to the south and west of the town. It means more development sites have to be found than those already identified.

The good news is the local Liberal Democrats and other Epping forest councillors have succeeded in arguing for significant growth of Harlow should be to the north of the town rather than to the south towards Epping. The powerful arguments mounted by local planning officers and councillors led by Michael Heavens were backed by independent planning studies and accepted by the regional assembly.

Liberal Democrats are calling on the government to provide funding to upgrade public transport, roads and other local services such as schools and hospitals if development does go ahead. A Liberal Democrat proposal to reduce the environmental impact of growth through improving building standards to reduce energy and water use was accepted by the regional assembly.

Michael Heavens, Epping Forest Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesperson said, "I am pleased that , despite Conservatives criticism, we have managed to persuade the regional planners that their original proposals for Epping Forest were wrong. The future of North Weald is still in the balance but local Liberal Democrats will continue to argue for preserving the separations of the existing towns and villages by limiting greenfield development to the absolute minimum in order to prevent the spread of London suburbia.

"We need decent attractive affordable homes for our young people but we also need the open and wooded green space that makes Epping and the surrounding area such a special place to live."