12 weeks to save Cheltenham?

A CAMPAIGN has been launched warning there is only 12 weeks to save Cheltenham.

Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate Mark Coote has started a petition for people to protest against the plans to build thousands of houses in and around the town.

The proposals are part of the Regional Spatial Strategy devised by the South West Regional Assembly, which says 8,100 houses should be built in Cheltenham, with 1,300 in Leckhampton and 5,000 on green fields next to Swindon Village.

Public consultation on the RSS finishes on October 17.

Mr Coote (below) said: "I've organised this mainly because if you talk to people in Cheltenham they are very worried about the pace of house-building.

"This is exacerbated by last year's flooding because there was a lack of run-off and there's consternation about infill, or garden grabbing."

Mr Coote says the RSS public consultation is largely a cosmetic exercise.

He added: "We're not being asked if we want these houses, we're being told we're getting them and do we want them here or there?

"Another 20,000 people will change Cheltenham forever, and people are worried not just about losing fields but about congestion and traffic, will there be enough schools our GP services or dentists?"

The would-be MP says many villages in the county would benefit from development.

He said: "Some of the villages are dying because people are leaving, and market towns in the Forest of Dean need more people, but the SWRA have decided to put all the houses around Glo- ucester and Chelten ham."

Other campaigns are fighting further building on green spaces around the town.

The Leckhampton Green Land Action Group is protesting about plans to build on greenbelt land to the south west of Cheltenham and Save the Countryside has organised protest walks against proposals for the greenbelt between Swindon Village and Elmstone Hardwicke and Uckington.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Communities and Local Government, which commissioned the RSS, said: "The region has a real housing shortage.

"It is the only region with above-average house prices and below-average incomes. The South West Plan sets clear ambitious targets to tackle climate change, reduce carbon emissions and help ensure that new housing development is delivered in a sustainable way with the right infrastructure in place.

"Tough new planning rules to protect new homes against flood risk mean the Environment Agency must be consulted before all new developments are approved."

Cheltenham Liberal Democrat MP Martin Horwood has already launched a petition against the proposals.

His office manager David Fidgeon said: "We've had more than 2,000 signatures on the petition."

Coun John Webster (LD, St Mark's), one of the founders of Save the Countryside, said: "That campaign handed in a paper petition signed by 1,200 people and also has one online. Between that, Martin's petition and Mark Coote's, we should make ourselves heard."