Martin Horwood Cheltenham MP puts down early day motions agsint regional spatial strategy

A POLITICAL petition against plans to build thousands of new homes in the South West has been launched by Cheltenham's MP.

Lib Dem Martin Horwood hopes other MPs in the region will sign two Early Day Motions he has started in Parliament.

battle: Martin Horwood with the Save The Countryside RSS protest group outside the Houses of Parliament in January

The Government's Regional Spatial Strategy says 56,000 homes should be built in Gloucestershire by 2026.

One of the EDM's resolutions reads: "This House endorses the Save Our Green Spaces manifesto... and calls on the Government to commit to sequential development to protect the countryside of the South West of England."

Mr Horwood said: "That has been signed by Conservative MPs and Labour as well as Lib Dems. David Drew, Labour MP for Stroud has signed."

The second motion says: "This House has no confidence in the South West Regional Spatial Strategy and calls on the Government to abandon it immediately and instead give local authorities the freedom to solve their own local housing problems."

Mr Horwood said:"The Labour MPs didn't want to sign that but I'm hoping we can get a majority of South West MPs to sign it.

"The House of Commons rises next week, but if local groups can push their MPs to sign it as soon as we get back after the summer then we can really pressure the Government.

"The Lib Dems and Tories have said if we get into government then we'll scrap the whole thing."

Jo Haywood, spokesman for the Save Our Green Spaces campaign, which is co-ordinating opposition to the RSS across the South West, said: "We're absolutely delighted and grateful to Martin Horwood for lodging the motions and his sterling work for getting other MPs on side.

"We'll be writing to MPs in the South West to get them to sign it. If a majority of MPs in the region sign it then there's an unanswerable case that the plan is against the will of the people here."

The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, John Denham, has yet to adopt the RSS for the South West, which attracted 35,000 comments for residents.

No decision is expected until after a judicial review into the East of England RSS has been completed.

For more information about the Save Our Green Spaces campaign, visit www.saveourgreenspaces.org