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Friends of the earth slams prescott's decision to sacrfice west sussex countryside to new houses
8 December 1997
Friends of the Earth today slammed the decision by Environment Secretary John Prescott,to intervene and order West Sussex County Council to take an extra 12,800 homes in their structure plan. This would take the total to over 50,000 homes up until 2011.
This is the first time that the new Government has intervened in a county structure plan to force a higher housing figure. It sets an ominous precedent for the way that the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions will handle the growing crisis of how to find 4.4 million new homes predicted to be needed by 2016.
West Sussex County Council is strongly opposed to having to take the extra homes, and has today issued a press release stating that it will seek a high court action against the Secretary of State. The Panel for the 'examination in public' into the plans found that this many new houses would be “detrimental to the environment”, and agreed with the lower housing figure of 37,900 put forward by the County Council.
Dr Simon Festing of Friends of the Earth said:
“We are appalled by this last minute intervention by Mr Prescott to force extra housing into West Sussex. It can only have a disastrous impact on the countryside and will generate extra traffic congestion and pollution.”
The Government seems to have given up on its commitment to sustainable development, and prefers instead to pander to the housebuilding lobby which wants to get its hands on our countryside.”
ENDS
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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust
Last modified: Jun 2008
