Dear Gagan,
Thank you for your letter of 4th March. We note, however, that you have not addressed the central questions put to you in our open letter of 2nd March: why did you undermine the draft Plan by criticising the evidence that supports it and why did you publicly support the Housing Minister’s decision to block public consultation on the draft Local Plan? It should be noted that the Housing Minister did not say TRDC’s Local Plan evidence is inadequate; he simply said he wanted to read it, to see if it justifies the draft plan.
More concerning still is what happened after you received our letter. You had the opportunity to raise Three Rivers at Prime Ministers Question Time and rather than use it to robustly defend our Green Belt, to demand that the Minister reverse his intervention and to back the evidence supporting the Plan, you seemed to be more interested in scoring a party-political point You state that you have “consistently defended our Green Belt.” We would respectfully point out that the single most effective defence of the Green Belt is a sound, adopted Local Plan and you have just backed the Minister’s decision to prevent one from reaching public consultation. Without a plan proceeding to examination and adoption, the district remains exposed to exactly the speculative development you say you oppose. Your position is contradictory: how you can you claim to defend the Green Belt while supporting the action that leaves it most vulnerable.
You claim the plan “lacked the evidence required to be deemed sound.” As we set out in our original letter, this does not withstand scrutiny. Consider the Stage 4 Green Belt Review recently undertaken at considerable cost which analyses the Green Belt under the new rules. This was prepared by one of the most highly regarded major consultancies, with recognised experience in this area. This review clearly identifies that development in several areas of the District’s Green Belt would fundamentally undermine the purposes of the wider Green Belt and therefore must be protected from development.
Every week without a Local Plan increases the risk to our Green Belt. Since your first question in the House on 23rd February, a new application to build 333 homes on Catlips Farm in Chorleywood has been published and a new development on the Horsefield in Bedmond has been announced. Speculative applications are flooding in across the district precisely because there is no adopted plan in place. Your constituents are paying the price for this delay, and your support for the Minister’s intervention is making it worse.
We are not naïve. With local elections approaching in May, we understand that the Local Plan risks being used as a political football by parties of all colours. However, when it comes to this issue, we would urge everyone to put party interests aside and all get to together behind it. The future of our Green Belt and the communities we live in is too important to be reduced to electioneering. We would urge you and all elected representatives to treat this issue with the seriousness and honesty it demands.
We repeat our call: please withdraw your support for the Minister’s action and publicly back the draft plan proceeding to consultation and examination without further delay. That is how you defend the Green Belt, not by blocking the very process designed to protect it.
The Three Rivers Joint Residents’ Association represents thousands of residents across every part of the district. Since your first intervention in the Houses of Parliament on this we have asked repeatedly to meet with you about this vital issue, and we again offer to meet with you at your earliest convenience to brief you fully on the plan and on why Residents’ Associations across Three Rivers are united in calling for it to proceed. We trust you will not decline.
Yours sincerely,
Barry Grant
Chair – Three Rivers Joint Residents’ Association
Read more
First open letter to Gagan Mohindra MP from Three Rivers Joint Residents’ Association (JRA)
Full letter from Housing and Planning Minister Matthew Pennycook here: IMPORTANT: Local Plan Reg 19 Suspended
Response to Housing Minister letter from Independent District Councillor Rue Grewal
