Over six hundred people have signed a petition against plans to allocate Greenbelt land on the outskirts of Bath for new housing development.
The petition was organised by Conservative councillor Colin Barrett and calls on Bath and North East Somerset Council to rethink plans to earmark land on the edge of Weston village for up to 300 new houses.
A total of 635 people have signed the petition, with signatures collected both online and on paper copies distributed throughout the village.
Councillor Barrett (Cons, Weston) has now presented the petition to the Council’s planning department, which is currently conducting a public consultation on the Council’s draft Core Strategy planning blueprint.
The petition asks the Council to seek alternative housing locations to the Weston Slopes site through the Placemaking process, which will identify more specific development sites than the broad locations contained within the Core Strategy.
Cllr Colin Barrett said: “I’ve had an absolutely tremendous response to this petition, it really shows just how exercised residents in Weston are over this issue. The huge number of responses to the petition will demonstrate to B&NES the strength of feeling amongst local people.
“Residents I’ve spoken with completely understand the need for the Council to enable more housing to be built, but it must be in the right location. The Weston slopes are within the Greenbelt and Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and are prone to flooding. It would be an extremely difficult location to develop. All we are asking is for the Council to listen to our concerns and try and find more appropriate locations than Weston following the public consultation.”
