COUNCIL TO ACT ON "GARDEN GRABBING"

Published on Wed 20th Jun 2007

Following a Liberal Democrat proposal made today, the County Council has agreed to write to Ruth Kelly, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, calling upon her to abolish the brownfield status of gardens in order to prevent inappropriate development in residential areas.

Liberal Democrats nationally have campaigned to prevent "garden grabbing" since 2005 when Lorely Burt, MP for Solihull, first put a Bill to Parliament calling for changes in the planning laws. Since then little has been done and the result has been excessive development on residential gardens due to their brownfield site classification, which they share with disused industrial and commercial areas.

Tories on the Council today agreed with the Liberal Democrat position that this classification can often be detrimental to biodiversity, peoples' privacy, and the character of local neighbourhoods.

Liberal Democrat group leader, Cllr Jeremy Hilton who proposed the motion, said:

"The Government needs to prevent any further inappropriate development in the gardens of residential areas. It is important that the Government enables local authorities to respond to the need for more housing and protect the green belt, but excessive building on gardens is not the answer and I am hoping today's council resolution will increase the pressure on Ruth Kelly to come up with a new solution. I am delighted the Tories supported our proposals on this issue, though it was disappointing that the Labour members did not appreciate the importance of this issue."