Green belt under threat says Otley councillor

11.21.00am GMT Mon 22nd Oct 2007

Cllr Colin Campbell

The government's house building proposals, recently amended in the draft Regional Spatial Strategy, could have a disastrous impact on green belt land in Otley and Yeadon according to local councillor Colin Campbell.

Councillor Colin Campbell (Lib Dem, Otley & Yeadon) said: "The government's continued mismanagement of the housing supply is putting local green belt land at risk. The amended strategy proposes an increase in the amount of land which has to be allocated to house building. In Yorkshire and Humber the government is suggesting that 22,000 new homes be built per year from 2008, with Leeds and Bradford taking the lion's share. This should be on brownfield sites but in Otley and Yeadon these are running out. This will increase the pressure to bring forward greenfield sites such as those to the east of Otley.

"At the moment house building in Leeds exceeds the government target but many of these houses do not count towards the totals. This is because most development is on "windfall" sites, small areas of land which had not been identified for possible housing and therefore cannot be counted in government statistics.

"The government admits that it may 'have to make changes to the green belt'. This means there will be added pressure from developers to build in popular areas such as Otley or Yeadon."