Maidenhead & Windsor

The Royal Windsor and Maidenhead Borough has underlined its determination to protect the 'precious' Green Belt against housing and office development – despite being forced by the government to carry out a review of its contribution to national Green Belt purposes.

Cllr Derek Wilson, lead member for Windsor and Maidenhead planning and housing, said: "More than 80% of our borough is Green Belt, and exhaustive consultation with local people tells us that they don't want it turned into development sites. The council has listened to our residents and we have been extremely successful in meeting house building targets in existing urban areas – but now we have been instructed by the planning inspectorate to carry out a review of the Green Belt."

But Cllr Wilson gave his assurance that there would be widespread consultation with the Windsor and Maidenhead community as part of the review and there would be easily-accessible ways for people to take part.

The cross-party message from meetings of both cabinet and the planning and environment overview and scrutiny panel (Thursday January 24) was that the Green Belt review would be carried out with the greatest reluctance and would:

* be done as part of a wider exercise which will identify development opportunities in existing urban settlements and brownfield sites, and
* take into account elements that are important to the local community, over and above the criteria demanded by national planning policy.

Members also unanimously agreed to throw their weight behind national organisations, such as the National Trust, in their fight to protect and preserve the Green Belt.

It was last September that the Windsor and Maidenhead council was dealt what Cllr Wilson described as a 'bitter blow' when a report from the planning inspectorate rejected six of the 26 policies in the borough's draft core strategy of the Local Development Framework (LDF). All of the policies judged to be 'unsound' related to how the council planned to fit future housing and employment opportunities into existing urban areas. The inspector's view was that adhering to existing settlement boundaries was not in the best interests of the local community.

Cllr Wilson said: "We are appalled that the government, through the planning inspectorate, can ride roughshod over the very clear views of 80% of Royal Borough residents who want to protect our precious Green Belt. We have fought very hard against this review but have been told we have no choice."

Following the inspector's report, Cllr Wilson wrote to Hazel Blears, secretary of state for communities and local government, to express the council's disappointment and ask for the recommendations to be changed. However, she forwarded his letter to the Government Office of the South East who replied that the council could only check the report for factual accuracy, not change the inspector's recommendations.

Cllr David Hilton, Windsor and Maidenhead council deputy leader, said: "There is a general presumption against inappropriate development in the Green Belt. Such development should not be approved except in very special circumstances. Now there is a complete about-face and the planning inspectorate, driven by government, says that building in the Green Belt is a very special circumstance in itself.

"Government refuses to formally implement this policy change and shamefully allows this contradiction to exist in the hope that councils like the Royal Borough take the blame should any Green Belt ever be released."

The council's planning policy team will now work on details of how the review will be carried out. There will be community-wide publicity to flag up the consultation and how residents can take part.

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead