SAVE OUR GREEN SPACES

  • Hello, my name is Steve Reade, I am chair of the Save Our Green Spaces Group, SOGS. This is not to be confused with other campaign groups subsequently set up across the UK using the same name. I represent the local groups across the area with a shared goal.
  • Our group was set up to campaign against the threat of the South West Regional Spatial Strategy as it affected the broad area to the east of Kingswood. This area is classified as green belt.
  • The green belt serves and has always served a vital role. It stops the urban sprawl of Bristol moving outward towards Bath and the village communities to the east of Bristol.
  • The group is an affiliation of a number of smaller local campaign groups all with the same goal.
  • We are not against housing. We are against inappropriate or unnecessary development of green spaces.
  • There are many areas of “previously used” land that can be developed first in order to provide the required level of housing to meet the identified need both now and in the future. This does not require the loss of this area of green belt.
  • An example of “previously used” land that has recently become available is Filton airfield.
  • The area to the east of Kingswood, often referred to as the Bristol East Fringe, is that area outside the well defined ring road and the Bath road. It is rural. Rural by nature and by character. The villages are well defined, have their own communities and separate identities..
  • The land in between the villages is agricultural. The people of the region travel to the countryside for its openness. A phase often used, is to describe it as the green lungs of the area.
  • Any substantial development on the scale proposed by the developers has the potential to destroy the character of the villages and their communities.
  • It should also be remembered that the level of existing services and facilities is simply not sufficient to cope with the scale of development that has been proposed in the past.
  • Our group is passionate about protecting this area from the unnecessary development on the scale that has been proposed.
  • When South Gloucestershire council started to develop its core strategy we took a close interest in what direction it was taking. We saw it was broadly aligned with our goals i.e. appropriate sustainable development in appropriate sustainable locations with appropriate infrastructure.
  • We held a public meeting to test the feeling of the community. We had speakers from all areas of society. The room, this room actually, was packed.
  • The consensus from the just over four hundred people that attended the meeting was that appropriately located sustainable development is the only way forward in order to provide housing and avoid the mistakes of the past.
  • On the basis of these concerns and the concerns of the community we therefore support the South Gloucestershire Core Strategy.