The speech launched an extensive green paper devolving power from central and regional government to local councils. One pledge that would have an immediate impact in Worcestershire is the one which would abolish the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) and give back power to local councils.
Harriett Baldwin said, "I am delighted to see the Conservative policy to abolish the RSS spelled out in black and white. At the moment, our three South Worcestershire local councils are being forced by the government to implement a Regional Spatial Strategy which requires them to find room for 24,500 new homes, perhaps even 30,000 if the Nathaniel Lichfield report is accepted. I reject this top-down, Stalinist approach to planning. Therefore I particularly welcome the following sentences in the green paper:
"A Conservative government will abolish regional planning, revoke all regional spatial strategies (including regional building targets), and repeal the national planning guidance that related to regional planning....We will enable councils to revise, in whole or in part, their existing Local Development Frameworks to take account of the abolition of the regional spatial strategies. This will allow councils to protect land, such as Green Belt, which regional spatial strategies have zoned for development."
Harriett added, "These words bring hope to the Worcestershire communities fighting the loss of green field sites. Gordon Brown has to call a General Election before June 2010. The current Local Development Plans expire in 2011. All we need now is a Conservative majority government."
Photo: Harriett Baldwin and Cllr Paul Tuthill in the threatened fields near Malvern