The Petition of residents of the Borough of Bournemouth and others,

Declares the Petitioners’ serious concerns about the overdevelopment in the Bournemouth area and the lack of investment in our infrastructure which are affecting the character of our town.

The Petitioners recognise the need for some development to meet the needs of Bournemouth but believe planning decisions should be made by the local authorities and not influenced by targets set by the South West Regional Assembly.

The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urge the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to reconsider the impact present planning policy is having on our town, introduce legislation to protect back gardens from overdevelopment, place more emphasis on supporting off-street parking facilities and ensure Bournemouth’s Greenbelt is not threatened.

And the Petitioners remain, etc.—[Presented by Mr. Tobias Ellwood, Official Report, 11 July 2007; Vol. 462, c. 1581.] [P000038]

Observation from the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government:

The housing market has not responded sufficiently to meet the needs of the country's ageing and growing population. There is a shortage in the supply of housing, the Government outlined its plans to address this and for delivering the homes that are badly needed in the Green Paper “Homes for the Future: more affordable, more sustainable”, published in July 2007, including setting a new housing target for 2016 of 240,000 additional homes a year to meet the growing demand and address affordability issues.

Whilst there is a considerable need for new housing, the Government recognises that it is also important to ensure development is in the right place. This includes preventing inappropriate development in residential areas or on garden land where it is not sustainable and other sites are available.

Planning at the regional level is essential to address regional or sub-regional issues, such as the balance between major areas of housing growth and its supporting infrastructure, that often cross county or unitary and district authority boundaries. However, Government planning policy guidance - Planning Policy Statement 3 - published in November 2006 gives more responsibility than ever before to local authorities to decide how and where new development should be built. The new policy approach gives local authorities more flexibility to shape new development according to the needs of their local areas, and allows them to make decisions on where new housing should be located in those areas. It stresses the need for sites to be suitable to housing development, that are in suitable locations, and which will contribute to the creation of sustainable, mixed communities. In assessing what sites are suitable for inclusion in their plans, local authorities need to consider, amongst other things, the current and future level and capacity of infrastructure to support the proposed distribution of development.

The policy continues the focus on developing suitable brownfield sites wherever possible. The Government has re-emphasised that it has no intention to make fundamental changes to Green Belt policy, which affords strong protection to Green Belt land.