Any move which allows developers to ride roughshod over local communities must be resisted at all levels.

The Government says its strong stance on cutting through red tape will encourage more building as part of moves to generate growth, targeting the so-called Nimbys opposing development.

The danger with this is that anyone who is opposed to new homes on green belt land is labelled a Nimby regardless of their real motivation.

It would be an absolute tragedy if swathes of land that have been protected in the past are suddenly overrun with development sites purely because the Government is forcing through a policy to help the construction industry.

There are already far too many agreed developments in this area for building on green spaces, especially in the light of the huge number of brown field sites that have been left empty and derelict in our cities and towns.

That is an issue the T&A has been actively campaigning on through our Save Our Green Spaces campaign. If this policy is agreed, then it flies in the face of everything that campaign has been fighting for.

Further, it is reported that of the 500,000 or so active planning permissions for homes nationally, only about a third of them have actually been started because developers are unable to find the funding for them.

The Government would surely be better advised to invest time and energy into ways of kick starting these existing schemes. Instead, it seems determined to bring in a strategy that will see even more of the precious green space in the district in danger of being ripped up and concreted over.