London campaigners [1] are today asking Mayoral Candidates if they will commit to halt the selling off of London’s  precious  landscapes and green spaces. This comes on the back of a report CPRE London is publishing today [2] which shows how the weakening of the planning system is putting the protected, historic landscape of the Arcadian Thames under threat [3] [4].

The report, The Arcadian Thames: planning policy ignored?, shows how the Government’s new, liberalised National Planning Policy Framework is pushing development forward as a priority against other important policies aimed at protecting green assets.

Alice Roberts of CPRE London said:

“Londoners are getting fed up with the unnecessary selling off of the ‘family silver’. They don’t want their amazing historic and green assets sold off to the highest bidder or ruined by development which doesn’t meet the needs of Londoners. We deserve better.”

She continued “We support the development of well designed, high density, compact communities, but these must not ride roughshod over protection and environmental policies which are in place to ensure the best possible quality of life for the people who will live in and around those developments.”   “We want to know: will the mayoral candidates step up to the plate and commit to making sure planning policies aimed at protecting London’s historic and green assets are properly adhered to?”

Andree Frieze of Kingston Residents’ Alliance said:

“This report accurately highlights what residents of Arcadian Thames, and particularly Kingston, have experienced for themselves. London needs homes, Kingston needs homes, but not ones foisted on them that fail to deal with the affordability crisis, that breach guidelines over size and which will destroy the landscape for future generations. The existing 16-storey Kingston Riverside building in Kingston is not a lodestone for developers to emulate; rather it is an eyesore that has impacted the views for miles around.”

John Croxen, Chair of CPRE London said:

“Early 20th Century activists succeeded in creating this area of ‘countryside in the city’ as one of the earliest attempts to save an area of natural beauty for all Londoners so it is ironic, and extremely lamentable, that this area is now under threat.”

John continued: “We can fight to save the Arcadian Thames but the reality is that there is really a much bigger battle to be fought here – to save any kind of semblance of local democratic control over our built and natural environment.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

[1] CPRE London is the London branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England. It campaigns to protect and enhance London’s Green Belt and its parks and green spaces, and promote cities that are good for people. The results of CPRE London’s recent research into threats within the Greater London boundary to Green Belt and Metropolitan Open Land (which has the same protection as Green Belt) is set out here. http://www.cprelondon.org.uk/resources/item/2288-protect-london-map

[2] The Arcadian Thames: planning policy ignored? is published http://www.cprelondon.org.uk/resources/item/2297-the-arcadian-thames-planning-policy-ignored.

An event to launch the report will be held at Kingston University, Knights Park campus Wednesday 25 November 4pm-6pm. Mayoral candidates, MPs and Borough Councillors have been invited to attend. Venue: Staff Space at Knights Park Campus, Kingston University, Grange Road, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT1 2QJ www.kingston.ac.uk/aboutkingstonuniversity/location/directions/knightspark/  

Speakers include: Jason Debney, Thames Landscape Strategy Partnership Pat Brown, Associate Professor in the School of Architecture and Landscape at Kingston University Georgia Wrighton, Director, CPRE London

[3] There are a number of ways the planning system has been weakened as a consequence of the introduction of the National Planning Policy Framework 2012

• The Framework states that if a ‘development plan is absent, silent or relevant policies are out-of-date’ permission should be granted ‘unless any adverse impacts of so doing would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits’ when assessed against the policies in [the] Framework’ and ‘unless material considerations indicate otherwise’.  The problem is that many councils’ development plans (50% in London) are under review or ‘out-of-date’ partly because it is extremely difficult for them to comply with national policy requirements demanding often unsustainable development levels and when local authority planning departments are experiencing cuts.

• In relation to housing specifically, councils have been put in a ‘Mission impossible’ situation, being asked to provide for far more housing than can be accommodated or is needed, and are told if they don’t the decision-making will be taken away from them. For more on housing targets see CPRE’s recent publication: Set up to fail: why housing targets based on flawed numbers threaten our countryside which shows that housing assessments are inaccurate, inflated and unreliable.

• A further ‘weakening’ relates to Green Belt and Metropolitan Open Land in London: guidance on what constitutes the ‘very special circumstances’ which are needed to justify development on protected land was removed from the new framework in 2012 leaving it open to interpretation – opening up a serious loophole which is threatening Green Belt and MOL across London.

[4] Arcadia means ‘rural paradise’ and the ‘Arcadian Thames’ refers to the stretch of the Thames between Weybridge and Kew.