Minister rails against criticism of planning reforms

Local government minister Bob Neill has blamed a plot by ‘left wingers’ for criticisms of planning policy from two conservation groups.

The National Trust and the Campaign to Protect Rural England, both of which are often associated with ‘middle England’, have mobilised their memberships to oppose the Government’s National Planning Policy Framework.

They argue that this would leave at risk of development open spaces of all kinds in rural areas, including green belt land.

Neill’s comments appeared in the Sunday Telegraph after both bodies argued that the framework would weaken essential protections.

He said: “This is a carefully choreographed smear campaign by left-wingers based within the national headquarters of pressure groups.

“This is more about a small number of interest groups trying to justify their own existence, going out of their way to pick a fight with the Government.”

National Trust conservation director Peter Nixon, said: “Bob Neill’s comments about the motivation behind our concerns are wide of the mark. They are certain to raise a few eyebrows around the trust and elsewhere.”

He said the minister appeared to think that the public were concerned only about land with formal environmental protection designations.

“They are not, as the Government should have realised from the forestry debacle earlier this year,” Nixon added.

CPRE chief executive Shaun Spiers said: “I think Bob Neill would do better to listen to CPRE’s serious concerns about what the Government is proposing rather than indulging in bizarre ‘reds under the bed’ conspiracies.”

He said CPRE supported the idea of a more localised and less complex planning system.

“But [the Government] has got its proposals badly wrong. They will not result in economic growth, just more countryside erosion and less say for local communities, in towns and cities as well as in the countryside,” Spiers said.