We will protect the green belt - Council pledge: 3,750 homes for Cookham is 'wholly misleading'

The Royal Borough has described as 'wholly misleading' reports that there are plans to build 3,750 homes on green belt land at Cookham.

The categorical assurance was given by the Council today (Monday) following national newspaper reports claiming that green belt land would be consumed by new homes under proposed changes to government planning requirements.

Cllr Christine Bateson, Cabinet Member for Planning and Partnerships, said: "The story that we have plans for 3,750 homes for Cookham is wholly misleading.

"This council is totally committed to protecting the green belt - an assurance we gave to our residents in our manifesto before the local government election in May. We have no intention of going back on that pledge. Greenbelt developments can only proceed with very special circumstances"

Reports alleged that 3,750 homes for Cookham were 'in the pipeline' ahead of the government's new National Planning Policy Framework, currently out for consultation.

However, the reality is that since 2009 all planning authorities have had to prepare an annual report - the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) - listing all sites that have been PUT TO the council for potential development NOT those which the council proposes. The inclusion of a site within the assessment does not indicate, earmark or determine whether the land is needed or suitable for development.

Cllr Bateson explained: "The SHLAA is no more than a list of sites including those put to the Council by developers. They are not sites the Council necessarily supports and to suggest that we have 3,750 homes in the pipeline for Cookham could not be further from reality.

The Council believes that the 3,750 homes quoted in newspaper reports is the result of a 'rough and unscientific' calculation assuming 30 homes per hectare for the 125 hectares of Cookham area sites listed in the SHLAA.

Further information about the SHLAA is available at http://www.rbwm.gov.uk/web/pp_shlaa.htm

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