Save our green spaces!

12.00.00am GMT Mon 1st Mar 2010

Prospective local Lib Dem MP Duncan Hames stands shoulder to shoulder with Chippenham residents against Conservative plans to build 3,000 new houses on the outskirts of the town.

The Conservative-led Wiltshire council's "preferred option" is to build to the North and East of Chippenham. This includes Bird's Marsh, near the woods, and close to flood plains near Hardens Mead. This is in spite of a petition signed by over 2,000 residents opposing the plan.

Duncan Hames said: "I'm disappointed that Wiltshire Conservatives are proposing these building plans while they continue to declare in their leaflets that they are in favour of protecting Bird's Marsh. This is the kind of double-talk we need to get away from in politics".

Lib Dem Wiltshire Councillors recently introduced a council motion calling for the Conservatives to drop the plan as their preferred option. Unfortunately, Conservative Councillors from outside of Chippenham blocked the motion.

Local Liberal Democrats are concerned by the strain that any new development will place on existing local services. The Lib Dems want to build on derelict sites and do-up empty housing rather than use green field sites.

Duncan Hames added: "I have written to the Housing Minister to say plainly that we can't take this many new houses in Chippenham".