Weston’s MP John Penrose has welcomed news that North Somerset Council will withdraw from the Joint Spatial Plan (JSP) for the area around Bristol, and draw up their own approach instead.
The Council’s move comes after Government Planning Inspectors threw out the plans in 2019 and told North Somerset to go back to the drawing board. This was exactly what John and local campaigners had been calling for.
John said, “Although the Joint Spatial Plan had plenty of good ideas for the centre of Weston and Banwell’s bypass, there were serious problems for traffic jams on the M5, and unwanted housing developments in rural villages like Churchill, Congresbury and Langford. I’ve been pushing Government Ministers and campaigning alongside local groups to fix the plans ever since they were first launched, and this decision gives us an opportunity to put the problems right.
“The revised plans need big improvements to J21 and the M5 up to J20, to cut jams and misery for commuters; an end to the proposed ‘garden village’ between Churchill and Congresbury; and a new band of green belt to protect countryside around villages like Congresbury, Langford and Churchill”
Notes:
In January 2018, John Penrose called the JSP a ‘stinker’, saying it will not solve traffic jams on the M5:
https://www.thewestonmercury.co.uk/news/weston-super-mare-mp-john-penrose-slates-joint-spatial-plan-1-5352989
John welcomed news that Planning Inspectors suggested the JSP be withdrawn in August 2019:
http://johnpenrose.org/wp/2019/08/06/westons-mp-responds-to-recommendation-joint-spatial-plan-be-withdrawn/
Details of the Road Minister’s intervention on the M5 can be found here:
http://johnpenrose.org/wp/2019/11/01/westons-mp-secures-roads-ministers-intervention-on-m5-congestion/
Resident action groups said they
support John’s ideas to build up, not out:
https://www.thewestonmercury.co.uk/news/village-action-group-supports-penrose-housing-proposal-1-4903935
John’s article following the Housing
Minister saying he plans to adopt Build Up, Not Out policy idea:
http://johnpenrose.org/wp/2019/10/16/bristol-post-the-secretary-of-state-for-housing-announced-my-idea-of-building-up-not-out-was-going-ahead-bingo/
A full copy of the letter John wrote to Planning Inspectors and Government Ministers asking them to block the plan’s adoption is available here:
http://johnpenrose.org/wp/2018/01/12/john-penrose-mps-written-response-to-the-joint-spatial-plan/