No to Urban Sprawl!

The Campaign Against Urban Sprawl (CAUS) has been set up to fight plans for new housing developments that threaten to erode hundreds of acres of countryside in B&NES, encouraging an urban sprawl that could change the character of the distinctive towns and villages of the area.

A Summary of 2007

Thank you for your support which has helped the Campaign Against Urban Sprawl to get off to such a positive start in 2007. So far we have generated public interest with local press stories and advertising. We have also prodded B&NES Council about its inadequate publicity for the public consultation on its Core Strategy, to which CAUS has responded in its own right (more details on this website).Our next challenge is the public consultation on the report from the Examination in Public (EiP) of the Draft Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) in the Spring. The RSS is the broad planning blueprint for all development across the South West for the next 20 years, including establishing where thousands of new homes in the region will be built, and will inform what is decided in B&NES’s Core Strategy.The Government inspectors’ report on the EiP will give changes to the original draft RSS - and it is opinions on these changes that the next consultation is seeking. We will be in touch with you all as soon as we know when and how you can respond.In the meantime, we wish you the very best for 2008.

What are the Plans?

Up to 21,500 new homes are planned for B&NES. Of these, 1,000 to1,500 are proposed as an urban extension to Bath itself, potentially threatening to absorb Newton St Loe and Englishcombe. A further 6000 new homes are proposed to be built around Whitchurch and between Bristol and Keynsham.The numbers of new houses have been proposed in the Draft Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) and B&NES Council’s Core Strategy in response to wider Government plans for house building.The B&NES Core Strategy outline’s how the Council proposes to implement the plans laid out in the RSS. B&NES Council is currently carrying out a public consultation on its Core Strategy Launch Document, which runs until 17 December 2007.The Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) is the broad planning blueprint for all development across the South West for the next 20 years, and includes establishing where thousands of new homes in the region will be built.The draft Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS), which will affect every aspect of development across the South West, has been drawn up by the South West Regional Assembly (SWRA).The SWRA is a partnership of councillors from all local authorities across the South West and representatives of various sectors with a role in the region’s economic, social and environmental well-being.However, the SWRA has not been elected. It is a central government-appointed body, yet has been given enormous power to impose policy on B&NES and to influence key decisions in the area.

Why is building on the countryside a problem?

The countryside acts as the ‘lungs’ for those who live in towns and cities and is a precious and finite resource. As oil supplies decline and prices rise, we will become more dependent on locally grown rather than imported food – we cannot afford to let our agricultural land dwindle.Building over green fields encourages:

• more car use, in turn leading to more traffic congestion and pollution
• reduces space for producing local food.
• destroys havens for wildlife
• reduces biodiversity.

If we build new developments in the countryside we will also need to build the infrastructure – such as roads, schools, shops – that in turn will take up more land.With less countryside, towns and villages start blending into a continuous urban sprawl that leads to the breakdown of communities and accompanying social problems.However, developers favour greenfield sites because it is easier, quicker and more profitable to build on open countryside.Building on the countryside should be a last resort. Once it’s gone it can never be retrieved. This website has more information about the issues and the solutions.

Our Aims

Local planning procedures, such as the provisions laid out in the RSS and the Core Strategy, are obscure and difficult to understand. Many people consider planning processes to be too remote from themselves to be concerned about. Yet the decisions made by the planners produce results that affect all our lives.CAUS aims to inform the public about these planning processes, make sure that local people understand how much countryside around Bath might be lost to new housing developments, what impact the loss of this countryside will have and to explain what actions you can take to influence the decision making process.CAUS will also be asking crucial questions about the economic projections on which projected housing numbers in B&NES have been based. Have targets been set for more new homes than are really needed? Will the growth in homes reflect a parallel increase in jobs and investment in local infrastructure and services?

What you can do

• Log your details with us so that we can keep you updated with the latest developments and opportunities to take action.Your details will remain completely confidential and will only be used to communicate information about the campaign. They will not be passed on to any third party.
• Sign our e-petition
• Check the website regularly for the latest news and information.We aim to keep you up to date with the planning process, to make the planning process easy to understand and to explain what action you can take next. For example, we will shortly be explaining who you can write to about this issue. You can subscribe to our newsfeed.

Who we are

CAUS is currently made up of a group of concerned residents from across B&NES.