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Labour Southend Council Leader supports house building on greenbelt land next to Bournes Green Chase in line with national Labour’s policy to turn greenbelt into concrete
In a recent Full Council meeting Cllr Cowan stated that the greenbelt land next to Bournes Green Chase “is just a load of low quality over worked agriculture fields which people can’t access anyway”.
I’m not sure which qualifications are required to be able to reach this conclusion, but I’m almost certain Cllr Cowan doesn’t have them. Moreover, ‘access’ has never been the issue regarding greenbelt and open spaces - the environment, wildlife, public services and infrastructure are generally considered to be the main concerns - so I’m not entirely sure why that was even mentioned.
Cllr Cowan goes on to highlight that it was suggested [by a housing developer presumably], that “they would put in a new country park.” The mere fact a conversation has taken place is proof the land is being primed for development, but this is not a revelation as news has already been publicised in the Echo several times over.
When it has been raised it has been swatted away by some gaslighting local politicians as scaremongering - but no longer.
The Leader of Southend Council has now publicised exactly what he thinks and if Southend residents care about this issue it may be prudent to get a head-start in swatting this back because my prediction is this land will be re-classified as newly invented ‘greybelt’ land - so-coined under Labour - and will be cemented and sold for housing, country park or not.
Labour’s great greenbelt dig-up
Cllr Cowan’s building over Bournes Green comments came in response to the motion at Full Council that seeked to save greenbelt land and green spaces in Southend and help support our neighbours in Hadleigh save theirs. (Read the motion here: https://democracy.southend.gov.uk/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=64550).
In his response to the motion he went on to admonish the Tories for their part in providing inadequate infrastructure (not necessarily wrong) which appeared only as a deflection device to avoid the fact that it is his very own Labour government that are the perpetrators of concreting the country.
Despite Labour’s 2024 national manifesto being a barely readable dirge, it could still be seen that their great greenbelt and green spaces dig-up was very much there for all to see. They weren’t hiding this!
Labour will ride roughshod over local councils who will no longer have the power to stop them. As it happens, in Southend’s case, the roughshod is not necessary as Southend Labour are opening the floodgates most willingly.
Local Housing Need
Strangely, to back up his argument about building on greenbelt in Bournes Green, Cllr Cowan’s rant included a point about Southend having nowhere for doctors and dentists to live. This, of course, is a false and exaggerated statement as there are plenty of properties on the market as we speak, but it serves the narrative to accentuate the housing need.
However I can’t disagree there is a housing need. You can’t have a net migration of almost a million people a year without having to make some room for them! And that’s despite there already being a very real local need. I know many who would love to move out of the family home and stay in Southend, but can’t.
More housing would be great for them, but while it is possible for local planning authorities to ‘oblige the developer to sell or rent housing to people who reside in the area’, according to the government website ‘few actually do’ (https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/can-access-to-housing-be-restricted-to-local-people/).
The “local connection test” or “principal residence test” can be included in the local plan (a plan for the land of Southend), but there has to be robust evidence to support it’s implementation.
I am not sure what robust evidence is required, but if Labour are pursuing gutting the greenbelt based on the premise of housing need then it should be accepted that Southend’s need already exists and should, therefore, be added into the local plan.
Interestingly, Cllr Cowan said in a recent Cabinet meeting that “more local people” would benefit in the Fossett’s housing development as “we have the nomination rights”. Now said, never forgotten, and I await with interest just how many local people will be served in this development.
Affordability
Aside from Fossetts, the prioritisation of local people is rarely mentioned, but even if they were, most developments are unaffordable.
In the first place they often start with a relatively low percentage of affordable homes relative to the total properties approved, but what’s worse is developers frequently exercise a loophole that cites changing financial conditions as a means to prove affordable housing is no longer viable and it is then swiftly ditched.
Whilst financial conditions can change, I believe this should have already been factored into the business plan. Legislation around this area needs to change!
What does all this mean?
Labour will override local councils to green-light the destruction of greenbelt land and green spaces on the false premise of building affordable homes for local people.
In other words, build another 20,000 properties in Southend (the target previously identified and then abandoned by the Tories) and we will very likely see the same 1500 Southend families waiting for housing. Locals are not prioritised and even if they were, properties are unaffordable.
Ideally, I would like to see the Local Plan include cast-iron protection of all greenbelt land and green spaces and the prioritisation of local people in any new developments with a far higher quota for affordable housing. I would also like to see a national stance that sees net migration aim to as close to zero as possible.
Some might call me a NIMBY, others may see it as protecting where we live!
Incidentally, in contradiction to both national and local Labour rhetoric, the council voted unanimously to back the motion to object to the development on the Salvation Army development and building on greenbelt land and open spaces in Southend.
For the recorded debate, see: https://southend.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/937183
Echo report on Bournes Green Chase:
Echo News, - 02/01/2025 - Page 8
Echo News, - 02/01/2025 - Page 9
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