1 July 2008
Residents from across Gloucestershire yesterday joined hundreds of people from across the length and breadth of England to protest against the 15 proposed Eco town locations across the Country.
After a voluble display of opposition outside parliament where residents were able to meet with their local MPs, nearly 200 people crammed in to join a panel of MPs, including Grant Shapps MP, the Conservative Housing Minister, to discuss their concerns. Grant Shapps declared that the Conservatives would scrap the eco town schemes if they won the next election.
Cotswold MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown joined Peter Luff MP (Mid Worcestershire) and John Maples MP (Stratford-upon-Avon) in detailing their opposition to the site at Long Marston.
Afterwards Mr Clifton-Brown joined Mickleton Parish Council Chairman Martin Gittins in delivering a petition against the site at Long Marston with 12,500 names on it to Number 10 Downing Street. A small number of residents from each affected region were also able to lobby the Housing Minister Caroline Flint MP.
Speaking after the event Mr Clifton-Brown remarked "I have repeated on numerous occasions that the Eco town at Long Marston would be an unpopular and undemocratic development which fails on all of its supposed eco credentials. This site has been selected because the Government is set to make a huge profit from the sale of the land”
“For a Government which is losing voters hand over fist to continue with this demonstrates a total disregard for an electorate which is tired of Labour’s total disdain for the Rural Areas of the country.”
Yesterday marked the closure of the on the day the consultation period closed for stage 2 of the process. The results of the consultation are due within a month.
“I hope that finally Caroline Flint will see sense and will not include Long Marston in the 10 short listed sites. If not I can assure her we will all be back here again and again until the correct decision is made”
After a voluble display of opposition outside parliament where residents were able to meet with their local MPs, nearly 200 people crammed in to join a panel of MPs, including Grant Shapps MP, the Conservative Housing Minister, to discuss their concerns. Grant Shapps declared that the Conservatives would scrap the eco town schemes if they won the next election.
Cotswold MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown joined Peter Luff MP (Mid Worcestershire) and John Maples MP (Stratford-upon-Avon) in detailing their opposition to the site at Long Marston.
Afterwards Mr Clifton-Brown joined Mickleton Parish Council Chairman Martin Gittins in delivering a petition against the site at Long Marston with 12,500 names on it to Number 10 Downing Street. A small number of residents from each affected region were also able to lobby the Housing Minister Caroline Flint MP.
Speaking after the event Mr Clifton-Brown remarked "I have repeated on numerous occasions that the Eco town at Long Marston would be an unpopular and undemocratic development which fails on all of its supposed eco credentials. This site has been selected because the Government is set to make a huge profit from the sale of the land”
“For a Government which is losing voters hand over fist to continue with this demonstrates a total disregard for an electorate which is tired of Labour’s total disdain for the Rural Areas of the country.”
Yesterday marked the closure of the on the day the consultation period closed for stage 2 of the process. The results of the consultation are due within a month.
“I hope that finally Caroline Flint will see sense and will not include Long Marston in the 10 short listed sites. If not I can assure her we will all be back here again and again until the correct decision is made”