{"id":303065,"date":"2025-07-30T05:09:20","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T05:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/303065\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T05:09:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T05:09:20","slug":"ludicrous-housing-target-blasted-over-bristol-commuters-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/303065\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Ludicrous’ housing target blasted over ‘Bristol commuters fears’"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘We all know what we are doing at the moment is building houses for people who live in Bristol, Gloucester, Cheltenham and Cardiff to travel to work in those places’\"ForestForest of Dean councillors have raised concerns new homes are being built in the district for commuters from Bristol and Cardiff(Image: Getty\/PAUL GILLIS\/Western Daily Press)<\/p>\n

Another Gloucestershire council will write to the Government over its \u201cridiculous\u201d housing targets amid concerns the new homes are for Bristol and Cardiff commuters and not locals.<\/p>\n

Forest of Dean District Council <\/a>will protest to the Government over their revised 13,200-home target they are expected to achieve by 2043.<\/p>\n

The authority agreed last week to go out to consultation on the local plan \u2013 the blueprint for development in the district<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, there are serious concerns a potential population increase of more than 40 per cent will have devastating consequences on the statutory Forest of Dean<\/a> as well as the Wye Valley and Malvern Hills and national landscapes.<\/p>\n

Councillors agreed to challenge the Government\u2019s housing figures and will follow in the Cotswold District Council\u2019s footsteps whose leaders have also blasted the \u201cmoronic\u201d targets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Councillor Philip Burford (I, Hartpury and Redmarley) proposed a motion to defer going out to consultation until the council has written challenging the government\u2019 targets for housing in the Forest of Dean.<\/p>\n

\" Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire
\n(Image: \u00a9 SOUTH WEST NEWS SERVICE)<\/p>\n

He told the meeting on July 24 that the housing targets would provide housing for an increase in population of around 40 per cent by 2043.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t believe that this is in any sense a sustainable way forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said councils up and down the country have the same problem and many have written to the Government challenging the housing targets. \u201cMost of them are stating the special characteristics of their areas,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have sites of special scientific interest in the Wye Valley, Malvern Hills and Walmore Common. We have Ramsar Sites (wetlands of international importance), we have special areas of conservation.<\/p>\n

\"CouncillorCouncillor Philip Burford proposed a motion to defer going out to consultation until the council has written challenging the government\u2019 targets for housing in the Forest of Dean at the meeting on July 24, 2025(Image: Carmelo Garcia)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have locally valued landscapes and that\u2019s before we even start thinking about mentioning the statutory Forest.<\/p>\n

“And don\u2019t forget the vale of Gloucester and all of our best and most versatile farmland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councillor Ian Whitburn (I, Coleford) said the council needs to make a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should refuse to do this plan until we get some help from the Government to lower these figures,” he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need more social housing, we need loads of it. If there was any money in this for social housing that would be good \u2013 but there isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\"CouncillorCouncillor Ian Whitburn<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know what we are doing at the moment is building houses for people who live in Bristol, people who live in Gloucester, Cheltenham and Cardiff to travel to work in those places.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou try getting in and out of Bristol and coming through Cheltenham at night and in the mornings and the same in Gloucester.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got no jobs in the Forest for these people, so that\u2019s going to be more travel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich, I would suggest, is against Green policy because people aren\u2019t going to be cycling to Bristol.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s only one train station, they are not going to be going on the train. They are going to be driving.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be terrible for us here in the Forest. We are going to lose loads of farmland.<\/p>\n

\"CouncillorGreen Party councillor Adrian Birch is the leader of Forest of Dean District Council<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as we need houses for local people, these will be four bedroom detached homes people can make a lot of money on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are not going to be social housing, unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Council leader Adrian Birch (G, Tidenham) said he agreed with the points made.<\/p>\n

He suggested they make a strong representation to the Government over their \u201cludicrous\u201d housing targets while proceeding with the consultation on the local plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to get this local plan approved by the time this district ceases to exist,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny delay at this stage could be catastrophic to that programme.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it is not ideal and there will be significant debate to be had in weeks and months to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it would be disingenuous to our residents not to undertake the consultation in the timescale we\u2019ve set.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy all means, let’s make whatever representations we can but it would be foolish of us not to proceed on the basis of the original paper because we owe it to our public to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need their voice as much as we need yours.\u201d<\/p>\n

The council voted to continue with the local plan consultation which will start on July 31.<\/a><\/p>\n

Council chiefs also agreed to write to the Government objecting to the housing targets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘We all know what we are doing at the moment is building houses for people who live in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,110690,111691,4230,393,110692,111692,5014,12028,4884,16,15,111693],"class_list":{"0":"post-303065","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-cheltenham","11":"tag-cotswold-district-council","12":"tag-cycling","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-forest-of-dean","15":"tag-forest-of-dean-district-council","16":"tag-gloucester","17":"tag-gloucestershire","18":"tag-great-britain","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-wye-valley"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114940462085013187","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}