HANDS OFF OUR BACK GARDENS!

10.57.27am GMT Thu 11th Jan 2007

Back Gardens The Same Status As Old Industrial Estates

We need to protect our green spaces.

Across the country, Councillors and Planning Authorities are facing planning applications for housing developments built on back garden land. Back gardens are treated as 'brownfield sites and given the same status as an old industrial estate, so there is little room for refusal, leaving local people powerless to stop overdeveloped.

Margaret Featherstone, Kent County Councillor for Maidstone North East, said: "Residents can see how the government's attitude towards building on gardens is changing the face of their town - and they do not like it".

The last Tory Government first labelled our back gardens as 'brownfield' land and Labour put the definition into the planning rules with gardens now being replaced with blocks of flats and insufficient parking.

Margaret stated "Planning applications for developing back gardens, or for the demolition of one house and its replacement by flats, come in daily" She continued " Formerly attractive roads like the Sittingbourne Road and Boxley Road in my Maidstone division will soon be unrecognisable. Trees are cut down, hedges grubbed out, and the builders take over. Local people ask me why this urban cramming is allowed - the truth is that the government is encouraging it."

KCC Lib Dem Group has an online petition which people can sign to show their support for the campaign to remove back gardens from brownfield designation and to protect local gardens and parklands. Margaret said: "I would encourage everyone who is concerned about the development of back gardens, local gardens or parklands to visit the Kent Lib Dem website and sign the petition."

The web address for the petition is http://www.kent.libdems.org.uk/petitions/