The Greenbelt Grab

Many new housing developments have sprung up in local areas recently and not all of them have been met with positivity by locals who cite a lack of equivalent investment in infrastructure and already overcrowded schools. Others more sanguine, realise that newcomers can boost businesses, enhance community and help the economy too. However, recent attempts to redesignate greenbelt areas in the Local Development Plan by local councils have united residents in Kilmacolm and Lochwinnoch in condemning these moves. In March 2019 Renfrewshire Council put its Local Development Plan out for public consultation and within it the Burnfoot Road area in Lochwinnoch was included for proposed housing development. There are many excellent reasons not to build here according to Lochwinnoch’s Burnfoot Action Group – or BAG for short. The site is greenbelt and falls within the boundary of Renfrewshire’s ‘green lung’ - Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park. It forms a crucial part of the Wildlife Corridor between the Barr Loch Nature Reserve and the open moorlands of the Renfrewshire Heights area of the Regional Park and is home to many native species of plants and animals, along with the rare Leiper’s bat. Furthermore, the area is very susceptible to flooding and developing on this fragile ecosystem threatens to sharply increase this risk. BAG also challenged the proposed ‘need for housing’ and claimed the Housing Need and Demand Assessment entered in the Local Development Plan was now of date. 900 Lochwinnoch residents objected to the proposal in the summer of 2019, but their voices went unheard. This may be because the story really began many years before. In 2015 Stewart Milne entered into an agreement to purchase Burnfoot Road Site in the event of planning permission being granted, with a view to building over 100 houses. They applied pressure to Renfrewshire Council to change the site’s greenbelt status. Their proposals included making contributions towards sewage works, building affordable housing elsewhere and contributing to school improvements if redesignation and planning permission resulted. Consequently, the Council proposed to redesignate the site to allow development. In Kilmacolm a similar story is unfolding. In January 2021 Inverclyde Council accepted a proposal from their planning officers, to redraw the greenbelt boundary, resulting in the area known as Kilmacolm Meadow (or West of Quarry Drive) being removed from the Greenbelt. Despite almost 500 residents submitting formal objections to this proposal on

The Greenbelt Grab by Rona Simpson

4th May 2021, Inverclyde Councillors voted in favour 8-4 to remove Kilmacolm Meadow from Greenbelt status and approved Planning Permission in Principle for MacTaggart and Mickel to build 78 houses. One of the main objections to development relates to sustaining biodiversity; Kilmacolm meadow has not been grazed for over 20 years and is home to more than 157 species of wildflower and grasses. Some of them are rare such as the greater butterfly-orchid and the whorled caraway. The root system of wildflower meadows creates very stable soil that can withstand heavy rainfall, meaning they are vital in preventing flooding. The UK has lost 97% of its wildflower meadows since the 1930s contributing to increased erosion, flooding and the current climate emergency. However, it is not just plants but people we need to defend. This place gives the west of the village – where garden space is in short supply - access to a large, safe green area that is well used by children and dog walkers. And lastly, there is the subject of housing need. According to Bill Crookson of Save Kilmacolm Meadow Group and Colin Patterson of the Burnfield Action Group in Lochwinnoch, there is no shortage of land in the Renfrewshire Housing Sub Market Area (RHSMA). This has been confirmed by Clydeplan Strategic Development Plan (SDP), which remains unchanged since 2017. It is also confirmed by a Scottish Government Reporter in the Carsemeadow dismissal on 25th May 2021. Kilmacolm Community Council initially objected to the planning proposal at Kilmacolm Meadow, but then withdrew their objection. Chairperson Morven Armour explains, “To be honest we were disappointed by the decision of Inverclyde Council to change the status of the land. The previous chair was informed of the redesignation two days before the pre application meeting so we felt that the grounds of our objection, based on that decision and the figures (in support of housing need), had been invalidated leaving us no option but to withdraw the objection.” What the Lochwinnoch and Kilmacolm situations show is that community voices are being ignored, shutdown or dismissed. These redesignations go against, not only local policy, but national climate change policy. With climate change and loss of species increasing at a pace, there has never been a time more important than now to support biodiversity, stand up for local democracy and preserve our greenbelt. These redesignations must be resisted at all costs. For more information on how to resist or what to say in your objection email join Save Kilmacolm Meadow or Kilmacolm Environmental Action or Burnfoot Action Group on facebook. To object to the Inverclyde Council’s Local Development Plan please email ldp@ inverclyde.gov.uk before 9th July.