Monday 17 February 2014

It's right to build houses on the former police HQ site in Ponteland

Northumbria Police has confirmed plans to sell off it's Ponteland HQ for housing. The force has said it is hopeful the sale of the site for housing will free up pressure on the green belt. I am proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with local residents fighting Labour's plans to build on our greenbelt in places like Ponteland and Hexham. 
I will never apologise for fighting to preserve large swathes of our green and open countryside for future generations. However that is not to say that we, or I, am against development of appropriate housing.

have, for a long time, backed wholeheartedly the plans for housing at the old Ponteland Police Headquarters site, which will provide hundreds of homes, and I continue to do so. I have also campaigned for the several hundred more homes being built to a very high standard by Bellway, at the Stannington Hospital site. 

The key points are
- sensible development,
- using pre developed sites,
- and working with, not against, local communities.

Three features, which I am afraid to say, are largely missing from Northumberland County Council's current draft Local Development plan.