Simon Kirby, MP for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven, joined with Ovingdean, Woodingden and Rottingdean residents at Brighton Town Hall yesterday to protest at the possible development of more than 100 housing units on land to the north of Ovingdean, in his constituency.
The protest represents the latest move by Mr Kirby and residents to draw attention to the inappropriateness of the location and the determination of the MP and local people to resist housing development in the area.
Mr Kirby attended and spoke at the recent public meeting on the matter and criticised the City Council for not moving forward faster with its local plan which could deter housing proposals of this kind.
After yesterday’s protest, he said: “I was proud to stand with local residents today who have a genuine fear that the historic, settled nature of their communities is about to be completely disrupted by the proposals to build these new housing units. The City Council now needs to quickly rule out this area for development but so far has failed to do so.. Ministers have made it clear there are protections in place for the countryside, not just the Green Belt, and it is now for the Council to step forward and protect Meadow Vale.”
Nancy Platts the Parliamentary Labour candidate for Kemptown and Peacehaven, also joined the protest.
She said: “I was with the ‘Save Our Deans’ campaign supporting the demonstration at Brighton Town Hall yesterday. I oppose the development at Meadow Vale and agree with local residents that the proposed development would be too much of a strain on roads, buses, schools and GPs. Unfortunately new government planning policies introduced in 2011 make it harder for local people to object to development as council planning committees now have to abide by a “presumption in favour of sustainable development”. I have called upon Conservative MP Simon Kirby, who voted for this new planning policy, to talk to the Secretary of State and ask him to change the policy so that we can ‘Save our Deans’ now and protect them in the future.”
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