New homes target sparked renewed causes for Chepstow bypass
Conservative councillor Nick Evans, who represents the Tidenham ward at the Forest of Dean District Council is calling on civic chiefs to listen to the 'overwhelming' response of residents in his area to a housing plan consultation, and back his campaign for a new bypass.
Cllr Evans, who has been beating the drum for a new Chepstow bypass since 2018, said that the message from residents in Sedbury, Tutshill and Beachley about the Local Plan was clear, and that as the plan needed re-writing following changes brought in by the Labour Government, this is an ideal chance to update the plan so it doesn't 'store up problems for the future'.
Fifty-nine objections and a further fifty-one observations to development in the most Southern ward of the District were raised by residents, with a great deal of these comments focusing on traffic congestion and the lack of services in the area.
'There was an overwhelming response to this latest consultation, as there has been to all the others about this local plan and its proposal to build a new village at Beachley,' he said.
'The message from local people is clear that with our roads and services as they currently stand, our area cannot cope with the developments that are proposed.
'Maps, statistics and reports don't provide the lived experience, that's why consultation is so important. People who live and work in this area are the ones who really know what it's like to have to deal with these ongoing problems on a daily basis and now is the time to listen to them.
'Unfortunately, the draft response that people will just be encouraged not to use their cars, and will need to work from home more is condescending and just doesn't match with the reality of people's lives.
'The working from home revolution over the last few years has made a change to traffic around Chepstow, just a bad one.
'It's now completely impossible to predict when there will be traffic congestion, and when an accident occurs, the whole area still becomes gridlocked.
'Without a Forest Gateway road to support this development, the lives of all these new residents, and those that are there already, will simply be made a misery.'
The district had initially planned to focus the new housing to be built in Lydney, Beachley and Newent.
The draft local plan anticipates building a new 1,300 homes in the Severnside town and 600 homes at Beachley Barracks.
But new rules set out by the Labour Government within weeks of the 2024 General Election means the District Council now needs to find space for an additional 5400 houses in the Forest.
And with the previous plan being unable to deliver this development, planners have to explore other ways to meet the new target, Cllr Evans says.
'With the Government sending the District's plan back to the drawing board, there is an ideal opportunity to finally recognise that this development simply cannot go ahead without a new road being built to support it,' he said.
'A great deal of preparation has already been done, and rather than tell people that they cannot use their cars, there is a real chance here to deliver a plan that will actually work, rather than storing up problems for future generations.'
District Council unanimously agreed at their meeting on April 17 to review the current agreed Local Plan Strategy and explore alternative strategic options for Local Plan preparation, which will be considered by councillors at a later date.
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BBC News
17 hours ago
- BBC News
The Green Party is at a crossroads. Is it time they get angry?
Warning: This article contains strong languageThe video opens with some white cliffs and a politician standing on a beach. This isn't Dover, and it's not Nigel Farage (although the echoes with Reform UK are deliberate). Rather, it's a campaign video for the Green Party's leadership hopeful, Zack slick filming and a moody orchestral soundtrack, he delivers an animated and uncompromising boats, he declares, are an "obsession that has gripped the country," blamed for a "crumbling" NHS and "obscene" rents, while people are told there's no money left."Well," he says, looking into the camera, "I call bullshit."The real problem, he continues, are the "super-rich and their yachts". The Green Party is on the brink of choosing its new leader. It usually does it once every two years and the contest can go fairly unnoticed. Not this a former actor who is the party's deputy leader, has turbo-charged the race, the result of which will be announced on 2 calls his approach "eco-populism" and says it's about being "bolder" and more clearly anti-elite in communicating social and economic issues, as well as environmental he argues, is the style of messaging that the Green party needs to embrace. He wants to "connect with people's anger" and then offer solutions, something the Greens are, in his view, often "too nice" to do. He worries it leaves them looking "out of touch"."I think far too often in the past we've equivocated or we've been too worried to challenge wealth and power in as blunt a way as possible. This isn't about shouting, it isn't about being louder, it's about being more effective." Tried and tested vs a radical approach The Greens had record success at the General Election last summer, going from one to four seats in Parliament and overturning large Labour and Conservative majorities. Together with the Scottish Greens and the Green Party of Northern Ireland, they won 6.7% of the the party is at a crossroads: does it stick with what it knows has worked or pick something more radical? And, given the candidates don't really differ on policy, just how big a difference could new leadership make to the party's national chances? Polanski, who is a member of the London Assembly, wants the Greens to replace Labour as the "party of the left". But his opponents, the current co-leader Adrian Ramsay and new MP Ellie Chowns, who are running on a joint-ticket, believe Polanski would explode a winning formula that has brought them their greatest ever electoral and Chowns were elected to Parliament in last year's general style is, mostly, less combative - they believe it's important that the Greens have broad appeal and that the party is seen to be at the heart of Westminster if it wants to bring about change. Chowns says many voters already have a "generalised warm feeling" towards the Greens, they just need convincing they're a credible option."It's really the difference between populism and popularity," she says."What they need to know is that if they put their vote in the Green box on the ballot paper that's got a really, really good chance of electing somebody." Time to capitalise on discontent? Plenty of analysts, and Green party members themselves, have questioned why the party hasn't already capitalised more on left-wing discontent with Labour, or why it hasn't pitched itself more effectively as an alternative to the traditional parties, in the way Reform UK Zarb-Cousin, a former spokesperson for Jeremy Corbyn who joined the Greens in 2022, is a founding member of Greens Organise, a group that wants the party to take a more socialist stance. He argues that it is "inexcusable" that the party hasn't made a breakthrough in the polls since the Polanski, he believes that voters understand the party's environmental credentials and so it needs to highlight its policies on the cost of living, inequality and taxing wealth over work."It's not just about saying we support those things, it's about how you frame that argument: who are the enemies? Whose side are you on?" Former Green party councillor Rupert Read, who is an environmental philosopher and a co-director of the campaign group Climate Majority Project, says a lot of Green party policy is left-wing, but adds that this is often the result of "making green policies that work for ordinary people"."You need to come from a starting point that is not dogmatically and self-avowedly left. If you do there'll be a strict ceiling on the level of support which is possible."Ramsay and Chowns make a similar argument. Ramsay says that Polanski is "about appealing to a narrow base of activists," which he and Chowns argue isn't enough to win in the UK's first past the past electoral system. Chowns also believes that Polanski's approach is too similar to strategies that have failed in the past. "We spent years as the Green party engaging in the sort of politics where we stood on street corners and told people why we were very passionate about things..."It's all well and good but it's not the way to win people over." Return of the 'Green surge'? The Green Peer Baroness Bennett, who led the party between 2012 and 2016, said there had been "a level of excitement and interest around this leadership election more than I've ever seen before by a very large scale".It is reporting a "significant increase" in members in the past few months, although it won't yet give an exact figure. (The cut-off date to join and be able to vote in the leadership contest was July 31.)Baroness Bennett also points to "organic growth in the grassroots" since the general party has held 12 seats in council by-elections since 4 July 2024, and won another 14 - mostly at the expense of Labour, while losing four to the all marks a significant change from the past - the so-called "Green Surge" in 2015, under Baroness Bennett's leadership, saw the party's membership and vote share grow but still only returned Caroline Lucas to Parliament. Prof Neil Carter from the University of York, a long-time observer of environmental politics, says he can see an argument for following Polanski's strategy, as the Greens have traditionally had the greatest success with "metropolitan, liberal-minded, young, professionals".The sort of voters who are key to Chowns and Ramsay's approach could be harder to win over, he argues. "The trouble is you can reach out to a sort of middle-class Tory rural voter to some extent, if you just talk Green, but as soon as you start to talk about all of those other issues that the Greens like to talk about, you're going to alienate those voters."But Chowns, who, like Ramsay, won a formerly Conservative seat, says that's not her experience. "People across the political spectrum find a lot to like in what we stand for." Attracting 'anti-system' voters Getting noticed is often a struggle for smaller political parties. For that reason, Luke Tryl, who is UK director of the political research organisation More in Common, believes that Polanski's approach might be the Greens' quickest route to boosting its numbers."If you are trying to get 10 to 15%, it's probably what gets you noticed." But he argues it would net the party far fewer seats than the 40 that Polanski believes he can win. He says that the party is rarely brought up in the focus groups which he runs outside of Green areas and that a charismatic leader could help the party cut is a segment of the population that is "anti-system", he says, to whom a more radical pitch from the Greens might Tryl, however, believes that while eco-populism could be a good way of getting known, the Greens would then need to "moderate" to become a "genuine mass movement party with potential for power".On getting into government, he says: "The Adrian and Ellie approach is right because you need to win over more of the North Herefordshires and Waveney Valleys (Chowns' and Ramsay's seats) and actually places like the Isle of Wight - but they are a long way from that". Where Corbyn's new party fits in There is another challenge facing all candidates: the new party that will soon be launched by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, a former Labour Prof Carter and Mr Tryl warn that Polanski's strategy could be crowded out by this new party that has yet to be named but which, according to Corbyn, had 600,000 people sign up by early August. Ramsay goes further. He believes the new Corbyn party would blow Polanski's pitch "out of the water". Research carried out in June by More in Common suggested that the establishment of a Corbyn led-party could cut the Green's nationwide vote share from 9% to 5%. (This did not take into account who would be leading the Greens).Polanski has signalled he would be willing to co-operate with a possible Corbyn-led project and believes the Greens' position as an already established party will mean he can is Ramsay and Chowns who have secured what could be considered the "OG" of Green endorsements: the former MP Caroline Lucas. The strategy they propose sticking with is based on the one she used to get elected as the first ever Green MP in 2010, and focuses on intensive local campaigning. The question of who to target Both leadership pitches include carrying on with local targeting but Polanski believes it can't be scaled up sufficiently to get large numbers of seats on its dismisses this idea: "My vision at the next general election is that we will have multiple large numbers of target seats and definitely more than one in every region." With either approach, the Greens face other obstacles, such as party's principle of not being funded by large donors means they lack the financial resources of other political parties. During the election period, the party raised just £160,000, compared with more than £1.6m for both Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats, and £9.5m by Green leader has also little direct control over policy, as it is set by the members - not that there is much difference between the candidates. Polanski has gone further than current party policy by suggesting the UK should leave Nato, but there are only a few differences between the candidates' public positions. Ultimately, whoever is chosen to lead the party this time will likely face re-election again before the next general election. The political landscape may have changed further but there is certainly an opportunity for the Greens if they land on the right Mr Tryl puts it, "In the age of very fragmented multi party politics, small vote shares can deliver outsized results".Top picture credit: Dan Kitwood / Leon Neal via Getty BBC InDepth is the home on the website and app for the best analysis, with fresh perspectives that challenge assumptions and deep reporting on the biggest issues of the day. And we showcase thought-provoking content from across BBC Sounds and iPlayer too. You can send us your feedback on the InDepth section by clicking on the button below.
The National
a day ago
- The National
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The National
2 days ago
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As the party's Chief Executive I was taking him round the tea room after he had delivered the annual keynote Donaldson Lecture. It was a magisterial tour de force which reminded a party audience of the prodigious talents that had made him an important member of the SNP group at Westminster between 1974 and 1979. It also confirmed that he was back from his spell as Director of Public Affairs for the International Red Cross in Geneva, and keen to be involved again. Suddenly our tea room progress was blocked by a very angry looking Dr Robert MacIntyre, the SNP's first MP who won a wartime by-election in Motherwell. READ MORE: Former SNP MP and Holyrood presiding officer George Reid dies aged 86 Doc Mac, as he was known, was probably the most distinguished elder statemesmen of the SNP at that time, but he refused to shake George's hand and instead started to fulminate against the man who in the February 1974 General Election had unexpectedly won the Ochil seat. And that was the problem because Doc Mac, 21 years on, still blamed his own unexpected defeat in the neighbouring seat of Stirling on this young charismatic TV journalist who, although a late entry into the contest, had quickly drawn into his campaign most of the young, keen SNP election workers in Central Scotland – including those that Doc Mac needed to win Stirling. Soon the altercation began attracting attention but George quickly proved his mastery of such things. 'Good to see you Robert,' he said suavely. 'Michael, I am sure willl pass on to me any views you have' and moving on, he glad handed the next table whilst Doc Mac re-directed his glare to me. George was an expert in large and small scale conflict resolution and that requires not just empathy and quick thinking but also the ability to square circles. He had that in spades, being a convinced nationalist who never wavered in his support for independence but also, for example, being entirely comfortable as the representative of the monarch as Lord Lieutenant of Clackmannan between 2011 and 2014 as well as acting – with aplomb – in her stead as Lord High Commissioner of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 2008 and 2009. Those skills, coupled with the witty but equally charming approach of his wife Dee, allowed him to undertake a huge range of other high profile tasks from cutting edge broadcasting to chairing the Scottish Parliament, sorting out the massive burach which was the Holyrood building project (and by so doing restoring at least in part the reputation of the nascent institution), solving a crisis in governance in the very patrician National Trust for Scotland, and – in his supposed retirement – regularly being sought out to give wise advice to Parliaments and civic organisations across Europe. Of course this ability to talk with, work with and make common cause with people who were most probably irredeemably and institutionally hostile to independence made enemies as well as friends. None the less he had a strong following wihthin and outwith the party, from those who recognised his considerable intellectual abilities, his affable though reserved charm and his natural courage which had been well proved by a stint between Westminster and Holyrood working in international disaster zones including in the Armenian earthquake of 1988 for which he received the Gold Medal of the Armenian Supreme Soviet. George once told me that shortly after his narrow defeat in the Westminster election of 1979 he realised that it would be a decade or more before the SNP recovered – electorally and organisationally - from the war of attrition that had been waged against it during the first devolution era. He, and his family, suffered severely as a result of that unremitting pressure but recover he did. So having returned home from Geneva in time to stand in the 1997 General Election for the Ochil seat, Clackmannan being where he had been born and bred, he was well placed to contest it in the first elections to the Scottish Parliament. He came second but was elected to the new chamber on the Mid Scotland and Fife list. He was the SNP's obvious choice for Presiding Officer but his good friend David Steel commanded majority support. George had to settle for being one of his deputies. That was a disappointment to him, but the difficulties that the SNP had in the 2003 election worked to his subsequent advantage. Two nights before polling day George and I had a long telephone conversation in which he expressed his own fears of losing again. 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He spent the years from 2007 until his diagnosis with bladder cancer in 2013 advising and guiding those involved in causes as varied as administering the Northern Ireland Assembly and taking forward diplomatic dialogue in the EU Caucasus/Caspian Commission. He was also an Electoral Commissioner and an adviser on the Scottish Ministerial code. In addition his contribution was recognised by being chosen as the Herald's Scottish Politician of the Year twice as well as receiving a special life time achievement award in 2013. Knighted in 2012 he also became a Knight of the Thistle in 2022. His surgery in 2013 was a complete success but he did reduce commitments thereafter though he always enjoyed seeing how projects he had instigated or assisted on were proceeding. READ MORE: Scottish Government minister joins march in support of Palestine For a while I chaired the Parliament's Scottish Future's Forum which he founded and which encourages strategic thinking outwith the usual party political boundaries. We also met regularly in his role as a member of the First Minister 's Council on Europe and Brexit between 2016 and 2020. Of course he maintained a keen interest in what was happening in the SNP and sometimes worried that it had forgotten lessons from its past. He deplored the tendency in politics to see everything as a black and white battle of heroes and villains, something that damages not just Scotland nor only the UK. Moderation and compromise were in his DNA. Lord MacKay of Clashfern – another politician with a huge hinterland and a remarkable record in public service – once observed that that the role of people like him was to be 'of use'. Sir George Newlands Reid was a shining example of a politician who was supremely useful to his country and indeed further afield. His successful ability to work across political boundaries while maintaining his integrity and beliefs achieved much and attracted many plaudits. That remains a lesson worth learning. Michael Russell is a former President of the SNP
