We had quite an eventful Council Meeting this morning. The main purpose of the meeting was to approve the Core Strategy of the Babergh Development Framework for consultation. The Core Strategy is the document which sets out the strategic parameters that will drive planning policy over the next 20 years. The creation of a planning framework for the District is probably the single most important thing that we do as a council in my view.
Although there was little point in debating the contents of the paper in detail prior to hearing the views of Babergh residents, a number of us took the opportunity to flag up parts of the Framework that may give us reasons to object to the proposals in the future.
I expressed my concern that the framework as currently formulated seems to prioritise the demands of economic growth over and about concern about the environment, both built and natural, and social factors. This I think is misguided. The three components, economic growth, environmental concerns and people, should be equally weighted when considering planning applications.
To emphasis jobs growth over other factors in an area which as relatively low unemployment and which has one of the most high quality of life scores in the country seems to me to be a recipe for wealth destruction rather than economic wellbeing....golden geese and eggs come to mind.
We shall see what the public has to say about the issue.
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