SOUTH Gloucestershire Council has extended the deadline for people to have their say on its Local Plan, which could see thousands of new homes built on the Green Belt.
The latest phase of consultations on the blueprint for development between 2025 and 2040, is now staying open for comment until February 16.
It comes as a group opposing plans for thousands of homes on greenfield sites between Pucklechurch and Warmley calls on voters to make the Kingswood by-election a “referendum” on the Local Plan.
The council says it needs to find sites for 9,260 new homes, at least 7,813 of which will need to be built on greenfield sites.
The council’s ‘emerging preferred strategy’, which it says is a compromise between the Green Belt and the need for new housing near existing urban areas, proposes allowing 1,480 new homes to be built on fields east of the Avon Ring Road around Shortwood – a village which currently has only 90 houses.
North of Lyde Green an area of land between the M4, Westerleigh Road and the railway line to Westerleigh oil terminal, next to the cycle path to Yate, has been proposed as a site for 800 homes.
The plan also suggests 195 homes could be allowed on a field next to Mangotsfield School, 65 on a site off Pomphrey Hill and 60 on land east of Pucklechurch.
A series of drop-in meetings have been held across the district during January to give people more information about what is proposed.
A group set up to oppose the plans to build on Green Belt sites between Shortwood and Warmley,
Save Our Green Spaces South Gloucestershire, has set up a petition on the council’s website, which can be found at
tinyurl.com/2p8fs6ef.
A spokesperson for the group said: “We are not NIMBY’s opposed to any development. We support organic growth, but not mass development of housing and industry across the Green Belt.”
The group has built a following of more than 700 people via a Facebook page where information is shared, including details of upcoming council consultation meetings, and is planning to hold its own open meetings in future.
It claims members from areas including Siston, Wick, Shortwood, Pucklechurch, Mangotsfield, Emersons Green, Bitton and Warmley.
The group is calling on people living in the Kingswood parliamentary constituency to vote for candidates opposing the Local Plan at the upcoming by-election on February 15.
The group has “held discussions” with Tory candidate Sam Bromiley but says it is non-political.
The spokesperson said: “In view of this being such a unique by-election, so close to the next general election which will see the Kingswood constituency disappear, it would be great if this election could act more as a Local Plan referendum, leaving the party politics to the general election.
“We will encourage people to vote for any candidate opposed to this Local Plan.”
Full details of the Local Plan can be found online at www.southglos.gov.uk/newlocalplan, where people can fill in a consultation survey.
Anyone who is not online can call the council on 01454 868009 for help.