Neill lambasts National Trust
The MP for Chislehurst has launched an extraordinary attack on the organisation that manages many of Chislehurst’s green spaces, accusing it of running a “smear campaign”.
The National Trust manages Hawkwood and Petts Wood estates which together cover 138 hectares of woods, fields and farmland. According to Bob Neill MP the National Trust is running “a carefully choreographed smear campaign by left-wingers” and is picking a fight with the Government” in an attempt to “justify [its] own existence”.
The outburst follows a response from the National Trust to the Government’s proposed planning reforms which the organisation says will lead to an automatic presumption in favour of development.
“[This] could lead to unchecked and damaging 
development in the undesignated countryside on a scale not seen since the 1930s,” the Trust says in a statement. “This finally sounds the death-knell to the principle established in the 1940s that the planning system should be used to protect what is most special in the landscape, creating a tool to promote economic growth in its stead.”
Earlier in the summer Mr Neill moved to reassure constituents that Green Belt land was safe from development under the coalition Government. In a number of letters to local newspapers he wrote: “It is worth emphasising that the Government has absolutely no intention of weakening its commitment to the Green Belt and that the Coalition Agreement’s unequivocal promise to maintain Green Belt protection still stands.”
“… left-wingers” and the National Trust in the same sentence? Surely an oxymoron.
Conservation and (paternalistic) Socialism did go together in the late 19th century – the founders of the NT were social reformers inspired by (ultra-lefty) William Morris to preserve landscapes and buildings for the public benefit. Not an oxymoron at all (despite the National Trust’s current public image), and this fool is just trying to restart a battle that was fought (and lost, by his side) over a century ago.
You’d think that after the Forestry Commission sell-off fiasco they might have learned…
This is typical of our MP – the same MP I have now written to at least 5 times over Teacher Pensions and he still refuses to answer one simple basic question. The guy is useless.
The National Trust is an appalling organisation. It’s neglect of Hardy’s premises in Dorset is under close scrutiny at long last. I completely share our MP’s reservations about their conduct.
Ah-ha! No wonder the National Trust are freaking out over Mr Neill’s planning ‘reforms’ – according to today’s newspapers the plans could mean 3,000 acres of of land are build on every year. Mr Neill’s plans have also been openly criticised by not-so-lefty Conservative MPs. Read this article in today’s Torygraph: http://tinyurl.com/3olpfrw
There’s been too many planning permissions granted irrespective of local sensitivities. We face a massive problem, need for more housing verses preservation of “our greenbelt” that is so precious to us all. Build on wasteland, there’s plenty of it & stop giving housing grants to those who don’t deserve it!