Eastern Counties MEP Calls for Scrapping of Plans for 500,000 New Homes in East Anglia

The UK Independence Party MEP for the East of England, Jeffrey Titford has responded to the publication of the joint report by the Countryside Agency and English Nature, which contains damning criticism of the Government’s development plans for East Anglia, by calling for the scrapping of the plan to build 500,000 new homes in the area.

[ClickPress, Tue Nov 01 2005] Mr Titford said: “In many respects, the report is a statement of what has been blindingly obvious to those of us who actually live in East Anglia. Nevertheless, it is good to have the support of two government agencies, which have exposed the low level thinking that has gone into these proposals. From the start it has been clear that the sheer scale of the government’s plans is out of all proportion with the strain the infrastructure and indeed nature itself can absorb.

“I am not for a minute suggesting that no further homes should be built in the Eastern Counties, especially with the recent revelations about there being 8,000 homeless people in the area but there is a huge difference between the immediate need and 500,000 new homes, which is quite unsustainable.

“Mr Prescott should try getting one of his cars parked in a hospital car park in this region, and that is a current problem, before any of the proposed new homes have been built. I fear that this part of England could disappear under a sea of concrete and that we will all be collecting water from standpipes throughout the summer months, unless the Government is prepared to have a radical re-think and do the sensible thing, which is to scrap these outrageous plans”.



ENDS