22 July 2020
In a briefing issued today, Wildlife and Countryside Link highlight concerns about the current focus of the Government’s ‘project speed’, and set out an alternative approach.
In his Dudley Speech on 30 June, the Prime Minister suggested that ‘newt counting’ was holding back development and pledged a project speed to ‘build better, build greener and build faster’.
Today’s Link paper presents evidence showing that environmental protections (including those covering newts) are not a delay on building and highlights how their removal could undermine the very purpose of planning – the creation of healthy, sustainable communities and environments. The paper goes on to demonstrate how the provision of better environmental data and specialist expertise in planning could better achieve the Prime Minister’s goal of building better, greener and faster.
The briefing, supported by 16 Link member organisations, can be found here.
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