At the Full Council meeting last week Labour revealed their plans to massively increase the number of houses built in the city over the next twenty years, putting our local green belt land under threat of development

They want to increase house building targets from 575 homes per year to more than 800. Such a high number couldn’t be accommodated by using brown field sites and so would put the green belt under pressure.

When challenged by Lib Dem Councilors, Labour were unable to say where the extra homes would be built and astonishingly Labour Councillor Dave Merrett said people wanting to protect the green belt were NIMBYs and the development was necessary to keep businesses happy.

Liberal Democrat Councillors in Haxby & Wigginton have been fighting to protect the green belt from development for many years. They have been doing this because local residents have consistently and strongly told us they do not want to see development on the green belt.

For the Labour group to be so dismissive of the views of local people is very worrying and gives a stark warning about their approach to the city if they were to control the council. With the Tories not having enough canidiates only the Lib Dems are in a position to prevent Labour giving the go ahead to development on our green belt.