At the 2016 Greater London Assembly elections, in a leaflet issued by Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative candidate for mayor – which prominently featured Gareth Bacon, now member for the Assembly’s Bexley and Bromley constituency – an ‘action plan’ was promised that was clearly intended to persuade voters that the party was committed to ‘Protecting the 8,850 hectares of Green Belt land across Bexley and Bromley’, an ambition that we have to assume was endorsed by the Conservative group in Bexley.
This 2016 Conservative party election leaflet said the party intended to protect ALL the Green belt land in Bexley.
Since that is the government’s official figure for the whole of the Green Belt resource across these two Boroughs (with the Bexley share being 1,120 ha), this clearly amounts in practice to a ‘no ifs, no buts’ caveat-free promise to protect all of it, no matter what the circumstance. This coming Thursday (Feb 16th), the Roxhill plan to concrete a large area of Green Belt and important wildlife habitat at Crayford Marshes for a railfreight interchange depot (that will have no impact on cutting net Heavy Good Vehicle traffic levels) , goes to Bexley’s Conservative-dominated planning committee for decision. On the basis of what that party said a mere nine and a half months ago, we fully expect a majority vote against.
The leaflet implies that by protecting Danson Park, a part of the green Belt with be saved. For the avoidance of confusion, Danson Park is neither Green Belt nor Metropolitan Open Land.
What happens if the vote does not go against it, the window of opportunity is pretty small.
But… are they likely to vote against?