Sutton Lib Dems will ALWAYS protect the Green Belt
One of the many things that makes me so proud not just to lead Sutton Council, but to be a resident of Sutton, is how green our borough is.
Whether it’s our parks where children play, our brilliantly biodiverse open spaces, or even the gorgeous green belt that forms our natural border with Surrey - it’s clear to me that our green and pleasant borough should be a source of pride to everyone.
That’s why the Sutton Liberal Democrats always protect the green belt and local green spaces. We don’t just talk a good game on our environmental credentials - we put them into action.
We were one of the first Councils in the country to put in place the requirement for biodiversity net gain on all new developments - leading the way in enhancing the environment that enriches our area and keeps local ecosystems healthy. This isn’t just important because our great flora and fauna is lovely to look at, but because doing our bit to combat the climate and nature crisis is a responsibility we take seriously. We know that we cannot thrive without them.
We are building new council housing in the borough to the world-leading passivhaus standard - making sure that our carbon footprint is as low as possible whilst saving homeowners and renters money on their energy bills. These new housing projects mean that we can tackle our housing crisis and environmental crisis at the same time - working together in a joined-up approach to keep our borough clean and green as it enters the future.
Key to all of this is our commitment to protect the green belt itself. We routinely reject proposed developments on the green belt, and our local plan ensures that the green belt is protected to the fullest extent we possibly can at a time when the government is redesignating parts of the green belt as the so-called “grey belt”.
At tonight’s full council meeting - the Conservatives would have ripped that strategy up. By trying to force the Council not to comply with the government’s new rules, they would have handed over control of our planning rules to the Mayor of London and opaque, top-down national rules alone. This would have been a huge mistake - it would have meant Sutton Council was not in control of its own green belt, and almost certainly would have meant building inappropriate developments on the green belt.
We always stand up for Sutton above all else - which is why we stopped the Conservatives from causing a green belt building disaster just to score political points. It goes to show that the Conservatives aren’t serious about running Sutton, and have no real plan for the future of our borough. Only Sutton Liberal Democrats have the record of action and vision for our future that Sutton needs to protect its green belt, deliver for local residents and keep making our borough cleaner and greener.
