Bad, but probably predictable news today. The Conservative dominated coalition government lifted restrictions on parking charges and the number of parking spaces allowed on new housing developments.
The restrictions were originally planned to encourage people to use their cars less and a lot of supporting work had resulted in progress being made, along with a gradual change in attitude.
Without central government restrictions developers can re-submit their plans and increase the number of parking spaces, plus possibly reducing the amount of green space. Councils will be powerless to reject any revised plans unless they are given powers to do so. It is doubtful that the 'localism' (another piece of badly named legislation, in which the name has been hijacked from the green movement) bill will give councils the powers.
It will be worthwhile keeping an eye on the Newlands development to see what happens there.
The Labour government weren't heroes when it came to essential changes for greening the country, however this announcement is a backwards step and in the name of political ideology, fails to establish a culture that is green and environmentally sustainable.
Some tasks have to be done, no matter what your politics are, greening human behaviour is one of them. This unfortunately means that political ideals may have to be abandoned (in this case the Conservative ideology of a smaller central government role). This isn't unique to the 'right', the 'left' also need to make sacrifices regarding political ideology.
It is of no surprise that the person behind this appears to be Eric Pickles, although one assumes it is approved by others in the coalition. The Dickensian character appears to be behind most of the moves in the current government to increase pollution and a prime driver of ideological policies that ignore climate change and other green issues.
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