Andrew Griffith, the Member of Parliament for Arundel & South Downs, has slammed Green Councillors for putting down a motion at this evening’s [24th April 2024] Horsham District Council meeting whilst voting for plans to build all over green field sites across rural parts of Horsham District.
The motion, tabled by Horsham Green Leader, Mike Croker, calls on the Council to support a 10 Minute Rule Bill proposed by Labour MP Alex Sobel in the House of Commons.
The Bill, which is separate from the Government’s legislative programme on Net Zero, calls on the Government to establish a new unelected Climate and Nature Assembly away from Parliament.
Since 2019, the Government has set out legally binding targets as part of its Net Zero Strategy. The UK is the first major economy to halve its CO2 emissions, cutting them by more than 50% between 1990 and 2022. France has cut seen a 22% cut in its emissions, whilst the United States’ emissions have not changed. China’s carbon emissions are up by 300%.
Commenting, Andrew Griffith MP said:
“Rather than passing empty motions which will change precisely nothing, Green Councillors had the chance to join Conservative Councillors in voting against the disastrous Horsham District Local Plan. Sadly, they did not do this, and the Greens are utterly complicit in the plans which will see rare species habitats buried under concrete, fragmentation of vital green corridors for wildlife, reduced farmland for local food production; and that will promote unsustainable communities in areas which are devoid of major social and physical infrastructure, and which will therefore rely entirely upon motor vehicles for all their essential services.
“You literally could not make it up! Parts of Steyning, Storrington and Henfield which the Green Councillors represent will disappear under the bulldozers tracks on their watch, yet the Greens voted for the Lib Dems plan.
“From piling more traffic onto roads at the expense of walkers and cyclists, to flushing more surface and wastewater into our sewers and rivers, the most pressing environmental disaster facing Horsham residents is the Horsham plan to which the Green Party gave their support!”
