Thursday, April 26, 2007
Our Manifesto Pledges on Growth and Expansion
Growth and Expansion
Local Conservatives have always resisted the imposition of mass housing expansion from central government, including the current obligation to find 70,000 new homes between now and 2031. We are also opposed to the urbanisation of the rural communities on the periphery of the city. But Conservatives are not opposed to organic growth, based on the needs of both the people and the business community of Milton Keynes. A vibrant city like Milton Keynes must not resist all growth, but it must be growth that is beneficial to all. A Conservative led administration will:
1) Continue to lobby for the replacement of Milton Keynes Partnerships (the undemocratically, government appointed Quango which is currently overseeing the expansion of our city). A future Conservative government is already committed to winding up MKP within the first 100 days of its election to power, and replacing it with a democratically elected body, accountable to the cabinet of Milton Keynes Council.
2) Continue the campaign of I before E (Infrastructure before Expansion), so well championed across the city in recent years by your local Conservatives.
3) Fight for a slowing down of the rate of housing delivery currently being imposed by the Labour Government to a rate that is beneficial to the people and businesses of Milton Keynes.
4) Continue to campaign for the people of Milton Keynes to have the final say on the expansion of their city, rather than having those decisions made for them by civil servants at Westminster.
5) Continue to fight and resist an expansion of Milton Keynes to the East of the M1 Motorway.
6) Give support for regeneration projects which are so desperately needed in some of our older and more run down areas, but only after local consultation and with a bottom up approach, with the parishes concerned being the instigators of such projects by means of the Parish Plan.
7) Continue to support a 30% level of affordable housing (and by that we mean affordable to the buyer, not just the developer), but with a much greater emphasis on the concept of shared ownership, the principle so long adopted by the Conservative party of a hand up and not a hand out.
8) Strive to implement the maximum parking standards in all new housing estates to avoid the problems which are caused when standards are allowed to slip.
Local Conservatives have always resisted the imposition of mass housing expansion from central government, including the current obligation to find 70,000 new homes between now and 2031. We are also opposed to the urbanisation of the rural communities on the periphery of the city. But Conservatives are not opposed to organic growth, based on the needs of both the people and the business community of Milton Keynes. A vibrant city like Milton Keynes must not resist all growth, but it must be growth that is beneficial to all. A Conservative led administration will:
1) Continue to lobby for the replacement of Milton Keynes Partnerships (the undemocratically, government appointed Quango which is currently overseeing the expansion of our city). A future Conservative government is already committed to winding up MKP within the first 100 days of its election to power, and replacing it with a democratically elected body, accountable to the cabinet of Milton Keynes Council.
2) Continue the campaign of I before E (Infrastructure before Expansion), so well championed across the city in recent years by your local Conservatives.
3) Fight for a slowing down of the rate of housing delivery currently being imposed by the Labour Government to a rate that is beneficial to the people and businesses of Milton Keynes.
4) Continue to campaign for the people of Milton Keynes to have the final say on the expansion of their city, rather than having those decisions made for them by civil servants at Westminster.
5) Continue to fight and resist an expansion of Milton Keynes to the East of the M1 Motorway.
6) Give support for regeneration projects which are so desperately needed in some of our older and more run down areas, but only after local consultation and with a bottom up approach, with the parishes concerned being the instigators of such projects by means of the Parish Plan.
7) Continue to support a 30% level of affordable housing (and by that we mean affordable to the buyer, not just the developer), but with a much greater emphasis on the concept of shared ownership, the principle so long adopted by the Conservative party of a hand up and not a hand out.
8) Strive to implement the maximum parking standards in all new housing estates to avoid the problems which are caused when standards are allowed to slip.
# posted by Sherington Tory @ 3:30 PM 
