STYAL'S greenbelt guardians welcomed new guidelines urging town halls to protect the countryside and get tough with land speculators.

In recent years the phenomena of 'land banking' hit Styal, with the company Property Spy buying up farmland at Birch Farm, Hollin Lane, and selling it off to investors in smaller plots as a long term investment.

Now the Local Government Association has published new guidelines urging town halls across the country to use every means possible to protect their green belt.

New guidelines urge councils to make use of all available legislation, including 'article four' notices, which severely restrict even small scale work on the land such as putting up fences.

It also advises councils to offer residents impartial planning advice as sites protected by planning law are extremely unlikely to gain permission for development.

In addition, the LGA says councils should monitor the activities of known 'landbankers' and inform trading standards or the DTI of misleading trading practices.

(Via the Wilmslow Express. To read the full story, click here)


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