Stopping the inappropriate development at Hatchfield Farm

Matthew Hancock, Conservative Candidate for West Suffolk

As the Conservative Candidate at the election, I am writing to let you know what I have been doing to ensure we can stop the plans to build 1200 homes at Hatchfield Farm in Newmarket.

As you know, I am a committed opponent of the plans. As the international home of racing, Newmarket's heritage lives and breathes in the racing industry that is interwoven through the town. This proposal would increase traffic throughout Newmarket, and damage the future of Newmarket. And I am concerned that the increase in traffic through the town would hit our local economy.

Instead of this harmful change, we need to set out a vision for the future of Newmarket that makes the most of its unique status, and improves the town for all inhabitants.

To do that, we need to give local people the power to decide the future of our town. We can't do that at the moment. Under the so-called "Regional Spatial Strategy", introduced by John Prescott, our housing decisions are dictated by Whitehall and unaccountable regional bodies. If the local Council object, they are over-ruled by the Bristol-based "inspector" and lose all powers to make local decisions and take our local circumstances into account.

I think this national policy is wrong. Why on earth should an inspector reporting to Whitehall be able to over-rule our locally elected councillors on a matter of such importance to Newmarket?

Because of this policy, if the Council had rejected the planning application last week, the risk was that their decision would have been over-turned on appeal. We already know the inspector was in favour.  The Council would have been powerless. So the council were right to postpone the decision until after the election, so that they could not have been successfully appealed.

If we win the election, Conservatives have committed to abolishing this "Regional Spatial Strategy". I have spoken to Caroline Spelman MP, who is responsible for this policy for the Conservatives in Westminster, and she has told me the RSS will be abolished as soon as possible, and have the immediate effect of allowing local Councils freedom to make their own decision on large-scale proposals such as Hatchfield Farm. We would once again be in control of the future of our town, without the risk of being over-ruled by the inspector as would have happened if the application had been rejected out of hand. Forest Heath District Council are fully aware of this.

I will continue to campaign both locally and nationally to do that, and to propose a positive vision for the future of Newmarket. I look forward to working with you and all residents to promote that goal.

Matthew Hancock