The Government’s decision to axe the current targets for building on brownfield land could have serious implications for green spaces in the area.

Unsurprisingly, it has caused consternation to protesters fighting to preserve our green spaces from development.

And it undermines the T&A’s ongoing campaign to encourage the use of the many derelict and disused brownfield sites in the district.

Further, it does not seem to fit in with the Government’s Big Society pledge that communities should be able to get together and stop developments they don’t want.

Instead, it seems to be suggesting there will be a presumption in favour of development proposals.

That could lead to developers being able to override local objections and there is a real danger if proper controls are not in place that more green spaces, including both designated and non-designated greenbelt land, could end up being built upon.

This is the wrong way to go if the Government really wants to regenerate our cities. To do that, it needs to make sure there are not big areas of derelict land in the heart of them.

Nothing brings a city down more than these empty sites being allowed to rot away.

What we really should have seen from this Government was the introduction of incentives to encourage building on these brownfield sites.

Instead, it has moved in the wrong direction.

According to the CPRE, if we hadn’t had those targets, there could have been twice as much greenfield land lost to development over the last decade.

This decision does seem to put our green fields unnecessarily in the path of the bulldozers.