Stop the Arc's Parliamentary Pavement Protest
Stop the Arc planned a presentation in Parliament on 7th September 2021, sponsored by MPs Layla Moran (Lib. Dem., Oxford West and Abingdon) and Greg Smith (Cons., Buckingham) to which we invited all MPs in order to raise our concerns over the inadequacy of the Government’s consultation on the Ox-Cam Arc Spatial Framework. But Covid and other restrictions kept us out of both Portcullis House and College Green, although we were only informed of the last of these changes less than two hours before the event. In the end, our sponsoring MPs suggested we met on the pavement outside Portcullis House - so that’s where we held our event, against a background of busy London traffic!
Apart from Layla Moran and Greg Smith, both Richard Fuller (Cons. NE Beds) and Anneliese Dodds (Lab. Oxford East) agreed to be interviewed on camera. John Howell (Cons. Henley) also came out to visit us but declined to speak.
Other MPs who promised to come included Ruth Cadbury (Lab., Brentford & Isleworth), Anthony Browne (Cons., South Cambridgeshire), Anthony Selous (Cons., SW Beds) and Andrew Lewer (Cons., Northampton South) but the confusion of last minute venue changes meant that they were unable to make it. A video of the event, made for us by Tim Bearder (Cllr, Oxfordshire County Council), is on the right here.
Richard Fuller emphasised that local people haven’t been given a proper say in the development of their own region and called for the Ox-Cam Arc to be scrapped.
Greg Smith said that the proposed high level of Ox-Cam Arc developments was one of the main reasons why Buckinghamshire Council had pulled out of the Arc Leaders’ Group.
Layla Moran, whilst welcoming a certain amount of development, said that sustainability of the Arc “is as, if not more, important than economic growth”.
Anneliese Dodds said that the Arc must meet the needs of local people, especially when it comes to properly affordable and social housing. She encouraged people to express their views about this in their consultation responses, although she agreed with Stop the Arc that the consultation questions are “very woolly”.
The photograph shows Layla Moran and Greg Smith after having signed our pledge letter that requests the Government to reconsider the proposed planning reforms, and to abolish centrally determined housing targets for the Ox-Cam Arc (click on the image to read the pledge letter in full). Baroness Ruth Deech and Tim Farron (Lib. Dem., Westmorland and Lonsdale) have also agreed to sign the pledge letter.
“Please don’t forget to fill in our alternative Arc survey at https://tinyurl.com/5MinArcSurvey
It really does take only 5 minutes!”
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Stop the Arc’s posters for our Parliamentary event
Now you can see the posters the MPs couldn’t! These were designed to be displayed within Parliament but we couldn’t really set them up on the pavement outside. So they were never used on the day itself. Use the forward/backward arrows below to change the posters, or click on the thumbnail sketches below to jump to any particular one, Click here for a brief description of what the posters show (this will open in a separate tab).
