The mayor of Beaconsfield has urged locals to vote through a neighbourhood plan, despite concerns that it doesn’t do enough to discourage development on the green belt.

 Buckinghamshire Council confirmed that the town’s neighbourhood plan, which would give it an enhanced say on local developments, could proceed to a referendum earlier this month.

As residents prepare to head to the polls on September 9, contention is rearing its head about whether the plan does enough to save local green spaces – especially the designated green belt land around Beaconsfield – from development projects.

The Beaconsfield Society, a group aimed at ‘celebrating the past, promoting the present and influencing the future’ of the town, has been vocally opposed to the plan on the grounds that its introduction of limited powers – to, say, add cycle paths of animal habitats to development proposals – doesn’t go far enough to protect the environment.

These concerns have been amplified by the Labour government’s highly publicised drive to declassify green belt sites across the country, re-designating them as grey belt in order to attract new economy-boosting constructors or help fulfil housing targets.

Mayor of Beaconsfield, Paul Mason – who was elected back in May – appears to have taken such anxieties into account in his move to call an ‘extraordinary’ town council meeting if the plan is approved to commence a review into changing some of its policies “immediately”.

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Cllr Mason cited Labour’s plans to change the National Planning Policy Framework as a reason to review the plan “with utmost urgency” in September, especially concerning the protection of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the green belt.

He stressed that such a meeting could only take place if the plan succeeds, however, urging voters not to go back to square one and to support even a rudimentary framework for the town to have a say on local developments.

Adding: “It is vitally important that residents understand that if we have a ‘made’ plan, we can move forward to enhance it and adapt to changing circumstances and legislation.

“A ‘made’ plan that has been developed with the full approval of Buckinghamshire Council would reinforce their commitment and agreement to the policies within it – which would override the previous intentions of South Bucks District Council to release green belt around Beaconsfield.

“Given the Labour government’s clear intention to make changes to the release of green belt land, a Beaconsfield Neighbourhood Plan would become the most up-to-date planning policy relating to the area and the sooner we start to evaluate the impacts, the better.”