The South West's Regional Spatial Strategy is to be reviewed

The South West’s controversial Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) will be reviewed to see if current proposals are the most sustainable way forward for the region.

The RSS has proven to be very unpopular across the UK, including in the Greater Bristol area where protest groups are popping up on land bordering Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

The RSS is being criticised as a reason for inappropriate urban expansion leading to housing and business development on Green Belt land

The Government’s Proposed Changes were published in July 2008. As a result of this, protest groups and individual people made around 35,000 objections to the levels of housing growth and development in their local area.

It has been legally challenged in other regions and in May this year, the High Court ruled that the  Sustainability Appraisal for the East of England’s RSS had failed to test reasonable alternatives to two of its proposals.

Due to this, the Department for Communities and Local Government, and the Government Office for the South West have looked again at its own Sustainability Appraisal and whether they have tested their own alternatives.

Since the Regional Assembly submitted a draft RSS to the Government in June 2006, it has been extensively debated and petitioned against. The final version was supposed to be issued at the end of June this year but due to public protest this has not happened.

Since the legal wrangling in the South East, the Government now want to be sure that the  Sustainability Appraisal of last year’s Proposed Changes to the South West RSS has tested reasonable alternative for housing, business and other development that is considered necessary.

The new appraisal is expected to take until early 2010.