At the end of September this year, Buckinghamshire Council’s Strategic Sites Committee voted to approve the Inspector’s recommendation in support of building the Welcome Break M25 Motorway Services Area (MSA) on Iver Heath's green belt in preference to an application for an MSA in Chalfont St Peter. The arguments for choosing the Iver Heath proposal seemed weaker for a number of reasons, including the potential loss of the Iver Environment Centre and 1,500 trees to make way for the development, all issues that the BCSSC seemed to 'gloss over'.
However, this is not the end of our battle for a reversal of the decision. The Secretary of State (SoS) still has the power to either veto the Welcome Break application outright or, at the very least, ‘call the application in’ for a more in-depth inquiry before a decision is made.
WE NEED YOUR HELP TO WIN THE BATTLE
We’re asking this time for you to e-mail the SoS asking that he use his discretionary powers to ‘call in’ the planning application for the MSA in Iver Heath and review the decision made by Buckinghamshire Council.
Writing this email should only take a few minutes. To assist you, we’ve set out some guidance notes. Please write as soon as you can. We are working to a deadline of Sunday 12th November but the sooner you can send the email the better. Thank you to everyone in advance who will take the time to write and help save another piece of our precious green belt.