South Ribble Riverbanks & Green Belt Receive Official Protection from Development

South Ribble Borough Council have announced that the riverbanks along the River Ribble and the Green Belt on the South Ribble side will be protected from development in the forthcoming Regional Spatial Strategy.


click on the article to read it in full

This announcement by Cllr Cliff Hughes, South Ribble's Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Planning, follows the long campaign by local residents to protect the the River environment and Green Belt from some of the key proposals of the Riverworks project.

It is a recognition of the importance of the unique Ribble environment, and the value that local people place on their green spaces.

Cllr Cliff Hughes said:

"Our Green Belt covers around two thirds of our borough and our vision is to protect it from development.
We are extremely lucky in South Ribble to be surrounded by such outstanding natural beauty and we're delighted to see that it looks as though the Government is as keen as we are to protect it...
...we have no intention of building on our Green Belt."

This alternative vision for the Ribble's environment further restricts the ambitions of the Preston Vision Board to develop the river corridor.

South Ribble Borough Council has demonstrated its clear commitment to the Ribbleside and Green Belt environments, AND commitment to the views of local people who have campaigned to protect them - a sustained opposition to the Ribble barrage and riverside building development ideas which has led to Preston City Council abandoning the barrage idea.

This latest statement appears to be the final nail in the coffin for the Riverworks proposals to develop a huge new community on the South bank of the river in Penwortham - the so-called "Central Park" development of thousands of homes and businesses on the Ribble's Green Belt and floodplain (Riverworks brochure "Central Park").

Cliff Hughes states:

"...we want to reassure all of our residents that any suggestions they may have heard or read that land adjacent to the River Ribble has been earmarked for development is quite simply not true".

This ambition to protect the riverside environment also provides the opportunity for an alternative vision instead - for a freely flowing River Ribble and a wildlife & wetland park linked to the Ribble Coast & Wetlands Regional Park - which local residents have been campaigning for since the Riverworks barrage and green belt building development proposals were first announced in 2005.

You can read more about Preston Vision Board and Preston City Council's key development proposals for the River Ribble and its environs in the Riverworks strategy here and their more recent proposals here.


You can read more about the original Riverworks development proposals here

You can contact us at savetheribble@tiscali.co.uk