A COUNTRYSIDE watchdog is urging the council to reverse its priorities on housing, writes GEORGE CHILDREN.

Rather than building homes for incomers, it says, preference should be given to local people.

Herefordshire Council for the Protection of Rural England highlights new Government housing policy and its effect on the county's draft Unitary Development Plan (UDP).

Spokesman Bob Widdowson says the main thrust of the guidance is to slow up migration from the conurbations by concentrating development in towns and cities rather than in rural areas.

"The council, in the past, has tried to satisfy the pressure of migration by allowing much new building in rural areas," he said, "and it has allocated nearly two-thirds of housing in the draft UDP to incomers, even though many of them are not wishing to take up employment in the county.''

He added: "So will the council now put most of its effort into meeting the local need?"

CPRE also wants to see a drop in the overall number of new houses, currently 16,500 over 20 years, and the use of 'brownfield', or previously developed, sites in order to minimise the number of green fields disappearing under bricks and mortar.

This again is in line with Government policy, which states that all brownfield land must be used up and that green fields should only be built on as a last resort.

CPRE says the Government has also told the council to decide what it means by an 'affordable' home, how many are needed and where they should be built.