Conservative county councillors have backed a motion calling for the protection of East Sussex's precious Dark Skies, as part of a call on central Government to re-think proposed plans which could adversely affect East Sussex.
The call, from Cllr Gerard Fox (Hailsham New Town), came during a passionate debate of the Government's Infrastructure & Planning Bill, and the devastating effect it could have on the county's natural environment.
Cllr Fox said that East Sussex enjoyed some wonderful Dark Skies, in the South Downs National Park, the High Weald and hinterland. It was critically important, he said, not to make Dark Skies a "victim of a dash for development".
A keen amateur astronomer since his teenage years, Cllr Fox sought a revision to the Motion, by common consent of full council, that "proposals to enhance the protections for Dark Skies sites as outlined by Parliament’s Dark Skies APPG are incorporated within the Bill."
The meeting of Full Council this week agreed that the county council write to the Government expressing its serious concerns over the draft legislation.
It was also agreed that the council Leader, Cllr Keith Glazier, write to the county's MPs "asking them to support amendments to the Bill that address the concerns. In the event that the Bill remains substantially the same, the meeting agreed to call on the county's MPs to vote against its adoption on the grounds that it will set back nature recovery whilst failing to help deliver either truly the affordable housing or the social housing local people need.
During the vote, supported by Conservative members present, Labour councillors were split over the motion to request a rethink of their government's infrastructure and planning legislation which is due its Third Reading in Parliament.
