Keir Starmer will destroy England’s countryside. Only the Tories can save the green belt

One of the best things about Mid Derbyshire, where I’m proud to live, is the wealth of natural beauty and variety around us. From the ancient Chaddesden Wood in Oakwood to Allestree Park to the Chevin that overlooks Belper, we are truly blessed. But for all that green spaces like these provide joy to families and habitats to countless species of wildlife, their future hangs in the balance at this election.

Many people on the doorstep have raised with me their concerns that we are about to see substantial portions of our green belt concreted over. They hear with alarm Labour’s promises to review green belt protections and see the thin end of the wedge in Labour’s calls to develop “low quality” or “grey belt” parts of the green belt. And with good reason.

Mid Derbyshire is spanned by three Labour-led councils. Each of which has been accused by residents of putting cherished sites at risk of development without proper thought for the environment, let alone local infrastructure and service needs. Only in the last few weeks, Derby Labour were narrowly defeated by Conservatives and councillors of all other parties voting together to protect the land at Royal Hill Road from a development that had ridden roughshod over widespread local opposition. This is a clear sign of what is to come if we elect a Labour Government, and Labour MPs who will take their marching orders from Keir Starmer.

This is not the only threat to our green spaces. Increasingly councils are looking favourably at plans to use prime agricultural land for solar farms. We’ve seen this near to Belper and it’s only a matter of time before new proposals crop up in places like Duffield and Kirk Langley. This has even caused splits in the local Greens.

One councillor has just come over to the Conservatives because of our clear opposition to indiscriminate loss of such land, and our focus on using rooftop sites for solar farms instead. At a time when food security is a global priority and biodiversity an ever-present concern, we should avoid wherever possible putting prime agricultural land to industrial use.

Although it may not make the headlines of national newspapers, there is huge strength of feeling up and down the country about the dangers facing our green spaces. And huge concern about being landed with a Labour government which faces no checks to its ambitions to “bulldoze through” planning rules, as Keir Starmer put it. And there is a real desire for an alternative approach.

What we need instead is to put the focus on developing brownfield sites first. Too often this is treated as a throwaway slogan. But there are great examples of where this has actually been done, and done by the Conservatives. Andy Street, the pathbreaking former Mayor of the West Midlands, was able to hit his housing targets precisely by focusing on redeveloping eyesore sites, and protected swathes of green spaces in the process.

Here in Mid Derbyshire, it was the former Conservative-led administration in Derby that breathed new life into the massive, disused Celanese site in Spondon and paved the way for it to become SmartParc – a world-leading high-tech food production campus that will create thousands of new jobs for the area. And there are many more brownfield sites across Derbyshire and beyond crying out for redevelopment. We should put these to use first before putting the green belt in the firing line.

As voters go to the polls, many will rightly weigh up their choices based on who can be best trusted to protect our green spaces, respect local voices, and ensure development is sustainable. At this election, only the Conservatives can be trusted to do this.

Luke Gardiner is the Conservative candidate for Mid Derbyshire