A NATIONAL campaign to protect the countryside has been backed by a York political party which says it supports their approach to the city’s future housing plans.

City of York Council’s Liberal Democrat group has said the authority’s target of building 1,090 new homes a year up to 2030 under its draft Local Plan, including thousands on green belt land, is too high and is supporting the Save Our Countryside charter launched by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE).

The campaign has called on councils to build on brownfield sites first, saying current policies mean the countryside is “being destroyed unnecessarily”.

Lib Dem leader Coun Keith Aspden said: “We need more affordable housing, but without sacrificing our countryside. Development in York should focus on brownfield land before the Green Belt is touched.

"This approach recognises that once countryside is developed, it cannot be undeveloped and will be lost forever. I have signed up to the charter and would encourage others to do the same to send a clear message that inappropriate housing development on countryside around York and elsewhere cannot be allowed to happen.”

The ruling Labour group has accused the Lib Dems of a hypocritical approach in their alternative Local Plan proposals, saying they would still leave land on York’s currently unofficial green belt being developed and were now proposing new-homes targets which their group had previously claimed were too high.