IN February, the British Public woke up to the reality that was the attempt to place ownership of the forests into the hands of a privileged and largely unaccountable few.

Through unity and protest the Government was obliged to back down. Well done those who were motivated enough to fight for the forests.

We now have to get motivated again. If we allow the Localism Bill and the National Planning Policy Framework to go unchallenged we will once again be allowing the best pieces of land that remain in our countryside to be taken from us and place in the hands of developers.

Greenbelts will no longer be protected – which means the best, currently unspoiled, land will be lost.

Brownfield sites are classed as less economic – which means inner-city and industrial areas already spoilt will be left to fester with no economic urgency to improve them.

There will be a “presumption in favour” – which means anything a developer proposes will be given the green light. The public will have to fight to stop things happening. The current situation is bad enough if you are an objector. How much harder will the fight be when this legal shift takes place?

This is not about Labour versus Tory. Indeed, these changes were initially proposed by the last Labour administration. This is about right versus wrong.

This is about allowing the already wealthy to secure control of the best pieces of land left available.

What we’ll see if we allow these changes to go through will be those with sufficient funds buying the best land and sitting on it.

SM Hann, Chester-le-Street.