Leader of Barking and Dagenham Opposition Lodges Objection to 1300 Home Redevelopment of Crowlands Golf Course.
Councillor Ben Suter, Leader of the Opposition and Reform UK Group on Barking & Dagenham Council, has lodged a formal objection to the proposed 1,300‑home redevelopment of Crowlands Heath Golf Course, warning that the scheme would cause “wholesale urbanisation of protected Green Belt land” and permanently alter the character of the area.
Councillor Suter, who represents the Eastbrook and Rush Green ward, said the plans would remove more than 22 hectares of Metropolitan Green Belt and Metropolitan Open land, eliminating the long standing buffer known as the ‘Dagenham Corridor’ between Barking and Dagenham and Havering.
“The proposed development would remove over 22 hectares of protected open land and physically infill the gap between Barking & Dagenham and Havering, directly undermining the core purpose of the Green Belt,” he said in his objection.
He criticised the developer’s claim that the site is “grey belt” due to the golf course’s financial difficulties, calling the argument “not a recognised planning category” and warning it would set “a dangerous precedent” for London.
The councillor also raised concerns about the scale and density of the scheme, which includes high‑rise apartment blocks on the Barking & Dagenham side of the site.
“This is a strikingly intensive use of what is currently open, green land… a ‘mass over‑development’ of a sensitive Green Belt location,” he wrote.
Commenting on the development Councillor Suter said:
“Residents already struggle to access GP appointments and Queen’s Hospital is under immense pressure. Dropping a new community of several thousand people into a low‑PTAL area without major infrastructure investment is simply not sustainable,” he said.
He added that the loss of open space would have long‑term consequences.
“Once the Green Belt is gone, it is gone forever. We cannot keep chipping away at it every time a developer assembles a large site,” he said.
Ben is urging the Council’s Planning Committee to reject the application, arguing that the borough should prioritise brownfield regeneration and protect strategic open land.
“I am dead against this proposal in planning terms,” he said. “It erodes the core legal purpose of the Green Belt, destroys a vital open buffer, overloads already stretched infrastructure, and sets a dangerous precedent for further Green Belt loss.”
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Good these greedy developers are trashng wildlife habitat for hundreds and thousands of homes over green belt countryside and farmland to illegal immigrants breaking into our country by dinghies they should be deported that’s why I want a general election