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Green Belt fields under threat |
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Oxted and Limpsfield Residents Group (OLRG) has been formed to collect residents’ views regarding housing development and to present them to the authorities. The Group is not designed to replace individuals’ submissions but rather to discover the facts relating to developers’ Applications, the position of Tandridge District Council and the position of other bodies involved in local planning decisions such as The Planning Inspectorate. Sometimes the official documents require expert interpretation. OLRG has distributed the following notice to every house in Oxted and Limpsfield “Developers plan to build 650 houses on Oxted's Green Belt. We need your help Developers are meeting with an Inspector from Central Government on April 3rd at 2.00pm at the Council Offices in Oxted to discuss building on your Green Belt. 400 homes are planned for the field at the end of Wheeler Avenue and 250 for the field behind Bluehouse Lane and Chichele Road. If you believe, like us, that Oxted needs its green spaces and that the schools, doctors and dentists are already over subscribed; that the roads and the parking are already an issue, then please come to the council offices at 2.00pm on April 3rd. We need to make sure that the Inspector hears from the people of Oxted and Limpsfield and not just the developers who want to maximise their profits on our Green Belt. Thursday April 3rd at 1.45pm for 2.00pm This is a public meeting and we urge you all to attend. We need to show the Inspector that we don't want to lose our Green Belt fields and we don't like developers manipulating the process. If we don't make our views known there is little chance of saving Oxted & Limpsfield. For details of the developers plans go to: http://consult.tandridge.gov.uk/file/143616 and http://consult.tandridge.gov.uk/file/143656 The plans have been submitted by Village Developments to the council's Core Strategy consultation - that's its ten year development plan. The developers are using this planning process to attack the council's policy and get a direct route through to the Inspector to persuade him to open up the Green Belt for development. The Inspector has chosen who he wants to speak at the meeting and he has asked Village Developments to speak six times and Asprey Homes five times - far more than anyone else. We hope you will be able to come along and show your support for keeping Green Belt fields in Oxted. Please join Oxted & Limpsfield Residents Group. The more of us there are the more chance there is of being able to influence what happens to our town. Oxted & Limpsfield Residents Group, |
Situation Report Sunday 30th March 2008 “You may know that Tandridge District Council have been doing their best to prepare a 10 year development plan - known as the "Core Strategy"- which suits the needs of Tandridge and its people, and fits government guidance (even employing a consultant to help get it right). The problem is, it seems to us, they are being undermined because the government is constantly changing the rules. We are attaching correspondence between the council and the Government Housing and Planning Directorate which we find astonishing. (See links below to the documents.) Document One (item 1 below) (Government to Tandridge Council 27th Feb 2008): Just a few weeks before the "Core Strategy" is due to be examined by the planning Inspector, the Housing and Planning Directorate write to the council saying their approach is "unsound." Document Two (item 2 below) (The Council's reply 7th March 2008); the council reply that that they have been liaising with the Housing and Planning Directorate since 2006 , have complied with every piece of advice they were given and can't understand why they are now being told it's all wrong. Document Three (item 3 below) (The Meeting 19th March 2008): Tandridge meets the Housing and Planning Directorate to discuss what’s gone wrong and are as good as told that even though what Tandridge has done is sensible and suitable it's going to be found unsound because the government has moved the goal posts and are imposing new policies. On the back of all this mess, Village Developments have submitted their detailed plans to build 650 houses on the 2 Green Belt fields. This is despite the fact that the legislation says that this part of the consultation is not supposed to be "site specific" and that there has been no public consultation whatsoever about these sites. The developers are using this process to get a direct route to the Inspectorate. They seem to have got in through the back door and put their plans straight under the nose of a planning Inspector, thus bypassing the whole democratic process. We attach a letter (item 8 below) of complaint we have written to the Inspector, Mr David Vickery. Mr Vickery is the man who comes to Tandridge to consider the council's plan next Thursday, April 3rd at 2pm. He has already flagged up major concerns about the "soundness" of the plan, in particular, the council's reliance on "windfall sites" - they are the ones that come up at random from things like back garden development which the council has always relied on and which are always in good supply. The developers - and maybe the Inspector - want them discounted. If that happens the Green Belt sites, which are already controlled by developers, will go on the list for building. That's why we want people to turn out for the meeting and make it clear that local people support the council's plan. To make matters worse Mr Vickery has invited a large number of developers to address him and, in particular, the ones targeting the Green Belt. He has chosen from the list of people who submitted comments, the people he wants to hear from at the meeting . Village Developments have been asked to speak 6 times and Asprey Homes 5 times - many more than anyone else. Out of the 56 allocated speeches 27 are by named developers. Of the rest, many appear to be agents of developers and are intent on attacking the Green Belt. Indeed, three of them, are saying exactly the same thing. Large chunks in their comments are identical or almost identical which makes it appear that they have worked in concert. (comments attached) Nevertheless, they have all been asked to speak. R and C Sayer.” 1. Letter GOSE to Newdick (TDC) 27th February 2008
2. Letter R Evans (TDC) to J Cheston GOSE 7th March 2008 3. Tandridge District Core Strategy. Minutes of Meeting between Government Office for the South East (GOSE) and Tandridge District Council to discuss GOSE’s response to submission draft 19th March 2008. 4. Comments of involved parties. 5. Letter to D. Vickery from R&C Sayer 26th March 2008 6. Proposal for Stoneyfield, Wheeler Avenue. Feb. 2008 7. Proposal for Bluehouse Lane. Feb. 2008. 8. Mail to Councillors from C Sayer 27th March 2008 |
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Do you agree or disagree with the views of the Oxted & Limpsfield Residents Group? |
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