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Borough Council Accused of Presenting ‘Lame Duck’ Defence of Wisley Planning Decision

Published on: 1 Sep, 2017
Updated on: 2 Sep, 2017

A Wisley campaign group is accusing Guildford Borough Council (GBC) of presenting a “lame duck” case against the forthcoming appeal by a Cayman Island company to build a “new town” at Three Farms Meadows, the former Wisley airfield.

The Wisley Action Group (WAG) has labelled the council’s decision to focus only on green belt issues as a “weak and feeble capitulation”. It claims, the council is effectively ignoring 13 other reasons why it originally refused the planning application by Wisley Property Investments Ltd (WPIL).

The Guildford Dragon NEWS invited Council Leader Paul Spooner to respond to the accusation but no comment has been received. Colin Cross, Lib Dem borough councillor, who represents Wisley, said: “Sadly it would appear that GBC are giving up the ghost on defending their own Planning Committee’s decision…” The leader of the Guildford Greenbelt Group added: “The people of Guildford want to protect our countryside, and we reject subversion of planning decisions by the back door.”

Helen Jefferies

WAG committee member Helen Jefferies said: “GBC’s Statement of Case [which outlines the case for rejecting the appeal] is a lame duck effort which probably owes much to its own draft Local Plan aspirations to take this site out of the green belt and open it up to a development of similar size and content to the one they are now meant to be opposing.”

“It’s a weak, feeble and faint hearted effort – little short of a total capitulation – which appears to justify much of the potential harm such a development would bring,” she said.

WAG spotlights the fact that while GBC lists, as background, the 14 original reasons why its planning committee unanimously refused permission for the proposal, it focusses only on the green belt issue. And, WAG adds, GBC makes no effort to expand on the original reasons for its rejection of the scheme.

Jefferies continued: “Having listed half a dozen ‘potential benefits’ of the scheme, the council’s ‘conclusions’ are a flimsy, two paragraph statement that the development constitutes inappropriate development in the green belt.

“And GBC then goes on to seemingly present an upside to such issues as an adverse impact on the TBH SPA [Thames Basin Heath Special Protection Area], lack of transport facilities, and potential harm to local villages. It could have been written by the would-be developer.

“GBC agreed to WPIL’s Air Quality Review which has since been completely revised in recent evidence, indicating that the original presentation was wholly inadequate.”

The Wisley planning appeal hearing begins on Tuesday, September 19th at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre before moving on to Guildford Borough Council’s office the following week.

Cllr Julie Iles

Julie Iles, Conservative county councillor for the Horsleys division, who has publicly stated her support for the Wisley Action Group, said: “I agree with Guildford Borough Council that the proposed development constitutes inappropriate development in the green belt. There are also very real concerns about air quality, the lack of infrastructure to provide for the traffic and the lack of sustainable transport links. I hope these arguments will also be made at the appeal hearing.”

Colin Cross, Lib Dem borough councillor for Lovelace said: “Sadly it would appear that GBC are “giving up the ghost” on defending their own Planning Committee’s decision of two years ago to unanimously reject this totally unsustainable speculation by WPIL .

Cllr Colin Cross

“The fact is that it goes against about 50% of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) guidelines and, if all goes to plan, will result in the most hideous blot on the landscape in Surrey’s history. And that’s saying something when you allow for the architectural atrocities that have befallen Guildford and Woking town centres post the 1960s.

“All Local Planning Authorities are obliged to create sympathetic developments which fit into their particular rural, green belt environment – so how does 2,000+ dwellings, incorporating a dozen or more four- or five-storey blocks of flats, do that in a heritage hamlet like Ockham?

“Lovelace Ward leads the way, per head of its small population, in welcoming proportional expansion and new homes and families to our small villages but this proposal amounts to the rape of rural Guildford by foreign speculators, with GBC standing coyly by. Sad days indeed.

“Of course GBC or WIPL, or both, may change their positions and alternatives could appear.”

Cllr Susan Parker

Susan Parker, leader of the Guildford Greenbelt Group, said: “The Wisley Action Group’s comments seem very fair.

“It is unbelievable that Guildford Borough Council is being so weak in its defence of this planning appeal.  The Planning Committee at Guildford Borough Council voted unanimously to reject the planning application.

“Despite this, the reasons given for rejection by that committee are not being properly defended by the borough council officials.  It is the responsibility of the borough officials to implement the decisions made by councillors, not to undermine them by failing to provide evidence where required.

“It’s time that the council started to recognise that local people want to protect our countryside and open spaces.  We don’t want to see our countryside subject to massive overdevelopment.

“The Local Plan should have reflected the unanimous decision of the planning committee and deleted the former Wisley airfield from the Local Plan.  However, instead, the decision of the Planning Committee has been undermined.

“The people of Guildford want to protect our countryside, and we reject subversion of planning decisions by the back door.”

 

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Responses to Borough Council Accused of Presenting ‘Lame Duck’ Defence of Wisley Planning Decision

  1. Julie Iles Reply

    September 1, 2017 at 11:27 am

    As a point of clarification, because the Guildford Borough Council Statement of Case focusses only on the green belt issues it is my expectation that other rule 6 parties will be addressing the other concerns which I mention – air quality, lack of infrastructure for traffic and the lack of sustainable transport links to name a few.

    Julie Iles is the Conservative county councillor for The Horsleys division.

    • Adrian Atkinson Reply

      September 2, 2017 at 10:25 am

      I agree with Mr Edwards here. Firstly, it does not surprise me that the GBC has decided not to contest this on any other grounds than green belt. They have decided to take the site out of the green belt anyway and so I would imagine the inspector will consider that in the round.

      The leader of GBC is on public record as saying that he thinks development there should take place and so ignoring all the other valid planning arguments is in their interest.

      Well, I can’t believe the comment from Cllr Iles. Is she really suggesting that it is right and proper that GBC should ignore all of the other planning reasons for refusal? To me this whiffs of dereliction of duty. It is wrong for the council to assume somebody else will be making the other arguments thus relieving them of the responsibility. It is the council’s duty to make the case. This, after all, is a quasi-judicial matter.

      Editor’s note: Cllr Julie Iles has responded, “I have been public in my support for the Wisley Action Group and I supported the original position taken by Guildford Borough Council when they voted unanimously to reject the application. I am disappointed that their Statement of Case at the appeal will now only focus on the green belt issue and with the absence of their other reasons for objection. I do not wish to imply that I feel it is right for other parties to have to make the case for the other compelling reasons for refusal of the application but it seems that is now what we are reliant upon.”

  2. Tony Edwards Reply

    September 1, 2017 at 3:07 pm

    Perhaps Cllr Iles does not appreciate the the implications of GBC’s decision not to support its own grounds for the original planning refusal.

    Having unanimously rejected the planning application on 14 different issues, GBC apparently now thinks it appropriate to pursue only one at the forthcoming appeal hearing – green belt – when it is their intention to remove the area from green belt status in the Local Plan.

    And the fact that other Rule 6 parties will be focusing on some of the other issues is not a valid reason for GBC to ignore its original arguments for dismissal of this catastrophic proposal.

  3. Lisa Wright Reply

    September 1, 2017 at 8:06 pm

    How can GBC possibly support both sides of the coin?

    They refused the formal planning application for Wisley but still support its inclusion in the Local Plan.

    This is also happening with the proposed SANG in Wood Street which is also being decided by a planning inspector in the near future. I’m assuming the same will happen if and when Gosden Hill and Blackwell Farm come to the Planning Committee?

    GBC must decide if it will follow the policy, as per the NPPF, and preserve our countryside, green belt, AONB etc, or will it flout the rules, conveniently take these sites out of green belt restrictions and push for all three strategic site development regardless?

    And why has GBC spent millions of taxpayer money on our Local Plan when all these sites are being put forward by the developers and being decided by the planning inspector anyway?

    Can you imagine a private company acting this way without clear objectives, effective management, and proper planning and costings? It’s an unbelievable waste of everyone’s time and money.

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