Councillor Cross Urges Residents to Support Lovelace Neighbourhood Plan

Published on: 30 Oct, 2019
Updated on: 1 Nov, 2019

Ward councillor Colin Cross (R4GV) wants residents to play their part in the six-week consultation on the Lovelace Neighbourhood Plan (LNP) 2019-34 that begins on Monday, November 4.

In 2015, Guildford Borough Council had designated the Lovelace Neighbourhood Area (LNA), encompassing the parishes of Ripley, Ockham and Wisley. Since then, Ripley and Ockham parish councils have worked with the community and other stakeholders to produce the LNP.

Neighbourhood plans contain policies for a single area. If the plan passes a local referendum, it becomes part of the development for the borough and will help decide planning applications within the LNA, along with the council’s Local Plan and other considerations.

The six-week consultation, which runs till December 16, will enable people to give their views and opinions on the plan’s content.

Cllr Cross said:  “This public consultation on the LNP follows four long years of ongoing dialogue with residents and many other local stakeholders. This has been done primarily by voluntary representatives of Ripley Parish, with input from Ockham Parish Council and the Wisley community.

Cllr Colin Cross

“It is the first plan to be attempted in the borough that represents multiple wards and was a uniquely tortuous process, with many early volunteers falling by the wayside.

“Our sincere thanks go to those brave souls who finally pushed it on to the public stage, especially Jim Morris, the Ripley parish clerk, and Annie Cross, the ultimate author of the final draft, as well as Malcolm Aish, from Ockham PC, and Cameron Brown, from Wisley, the plan’s long-suffering editor.

“The plan is a brave attempt to square the circle created by the ongoing need for ever greater housing numbers in the borough and the infrastructure shortfall that exists in our rural backwaters, with their tiny winding lanes and lack of so many local facilities.

“Lovelace is, in terms of area, the fourth largest in the borough but is the smallest in population, with just 2,100 adults.

“The A3 bisects the ward in one direction, as does the M25 in another [I am checking this], which create unique challenges in traffic congestion and pollution levels. But the greatest pressure is on the swaths of green belt and agricultural land.

“If Guildford’s Local Plan is enacted over the next decade or so, the present green landscape will be a distant memory and traffic jams will be the order of the day.

“Our LNP calls for a degree of proportionality in the local planning process to stop the target population for Lovelace tripling to 6,000-plus in the next decade. Surely that is in line with the latest calls to save our planet in general and plant thousands more trees rather than chop thousands more down?”

To see the LNP, and give your views, please visit the consultation website at: guildford.inconsult.uk.

Printed copies of the plan will be available to view during the consultation at the main reception of Guildford Borough Council’s offices at Millmead and at the libraries in both Horsley and Guildford.

If you want to find out more about the proposal for a neighbourhood plan, visit; https://www.guildford.gov.uk/lovelace or email the Planning Team planningpolicy@guildford.gov.uk or call 01483 444605.

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