Letter: Ash Neighbourhood Plan – Why Vote for It?

Published on: 30 Sep, 2026
Updated on: 30 Sep, 2026

From John Ferns

In response to: Ash Gets Ready To Go to the Polls To Vote On a New Neighbourhood Plan

I have been observing the Ash Neighbourhood Plan as it has developed over the last two years, and the rather uncertain planning situation we now find ourselves in.

I am certainly no planning expert, so this is simply my personal interpretation of what I have read. My starting point is that we should not kid ourselves about what the Plan can achieve.

It will not stop development. The major housing allocations already made by Guildford Borough Council – including Warren Farm, land east of White Lane and A31 – are not going to disappear because Ash has a Neighbourhood Plan.

The independent examination specifically required these allocations to be recognised. Nor can the Plan prevent Ash having to accommodate housing required by national and strategic planning policies.

In reality, much of the Plan is fairly modest: design, green spaces, community facilities, transport and the character of Ash. Its most obvious specific benefit is probably the additional protection given to Ash Manor and its setting, including important views to and from the Manor.

So, in terms of actually stopping or substantially changing the development coming to Ash, it could deliver diddly squat.

So why vote for it? For me, it is less about what the Plan can do than about the timing. We are about to enter a period of considerable uncertainty.

GBC is embarking on a new Local Plan expected to take around 30 months, yet GBC itself will disappear next year and be replaced by West Surrey Council.

We don’t know what the new plan will eventually propose, how much more development Ash may be expected to take, or how the new council will approach it. The Neighbourhood Plan cannot control any of that, and some of its policies may eventually have to change.

But there is one potential advantage. If a contentious planning application comes before the new authority, I would much rather be able to say, “This is what Ash’s own adopted Neighbourhood Plan says,” than simply turn up and object. It should at least give local objections a little more legitimacy and weight – assuming, of course, that the Government hasn’t by then reduced planning committees to little more than window dressing.

I would therefore rather Ash entered this uncertain period with its own locally agreed planning policies already in place than with nothing. The Plan may ultimately deliver zilch – but it gives us a slightly better chance of achieving rather more than nothing.

That’s why, on balance, I shall be voting for it.