Letter: Former Wisley Airfield Appeal Clarification

Published on: 11 May, 2023
Updated on: 12 May, 2023

Wisley Airfield plan.

From: Taylor Wimpey

See: Developer’s Wisley Planning Appeal Leaves Residents ‘Angry & Concerned’

Taylor Wimpey submitted an appeal for non-determination of its planning application (22/P/01175) for the former Wisley Airfield in April 2023 following a delay to the determination of the application.

Taylor Wimpey purchased the former Wisley Airfield site in March 2020 following its allocation in the Guildford Local Plan (site A35) adopted in April 2019, and subsequently agreed a Planning Performance Agreement (PPA) with the council which anticipated determination of the application in March 2023.

Under the PPA we have met with Guildford Borough Council alone to discuss the proposals on more than 50 separate occasions.

Having provided clarification information at the request of consultees we offered the council an extension to the PPA to provide time for the additional information to be reviewed, however, we did not receive a response to this offer.

It should be noted that this further submission did not change the outcomes and assessments of the of the original planning application made in August 2022.

Responses to Letter: Former Wisley Airfield Appeal Clarification

David Roberts Reply

May 11, 2023 at 9:11 pm

This appeal is a crude attempt to bounce GBC into a premature decision on this huge application, which is perhaps the biggest one it has ever considered.

Reasonable time is needed to scrutinise the application along with the (so far) nearly 1,400 objections. The appeal is especially cynical in the light of the thousands of pages of additional information Taylor Wimpey have submitted within the last few weeks, while councillors and officers were excusably busy with the May 4 local election campaign and subsequent change of Council Executive.

The bad faith consistently shown by Taylor Wimpey in the face of near-unanimous public hostility, along with the unnecessary costs involved in responding to this appeal, will certainly alienate even more residents and, in my view, ought to count against agreeing planning approval.