Letter: I Hope New Councillor Can Persuade GBC to Reconsider Local Plan

Published on: 6 May, 2017
Updated on: 6 May, 2017

From Liz Hogger

Lib Dem borough councillor for Effingham

In response to: Opinion: County Council Election – What Does it Mean?

I suspect many people’s votes were affected by national considerations, given the increasingly frenetic messaging going on over Brexit.

As a borough councillor within Julie Iles’s division of the Horsleys, I look forward to working closely with her on issues concerning Effingham, putting aside party politics as is the tradition here once the election is over.

However it was notable that Paul Kennedy gained an unprecedented 38% of the vote for the Lib Dems in the Horsleys division – an indication of how strongly local people feel about Tory hard Brexit proposals as well as the Tory Local Plan.

If Julie can indeed deliver on her commitment that “development must not impact on the villages”, that would of course be welcome.

I hope she will start by encouraging the GBC Tory leadership to look again at the proposal in the Local Plan for a new town of 2,000 homes on green belt land at the former Wisley Airfield, which would have a massive impact on all the villages in her division.

Good luck Julie!