Letter: QC’s New Evidence Casts Doubt on the Whole Local Plan

Published on: 20 Nov, 2017
Updated on: 20 Nov, 2017

From Tony Edwards

Guildford residents could have been forgiven for wondering how their local council could unanimously reject this scheme – citing 14 points of planning law – when it refused the “new town” proposal by anonymous, off-shore investors, yet still include it in the Local Plan.

And the evidence presented at the recent five week inquiry into the planning appeal by the Cayman Island-based company will have added to the confusion. Anyone who listened to the closing arguments would have been left with little doubt that the legal evidence against the scheme was compelling.

Now new written evidence from Richard Harwood QC warns that inclusion of the green belt land at ‘Three Farms Meadows’, the former Wisley airfield, would render the entire Local Plan unsound.

At the very least, this must cast a major doubt over the future of the new Local Plan and provide cause for even the most blinkered individuals to reassess their position.

Whether in terms of cost or future vulnerability, Guildford can’t afford to present an unsound plan for approval and we look to our local representatives to ensure that logic prevails in the forthcoming vote.

Tony Edwards is a member of the Wisley Action Group

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