Letter: Will Councillors, For Once, Do the Right Thing?

Published on: 2 Jun, 2026
Updated on: 2 Jun, 2026

Plans for 65 new homes in Horsley. GBC

From David Roberts

In response to: The Horsleys Are at Breaking Point in Terms of Sustainability

Without a site visit, Planning Committee members are not competent to decide this application. How many of them, for instance, realise that these 65 houses, with their hundred or so cars, can be accessed only by a long, single-track farm drive with no footpath?

How many of the have bothered to study the archive of photographs dating back to 2013 showing flooding across the whole site? (planning officers have done their best to bury this graphic evidence in favour of consultants’ fictional reports commissioned by the developers).

Cllr Young understates the strain on the Horsleys. Over 2,000 houses are also being built in Ockham (misleadingly called Wisley since it’s east of the A3), just two miles away with absolutely no accompanying infrastructure. For water, transport, doctors, schools, shops, recreation and everything else, this greenfield development’s 7,000 new residents will be almost entirely dependent on the Horsleys.

The law says new development must be sustainable, not just survivable. Will councillors for once – just once in living memory – please turn down a large planning application in the Horsleys, which is patently bearing an unfair proportion of local development?

Guildford town would have to build 20,000 new houses, straight away, to match this burden. Other parts of the borough (such as Normandy) are only starting to feel the pressure. Others seem mysteriously to have escaped scot-free from the curse of the Tory Local Plan and the perfect vacuum that is Lib Dem local development policy.

Responses to Letter: Will Councillors, For Once, Do the Right Thing?

Justin Underwood Reply

June 6, 2026 at 5:49 pm

Access onto main road is going to be shared with all the caravans and motor homes it’s so badly thought out and to think the planners support this is crazy.

Have the planners tried to get a doctors appointment or park outside the shops recentl? Or get kids into local schools? The village doesn’t have any more capacity.

We are already getting 1,500 homes at Wisley which is only a mile away.
David Dean Reply

June 6, 2026 at 11:10 pm

Absolutely spot on article by David Roberts.

I urge councillors who are involved in decision making process around house building to stop and think for two minutes. They should not be considering planning applications in isolation but considering all the recent applications and new developments in the area.

And as David mentions Wisley development is down the road. If you need to hire a drone to look at all recent developments please do it. The residents of Horsley are totally sick of this basic lack of thought and intelligence around how the area is being decimated. The Horsleys cannot take this and it should not take an Einstein to realise that the Horsleys do not have the infrastructure to support all of these developments.

Please, please look at the bigger picture. Look at the area in totality and do the right thing so that you sleep better at night and don’t have wrong decisions on your consciences.
Daniel Thompson Reply

June 8, 2026 at 11:15 am

Agreed. The access to the proposed site and the lack of infrastructure are extremely important factors to be considered. Another is the effect this proposed development will have on the flooding issues which are already critical in there area.

I live on Green Lane where flooding now happens regularly since other local developments have been allowed.

Another development like this being passed will likely make lower parts of Green Lane impassable during heavy rain. With that comes hydraulic sewer flooding spewing disgusting foul sewer excrement onto roads and driveways leaving environmental hazard deposits on subsidence. Excess ground water from this proposed site is to drain into the area of Green Lane which already floods! It just doesn’t make sense!
Helena Townsend Reply

June 9, 2026 at 5:29 pm

Sorry, but another example of pure nimbyism and I think most people in the Borough are fast losing sympathy for the Horsleys.

No one has suffered more housing than Ash/Tongham and soon Normandy, who are the real victims of an unfair proportion of local development.

Horsley’s development has been minor in comparison, with Taylor Wimpey’s Ada Gardens and Manorwood by Thakenham blending seamlessly with the former being located within seconds of the railway station reducing the need for many car movements.

In terms of infrastructure for Wisley Acres what is the brand Junction 10, the new Wisley Lane and all of these multi-million pound bridges providing links for the first time in decades to different parts of the heathland?

The Planning Committee are just elected councillors many with zero expertise on Planning – they should be listening to our qualified planning team when making a decision and ensuring the taxpayer is not incurring unnecessary appeal costs.

I look forward to this minor application being approved in due course.
Justin Underwood Reply

June 10, 2026 at 9:59 pm

Totally agree with David Roberts and everything he says.

Five new developments already built/under construction within a mile of this site (as the crow flies).

Come on, enough is enough, we are at breaking point.