West Dorking Resident's Group

 UPDATE 08/04/2023

308 letters of objection to MVDC regarding the application for outline planning permission on behalf of Gleeson Land for the fields to the south of the A25 at Sondes Place Farm. Such an overwhelming response from people who obviously really care about their environment. Air quality, noise and light pollution, traffic congestion and destruction of wildlife habitats, all play a part in our lives and it is so good to see so many people wanting their voices heard.

UPDATE 29/03/2023

Mole Valley District Council have now received 150+ objections to the Gleeson Land application for outline planning permission to build 144 houses on the agricultural land to the south of the Westcott Road (A25).  This figure does not include the petition submitted by Westcott Village Association (WVA) which was signed by over 260 people. So basically over 400 local residents have objected to this application, it will be interesting to see how Mole Valley Council handles this.  They have already displayed complete disregard for the accuracy of the documents by double-entering some objectors' letters and providing false links to others.  They have also failed to send out letters to all residents they are legally obliged to inform and were forced to send out a second tranche.  They have already extended the deadline to Thursday 30th March 2023 because of this fiasco.

For anyone wanting to send in a letter of objection then the website is: Citizen Portal Planning (agileapplications.co.uk)

The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) states quite clearly that; 

111. Development should only be prevented or refused on highways grounds if there would be an unacceptable impact on highway safety, or the residual cumulative impacts on the road network would be severe.

Gleeson Land has suggested that the impact on the local road network will be negligible, suggesting that the addition of 144 dwellings on the Westcott Road will only generate 67 extra vehicles per hour, that's just about an extra vehicle per minute they say.  We all know that the extra 144 vehicles will generate up to an extra 288 vehicles and they will not be spread out over an hour, they will all have to catch trains or get to work at specific times which will lead to horrendous traffic congestion on both the Westcott Road and Vincent Lane at rush hour.  Gleeson Land also carried out their traffic surveys in the summer when Y11, 12, and 13 were not in school and only state schools were open, so a very skewed survey.  The traffic in Dorking is at a standstill during the morning and evening school drop-off and pick-up times already, if this planning application is allowed to go ahead then Dorking will be completely gridlocked at these times of the day and it will take hours to clear.

UPDATE 02/03/2023

The information on the MVDC website relating to the outline planning application for the Sondes Farm fields to the south of the A25 Westcott Road is inaccurate. I spoke to Sherelle Munnis, the Planning Officer responsible for this application. There are 100 'neighbours' cited as in receipt of letters notifying them of this development, only 70 of these are valid. The remaining 30 are duplicates because the system they use at Mole Valley has recently had an update which has caused them no end of problems with regard to sending out letters to residents. I also questioned whether it was in the public interest to 'stick to the letter of the law' and only inform residents who live within 20 metres of the proposed development. Her reply was "Well where would we stop?" The residents of most of Nower Road and West Bank have not received notifications nor have the residents of Sondes Farm or Longfield Road and Westcott Road has been left out as well. She was at pains to point out that any resident of Mole Valley has a right to send in letters of objection to this proposal and they will all carry equal weight no matter where in the town they are from. Please share this post as widely as possible, this developer knows that they need to get this application decided before the introduction of new government legislation which will prevent them from building on the green belt. The link to the planning application is https://planning.agileapplications.co.uk/.../appli.../123072 but it is pretty flaky and doesn't always work.

UPDATE 25/02/23

Gleeson Land have now submitted an application for 'outline planning permission' to build 144 houses on the field to the south of the Westcott Road.

Further details on the Mole Valley Planning Portal;

https://planning.agileapplications.co.uk/mole/application-details/123072#documents

The letter I received from the council this morning describes this as;

 Outline application with all matters reserved expect principal means of access to the highway for residential development of up to 144 dwellings including the creation of new vehicular access, school parking and drop-off/pick-up, gypsy and traveller pitches (0.2ha), public open space, landscape planting, surface water attenuation and associated infrastructure.

Sondes Place Farm, Westcott Road, Dorking, Dorking, Surrey, RH4 3EB

MVDC Outline Planning Permission Application

If you read through some of the documents they are completely divorced from reality.  The school parking and drop off has calculated that there are 33 pupils travelling to the school from the Westcott direction, the west, it assumes that they all travel by car and enter the one-way system to get to the school main entrance.  By providing this 'community benefit' of a school parking and drop off/pick up they have subtracted the 33 car journeys from the traffic counts using Vincent Lane.  They seem to have ignored the fact that most of these 33 pupils get dropped off in the entrance to Bury Hill and so therfore do not enter the Dorking one-way system at all.  There is already a perfectly good drop-off/pick-up area at this location.  They also seem to have ignored the fact that when the school closes their existing car park, as  they surely will, all of the coaches which at the moment travel down Longfield Road to access the purpose built coach park will enter the Vincent Lane grid locked traffic in the morning and evening leading to even more congestion on Vincent Lane and Westcott Road.

UPDATE 17/02/23

The Inspector has now replied to the Council and unsurprisingly distanced herself from committing to a reply.  As she has said before she is not an advisor and will only act at the direction of the Council.  She has agreed to pause the process which leaves the Council with the decision to either pause or withdraw the Local Plan.  If they decide to pause then whoever forms the new administration after the upcoming local elections will have to adopt the plan in it's presdent state (which includes building on green belt sites), apply Main Modifications to withdraw all green belt sites or withdraw the Local Plan altogether. It's a pity they did not make the decision to withdraw the plan weeks ago as everyone told them to do instead of posturing and sending out self congratulatory political bulletins telling everyone what a wonderul political party they are. What a complete mess they have managed to create.

"ED57 

Examination of the Mole Valley Local Plan 2020-2037 (the Plan/Local Plan) 

 Inspectors – Ms R Barrett BSc (Hons) MSc MRTPI IHBC Programme Officer – Louise St John Howe Inspector Note 23 

The Council’s Note 31 (ED56) sets out changes that the Council wishes to make to the submitted Plan. That includes deleting all Green Belt (GB) site allocations which do not benefit from planning permission. It suggests that this is done through a main modification (MM) to the submitted Plan. It explains that this is in response the Government’s consultation on changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). The Council requests guidance from the Inspector on its proposed course of action and the implications for gypsy and traveller provision in the Plan. The Inspector responds as follows: 1. She wishes to make it clear that there has not been a change in Government policy. Rather, the Government is currently consulting on a draft NPPF. Until Government policy is changed (expected in Spring 2023), the Inspector will continue to examine the submitted Plan against current Government policy, contained in the NPPF 2021. She therefore cannot recommend MMs predicated on draft Government policy that may or may not come into effect in its draft form. 2. In the circumstances it may be that the Council wishes for the Inspector to pause the Examination until there is greater certainty around future Government policy. If this were the case, given the circumstances, the Inspector would be receptive to such a request. However, as previously stated she will work to ensure that the Examination does not become protracted. 3. Given the above, it is unnecessary for the Inspector to set out a response to the second Council query, regarding the implications of its suggested approach for the Plan’s gypsy and traveller provision. 4. The Inspector acknowledges that this is not the answer that the Council was hoping for, but must work within the bounds of the legislation, regulations, national planning policy and advice as currently stands. Throughout the Examination the Inspector has sought to work proactively with the Council to arrive at a sound Plan, within the limitations of her role as dictated by legislation and the Government’s national planning policy. She will continue to do so. 

 R Barrett INSPECTOR 17 February 2023"

UPDATE 20/01/23

At the Emergency Council Meeting held on Monday 16th January 2023 the council voted unaminously to ask the Government Inspector whether they could remove all green belt sites from the Local Plan under the section entitled Main Modifications.  We await her decision as to whether she will advise them on this request or whether she will reply, as she has done in the past, that she does not issue advice, she is there to scrutinise the plan as submitted.  If she does advise them then she may well open herself to litigation from the developers who are so keen to get these sites developed.

UPDATE 09/01/23

The petition has now received 951 signatures, a massive achievement and a big thank you to all of those who have signed.  Not all of the signatures will count because MVDC have restrictions in place which only allow signatures from 'local' people but hopefully the petition will have the minimum required number of 800 in order to trigger a Council debate.

UPDATE 09/01/23

Mole Valley District Council have now issued a press release outlining their plans to hold an Emergency Council Meeting on Monday 16th January at 19:00hrs at Pippbrook in order to discuss the way forward with the Local Plan.  They have three options, they can apply to the Inspector to insert Main Modifications into the Local Plan and remove all green belt areas from it, they can do nothing and allow the plan to proceed or they can withdraw the Plan completely and resubmit it at a later date.

This extract is from the agenda set out for the upcoming Meeting.

"Risk Implications
Should the Inspector agree to the removal of the Green Belt sites as MMs that may
not be the end of the matter from the perspective of a potential challenge. The
decision by the Inspector can still be challenged through the courts. It is not possible
to determine whether such a challenge would emerge, nor whether it would happen
at this stage or later should the plan be adopted. Such challenges would be a
resource (including financial) to the Council. However, all local plans run the risk of
challenge because often the stakes are high.
There is the potential, notwithstanding the clear direction of travel outlined by the
government in its consultation and the provisions within the PGLPE that the Inspector
considers the removal of Green Belt sites cannot be dealt with as a MM. This could
be because she feels the MM is too significant and/or that it moves the Council away
from its adopted strategy for meeting development needs, despite that strategy
having been based on a policy position that is shifting. She could feel that the future
policy position remains too uncertain.
In the circumstances that the Inspector does not agree to the MMs proposed by the
Council we would then be in a position of either continuing with the Plan, undertaking
the MM consultation with the Green Belt sites remaining, awaiting the Inspector’s
report and then deciding whether to adopt the Plan. This would seem an unlikely
course as it would potentially result in the Plan not being adopted even if found
sound.
Alternatively, the Inspector’s decision not to accept the proposed MMs could be
challenged, first in writing but ultimately through the Courts. This could have
significant financial implications for the Council.
The Council could withdraw the plan as a whole and start again having waited for the
outcome of the current government consultation and working with the transitional
arrangements to produce a plan under the future regime. This would essentially
result in requirements for additional funding to the planning policy function as well as
having to fund another examination. It would also leave the Council with a wholly out
of date set of policies, unable to benefit from some of the significant non-housing
related policies in the examined version of the Local Plan. Further, the district would
continue to suffer from speculative development, particularly on countryside beyond
the Green Belt."

The Inspector may choose to refuse their application to apply Main Modifications to the Local Plan but this may well result in litigation on the part of the Council.

UPDATE 14/12/22

Mole Valley District Council issued a press release yesterday 'pausing' the scrutiny of the Local Plan by the Government Inspector given the recent announcement by Michael Gove regarding building on green belt land.

The latest press release can be viewed in full under the 'Building on the Green Belt 2022' section on this website.

UPDATE 07/12/22

A press release issued by the government yesterday (06/12/2022) clearly states the following:

UPDATE 11/11/22

I have just received this email from Gleeson Land who hope to submit prior approval plans to build on the green belt land to the north and south of the A25 Westcott Road.  The Government Inspector has only just completed her assessment of the Mole Valley Local Plan and will not publish her findings for several months. So this is purely speculation on the part of Gleeson Land, trying to drum up support.

UPDATE 26/10/22

 The hearing sessions being held by the Government Inspector are coming to a conclusion.  The hearing session relating to the two fields DS24 (Milton Court Lane) and DS26 (Sondes Place Farm) was held yesterday (Tuesday 25th October 2022) afternoon.  An archived video can be found on the MVDC website,

https://molevalley.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/675451

If you can bear the boredom the relevant section can be found using the timestamp from 1:49:20 until 2:55:24.

UPDATE 05/03/22

The proposal to build 10 extra classrooms for The Priory School has been withdrawn by Surrey County Council.  Given that the school has now removed its sixth form and is reducing in size at an alarming rate this is hardly surprising.  It has, however, taken SCC a very long time to make this decision and even longer to publish it.

WPHAPPDETAIL (molevalley.gov.uk)

27/02/22

There are only two requests to re-designate the areas to the north and south of the A25 Westcott Road so far that have been logged on the AONB site.  Has no-one got any interest in trying to save these two areas from being built on?  Is it only me and one other person who is interested in retaining green belt areas in this time of climate emergency?

https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/896091cc47194e3f99839c84a71cdde0

UPDATE 06/01/2022

As there is a Surrey Hill AONB boundary review in progress I think it would be worth asking everyone interested in protecting the western edge of Dorking from unscrupulous development to complete the survey in order to get this area re-designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.  It doesn't take too long to complete the sections in the submission and it seems really odd that when you look at the map outlining the area it was not included in the first place.

The questionnaire can be found by following this link.

https://www.surrey-hills-aonb-boundary-review.org/home

UPDATE 13/12/2021

Copy of the text of an email received from MVDC this afternoon.

Dear newsdesk,

Please find below a news release for consideration and attached an associated image.

Mole Valley District Council Advised to Get Local Plan in Place

Having asked the Government to clear up whether there was a change in Green Belt policy following comments by the Prime Minister, the Minister for Housing has replied and included a hand written note.

Councillor Margaret Cooksey, Cabinet Member for Planning, said: “I am grateful to have received a response from Chris Pincher MP, Minister for Housing, confirming what we have been doing - and the difficult decisions that have been made - remain in line with the government’s approach as set out in the National Planning Policy Framework. He was explicit that release of Green Belt as part of a Local Plan process should only occur in exceptional circumstances, when every other reasonable alternative has been explored.

“It has also been confirmed that we should continue to use the government methodology for housing need, but apply the constraints that we face locally to determine our housing need. This was particularly reassuring to hear and fully justifies the approach we have taken in developing our Plan.

“I have, for some time, been highlighting the risk that if we fail to adopt a Plan for Mole Valley, decisions about where and how much development could be imposed on us in the future. Those views have now been substantiated in the response we received. The Minister for Housing personally added a note to the letter stating that ‘all local authorities should continue to develop up to date local plans. Failure to do so exposes local residents to speculative development risk’. This only reinforces the need to get our up-to-date Plan before an Inspector and adopt it quickly.

“Some 850 responses were received during the publication period that ended on 7 November 2021 and I would like to take the opportunity to thank all those who have taken the time to get involved during our Local Plan process to date. The Cabinet and Council are expected to consider in February 2022 whether the Plan should be submitted for examination by a Planning Inspector.”

 Perhaps someone could enlighten me as to the measures MVDC have taken to identify the local housing need in the MVDC area because I cannot find any reference to this in any of their documents. They have simply taken the formulae imposed by central government and used it as justification for their land grab of precious green belt land. Shameful MVDC. Shameful.

UPDATE 05/11/2021

A letter of representation has now been sent to MVDC and they have acknowledged receipt.  I sent it in both .pdf and .docx format just to make sure.  It was sent as a representation of x30 people who asked to be included in the submission.  Well done to all those who have responded to this travesty in the form of objections to this 'land grab' on the part of the MVDC especially in this time of climate emergency and the COP26 conference.

UPDATE 13/09/2021

Mole Valley District Council have now decided to re-designate certain green belt areas in and around Dorking in order to include them in their local plan as potential sites for developers to submit plans for house building.  Two such sites are the fields to the north and south of the A25 off the Westcott Road.  The field to the south of the A25 formerly classified as DK18 but now classified as 18-DK-020 has been classified as having a moderate contribution to the green belt and so has been downgraded to a 'Former Green Belt/Built Up Area' allowing developers to submit plans for the construction of 128 new homes with additional facilities for coaches and staff parking for The Priory School despite the school downsizing recently.  The question is who gave MVDC the rights to re-purpose the green belt?  Why can they make decisions like this in this time of Climate Emergency without any consultation whatsoever with local residents?

This extract from the Future Mole Valley website is quite informative regarding the proposal to build 200+ homes on the land to the north and south of the Westcott Road and how Surrey County Council intend to deal with the potentially extra 400+ cars emerging onto the Westcott Road/Vincent Lane junction.

"Transport evidence has been submitted
considering capacity issues at the Westcott
Road/Vincent Lane junction. Discussions with
Surrey County Council Highways conclude that the
West Dorking Developments (Land at Milton Court
Lane and Sondes Place Farm) would not make a
material difference to existing congestion in
Dorking."

That speaks volumes for the way SCC deal with MVDC and the existing traffic problems in Dorking.