West Dorking Resident's Group

UPDATE 18/02/2020

 Information received from one of our residents who attended the meeting on Saturday regarding Future Mole Valley the Local Plan.

Speaking to Margaret Cooksey on Saturday at the consultation meeting on the Future Mole Valley Local Plan she appeared to be very much anti-green belt development and is pushing the government to reduce the 7100 homes required in the local area

She did make a request which seems to make a lot of sense. She asked that in any consultation response people should be clear about what policy people do support as it then gives them a body of evidence as to what the population does want. She used an example of electric charging points being demanded in any development which they can then use to demand it of developers

Feedback could focus on the policy of not developing greenbelt but growing the agricultural economy and environment, all of which are already in the local plan. This means the development of the fields in west Dorking are in contravention of the essential policies of not building on the Green Belt and should not be allowed.

Only one point worthy of note is that the online consultation is a bit of a mess because although you can respond to all of the questions you have to do it in one sitting or submit multiple responses because the system they have used does not allow the user to revisit their submission.  She did say that probably the best way is to complete whatever you can and submit and then revisit to complete additional sections and submit separately, this could potentially have a negative impact on the number of submissions sent in, a lot of people will not have the 'staying power.'

UPDATE 01/02/2020

Surrey County Council Officers are now recommending that the plans to build a new Science block at The Priory School be approved.

https://mycouncil.surreycc.gov.uk/documents/s65922/The%20Priory%20Completed%20report%20for%20Committee.pdf

The document they have presented for consideration by Committee continues to refer to the school's change of admission arrangements and increase in admission numbers as a reason to approve the application.  The reality is very different.  These figures were obtained from the school under a Freedom of Information request.

If the Committee document is correct then the school should have taken in 210 pupils into Year 7 in September 2019, they did in fact recruit 107, a shortfall of 103.  The Committee document also ignores the inaccuracies in the revised Transport Plan which uses a figure of 130 sixth form pupils, as can be seen by reference to the above table this is not the case, there are 50 students in the sixth form.  According to the school's own figures and using the Transport Plan estimate of 130 pupils in the sixth form, the school should currently have 970 pupils, they have in fact 715, they have 26% empty places.  This equates to 255 spare places, nearly enough to accomodate the 300 extra that SCC say they need.

The Committee document also refers obliquely to the MVDC local plan 'Future Mole Valley' and it's reference to plans to build on the Green Belt area known as Sondes Place Farm.  As part of this proposal the document seems to suggest that the addition of pick-up, drop-off and coach parking to the proposed development of this Green Belt site could somehow resolve some of the local traffic problems.  The idea that coaches and cars entering the Dorking one-way sytem to access the Westcott Road and the proposed development shows a complete lack of any concern for Dorking residents who already have to endure the interminable delays on Vincent Lane and Westcott Road.  The report also totally ignores the existing bottleneck at the junction of Hampstead Lane and Coldharbour Lane at school pick-up and drop-off times.

This report is reminiscent of the reply sent by MVDC to SCC when the first application was made, totally ill-informed and ill-considered.  It completely fails to recognise the flagrant disregard the school has shown for MVDC planning restrictions by totally ignoring previous requirements regarding on-site parking and the views of local residents.  It also fails to take into account any of the important issues MVDC have raised with SCC regarding resident's parking and the additional need for an extra 20 vehicles to find somewhere to park during the working day.

Planning and Regulatory Committee Thursday, 6 February 2020 10.30 am

**Update 12th December 2019**

Common Sense Prevails

MVDC have now responded to the SCC application to expand the school.  Last year when SCC first submitted the plans to MVDC for approval they were 'rubber stamped' with NO OBJECTION and returned to SCC.  This second application has now been discussed by the relevant MVDC planning committee and common sense seems to have prevailed.

MVDC Officers report to SCC

**Update 22nd October 2019**

I have just received this revised planning application (click link below) from SCC regarding the proposed expansion of The Priory School.
At first glance it looks as if they have completely dismissed the idea that there could well be an extra 300 cars dropping off and picking up children at the school in the morning and evening.  They are suggesting that due to the school's erection of fencing around their car park, picking up and dropping off pupils will have to take place in the roads surrounding the school with additional parking at Milton Heath car park.
This will have major implications, not only for the residents of Hampstead Lane, Longfield Road, West Bank but also for anyone affected by the increase in traffic caused by extra vehicles using the Milton Heath car park and the impact it will have on the already congested Westcott Road.

The Priory Expansion

**Notice of closure of Surrey Community websites.**

We have received notification that the free Surrey Community website service is to close in March 2020.  The contents of the email notification are copied below.

 "Dear ********,

 We are writing to you because you are listed in our records as an administrator of the website below, which is hosted on SurreyCommunity.info.

 SurreyCommunity

• https://www.surreycommunity.info/community/

 As you may know, we set up SurreyCommunity.info in 2006 to address the need for an easy-to-use and affordable solution for community groups to publish content online. Since then, the online world has changed enormously in terms of possibilities, expectations and requirements.

 Although we’ve been able to sustain SurreyCommunity.info for over a decade, we’ve not been in a position to develop it in any significant way for several years. To continue to maintain SurreyCommunity.info so that it meets current and future security and accessibility requirements, and to be able to update it to offer the features and facilities that other hosting services provide would require substantial investment.

 Because of this, and because the need that we originally set out to address no longer exists – there are a large number of free and affordable website providers now – we have, following discussions with borough and district colleagues, regretfully concluded that SurreyCommunity.info is no longer viable, and have decided that it will close.

 This is not a decision that we have taken lightly. We understand that, for many of you, this will be a significant inconvenience, so we are putting some measures in place to help lessen the impact:

• The county, district and borough councils have provided funding to keep the service running for another year. SurreyCommunity will close at the end of March 2020, to allow you sufficient time to manage this change and help with any impacts, in line with the Surrey Compact.
• If you no longer need your website, let us know and we’ll close it for you.
• If you set up a new site with another provider and notify us once your new site is running, we will set up a redirection on your SurreyCommunity site so that any visitors are automatically taken to your new site.
• We have a help page at https://surreycommunity.info/closure with answers to some of the most commonly asked questions, and we will continue to update this with advice and guidance until SurreyCommunity closes.
• We will continue to provide support through enquiries@surreycommunity.info as usual. Do contact us if you have any queries, but note that although we can help with any aspects of using SurreyCommunity, we can’t answer questions about other providers’ systems.

To help us gauge the kind of support that will be most useful to you, we’d be grateful if you could take a couple of minutes to answer a short survey:

https://www.surreycommunity.info/closureinformation/survey/respond?survey_id=21481447

Lastly, we’d like to thank you for using the service. You and your groups have all contributed to making Surrey a better place to live, and we appreciate that you chose SurreyCommunity to help you do this.

Kind regards,

The SurreyCommunity.info support team"

Yet another community service cut.

**Update 7th December 2018**

Publication of Newsletter #4 from MVDC.

https://mailchi.mp/5593b55315ad/future-mole-valley-2018-newsletter-377729

**Update 14th August 2018**

Publication of Newsletter #3 from MVDC.

http://futuremolevalley.org/

**Update 13th June 2018**

Letters objecting to these proposals are available as template letters under the relevant tabs on this site and can be downloaded and printed.  Space is provided for adding your own comment if required.  They can be hand delivered or posted to MVDC.

**Update 11th June 2018**

"I checked the current position on Friday and I understand that the school is currently working on an amended planning 
application. County Planning doesn't know how this is proceeding and hasn't received any indication about when to 
expect it from the school.When it is received it will go back for to all consultees for their comments before coming 
to County Planning Committee. That does mean that Mole Valley will have a further opportunity to submit views and 
Margaret has requested that the amended application come to MV Development Control Committee so that members have an 
opportunity to determine the final consultation submission to County.

I think that a letter from the Residents Association supporting submission to members would be helpful.

I'll keep you informed when I know more."