There's a public outcry against Surrey County Council's refusal to take any notice of what local people think and its 'patronising and arrogant' attitude towards the intervention of East Surrey MP, Sam Gyimah. Residents across Tandridge are calling for the withdrawal of the council's Minerals Plan which targets Oxted Sandpit for big development as well as Chalkpit Quarry.

Mr Gyimah has strongly supported residents, writing to the County Council to say it's 'grossly unfair' to continue with a Plan that shows so little respect for local opinion. To read his letter, click on the 5th headline.

But SCC's Lynne Hack has rejected his plea, saying Mr Gyimah is 'new', that planning is 'extremely complex' and that 'perhaps he misunderstood'. This reply prompted many angry letters - see 3rd headline

The Surrey Minerals Plan proposes 4 new quarries - in Oxted, Bletchingley and 2 in Nutfield. Development will stretch all along the foot of the North Downs. It will destroy much Green Belt land and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Surrey County Council says allowing such destruction in Tandridge protects sites elsewhere in Surrey.

Tandridge has been targeted for a massive amount of development. The sheer scale of it threatens to choke the roads with heavy lorries and pollute the local environment over a wide area.

The County Council has executed a shameless U turn over this Plan. In February the Council leader, Andrew Povey, went on BBC Television and blamed the Labour government for the whole thing.

He said: ' It is actually the government that says that we have to have a minerals plan and I'm sorry they are not here today to defend it ..and not only do they say we have to have a plan but they set out the numbers of tonnes of sand and aggregates that we have to extract from within Surrey. It's not really within our power to stop that'

When asked what he thought of David Cameron's ideas if he were elected at the May election, Dr Povey commented:

'I suspect that what he's saying is that instead of the government saying we have to have a minerals plan and have to accept a certain volume of minerals, that would be for local authorities to decide. That would be a valuable freedom.' (Full interview on last headline)

The government has now given SCC the freedom to revise the Plan and to redetermine the volume of minerals to be recovered, but it is refusing to do so.

This was made clear by Lynne Hack on The Politics Show on 11 July (7th headline) You'll note the contrast between what Dr Povey said in February and what is now being said. And in a recent letter, Dr Povey now states: ''I strongly believe we have come up with the best plan for Surrey as a whole.'

The reality is this Plan was drawn up under intense pressure from a top down government. It's based on outdated evidence and an outdated strategy. As Mr Gyimah says, the coalition government is providing a 'golden opportunity' for its withdrawal and review.

Dr Hack spoke of "sharing the pain". Oxted already has a lot of pain with the Chalkpit Quarry used by uncontrolled numbers of HGVs dumping waste, resulting in extreme road safety danger. They are uncontrolled because, when SCC gave planning permission, it failed to attach any condition limiting lorry numbers.

Now the County Council is earmarking Oxted Sandpit for extension for sand extraction and for the building of an aggregates recycling centre for construction waste. This waste would be brought in by HGV where it would either be dumped as landfill, or recycled and driven away again - by HGV. Minerals experts say these centres are noisy and dirty and always involve lots of lorries. Once in place they stay in place, delaying restoration of the site for a long time.

All this is as well as the Chalkpit. That's not even referred to in the Plan despite all the protests, petitions and evidence of major road safety risks and major environmental damage that local people have presented to SCC over the past two years.

In February there were widespread protests against the proposals. To read the Sunday Telegraph's coverage click here

The residents' group sent in a 14 page objection to Surrey County Council which details why its proposals break planning law. It says the County Council is 'irresponsible' and 'unreasonable' to put them forward knowing the existing problems caused by the huge numbers of HGVs already using the Chalkpit Quarry, less than a mile away from the Sandpit. It says it is 'incomprehensible' that these problems have not been properly taken into account and that the Council have chosen a course of action which makes them worse.

The Minerals Plan examination is due to start on 14 September at SCC offices in Kingston. The Group intends to take part in the examination with the aim of persuading the Inspector that the Plan is seriously flawed and should be rejected as 'unsound'.

To read full details of the Surrey Minerals Plan click here

If you want to stop the lorries and stop the environmental destruction, please send in the 'Scrap the Plan' coupon.

And finally: The residents' group is quite large but bigger is better if it wants to stand a chance of being heard on planning issues. Please encourage people to join. All they need to do is email oxted.residents@btinternet.com or, if they don't have or like email, write to: Oxted & Limpsfield Residents Group, P O Box 233, Oxted Post Office, Station Road West, Oxted, RH8 9EH and we'll keep in touch by post.

Most members are from Oxted & Limpsfield, but there are others from across northern Tandridge and anyone in the district is welcome to join. The group is solely concerned with planning matters.