Cllr Martin Fisher says

Tandridge District Council Core Strategy Inspectors Examination 3 April 2008.

In spite of reassurances give by the Government Inspector reviewing the soundness of Tandridge District Councils Core Planning Strategy, I still have major concerns. Firstly I would make the comment that the residents of Oxted should support the Districts core strategy that is the cornerstone of our planning framework and provides protection of the greenbelt. A lot of hard work and dedication by our Planning Officers and Councillors has been put into this document which reflects local needs.

While the inspector made it clear that he is not looking at individual sites, or removing land from the green belt nor deciding any planning applications there is in my mind a key area of concern that was exposed by a series of perceptive questions raised by amongst others Mrs Cole, Mrs Sayer and Mr Norgrove. The Inspector even if he finds the document sound can make binding alterations to the detail and it was generally accepted that one of his areas of concern was the ability of Tandridge to find sufficient land to meet Government imposed housing targets. The view of the council was that we could achieve the targets by including windfall sites (unforeseen planning applications) which is historically how these targets have been achieved. His view, prompted by Government, is that this is not satisfactory and that it may be necessary for the Council to explore the Greenbelt option. This has no doubt encouraged developers to float last minute scoping reports for 650 houses in the Oxted North area which has rightly caused great concern to local residents.

In my view Local Residents have the right to be alarmed. These proposed developments represent an increase of 30%+ in the number of houses in the Oxted North ward, crammed into two comparatively small areas without the infrastructure of roads, schools and health provision. The insidious part of all this process is that the District has to meet centrally imposed housing targets, has its planning strategy modified by a Government Inspector and no doubt at a future date have its Planning decisions overturned by an Inspector. In spite of this the Government claims that Planning decisions are made locally!

Martin Fisher
District Councillor Oxted North & Tandridge