Letter to the Inspector
Resident's letter
We received a copy of this letter which is being sent in by a local resident. We thought it made a lot of good points.
Dear Mr Vickery and the Director of Planning,
It is not necessary to build on the Green Belt. Tandridge District Council is more than meeting Government housing targets, including those for affordable housing, and it has shown that it will continue to do so in the future without touching the Green Belt.
The council has enough sites already to meet its target for the next 8 years or more without using the Green Belt. There is no need to build on it.
We understand that Tandridge has to build 125 new homes each year. It is comfortably exceeding that target. It does so partly by allowing building on what are known as 'windfall sites' - small sites that come up at random around the district - but it does not rely on windfalls to do so.
In any case, the Government says that windfall sites should be taken into account if there is good reason. There is good reason in Tandridge. To ignore the existence of the windfall sites is to ignore reality.
In addition, the infrastructure in Oxted is totally insufficient to support development on this scale. The schools, health services and roads are already stretched to the limit.
The Green Belt fields in Oxted are much loved and well used. One adjoins an area of Ancient Woodland and a Site of Nature Conservation Importance, forming part of a wildlife corridor along the north western boundary of Oxted. They are fertile pieces of agricultural land which have been cultivated for centuries. At a time of soaring food prices it is precisely the kind of land we should be protecting not destroying.
The fields are major public amenities and are part of the Metropolitan Green Belt protecting both London and ourselves from urban sprawl. They should be saved for future generations to enjoy.
