Tandridge Local Plan Sites Consultation

November 4 - December 30. Please take part.

Our leaflet about the Sites Consultation and with details about Tandridge District Council's flawed Local Plan proposals is currently being delivered to 5,500 homes in Oxted, Limpsfield and Hurst Green. If it hasn't come through your letterbox yet, it can be read on this link: click here

Experts have made clear the Tandridge Local Plan documents are fundamentally flawed. We believe they should have been corrected before the Sites Consultation was put before the public, but now that the consultation is going ahead, please do take part.

The Council has graded a large number of Green Belt sites as 'amber' which means they are being considered for new housing development. Two applications on these amber Green Belt sites have already been submitted - one in Warlingham and one in Felbridge.

The Council has made no consideration of infrastructure pressures associated with development of these sites nor of the existing infrastructure deficit.

It has used consultants' assessments on capacity for development, landscape impact, and ecology to grade sites. There are many amber sites around Oxted, Limpsfield and Hurst Green.

They include: OXT 006 Chichele field (150 units) and OXT 007 Stoney field (250 units) in Oxted, and OXT 025 Land at Holland Road, Hurst Green (200 units) together with a cluster of nearby sites in Hurst Green.

Please submit comments to the Council about the sites you know, about what the Council and its consultants have said about those sites, and explain where what has been said is inaccurate or incomplete or both. Please repeat any comments about the sites that you made in the first consultation.

Some Green Belt sites have been graded as 'red' and unsuitable for development. However, these Green Belt sites are still marked as 'deliverable and developable' and they are not safe from development. Please also comment on these sites.

To read the Council's site list click here

The Council's assessments are on this link click here

For the Oxted/Limpsfield/Hurst Green landscape assessments of the Green Belt sites see LCSS Oxted North and Oxted South. For the ecology assessments, see SBEA 'Volume 2 Oxted (for other areas see the other LCSS and SBEA documents).

The Council has added another list of sites including one in Old Oxted (120 units) and another one in Hurst Green (200+ units). It is not clear to us how people are expected to comment on them as the Council has given no details. To read the list, click here and on 'HELAA Appendix 8 - Additional Sites for HELAA 2017'.

We have asked the Council's Planning Department for more information and have been told that as the sites have not yet been assessed in any detail or mapped "the Council are unable to determine which of these sites would be 'deliverable or developable' and no information is available."

However, we do have these further details about the location of these 2 sites so please do send in comments on them:

Land south of Springfield, east of Beadles Lane, Old Oxted (120 units): This is located between Springfield and Spring Lane and borders Beadles Lane.

Land at Holland Road, Hurst Green (200+ units): This is on the opposite side of Holland Road to the site marked as OXT 053

Other comments you may wish to make:

• The housing need figure of 9,400 houses, which is almost 4 times the current requirement, is inflated and wrong. By accepting it, the Council is contradicting evidence its own barrister gave to the Planning Inspectorate at a Public Inquiry in 2014.
• The Council has still not made any consideration of either the pressures on existing infrastructure or new infrastructure provision for the sites in the consultation.
• The Council has not corrected its flawed 2015 Green Belt assessments which have not been carried out using the correct methodology and according to Government guidance.
• The Council has not taken notice of the views expressed by residents in their responses to its first consultation and its Local Plan proposals do not reflect the needs and priorities of the community as required by the National Planning Policy Framework.
• The Council has not answered a number of points made by respondents in the first consultation so please reiterate those comments.

To read its consultation response click here

Submit comments to the Council by December 30. To do so, either:

1. Email your comments to localplan@tandridge.gov.uk OR

2. Send a letter marked 'Local Plan Sites Consultation' to: Planning Policy, Tandridge District Council, Council Offices, 8 Station Road East, Oxted, Surrey, RH8 0BT OR

3. Use the Council's consultation 'portal' on this link click here. See 'Local Plan: Sites Consultation'. You will have to register first to be able to take part this way.

The Council has said there will be a copy of its documents in libraries and in reception at the Oxted Council offices which residents without internet access can go in and read.