UPDATE 28 October 2015: Waverley’s planning portal still states that a decision is pending on this application, despite approval by the Joint Planning Committee on 1 July 2015 by a margin of one vote.
An extension to the determination period has also been published on the planning portal and the decision date is now 30 November 2015.
Today a local walker has noticed that Hydrock Engineers are digging some very deep holes on the site.
What will they find?
Perhaps that:
The site’s prone to flooding?
The sewers can’t cope?
The water main is inadequate?
The clay soil requires much deeper foundations?
They really need another 100 houses to make it viable?
That all of the above means little or no affordable housing?
Let’s wait and see………..
UPDATE 21 July 2015: The Secretary of State has confirmed that an Environmental Impact Assessment is not required for the Crest Nicholson, The Chantreys site, on the Horsham Road
UPDATE 1 July 2015: Waverley Borough Council Joint Planning Committee granted permission to this application on 1 July 2015. It was a close vote of 9 to 10 with the Chair of the meeting casting the deciding vote.
During the first scoping stage of this application the Secretary of State (SoS) issued a screening direction dated 25 August 2014 stating that an Environmental Impact Assessment was not required. The SoS_sreening opinion Horsham Road stated that (extracted paragraph below):
However as the applications referred to in the letter were at an early stage the SoS stated it was inappropriate to consider cumulative impacts with this proposal.
Since August 2014 Amlets lane site was approved for 125 dwellings, with work expected to commence soon and on 22 June 2015 the Eastern Planning Committee granted full permission for the Cranleigh Brickworks, involving 70 HGV traffic movements a day to and from the site for a minimum of 5 ½ years, with work commencing August 2015.
In the light of this new situation, the Cranleigh Society believe that there is a realistic prospect that the Secretary of State could come to a different conclusion with regard to the need for an EIA.
A screening decision must be lawful at the date of any planning permission. Unless a screening direction is referred back to the Secretary of State, there is a real risk that permission may be granted for development which is likely to have significant environmental effects without those effects being properly considered, contrary to Article 2.1 of the EIA directive.
We have asked the Secretary of State to intervene and request a deferment of a decision on WA/2014/1754 until he has reviewed the implications of the change of circumstances and decided whether an EIA is now applicable for this site. This is currently being considered by the Secretary of State.
There are more details available on our post about the granting of planning permission on the Crest Nicholson site Horsham Road (Chantreys)
Original post below:
Please forward your own objections to Waverley Borough Council to this Crest Nicholson application for 149 dwellings on Cranleigh’s green fields!Â
View Crest Nicholson Site Plans.
Watch this video if you need a reminder of what last Winter was like, we don’t want our flood risk to increase!
Some general observations you might like to object to listed below, however please write these in your own words, don’t copy and paste this list, as pro forma objections will be binned by Waverley:
Comment online here:
http://waverweb.waverley.gov.uk/live/wbc/pwl.nsf/(RefNoLU)/WA20141754?OpenDocument
Or email quoting reference: WA/2014/1754 Planning Officer is Megan Rowe
planconsult@waverley.gov.uk
Points to consider for now!:
- This application is premature to the emerging Neighbourhood Plan.
- It will cause considerable harm to landscape character.
- It’s not in a sustainable location.
- It contravenes the Cranleigh Design Statement 2008.
- There is no planned maintenance of the substantial drainage ditch to the North of the site and adjacent to existing houses.
- Brown field sites should be built on first.
- Our infrastructure can’t cope with another housing development of this size. Cranleigh is situated on narrow country lanes (B roads) single track in places, these are a material constraint.
- Not near the high street.
- Too far to walk to village centre and amenities.
- Too far to walk to local schools.
- Heavily increases reliance on cars.
- Increases traffic flow through the high street.
- In open countryside beyond green belt.
- Thames Water has formally stated that there is an inability of the existing waste water infrastructure to accommodate the needs of this application. The current sewage problems indicate that the system is at breaking point.
- Downslink is not a viable footpath too far to walk to the village, no street lighting and prone to regular collapses due to rabbit warren of tunnels underneath it.
- Site abuts a Site Nature Conservation Importance (SNCI old railway cutting)
- Walking times quoted in the Transport Assessment are not realistic especially for older and younger residents. (These documents are all published online with the planning application)
- Danger to pedestrians and dog walkers from proposed increased in numbers of cyclists on the Downslink
- No pedestrian footpath on site side of the Horsham Road for people wanting to walk into the village or get to the bus stop.
- Road not wide enough for proposed pedestrian refuge in centre of road and for large vehicles to pass, pedestrians would be compromised. (this has now been withdrawn)
- Transport Assessment assumes 35% of residents travel less than 2km to work, this is grossly overestimated.
- Transport Assessment has measured junction delays individually not the overall cumulative effect of delays on total journey times.
- As this site is agricultural land surface water flooding data is not robust as flooding may not have been reported in this are. However we know for a fact that houses adjacent to this site in Nightingales have flooded as recently as December 2013 (if you can please add personal stories/experiences to your objection)
Thank you once again for your support for Cranleigh
Dear Sir/Madam
please do not build on the green field sites in Cranleigh. Cranleigh does not have the infrastructure or the jobs to sustain that many more people. The roads, schools, health centre, police and fire station are all built for a village who already have to commute a long way to work. The lack of train station is a major factor in why it can’t manage with a massive influx of people and should be considered before adding many more houses. A direct line to Guildford and then London would help immensely, and also drive up house prices as it would put Cranleigh into a real commuter area which currently it is not. Farncombe train station would be overwhelmed with cars if the current plans went ahead so they would need a real car park to deal with this which they currently do not have. Farncombe train station is the closest station into London and is the most used by commuters from Cranleigh.
This is just one of the many problems with the proposed plans for Cranleigh. I grew up living on the Horsham Road and now live in Ash Vale because there were no jobs in Cranleigh and my husband commutes to London. I moved to within walking distance of trains to London as the drive to Farncombe was so challenging and parking there is already a problem.
Please look ahead and plan for all needs, not just the homes to live in. These will be worth nothing without jobs.
yours sincerely
Alexandra Houghton
Please could you add your comment as well to the Waverley Borough Council Planning Application on the Horsham Road on green fields WA/2014/1754 http://waverweb.waverley.gov.uk/live/wbc/pwl.nsf/(RefNoLU)/WA20141754?OpenDocument or email planconsult@waverley.gov.uk quoting the reference number. Thank you for your support.
Cranleigh does not have the infrastructure to cope with all these new houses and families moving to the village ! With flooding always a problem, this development is not being thought through! We need to keep our Greenbelt, once gone it will never be replaced! We owe this to our Children! The south of England has some lovely villages, these will all be swallowed up and just become part of towns with massive developments! All character and sense of community gone!
We think so too! Please support us by writing to Anne Milton and Councillors and let them know your feelings too! Please also submit an objection to the Horsham Road planning application on green fields by Crest Nicholson before 7 November. All details are here https://www.cranleighsociety.org/can-help/
It is simple. The only reason you want to allow this housing is for financial Gain. The roads are too small, no footpaths, no room in the schools. Houses have been brought with views accross fields or in quiet areas. But you won’t care as you just want money. Take time to care about the people. Dunsfold park is still close to the shops but a far better choice if you really have to build in the area. Of course you won’t make as much money but it is obviously a far more sensible option and better for all the residents of Cranleigh.
re WA/2014/1754 Crest Nicholson
My objections to this proposal fall under two major headings:
1 Flooding
2 Infrastructure
1 Crest Nicholson have not bothered to accurately assess the flood risk, and have used the standard SuDS manual to calculate the run off rates from this site; to date they have not made a site visit. They are also unaware that residents adjacent to the site rely on electrically powered pumps to control the water level in the culverts.
Crest Nicholson state that they will not take responsibility for the ditch that runs between their site and adjacent properties. If this is not adequately maintained the flood risk to the rest of the village could be very serious.
Thames Water have stated that there is an inabilty of the exisitng waste water infrastructure to accommodate the needs of this development.
This demonstrates a level of disregard on the part of Crest Nicholson for the physical realities of this site and for the well-being of residents and their properties on the adjacent site. It could also be seen as an attempt to pull-the-wool over the eyes of Waverley’s Planning Department.
2 In common with Berkely Homes and every other developer, Crest Nicholson appear to think that another 149 dwellings rising to 249 on completion of stage 2 will not produce an increase in car use which will have a negative impact on the roads in and around Cranleigh. As Surrey County Council estimate that each dwelling has over 1.5 cars, this impact is likely to be of over 370 additional cars using the B roads in and around Cranleigh – in addition to those from developments already approved. The roads are simply not wide enough to take all this extra traffic, and most of the roads involved do not have footpaths, so the idea that people will walk to the shops if a very bad joke! It is a bad joke anyway, but the lack of footpaths makes it infuriatingly bad! The old railway line is not a viable option as it does not have any lighting nor a walkable-with-shopping-bags surface. Any lighting would have an effect on existing residents whose houses back onto it and it would also destroy the beauty of an amenity which is enjoyed by ramblers, dog walkers, cyclists and horse riders. It is an SNCI, and should remain unspoilt.
I know that we need new houses, but none of these piecemeal developments are viable because the local infrastructure is simply unable to accommodate the increase in traffic, the increase in demand on water and waste sytsems, on our schools or Health Centre. If we actually do need another 500 or 800 or however many new homes, the only sensible place to build them is on Dunfold Park, as your recent consultative survey showed.
We cannot leave developments of this scale to the Market – all the Market is interested in is Profits, with a capital P and at about 26%! It takes no account of the real needs of ordinary people for a decent place to live in a decent, sustainable environment. In these times of serious Climate Change we need Green Villages and Green Towns. These must be properly planned and built, and that needs imagination, intelligence and courage – an imaginative architect, an intelligent client, both interested in the future, and both with courage and perseverance. Piecemeal development has no track record of meeting any of these criteria.
Have WBC, CPC, local councillors and MPs ever considered the ecological impact of despoliating Cranleigh green and verdant greenfields with these hideously ugly cheaply/poorly constructed identikit newbuild rabbit hutch housing developments which seem to be in vogue these days?
Some of Cranleigh greenfields are rich in a variety of interesting wildlife species- far from the barren (in terms of biodiversity) man-managed grass recreation field that ‘greenfield’ conjures up in the minds of those who have little knowledge of, or care for, biodiversity, nature, wildlife and ecology.
I have personally captured abundant video and photographic evidence of the wildlife species present in some of Cranleigh’s greenfields. This wildlife includes RSPB Amber and Red List Birds (including nightingales and cuckoos among others), legally protected species (bats, badgers) and UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) species, such as the European hedgehog, whose numbers are in rapid decline in the UK in recent years; the main reason for this decline is habitat loss.
Just because one cannot place a monetary or commodity value on things like wildlife, amenity and natural beauty (many of Cranleigh greenfields, with their mature English oaks and hawthorn/blackthorn scrub are aesthetically attractive especially in spring and summer) it does not mean that they are not worthy of consideration. Biodiversity is important, and it has to be taken into consideration by local councils and government.
Isn’t brownfield (previously developed) land enough to satiate the greed of profiteering developers, who have been given the green light by ‘The Greenest Conservative Government Ever’ to vandalise vast swatches of our disappearing English countryside? (presumption in favour of development).