Waverley Plan for Cranleigh

After several months of cancelled Joint Planning Committee (JPC) meetings, Waverley Borough Council is now on a roll.

The Berkeley Homes successful appeal has caused a flurry of activity and now, even before the dust has settled on the Planning Inspector’s decision for 425 houses South of Cranleigh High Street,  Waverley Planning Officers are cramming two major applications into ONE JPC meeting on 27th April and is recommending BOTH for approval.

Guess where these applications are?  YES, Cranleigh is once again the lucky recipient of yet more housing, despite Waverley’s own admission that housing need is not focused in this part of the borough.

Come along to the JPC meeting to be held at Waverley Borough Council Offices, The Burys, Godalming at 7pm on 27th April

The applications up for grabs are 265 houses on West Cranleigh Nurseries green field site on Alfold Road (Knowle Park Initiative)
Little Meadow 75 houses on a green field site on Alfold Road adjacent to the Knowle Park Initiative site.

Together that’s another THREE HUNDRED AND FORTY HOUSES FOR CRANLEIGH!

OUR RUNNING TOTAL FOR NEW HOUSES IS NOW 1,116 ON GREEN FIELDS AND COUNTING!

These applications keep being approved because Waverley claims it doesn’t have a five-year housing supply and can’t get its Local Plan together.

However, even Waverley’s own Councillors are confused as to whether they have a five-year supply or not, and the outgoing Leader Robert Knowles wasn’t sharing the number with them at the Executive meeting on 5 April 2016, as it’s a bit too technical.

What with the lack of ability to add up how many houses Waverley have now granted permission for, and yet another delay in the Local Plan, we think that residents in Cranleigh have the right to feel that they are being well and truly scapegoated.

Waverley may not officially have a Local Plan in place, but it is clear they have a ‘Plan’, and that plan is to place ALL the housing possible in Cranleigh, despite the material constraints of our rural roads, sewerage capacity, non-compliance with the Water Frameworks Directive and flooding.

We can’t find any justification in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), or in government planning guidance that says, if you haven’t got a local plan in place or have not published your housing supply figures, you should ignore material constraints and keep dumping housing on green fields, irrespective of their cumulative effect.

Waverley councillors acknowledge the effect that 1,800 houses at Dunsfold will have on the transport infrastructure, and in the main on the A281,  but seem incapable of acknowledging the impact of a similar number of houses in Cranleigh!  Perhaps they could explain this anomaly to the residents of Cranleigh, and let us know why no Transport Assessment is being carried out to identify the overall effect of all of this development on our rural road network?

YOU can still do something for Cranleigh

If you haven’t objected to the Knowle Park Initiative or Little Meadows applications it is not too late.

You can object using the links below to the Waverley Borough Council Planning Portal:

1. Knowle Park Initiative Alfold Road 265 houses (West Cranleigh Nurseries application:

http://planning.waverley.gov.uk/live/wbc/pwl.nsf/(RefNoLU)/WA20151569?OpenDocument

2. Little Meadows Alfold Road 75 houses:

http://waverweb.waverley.gov.uk/live/wbc/pwl.nsf/(RefNoLU)/WA20150478?OpenDocument

AND

3. Email members of the JPC and let them know what you think of Waverley’s plan to put the major share of the entire borough’s housing in Cranleigh (you can copy and paste the list into your email address box).

4. Attend the JPC meeting on 27th April 7pm at Waverley Council Offices and let them justify in front of residents their decision on the day.