MORE HOUSING PLANNED, AND MORE FIELDS GOING CRANLEIGH PRIMARY SCHOOL STILL IN SHOCKING DISREPAIR
Good Morning and May the Force Be With You! (because it’s May the fourth!) We trust that you are all well? and thank all our paid up members – we really appreciate your support. For those of you who read these missives as well as our members – please remember – we are trying to help keep Cranleigh special… fight unreasonable change and conserve what’s best about Cranleigh.
We want you to take action please – concerning the on going plans that Surrey County Council (SCC) has to build a new Primary School on green fields. Please can you get your letters out today or tomorrow so that they arrive before the end of this week – of course Friday is a “Bank Holiday” – VE Day Please read on……
Background in brief – Surrey County Council owns Land in Cranleigh -both Longfields and that the schools are on – Glebelands and Cranleigh Primary (yes it has been bought from the Diocese) Cranleigh Infants and Acorns Nursery. For many years SCC have had a plan to build a new Primary school on fields that Glebelands and other schools can and sometimes do use for sports. If you have an enquiring mind please note that the submitted Cranleigh Parish Council Neighbourhood Plan includes provisions for further housing to be developed in Cranleigh at Longfields old people’s home (closed) 20; St NIcholas school 75; Cranleigh Infants school 15; and that this goes with Waverley’s Local Plan part one. So it appears that there is nothing we can do to stop the policies turning into realities – or is there?
Waverley planners and councillors rejected a planning permission submission to build houses on both schools’ sites. Surrey CC will resubmit. We must keep vigilent.
Surrey CC have long since provided plans, on which they consulted as far back as 2011, to build a brand new large school on green fields. These are often waterlooged, they are sited behind residential housing along the Common (opposite the Curry Inn). To get to the new school will involve walking past the social Club and Bowls club (in the direction towards Guildford) They are on the school’s web site for viewing. Increases in housing, traffic and a weird tucked away access point are worrying us all.
And recently SCC have submitted elaborate changes to the new school plan – you can see them here – there are many documents to look at.
Planning Application 2018/0138/SJ/WA/2018/2044 Waverley borough Council’s website – use the code from WA
Surrey County Council’s long term Plans to build new a primary school and nursery in Cranleigh on bare fields that are currently available for sports for pupils at Glebelands senior school, Cranleigh are challenged by us. The updated NPPF of 2018 does not seem to have been taken into account. The Environment Emergency declared by Surrey County Council, Waverley Borough Council and Cranleigh Parish Council have not been taken into account.
Cranleigh Society Requests a full review of the legitimacy and appropriateness of these plans – urgently required public consultation too – because the people who live here now just don’t know what is going on. Also and very urgently we –
Request an Environmental Impact Assessment
With reference to the planning application WA/2018/2044, we all can write to complain that the latest communication from the Surrey County Council dated 27th April 2020 does not just provide us with ‘additional Information’ as indicated, but shows significant changes to the plans, including the appearance of the south elevation and the height of the school hall. This is very misleading, and another example of how the applicant is trying to avoid public scrutiny and push this proposal through at a time when the public is focused on COVID 19.
We request that an Environmental Impact Assessment be carried out immediately:
- especially as the site is located between a Conservation Area and an Area of Outstanding Beauty.
- This EIA should have been carried out when the Secretary of State first gave permission to build on the school playing fields in November 2015, but it was not.
- Since then, the very serious implications of climate change have been recognized and need to be more fully considered in this application.
- Due to the sensitive and vulnerable location of this site and the adverse environmental effects that will arise from covering this green field site with tarmac, concrete and an artificial football pitch, there is an urgent need to carry out a full and detailed EIA, taking into consideration all aspects of the development;
- including noise pollution due to its close proximity to residential buildings. The noise emanating from a 60 pupil nursery outdoor classroom, from the air-conditioning and from the vents of the kitchens will be quite considerable.
Caroline Smith <mwcd@surreycc.gov.uk>
and copy our Councillors Paul Follows too paul.follows@waverley.gov.uk – Liz Townsend <liz.townsend@waverley.gov.uk>; Andrew Povey CLR <andrew.f.povey@surreycc.gov.uk>; Cllr Angela Richardson <angela.richardson@cranleigh-pc.gov.uk>; Tim Oliver <tim.oliver@surreycc.gov.uk
