MVDC Housing and Traveller sites consultation

Jan

January 10th – 7th March 2014

Why is it important to comment?• The planners have only made a preliminary assessment• They do not know the area as well as residents• If you know good reasons why the site should not be (or be!)

developed then please submit your comments to the consultation.• Comments should be as objective and factual as possible. Suggest

limiting to 2 sides of A4 max.• Don’t worry about submitting the same comment as has been

made by others. This just adds more power to the comment. (but use a different form of words......)

• Comments on the consultation are much more powerful than signing petitions. The planning inspectorate will only see the comments submitted to the consultation.

What is the consultation ?

• MVDC have asked landowners to “offer” sites for possible development in Mole Valley

• 80 possible sites have been identified excluding Ashtead, Westcott and Ockley.

• MVDC have made a preliminary assessment of the suitability of each site

• Residents are asked to comment on the assessments.• MVDC stress that no decisions have been made on any site• Only 1 site (old police station) has a planning application

submitted for it.

How to participate in the consultation

• You can submit your comments in 3 ways;1. Directly onto the MVDC website. I will

demonstrate later.2. Send an Email to MVDC3. Send a letter to MVDC (best using the MVDC

form)• In all cases its important to reference your

comments using the code allocated by MVDC to the site you want to comment on.

Will it make a difference?

• The planners don’t want to get it wrong. They have to take notice of factual objective input.

• Strong resistance to building on the greenbelt in Guildford is already having an effect on the politicians in the Borough Council.

• Its important to win the battle now. Once a site has been recommended for removal from the greenbelt it will be very much harder to fight development

Gypsies and Travellers

• The council proposals for Gypsy and Traveller pitches are contained in Chapter 12 of the consultation document.

• Each of the larger sites (e.g Barnet Wood Lane, Randalls Road, The Fairway, Yarm Way/Windmill Drive )has to accept a possible 0.2 Ha of Traveller pitches.

• Comments on the traveller plan should reference Chapter 12.

MVDC website

• To add your comments on the website you have first to register.

• The consultation part of the website is used for multiple consultations at the same time. It also lists previous closed consultations.

• If you want to attach pictures or documents you have to Email them to the planning officers.

• If you have long comments write them first in a word document or text editor and “cut and paste”.

• Now – a demonstration http://www.molevalley.gov.uk/

Thank you for listening!

www.savesouthleatherhead.com