News Bulletin – 3rd July 2016

Planning Application 16/P/00980 Land South of Ash Lodge Drive, Ash

Dear Resident,

As you may have seen, Bewley Homes and a2dominion have put in a Reserve Matters Planning Application to Guildford Borough Council. The Council have done a really poor job in advising local residents of its existence, and we have had a lot of complaints from residents.

A "Reserved Matters" application is used after an outline planning application has been approved.

A reserved matters application deals with some or all of the outstanding details of the outline application proposal, including:
 
• appearance - aspects of a building or place which affect the way it looks, including the exterior of the development

• means of access - covers accessibility for all routes to and within the site, as well as the way they link up to other roads and pathways outside the site

• landscaping - the improvement or protection of the amenities of the site and the area and the surrounding area, this could include planting trees or hedges as a screen

• layout - includes buildings, routes and open spaces within the development and the way they are laid out in relations to buildings and spaces outside the development

• scale - includes information on the size of the development, including the height, width and length of each proposed building
 
The details of the reserved matters application must be in line with the outline approval, including any conditions attached to the permission.

Obviously, we at ASHRA, have studied much of the information on Guildford Borough Council’s website. One glaring omission we did find was that none of the documents attached to this Application referred to surface water or flooding. It appears that Bewley Homes have been in communication with Guildford Borough Council "offline" in an attempt to get agreement.

We have obtained this documentation and can report that, although Bewley Homes now appreciate that there is a major issue with flooding on the site, they have gone out of their way to ignore the advice of expert, independent, consultants employed by Guildford Borough Council, and put up a solution that is highly suspect, to say the least. Obviously a developer will do everything in their power to reduce their costs, but we feel that the issue of potential flooding is so critical, not only to the new development, but to existing housing adjacent to the site and the surrounding area, that the Council and their Consultants have to be totally satisfied the proposed solution will work.

Secondly, on the latest plans, a large amount of the site is now being taken up by what Bewley Homes say are balancing ponds and streams. These they now say are necessary to move and store some of the vast amounts of water that occur on the site when it floods. This is strange as their Outline Planning Application didn’t recognise that the site flooded. The impact of the need for these flood alleviation measures, results in far less land being available for development.

However, Bewley Homes still want to "shoehorn" in the same 400 homes as before. One look at the plans say this is not feasible and the overall number of homes has to be reduced considerably.

Therefore, it is important that we fight for a resolution to both of these issues, and to this end ASHRA asks you to please send an objection to Planning Department at Guildford Borough Council. You should state that you feel that Bewley Homes are still not properly addressing the flooding issue associated with this site, and that the density of the housing, compared with the surrounding areas is totally out of proportion and character, and therefore the numbers of homes should be reduced considerably.

You could also include any other reasons as you see fit.

Your objections should be sent to:

By e-mail:  planningenquiries@guildford.gov.uk

By mail: The Planning Department, Guildford Borough Council, Millmead House, Millmead, Guildford, GU2 4BB

Please Note that any communication should be headed up:  Planning Application 16/P/00980 Land to the South of Ash Lodge Drive, Ash. The first line of your message/letter should be "I object to the above Planning Application on the following grounds"

ASHRA thanks you in advance for your co-operation.