Please contact CPRE Surrey to get a postcard, to let us know your views on Surrey's Green Belt, and help us fight to defend it.
CPRE Surrey's campaign to protect our Green Belt !
The Metropolitan Green Belt, which has protected tens of thousands of acres of countryside in Surrey for the past five decades, is now at risk. Government proposals for new housing development mean that the Green Belt no longer provides a guarantee that green spaces will be safe from development threats.
Ministers want to amend the South East Plan – the region’s planning framework for the next 20 years – to allow for increases in housebuilding in Surrey of 22.7% over and above the figures already agreed. They are demanding that the revised targets are imposed on Surrey and other counties in the South East, whatever the elected councillors or local communities actually want.
In Surrey the Government is insisting that 59,160 new homes are built over the next 20 years. That’s almost 3,000 houses per year. As local councils readily acknowledge, these targets cannot be met without sacrificing land within the Green Belt.
At greatest risk are those districts and boroughs that fall within the ‘London Fringe’ Sub-Region, which covers two thirds of the county. This is the area that the Government wants to be a priority location for new development. Whereas most parts of the SE region are earmarked for 'growth and regeneration', the London Fringe is designated purely for 'growth’.
Under the revised SE Plan, towns such as Guildford, Redhill and Woking are to become major centres of housing increase and further economic expansion.
Green Belts have been an essential part of the planning system in England since 1955, protecting open spaces, maintaining a clear distinction between town and country, and stopping ‘ribbon’ development and urban sprawl. In all, some 1.2 million acres of countryside around London could by now have been lost to development if it had not been for the Metropolitan Green Belt.
CPRE Surrey continues to campaign strongly on this issue. If you share our concern about the potential loss of Green Belt, and our love of the beautiful countryside of Surrey, please click on the link for details of how to get involved and help. Hands off the Green Belt campaign.
DUNSFOLD APPEAL
Plans submitted last year for a new town on the edge of Cranleigh at Dunsfold (the former British Aerospace site) have gone to appeal after Waverley Borough Council refused planning permission. The proposals for 2,600 houses and massive industrial expansion at what used to be called “Surrey’s secret airfield” have attracted massive opposition from local residents, MPs, the Regional Assembly, and even the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA).
Tim Harrold, representing CPRE at the appeal, said: “What is at stake is the Surrey countryside itself. Irreparable damage will be done to the rural environment if the proposed development goes forward. It is essential for countryside everywhere that the policies that have been established democratically to defend our rural heritage are supported and not undermined and eroded. I believe that this is the fundamental principle, that has to be given priority, and that it is essential that misleading side-issues relating for example to ‘eco’ credibility are disregarded.”
Our newsletter "Surrey Voice" is full of stories and updates about Surrey and its countryside - relating to the Green Belt campaign, and many more issues as well.
The stories from the last published edition can be found under "News" on this website.
If you would prefer a paper copy, please call the CPRE Surrey Branch on 01372 362720, email us at cpre.surrey@btconnect.com or write to us at:
CPRE Surrey Branch,
Room 1, The Institute,
67 High Street,
Leatherhead,
Surrey KT22 8AH.
