Read the Haslemere Herald article here: 16.05.12 – Dunsfold dashed by the detail
It has been a bit of a week for the Save Our Waverley Group of protestors – good showing on BBC South To-day, once again opposing proposed development at Dunsfold Airfield.
So there we are then – The Environment Agency that is nodding through every single planning application on recognised flood plains is opposing development in an area of the A281 that gives rise from time to time to a large puddle! And of course everyone expects Natural England to object, but not to more planes we presume, when Dunsfold Airfield becomes an unrestricted airfield in under two years?
Sadly The Herald has simply cut and pasted an ill-informed article from the BBC’s website. Which is very unlike them! We understand that contrary to the impression the article gives, the journalist did not speak to Gerry Foristal and the quote from him was lifted directly from the BBC’s website- Oh dear!
WW believes, from information provided by its pro Dunsfold followers , that the objections are simply the first stage skirmishes with some of the statutory authorities, which is a perfectly normal part of the planning process. After all didn’t it remove its original objection to the Berkeley Homes and KPI applications in nearby Cranleigh? It is their standard modus operandi – if they don’t understand something, or think they have insufficient information to make a decision, they either object or ask for more detail. WW understands from officers within the planning department Dunsfold Park has already responded to all of these early stage objections; for example:
The Environment Agency’s objection is in response to flooding which occurs on land owned by DP near to the new access road which is not on the airfield itself and is easily dealt with according to followers.
Natural England generally object to anything that is near an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty but WW recalls that during the 2008 application the Inspector was very clear and said that the AONB and open countryside surrounding the site, would not be impacted by the development, and we suspect Natural England, given the passage of time, is not aware of that, which is somewhat embarrassing for them.
Perhaps someone should give Natural England a call to point out to them that all their concerns were raised during the last application and discounted by the Inspector during that appeal.
The objection by Surrey Police is a standard response to a large application where the Police want the developer to contribute to the policing of a new area and the developer will undoubtedly stump up the cash following discussions with them.
So as we said at the beginning of this post – the devil is in the detail!