OMG! YOU COULDN’T MAKE IT UP … REALLY YOU COULDN’T
Sajid Javid, the Minister in charge of housing policy – who, infamously, bowed to pressure from Mistress Milton and Jeremy S-Hunt and called in the planning consent for 1800 houses at Dunsfold Park which, in turn, forced Waverley Borough Council to spend circa £250,000 it could ill-afford defending its decision – now has the cheek to tell the worried-well-do they’re ‘not facing up to the reality’ of how the housing crisis affects the young!
What planet is the Minister on?! The Planet Zonk? Our Cranleigh Correspondent nearly choked on his coffee and cornflakes when he read that headline in Friday’s Daily Mail!
If anyone’s ‘not facing up to the reality’ it’s Sajid Javid, he spluttered.
If he doesn’t permit the Dunsfold scheme, which more than meets all the Government’s criteria it will be the biggest abrogation of his own declared policy – and he should resign.
If that man is really serious about solving the housing crisis, and genuinely critical of so-called Nimbys, and if he really wants to ‘deliver moral justice’, then he needs to find the courage to stand up to his colleagues, Anne Milton and Jeremy S-Hunt, and tell them to tell the Cash & Clout Brigade that their cheques, whilst welcome, will no longer be permitted to dictate Tory Party Policy.
Oh, the irony of it! Not a million miles away from Waverley – but far enough for no one there to have heard of Dunsfold Park – Mr Javid thinks it’s safe to launch an attack on the very people he and his fellow MPs have been brown-nosing here in Waverley.
It’s an utter disgrace that development of the largest brownfield site in the borough of Waverley was called in whilst Mr Javid and the two local MPs have turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the concerns of Cranleigh residents over development which continues apace on greenfield sites that flood!
Never mind Bristol, Mr Javid, what about Waverley?! Why don’t you come down here and see for yourself what’s happening, instead of spoutting piffle from your Ivory Tower? The residents of Awfold, Dudsfold, KerChingfold and Where-Has-all-the-Traffic-Come-from are the spitting image of the people you referred to in your Bristol speech, ‘those who say that there isn’t a problem with housing … that affordability is only a problem for millennials that spend too much on nights out and smashed advocados’ – whatever they might be!’ They’re the people who, as you said, ‘have long-since paid off their own mortgage – they are living in a different world [with their in-out-drives and their Penelope Chilvers]. They’re not facing up to the reality of modern daily life and have no understanding of the modern market.’
All the Waverley Web can say in response to that is: Et tu, Brute!
Or, in plain English: Is that really what you think, Mr Javid or are you just paying lip service? For our part, we think you do protest too much for, surely, your actions speak louder than any words!
If you want to be taken seriously here in Waverley, then you need to put your money where your mouth is and rubber stamp Waverley Borough Council’s decision to grant planning consent at Dunsfold Park! And… let our countryside and small villages off the hook!
17.11.16 – May promises to build more home more quickly
Javid should accept the robust statutory Environmental Case for Dunsfold Park, where the Environmental Statement complies with the statutory requirement to consider alternatives, unlike others published for Waverley developments.
DUNSFOLD PARK – ENVIRONMENTAL STATEMENT: NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY
Land Use Consultants April 2008
http://www.waverley.gov.uk/planningdocs/WA20080788/Chp%200-b_%20(Non-Technical%20Summary).pdf
“The SA of Alternatives found that developing a new settlement at Dunsfold Park would perform considerably better in sustainability terms than the other three options considered. An urban extension at Guildford would be the next most sustainable option, followed by an urban extension at Cranleigh. Development spread amongst the four Waverley towns would be the least sustainable of the options considered.
The four Waverley towns option performed relatively poorly primarily because lots of small scale development would not be able to bring the infrastructure, affordable housing, employment opportunities and community facilities and services that a single larger scale development could bring, and could place further pressure on existing services and facilities in the four towns, and on their special character. An extension at Guildford would be well placed for residents to access the jobs, shops, services and facilities available from being close to a large settlement, but the Dunsfold Park option also performed well due to the existing (and proposed expansion of) employment on site, and the support for existing (and introduction of new) shops, services and facilities in a rural location. It was calculated that the Dunsfold Park and the Guildford urban extension options would generate the smallest increase in traffic, with the four Waverley towns the greatest increase in traffic.”
So why the hell did our MP Dummies even consider asking the Secretary of State to call the Dunsfold Plan in? They have now succeeded in setting back development by another year, and giving other speculative developers just the encouragement they needed to literally flood the countryside with concrete. Now Cranleigh and all the villages around could get the worst of both worlds. But who will hold these two MP’s to account?