We thought Liz Townsend Waverley’s new Portfolio Holder for Planning might find this brochure that we found in our archives very interesting?
She should certainly pass it to her former Tory colleagues – and ask them to NOTE THE DATE?
Here’s more:20220202172121615
Cllr Townsend, who heads the Dunsfold scheme, told her Waverley EXECUTIVE colleagues that now the public consultation had ended and additions to it made, she recommended that the final SPD document for Dunsfold Garden Village be adopted.
“It is extremely important that we set out a clear vision for this development in line with the garden village principles and with the planning policies set out in Local Plan Part 1 as this supports the earliest delivery of this site.”
She said the proposed new garden village would significantly impact the villages of Alfold, Dunsfold and Cranleigh and their residents, and on its setting in sight of the Surrey Hills Area Oustanding Natural Beauty. It was important for the settlement to sit well in its rural location.
She said the Supplementary Planning Document now set out a clear vision for the former aerodrome site.
“I am really excited at the opportunity we have to create something here that everyone in Waverley can be proud of.”
She paid tribute to the good work undertaken by the current owner’s Trinity College Cambridge, The Rutland Group and Design South East. The SPD had recognised Waverley’s Climate Change Emergency Strategy, carbon-neutrality aspirations, and biodiversity.
Farnham Cllr Jerry Hyman registered his long-held view that Waverley Borough Council did not have an Appropriate Assessment setting out the mitigation measures for this, and other developments effect on the borough’s Special Protection Areas (SPA’s) and Wealden Heath.
Cllr Townsend pledged she would provide him with the information, in writing, to convince him that Waverley had an Appropriate Assessment.
I am sure Jim McAllister had all good intentions back in 2007 to make this site into something we could all be proud of, but this is not 2007 now…. If the new owners go ahead, they will have to team up with a developer or Multiple Developers who could potentially carve up the site into many dislocated estates, with none of the proposed benefits that the existing Outline proposed.
I am afraid I thought the SPD was a load of Marketing twaddle full of fanciful ideas. What we really need to see is either a Reserved Matters Application, or a new Outline Application for the WHOLE Site or we could just end up with multiple Applications coming forward, which may provide a temporary solution to Waverley’s lack of a 5 year housing supply, but will not provide a cohesive “GARDEN VILLAGE” in the longer term.
Shame – 15 years on, and what do we have? No certainty on what the future holds for Dunsfold Aerodrome – a brownfield site that neighbouring authorities would give anything to have and to hold in their grasp. No doubt the new buyer will have their own ideas, and it will be more about making money than giving us something we can all be proud of? BTW where is that new buyer?