Independent Haslemere Cllr Kirsten Ellis said:
In Haslemere and in other parts of Surrey, it’s not been local councils circumventing the views of residents, rather it’s been your planning inspectorate over ruling councils and granting developers permission to concrete over precious greenbelt at appeal.
Will you put a stop to that Rishi?
Dr Kirsten Ellis – is a writer and Independent Cllr with Haslemere Town Council and a campaigner to protect the town’s precious landscapes.
Rishi Sunak@RishiSuna ·
Green belt land is extremely precious in the UK. We’ve seen too many examples of local councils circumventing the views of residents by taking land out of the green belt for development, but I will put a stop to it.
Will you? Will you really protect our most precious landscapes?
Agreed, the irrationality of the planning system is that a developer or possibly “site sponsor” can appeal to the Planning Inspectorate against their planning refusal but the victims of a granted planning application cannot appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.
Unreasonably, they must fund a prohibitively expensive High Court action to review the planning decision’s lawfulness. This injustice unfortunately has too many supporters, which in the light of the current drought has probably resulted in unsustainable development. These are personal reasoned conclusions based upon the facts and evidence currently available.
Apologies Farnham Wrecclesham and Rowledge Ward
This is the same Cllr Ellis who has been found to have breached Haslemere Town Councils code of conduct in her actions to stop development over her back fence. She has been quick to state that the Red Court site is AONB (As she well knows phase 1 is AGLV) but that didn’t suit her “creative writing’ style. She says we shouldn’t build on AONB but then advocates a substitute site (Royal School Hindhead) which is on AONB. Against the wishes of the town council she claims to represent she is happy for this site, on AONB, to be developed including the playing fields which her own town council voted against! Her friend and fellow town councillor Nikki Barton actually introduced the site to Waverley Planners – perhaps she thought AONB was Area Overlooking Nikki Barton
I note that both Cllr Ellis and Cllr Barton have lost their appeals against being found guilty of breaching the Code of Conduct. They should step down either now or not offer themselves for re election. Their conduct over Red Court has brought Haslemere Town Council into disrepute.