Our followers believed it was time Aunty Angie stepped into the Dunsfold Garden Village controversy.
They were so incensed that the largest brownfield site in the borough, with consent for 1,800 homes now, more later, lies vacant that they sent her this. Is Aunty Angie planning to sort out Dunsfold?
And this: Is Dunsfold Garden Village Done For?
They also sent copies to the Bursar of Trinity College, Cambridge, and the Nationals. https://www.thetimes.com/article/fdd3e1a3-b878-46bd-bd33-29c384a9957a?shareToken=80b3af9d7d0c74b94874ef20094d8f3b
Now, residents across Waverley have joined the campaign urging Angela Rayner to force the ultra-wealthy Cambridge college attended by the King to build 2,600 new homes, as included in The Local Plan but now removed.
Trinity College has “mothballed” the 12-year development of the former aerodrome.
Campaigners have written to the housing secretary asking her to persuade Trinity, which has a £1.5 billion endowment, to kickstart the development at Dunsfold Park, one of the largest brownfield sites in the country. They have also set up a Facebook Page. Called, Build Dunsfold https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61575066542391
One of the biggest opponents of the development has now jumped onto the Dunsfold bandwagon. Yes, folks, you guessed none other than Sir Jeremy Hunt! Having helped to delay the development for years, appearing and objecting at a public inquiry and telling the public at pre-election hustings just a year ago that:
“I live in fear of the development at Dunsfold ever going ahead. The traffic will be using the rat run past my home on their way to Milford Station.”
Now suddenly he turns onto the road to Dunsfold. Come on, Sir Jem, fess up and tell the public what you really, really want?
Simples. He and his colleagues are worried that Aunty Angie’s housing target for the borough will see almost every green field, perhaps even an allotment in Bramley, sporting thousands more homes soon.
In his latest newsletter, Jem told the world and his wife that he had visited Trinity’s Bursar to determine why development wasn’t happening. Here’s his take. When the real reason Dunsfold lies unspoiled is?
The real reason for the delay, folks. IS, yes, you guessed, MONEY!
Not pollution, or a contractual dispute, the Cambridge outfit wants to sell the site unencumbered to the highest bidder, having fallen foul of the previous wannabe owner, Threadneedle. COLUMBIA THREDNEEDLE INVESTMENTS FAIL TO STITCH UP DUNSFOLD PARK
WHAT’S GOING ON LOCALLY, says Sir Jem.
THE FUTURE OF DUNSFOLD PARK is still uncertain, as explained in this fascinating but I suspect speculative piece in yesterday’s Sunday Times. The pausing of development has massively added to pressure to develop elsewhere. It seems to be the result of the need to remediate the site of potential pollution (which is expensive) alongside a contractual dispute between the owners and developers. I have met with both sides now to see if the issues can be resolved – including last week with the Bursar of owner Trinity College Cambridge. But even if the development does go ahead we are unlikely to meet Angela Rayners’s ridiculous doubling of local housing targets which is something I will continue to raise in parliament.
He also tells a resident that he doubts the government has any intention of compulsorily purchasing the site.
I actually emailed Jeremy Hunt on the subject a couple of weeks back following the WW article – he appreciates the situation with Waverley falling short on house build criteria and that it will result in development on inappropriate sites, but doubts the government has any intention of compulsory purchasing Dunsfold.Waverley Web scores again.
Wait until Aunty Angie hears that!
The idiom ” red rags to a bull” comes to mind.
Auntie Angie’s meeting with Trinity College, Cambridge.
Minutes in Full
AA
I order you to build on your land at Dunsfold
TC
No
AA
I order you to build or I shall call for a compulsory purchase order
TC
Dare you
AA
I mean it
TC
No you don’t. Because if you do that we can halt thirty percent of potential house building in the South East and all associated works and industries, because of our landscape of capital assets, holdings and investments, and that won’t help you one bit Minister.
AA leaves indignant.
TC
Stockport College,Vocational Training I understand. Ah well. Pass the port will you.
Who is organising “the campaigners” ? Is it Waverley BC who is spending more money on this site. WBC has spent a huge amount already in planning documents and meetings and their detailed Plan for the site ( which the developer should have paid for)
What is still needed and always has been necessary are adequate energy and water and sewage and other utilities, schooling from babies to A levels, the contamination/pollution dealt with, consideration of flooding bearing in mind climate change, more Dunsfold Park jobs for new residents, and improvements to the local road infrastructure including possibly a new east west road from the site to A3 and A 281 improvements.
Not many people would want to live somewhere without the above facilities. The owners Trinity must be aware of this.
Waverley should never have relied on so many houses at Dunsfold Park.
The Waverley Web has no idea who is organising the campaigners. It has nothing to do with this blog. However, we have received comments from concerned residents in the eastern villages who fear that large swathes of agricultural land and countryside have been put forward in Waverley BC’s ‘Call for Sites’. They fear this could result in the worst of both worlds – if and when the Dunsfold site is built out.
As for people not wanting to live where there are few facilities, look at Alfold. Many new residents are pouring in there, and numerous planning applications are in the pipeline. Just wait until a new unitary authority or two, or three, takes control of planning in Waverley.
Developers do not build dwellings their objective is to make maximum profit from the land. So it would be interesting to see how much the developer has made from the delay that motivated this inertia. Planning Authorities can ignore environmental law with impunity. So they have no need to consider that the Environmental Impact Assessment is now out of date especially in terms of water security and sewage disposal.