Chalkpit quarry lorries public inquiry - please come along...

On 8 October 2019, a Planning Inspector began his Examination of Tandridge District Council's Local Plan. OLRG is taking part in the examination hearings to try to get the flaws in the Plan put right. All members of OLRG working on this are doing it for free but we need to raise funds to pay for legal advice and professional representation.

We are represented by Paul Brown QC from Landmark Chambers who has been doing a fantastic job for OLRG on a wide variety of subjects.

For example, you can watch his contributions on affordable housing provision, employment land and policies, and Moorhouse on this webcast of the Examination click here (there may be some delays while it buffers).

If you would like to help and are able to make a donation - £100, £50, £25, £10 or anything at all - it will make a big difference in the fight to get the Plan put right.

There are three ways to donate:

1. By bank transfer to: account name 'Oxted & Limpsfield Residents' at Santander, sort code: 09 06 66, account no: 43510171

2. Send a cheque made payable to 'Oxted & Limpsfield Residents' to PO BOX 233, Oxted Post Office, Station Road West, Oxted, RH8 9EH

3. The PayPal button under 'Donate Here' in the box above.

We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has already kindly donated money to pay for the experts' input. Thanks also to the hundreds of residents who have copied us their emails and letters to Tandridge District Council expressing their views on the Plan which have been invaluable in making our response.

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We believe the Council's Plan is based on evidence documents that are weak, contradictory, and inconsistent with national planning policy and planning case law. Core documents including the objectively assessed needs, the Settlement Hierarchy and the Green Belt assessments are flawed. And it is clear that the Plan is not 'infrastructure led' as has been repeatedly claimed.

OLRG has submitted its expert opinion response to the consultation on the final version of the Plan. In it, we have made detailed alternative proposals for rewriting the Plan - and to deliver infrastructure, to correct the Green Belt assessments, and to provide higher numbers of affordable housing.

We have also made submissions to the Council's three previous Local Plan consultations. To read these submissions, click on the links in the box at the top of this page. All our submissions have been drawn up under guidance from legal and planning experts.

On 19 December 2018, the Tandridge Local Plan was approved for submission to the Planning Inspectorate for Examination. The seven Conservative Councillors on the Planning Policy Committee voted it through, the three OLRG/Independents voted against, and the three Liberal Democrats abstained.

For four years now and right from the start of the Local Plan process, we have made clear the problems with the Council's work. Members have funded expert advice which we have given to the Council at every one of the Local Plan consultations.

OLRG has always said that the Council's repeated claims that the Plan is 'infrastructure led' are not supported by the evidence. This is now very clear from the consultation responses to the draft Plan from infrastructure providers such as Surrey County Council and the Local Enterprise Partnership Coast to Capital, with their denials of the Council's claims that they will fund infrastructure provision.

Overwhelmingly, the items listed in the Infrastructure Delivery Plan read as policy objectives, statements of intent, or simply a wish list, rather than as identifiable projects which have a reasonable prospect of being delivered.

The claim that there will be 'thousands of new jobs' is also not supported by the evidence. It seems a wholly unrealistic statement, given the rural nature of the District and the constraint to jobs growth through ever increasing competition from nearby expanding larger population and economic centres.

The Plan fails to maximise opportunities for affordable housing. It has set affordable housing thresholds of just 20% in the built-up areas and 40% elsewhere and for Green Belt sites. And yet the Council's own viability assessments show that higher affordable housing requirements could be achieved.

The Green Belt assessments have not been carried out properly and in accordance with national policy.

These are just a few examples of the problems with the Council's Local Plan work.

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OLRG Councillors