The close date for the ongoing consultation on the “Guildford Local Plan: Development Management Policies - Issues and Preferred Options” approaches. Details of the consultation documents and process for commenting are available on the GBC website. The Council states that this process:
“Will provide further and more detailed planning policies to use when we determine planning applications. This Regulation 18 consultation is the first opportunity to comment on the plan as it moves through the various stages of its production."
"The document identifies a series of key issues for the borough and the policy options that could help address them. It highlights the Council’s preferred policy options for potential development management policies that will guide decision-making on development applications across Guildford borough. As part of this consultation we are seeking your thoughts on the preferred options identified and whether you have other comments on what the plan should contain.”
The policies cover topics such as housing density, rural development, protecting the environment, building design, infrastructure and delivery – all of which will have an impact on individual planning decisions and other matters of concern to local residents. For example, Policy D9 covers “Residential intensification” within inset villages – as Normandy and Flexford now are. It outlines the “design principles” that will be applied, so is of direct relevance to everyone with concerns about ‘infilling’ or who wants to see it done in the best possible way. Policy H4 deals with “Housing density”, Policy H5 with “Housing extensions and alterations”, and Policy H6 with “Housing conversion and sub-division”. These are of obvious interest, but there are others as well.
The consultation deadline of 22 July is approaching, and the group of Guildford Residents Associations, of which NAG is a member, is putting together a consolidated response. However individual responses will still carry weight. Although the main document has 219 pages, the individual policies, which are presented in blue-edged boxes, are quite short. The ‘Policy Aims summary document’ produced by GBC may be helpful as a guide to matters covered by the policies. We suggest at the very least it is worth looking at the headings in this document; you can then always comment on the relevant Policy using the online form if you wish to.
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‘Limited Infilling’ in Normandy and Flexford
‘Limited Infilling’ is increasingly used by planning officers as a justification when approving applications in Normandy/Flexford, even where the site is outside the settlement area identified in the Local Plan and is therefore in the Green Belt. (It is worth recalling in this context that the Local Plan removed Normandy and Flexford, along with several other settlements, from the Green Belt, making then ‘inset’, rather than ‘washed over’; this meant that development within the settlement area would not need to accord with Green Belt policy.) We therefore thought it would be helpful to take a closer look at this concept of ‘limited infilling’ in the Green Belt.
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Report from 2023 NAG AGM
Our AGM took place on 31st October; the draft Minutes are attached. We discussed the unsatisfactory situation regarding the enforcement of local planning regulations, assisted by Councillor George Potter, the Lead Councillor for Planning at Guildford Borough Council (GBC).
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