Monday 15 June, 2009
Guildford Borough Council has issued a legal challenge to the South East Plan, the document that will shape the future development of the region until 2026 and contains proposals for thousands of new homes in the borough.
The final version of the South East Plan was published just over a month ago. Since then the Council has been looking carefully at the plan and the process followed throughout its preparation, and has now decided to issue a legal challenge. The legal challenge is on the grounds that the plan’s requirement for a green belt ‘selective review’ to the north east of Guildford town has not been subject to a full environment appraisal, and that the requirement for the building of 2,000 houses on this site has not been justified.
Head of Planning Services, Carol Humphrey, says: "We are concerned that the process of identifying this area for a significant amount of development was not informed by the full environmental appraisal required by law, which should include consideration of alternatives to green belt development at Guildford".
Comments Lead Councillor for Environment, Cllr Jenny Wicks: "We recognise that there should be more houses in Guildford, but not to this extent. Throughout the long process of delivering the South East Plan there has been considerable and very vocal opposition raised by the Council and our local residents about the requirement for this additional one hundred houses a year in Guildford above the numbers that have been built in recent years, and its location within our borough. Our residents voiced their concerns in their thousands to Government last year but unfortunately the plan was not changed to take account of them. We are even more disappointed to find at the end of this process that the Secretary of State appears not to have followed his own rules and this is why we are challenging this part of the South East Plan".
For more information on the South East Plan please visit www.gose.gov.uk (this page opens in a new window) and our South East Plan pages.
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