News Bulletin – 31st August 2013
Planning Application 12/P/01973 – Land to the south of Ash Lodge Drive
We can now confirm that this application has been withdrawn from the agenda of the Planning Committee meeting on Tuesday 3 September 2013 where it was due for consideration by the Planning Committee. This is as a result of two councillors giving notice under Council Procedure Rule 21(c) which requires the application to be determined by full Council rather than by the Planning Committee. It will now be considered at an extraordinary meeting of the Council which we understand is still to be confirmed.
ASHRA consider this to be a fair and proper procedure considering the size of the application, and we thank Councillors Spooner and Furniss for their actions.
Whilst writing we would like to thank our volunteers who stepped forward and agreed to deliver flyers. We expect to be in a position to distribute the flyers when we are certain of the date for the extraordinary meeting of the Council.
Graham Eyre
Ash Residents Association
13/P/01203 - Morrisons Local - Ash Wharf
We have been advised that a new Planning Application No. 13/P/01203 has been presented to Guildford Borough Council requesting permission to convert the Standard Pub (158, Ash Hill Road, Ash Wharf) into a Morrison's Supermarket. There are obvious implications given that a new Tesco's was recently built a mile away in Ash Vale, and that Budgen's is almost adjacent to the old Standard Pub site.
The Planning Application can be viewed at http://www.ashra.org.uk/PA/13/P/01203, comments can also be added at http://www.guildford.gov.uk/commentonaplanningapplication
We are also informed that this Application will also be on the Ash Parish Council Planning Agenda on 12th August 2013
News Bulletin – 25th May 2013
Village Green Application
The Village Green Public Inquiry has now finished after three gruelling, if not interesting, weeks. Graham Eyre "The applicant", and chairman of ASHRA, was the first witness called and was questioned by both our solicitor and the defendants’ solicitor for the full first day. Graham then continued to attend every day for the remaining three weeks of the inquiry, whilst the 60 or so other witnesses from both sides, gave evidence. He was supported by the committee of ASHRA as and when possible during the inquiry.
A sincere thank you to those residents who gave up their time to give evidence at the inquiry. There were also many people who offered to give evidence, but due to time constraints we were unable to call. Again, thank you to them.
What happens next?
Over the next 10 days the lawyers for both sides will prepare their submissions. These are documents detailing the case for their respective clients, and set out why they feel their client should be awarded judgement. These documents will be presented to the Inspector on 4th/5th June 2013 and he will then have some time to study them and form his opinion. Following this the Inspector will submit his recommendation to Surrey County Council and we should be notified of their decision by August.
Until then we will not know any more and we have to wait.
Archaeological Digs
The archaeological excavations have now been completed in the fields and a request is being made for the trenches to be filled in and the fields restored. We do not know when this will be happening but if you see machinery in the fields then this is probably what they will be doing. Some items of interest have been found in one of the fields to the north east of the Planning Application site and therefore further work will need to be carried out at some future date.
Planning Application Updates
12/P/01973, Land to the South of Ash Lodge Drive
This is still with the council and no date has been set for the Planning Committee. A site visit by members of the Planning Committee was scheduled for last week.
13/P/00355, Ash Manor School
This is still with the council and no date has been set. A site visit by Planning Committee members was scheduled for last week in conjunction with application 12/P/01973.
12/P/02012, Land south of Guildford Road, Gypsy Pitches
Whilst not officially noted on the Council website yet, we are informed that this was approved by the Planning Committee at their meeting on the 21st May 2103.
13/P/00717, The Croft
A new application for 39 dwellings has been submitted to the council. This Planning Application replaces the house rather than convert it. Comments (objections or otherwise) are welcome by the 7th June 2013.
Taylor Wimpey, Manor Road
Outline permission has already been granted for this site. The developers now intend to put in a further application for “reserved matters” which will specify the exact size layout and construction details. They held an exhibition earlier this month in Tongham.
The Warren, White Lane
We have been informed of potential development of Surrey House and Warren Farm, just off of White Lane in Ash Green. This is currently at the proposal stage only and we have no further information. The developers, Shanly Homes, are holding an exhibition of their plans in the Tongham Community Centre on the 28th May between 2:30pm and 8:00pm. The flyer distributed to some homes in White Lane can be seen at http://www.ashra.org.uk/images/article_images/WarrenFarm.jpg
Excavations in the Fields South of Ash Lodge Drive
Several people have been in touch asking what is happening in the fields south of Ash Lodge Drive.
Don't panic planning has not been granted!
As part of the planning process Guildford Borough council have contract a specialist archaeological company to check to see if there is anything of interest within the area. The excavations are the first part of this process. Over the next week or so we expect the archaeologists to begin looking in the trenches. Once they have completed their work the trenches will be filled back in again.
No date has yet been set for the planning application but this is expected to be given soon. The Village Green application enquiry is to be between the 7th and 24th May 2013.
News Bulletin – 15th March 2013
Planning Application 12/P/01973
We thought it was time to send out a Newsletter, to inform everyone of the latest situation with regard to Planning Application 12/P/01973 and the Village Green Application on the fields adjacent to Ash Lodge Drive.
Three members of the ASHRA Committee had a meeting with the Case Officer for 12/P/01973 at Guildford Borough Council this week. This meeting was productive, and we hope to have follow-up meetings in due course.
The situation at present is that GBC have received independent assessments from Environmental and Transport consultants. GBC have passed these comments back to Bewley Homes for their response. GBC have also just received comments from independent Drainage consultants, and will be forwarding these to Bewley homes for comment.
It is expected that the Planning Meeting to decide this Application will be held around the end of May 2013, and if you haven’t yet sent in an objection to the application you have until mid-May to do so. Don’t forget, you can send in an objection per person and not per household.
Village Green Application
Once again, we would like to thank everyone who contributed to our appeal to raise money for legal expenses. The response was astonishing, and we can confirm that we are now assured of raising the money necessary. Thanks again.
Graham Eyre has been in contact with Surrey County Council, who have been trying to arrange dates for the Public Inquiry. The dates were fixed today as 7th to 24th May 2013. More information will follow in due course and we will be contacting people, who we feel will make good witnesses, in due course.
News Bulletin – 10th January 2013
Last Nights Meeting
It was nice to see so many Residents bothered to venture out on a cold winters evening, to come to the Planning Meeting hosted by Ash Parish Council, and to hear so many people pose their questions.
Those of you who went will know that we had three Committee members outside the meeting to answer any questions from Residents on the way in, but also, more importantly, on the way out. We also had two Committee members inside the hall noting your questions and the responses, so that we could review them afterwards.
Planning Application 12/P/01973 Land to the South of Ash Lodge Drive.
You will also probably have noticed that we have been fairly quiet recently on our website and in other areas. This is due to the fact that we have been reading through all 1,917 pages of the Bewley Homes/a2dominion Planning Application 12/P/01973, in detail, and writing our responses/objections documents. Bewley Homes employed 6 or 7 major consultancies, and probably hundreds of individuals over 18 months, producing their Planning Application. Whereas we have only two people working on this full time, and only one month to get our response in.
We completed these documents, totalling some 60 pages, on Wednesday of this week and have sent copies to GBC Planning Department, Michael Gove MP, other individuals, and fourteen organisations who we feel need to have some input to this Planning Application. We can confirm that every objection raised by Residents at last night’s meeting has been covered. One of these documents was an in-depth flood analysis.
We must also say a massive thank you to the 28 volunteers who helped us distribute nearly 3,000 flyers which have resulted in a doubling of letters of objection, and hopefully will continue to bring in more in the days ahead.
Thanks again.
Finally, on this issue, we were informed by the Case Officer at Guildford Borough Council Planning Department at the beginning of the week, that she would begin her recommendations document in one month. Once that is completed the date of the Planning Meeting will be set. At this meeting we will have a chance to speak, and put forward our case. Objections can still be sent to GBC and will be accepted up until the recommendation document is started, therefore at least the end of January.
Village Green Application.
Graham Eyre still waiting for news of a date for the Public Inquiry. He has been informed by the legal advisor that the application is sound and stands a reasonable chance of a successful outcome.
The legal costs will amount to some £3,000 and ASHRA are committed to helping raise this amount. We raised in excess of £200 last night outside the meeting, for which we are grateful to all who contributed, and we already have some £300 left in our account from the two previous collections at the Tongham Community Centre, and after we have paid for printing etc.
As you can see we still need to raise some £2,500. This sounds a lot of money but there are in excess of 3,000 houses in Ash and Tongham. If anyone wants to donate funds electronically, they can do so by visiting our donations page here.
If Graham succeeds in his Application, these fields can never be built on. Please help us to do our best for you to keep our valued green space for generations to come.
Planning Application 12/P/02100 Land South of Guildford Road, Ash
“The use of land for the stationing of caravans for residential purposes for 4 no. gypsy pitches together with the formation of additional hard standing and utility/ dayrooms ancillary to that use”
We learned of this Application a week or so ago, and as reported to us by some residents opposite this site, some GBC Notification Letters had got delayed, and residents were receiving their letters with only a few days to object. The letters stated that the deadline for objections was today, 11th January 2013.
Yesterday, we complained to the Case Officer at GBC, and he has now confirmed that the final date for objections will be extended until 26th January 2013.
We will be putting in our objection in the next few days on the grounds that this development would be seriously harmful to the character and appearance of the area, and that the harm would not be outweighed by the fact that there is a demand for Gypsy sites in Surrey.
News Bulletin – 15th July 2012
Bewley Homes consultation event Tongham Community Centre Saturday 14 July 2012.
There was lot to absorb at this event and over the next few days and weeks we will be analysing all the relevant information and considering how best to use it to bring this offensive and objectionable scheme to a halt.
THANKS
Firstly thank you to all of you who turned out on Saturday morning to show your anger and frustration at what is proposed, and thank you for your support for what we are trying to do.
Thank you to all the children, teenagers and parents who turned up for the local newspaper photographer. We hope to reproduce the photograph on the website after it has appeared in the newspaper next Friday.
Thank you to everyone who donated to the fighting fund and we are pleased to say that we collected the great total of £214.
We had some nice comments from people, and they are much appreciated.
SOUND BITES
Bewley Homes representatives provided us with some wonderful illustrations of their complete ignorance of the local community. Here are two of our favourites.
Local Resident: "Ash Manor School is already oversubscribed"
Bewley Homes Rep: "No it is not, we've checked and it is not oversubscribed"
Clearly they had not read the Ash Manor School website where it says "We are an oversubscribed 11-16 school with an excellent reputation in the area"
Local Resident: "What about the flooding in Ash Lodge Drive"
Bewley Homes Rep: "Ash Lodge Drive doesn't flood we checked with the Council"
Here are a couple of photographs of a flooded Ash Lodge Drive.
FOR THOSE WHO COULDN'T MAKE IT
Here are six PDF files of the boards on display. We have renamed the files after well known fairy tails but the contents are the same as the original boards.
Goldilocks_and_the_Three_Bears.pdf
Sleeping_Beauty.pdf
Snow_White_and_The_Seven_Dwarfs.pdf
The_Three_Little_Pigs.pdf
Rumplestiltzkin.pdf
The_Ugly_Duckling.pdf
News Bulletin - 23rd June 2012
Two updates for you in this news bulletin.
Potential planning application for 450 houses by Bewley Homes on the fields bordered by Ash Lodge Drive, Manor Road, The old railway track and South Lane.
Bewley Homes are to show their latest plans on how they intended to replace the last remaining community open space in South Ash with hundreds of houses. The exhibition will be on Saturday 14 July at Tongham Community Centre from 9.30am until 12.30pm. More details as we get them. If you were not at the first Bewley Homes exhibition last November you can read what happened here.
Planning application Number: 12/P/00645 for 60 houses by Taylor Wimpey on land that lies behind existing homes on Manor Road
The Environment Agency have replied to our 'Comments on the Flood Risk Assessment Supporting Planning Application 12/P/00645' (http://bit.ly/IcIg9y). We have responded with additional information and are now waiting for their
observations and comments . You can read the full text of our response by clicking on this link 'Follow up to Environment Agency re FRA'.
Lastly, not an update but a picture taken by a local resident. It's a lovely flower called Ragged Robin which is not rare but it is in decline in the UK, mostly due to the loss of it's preferred wet meadow habitat.
