News Bulletin - 11th November 2017

As some of you may be aware Bewley Homes / a2dominion are proposing a change to the approved development in Ash Lodge Drive. They are sending out a letter to over 1800 residents which you should receive by Monday 13th November.

The proposed changes are

- A reduction in the number of 4 & 5 bed properties
- An increase in the number of 2 & 3 bed properties
- An overall increase in the total number of properties to 492 (from 400)
- Increased space for the proposed Health Centre

At the moment there is very little further information as to exactly what or where the changes will be made on the site so we cannot make any comments as to what our response will be. Indeed Bewley Homes and a2dominion will have to submit a new Planning Application to Guildford Borough Council.

Bewley Homes / a2dominion have created a website (www.ashdevelopment.co.uk) with an overview of the changes where you can view and comment on the proposed changes. You are asked if could submit your thoughts by 1/12/2017. If you have any issues accessing their website, you can contact the Bewley Homes / a2dominion team by calling 0800 019 2205 or by emailing info@ashlodgedrive.com.

News Bulletin – 23rd March 2017

We have been advised by Bewley Homes that they plan to begin some works to the south of Ash Lodge Drive on Monday 23rd October 2017.

Their plan is to initially do some site set up and enabling works, and to complete the first 100 metres of the spine road from each end.

We will keep everyone informed when we hear more.

News Bulletin – 3rd July 2016

Planning Application 16/P/00980 Land South of Ash Lodge Drive, Ash

Dear Resident,

As you may have seen, Bewley Homes and a2dominion have put in a Reserve Matters Planning Application to Guildford Borough Council. The Council have done a really poor job in advising local residents of its existence, and we have had a lot of complaints from residents.

A "Reserved Matters" application is used after an outline planning application has been approved.

A reserved matters application deals with some or all of the outstanding details of the outline application proposal, including:
 
• appearance - aspects of a building or place which affect the way it looks, including the exterior of the development

• means of access - covers accessibility for all routes to and within the site, as well as the way they link up to other roads and pathways outside the site

• landscaping - the improvement or protection of the amenities of the site and the area and the surrounding area, this could include planting trees or hedges as a screen

• layout - includes buildings, routes and open spaces within the development and the way they are laid out in relations to buildings and spaces outside the development

• scale - includes information on the size of the development, including the height, width and length of each proposed building
 
The details of the reserved matters application must be in line with the outline approval, including any conditions attached to the permission.

Obviously, we at ASHRA, have studied much of the information on Guildford Borough Council’s website. One glaring omission we did find was that none of the documents attached to this Application referred to surface water or flooding. It appears that Bewley Homes have been in communication with Guildford Borough Council "offline" in an attempt to get agreement.

We have obtained this documentation and can report that, although Bewley Homes now appreciate that there is a major issue with flooding on the site, they have gone out of their way to ignore the advice of expert, independent, consultants employed by Guildford Borough Council, and put up a solution that is highly suspect, to say the least. Obviously a developer will do everything in their power to reduce their costs, but we feel that the issue of potential flooding is so critical, not only to the new development, but to existing housing adjacent to the site and the surrounding area, that the Council and their Consultants have to be totally satisfied the proposed solution will work.

Secondly, on the latest plans, a large amount of the site is now being taken up by what Bewley Homes say are balancing ponds and streams. These they now say are necessary to move and store some of the vast amounts of water that occur on the site when it floods. This is strange as their Outline Planning Application didn’t recognise that the site flooded. The impact of the need for these flood alleviation measures, results in far less land being available for development.

However, Bewley Homes still want to "shoehorn" in the same 400 homes as before. One look at the plans say this is not feasible and the overall number of homes has to be reduced considerably.

Therefore, it is important that we fight for a resolution to both of these issues, and to this end ASHRA asks you to please send an objection to Planning Department at Guildford Borough Council. You should state that you feel that Bewley Homes are still not properly addressing the flooding issue associated with this site, and that the density of the housing, compared with the surrounding areas is totally out of proportion and character, and therefore the numbers of homes should be reduced considerably.

You could also include any other reasons as you see fit.

Your objections should be sent to:

By e-mail:  planningenquiries@guildford.gov.uk

By mail: The Planning Department, Guildford Borough Council, Millmead House, Millmead, Guildford, GU2 4BB

Please Note that any communication should be headed up:  Planning Application 16/P/00980 Land to the South of Ash Lodge Drive, Ash. The first line of your message/letter should be "I object to the above Planning Application on the following grounds"

ASHRA thanks you in advance for your co-operation.

News Bulletin – 10th November 2016

For those of you who were not at the Planning Committee Meeting yesterday evening, I’d just like to advise you of what transpired. For those of you who were there, thank you very much for attending.

As you will be aware, Bewley Homes had prepared and delivered some time ago their Reserve Matters Application to Guildford Borough Council for consideration and approval. Last nights’ meeting was the date fixed for this process.

Obviously, the Principal Planning Officer presented the application and requested that it be approved in its current state.

We still have serious concerns around areas such as flooding, housing density, road design, health and safety, amongst others, and Alan Norris and I spoke against the Application. Councillor Paul Spooner, Councillor for Ash South & Tongham Ward and Leader of Guildford Borough Council, then spoke at some length highlighting, not only our concerns but, many of his own. Issues raised by other Councillors concerned the damage to the area designated as SNCI (Site of National Conservation Importance). The full list of concerns were:

• the safety risk & health hazard of the swales, water meadows & balancing ponds
• no attempt has been made to reduce the density of housing towards the urban or rural fringes of the site
• parking in terms of the road network
• some properties will not have safe & reasonable access
• HGV & emergency services access
• correct figures for housing density
• not enough consideration paid to ecology and the SNCI

Councillor Spooner then called for a deferment of this application pending the resolution of the  issues raised. A vote was called by the Chairman, and the Committee Members voted unanimously in favour of the deferment.

This Application is likely to be brought back to Committee sometime in the New Year.

If anyone wants to watch the video of the section of the meeting covering this application, we have put it on youtube. Click here to for the video.

I’d like to thank Councillor Spooner, on behalf of ASHRA and the residents of Ash & Tongham for his continued support, and his efforts to get a sensible resolution in this and other developments in the Ward.

As this is likely to be our last Newsletter in 2016, I would like to thank Residents for their continued support of ASHRA , and wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

One final thing. ASHRA’s Secretary, Roger Smolski is moving down to the coast for a quiet life, he tells me. I would like to thank Roger for all his Hard work over the past five years for ASHRA, and also for having the patience to work with me. We will miss him, and I will miss him as a friend.

ASHRA has taken on two new Committee members. They are Russell Neighbour and Rachel Butcher, both residents of Ash Lodge Drive, and I’m really looking forward to working with them. (Roger will probably say that I’ve had to take on two people just to replace him.)

Graham

News Bulletin – 27th December 2016

This message is to inform you that the captioned Reserve Matters Planning Application comes back before the Planning Committee on 4th January 2017.

Although the original notifications informed us that it would be possible to speak at the meeting, it appears that this was incorrect, and that no public speakers are allowed.

However, we are still working on a few things in order to atop this Application being approved as there are still serious issues that have not been addressed properly.

Best Regards

Graham