The Surrey Branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England [CPRE] is challenging Waverley Borough Council's adoption of its Local Plan: Part 1 Strategic Policies and Sites. CPRE has launched this challenge on the grounds that Planning Inspector Jonathan Bore (who will also examine Guildford’s Local Plan) “failed to take into account the environmental constraints and specifically the harm to the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty [AONB] and the London Metropolitan Green Belt”.

CPRE submitted its application for a Judicial Review to the High Court on March 29. Two other legal challenges to Waverley Borough Council’s adoption of the Local Plan were submitted on the same day, one of which is from the local action group Protect Our Waverley [POW].

Normandy Action Group submitted its response to the Southern Pipeline corridor Option M & Q proposals as they affect land surrounding Flexford, Normandy and Wanborough. The response highlights that the consultants appear to have failed to take account of the local landscape designations of Area of Great Landscape Value [AGLV] and Site of Nature Conservation Importance [SNCI] in drawing the north and south boundaries of the Option M & Q corridor.

Any pipeline laying towards the southern corridor boundary is likely to drive a wide swathe thorough the AGLV land that stretches north from the A31 down the northern slopes of the Hogs Back to Flexford Road; any pipeline laying towards the northern corridor boundary is likely to have a severe impact on the woodlands to the west of Normandy ward.

The content of the response is available on the NAG web site

The planning application for six 2-bed houses [18/P00470] on the site of the former Palm House nurseries, that would result in the demolition of the existing horticultural building, has been refused.

The officer report maintains that the "proposal would not constitute a sympathetic development but would result in the erosion of the agricultural and rural character of the site and surrounding area and would therefore fail to respect the established pattern of development within the area". 

Guildford Borough Council [GBC] has to decide whether to confirm the Article 4 Direction within 6 months of it first being served. A report is being drafted which, it is understood, is likely to propose continuation indefinitely. It will go before a planning committee meeting, probably at the end of June. The large number of representations sent by residents to Tim Dawes, Planning Development Manager at GBC has, it appears, ensured there will be a recommendation to continue.

The Guildford Local Plan Examination in Public is scheduled to start on 5 June 2018. 

In the inspector's Matters & Issues for Examination document, he has listed eleven specific areas of questioning that include such topics as the soundness of the Objectively Assessed Need [OAN] calculation, the consideration of unmet housing need from surrounding boroughs, the issue of the timing of housing delivery through the 15 year plan period, the adequacy of the five-year housing land supply, the mix and types of housing, employment land supply, the adequacy Guildford town centre development plans, Green Belt and landscape impact [e.g. AGLV and AONB impact], urban brownfield land usage compared to proposed Green Belt release, and in relation to specific sites the impact of Green Belt release on the TBHSPA and the "exceptional circumstances" yet to be explained by the council required to release such land for housing. 

Guildford Borough Council [GBC] have released a Draft Supplementary Planning Document [SPD] for consultation, available from the Planning Policy Consultations section of the GBC web site. The SPD contains key information and guidance for householders and applicants on how to deliver well-designed residential extensions and alterations. 

The consultation opened on 4th May 2018 and will close 4th June 2018. There is an on-line Comments form that can be used for your response. Comments received after the close date will be discounted. 

At a well-attended public meeting and in an outburst of unity, Normandy borough and county councillors and nearly 300 residents shared the opinion that the developer-led proposal for 1,100 new homes between Flexford and Normandy in the Green Belt would be fought.

A lengthy exchange of views highlighted the issue of the proposal to build a 1,500 place secondary school and its apparent role in setting the 'exceptional circumstances' that would permit the redrawing of the Green Belt boundary around 67 hectares of land between the two settlements to support mass house building.

Normandy resident David Bilbe was confirmed as Normandy's new Guildford Borough councillor after the local elections on May 7th 2015. Cllr.Bilbé has been involved in community issues for many years and narrowly missed out in the previous local election. He has already been active in the GBC Planning Committee, recently leading arguments for the successful rejection of a planning application for a 5-bedroom house on Green Belt land in Normandy and attending the North Wyke Farm appeal hearing at Millmead.