The Draft Plan proposes to build 693 homes per year, a total of 13,860 homes

The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) provides the opportunity to GBC apply constraints when calculating the overall housing target in the Borough (e.g. the Metropolitan Greenbelt, TBHSPA, Surrey Hills AONB, flooding, infrastructure) GBC has applied no constraints to reduce housing numbers whereas other Council’s in Surrey have chosen so to do. (Guildford Resident’s Association press release 7/6/2020 Legend Chart clearly illustrates the ‘unsustainable’ development proposed by GBC, in comparison to other council’s ‘sustainable’ housing targets of approx 300 homes per year.

Green Belt is being eroded by disproportionate ‘strategic sites’ without secure funding for infrastructure and road improvements, inset villages, insetting, the manipulation of boundaries, using rural exception sites outside settlement areas for the whole Borough rather than ‘needs’ of individual rural communities. Guildford and the surrounding village and countryside will be damaged irreparably. (Policies S2,H3,P6,D4).

NPPF 17 requires local authorities to ‘take account of the different roles and character of different areas, promoting the vitality of our main urban areas, protecting the greenbelts around them, recognising the intrinsic character and beauty of the countryside and supporting thriving communities within it’. GBC Draft Local Plan does not meet the requirement of (Policies S2,H3,P6,D4).