Policy P5: Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area
Permission will not be granted for development proposals unless it can be demonstrated that doing so would not give rise to adverse effects on the ecological integrity of the Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area (SPA), whether alone or in combination with other development. Where one or more adverse effects on the SPA are likely, measures to avoid and mitigate these effects must be delivered and secured in perpetuity. These measures must be agreed with Natural England. The following principles apply:
SANGs
Where further evidence demonstrates that the integrity of the SPA can be protected using different linear thresholds or with alternative mitigation measures (including standards of SANG provision different to those set out in this policy) these must be agreed with Natural England. |
Response: Object
This policy is weak. The mitigation (cash compensation) offered for development in the special protection area is so small and negligible as to be meaningless. SANG (Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace) is not beneficial; the sites identified or targeted are already green space. To create SANG is just using agricultural or wooded land as recreation land in order to justify building on other green spaces. There is no actual increase in environmental protection; it is a policy designed to permit building on otherwise protected areas. SANG – in part used to prevent dogs and cats attacking nesting birds - must ensure that it is not using land which is adjacent to the special protection areas.
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‘Limited Infilling’ in Normandy and Flexford
‘Limited Infilling’ is increasingly used by planning officers as a justification when approving applications in Normandy/Flexford, even where the site is outside the settlement area identified in the Local Plan and is therefore in the Green Belt. (It is worth recalling in this context that the Local Plan removed Normandy and Flexford, along with several other settlements, from the Green Belt, making then ‘inset’, rather than ‘washed over’; this meant that development within the settlement area would not need to accord with Green Belt policy.) We therefore thought it would be helpful to take a closer look at this concept of ‘limited infilling’ in the Green Belt.
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Report from 2023 NAG AGM
Our AGM took place on 31st October; the draft Minutes are attached. We discussed the unsatisfactory situation regarding the enforcement of local planning regulations, assisted by Councillor George Potter, the Lead Councillor for Planning at Guildford Borough Council (GBC).
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