Our Normandy Village - Glaziers Lane
Our Normandy Village - land near Pusseys Copse with Ancient Woodland
Our Normandy Village - view to the Hogs Back and Surrey Hills AONB
Our Normandy Village - St Marks Church, Wyke, 15th c.
Our Normandy Village - winter sunset
Policy D3: Historic environment
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We will conserve and enhance the historic environment in a manner appropriate to its significance. We will support development of the highest design quality that will conserve and, where appropriate, enhance the special interest, character and significance of the borough’s heritage assets and their settings and make a positive contribution to local character and distinctiveness. Heritage assets are an irreplaceable resource and works which would cause harm to the significance of a heritage asset, whether designated or non-designated, or its setting, will not be permitted without a clear justification to show that the public benefits of the proposal considerably outweigh any harm to the significance or special interest of the heritage asset in question. |
Response: Part Object, Part Support
The policy appears reasonable. However, conserving and enhancing the historic environment may be damaged by supporting ancillary development. In historic locations (Chilworth Gunpowder Mills, the NT sites like Clandon Park or Hatchlands, Guildford Castle, Guildford Museum etc) this policy needs to have an overriding emphasis on protection rather than supporting development. The emphasis on supporting some development – in the context of an authority that has already set in place aggressive reviews of Guildford Museum and the Electric Theatre – should be viewed with some caution. The reasoned justification seems reasonable but it must be noted that it is the wording of the policy, rather than the associated explanation, that must be key.
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Bailes Lane: Temporary Article 4 Direction Made!
On 18 April, following numerous representations from members of the public, Normandy Parish Council, and Normandy's Borough Councillors, Guildford Borough Council (GBC) officers acting under their delegated powers issued an Article 4 Direction regarding the agricultural land lying to the west of Bailes Lane, Normandy, GU3 2BA.
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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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