Planning Matters #8 of 2025 (corrected) 

17 August 2025 

In this edition: 

    - TW: It’s NOT a done deal! 
    - CPRE Petition on Grey Belt 
    - Surrey Nature Recovery Consultation 
    - Wanborough Fields Enforcement 
    - Other Local Planning Applications 
    - Planning Seminars: Save the Date!

First, a big welcome to all our new subscribers; our numbers have almost doubled over the last few weeks! You can see recent editions of this newsletter by clicking on the button below or, if you open this email in your browser, you will see a link to ‘Past Issues’ in the top left-hand corner of the screen. 

This increase in numbers is thanks to the thirty plus volunteers, magnificently organised and supported by Rachel and Richard Cunningham, who have distributed our flyers to every household in Normandy, to raise awareness of what is on the horizon and to help the community as whole to be better prepared. It was often very hot, they had to deal with a lot of snappy letterboxes and  - just occasionally - some snappy people! Thank you, everyone!

TW: It's NOT a done deal

Now that the dust has settled from TW’s first round of promoting their vision for our community, it’s really important to understand that there is a long way to go before any decisions are taken; it’s definitely a marathon, not a sprint. It is clear from the feedback we have seen following the 18 July PR event that there is widespread opposition to any proposal to build hundreds of houses on the Green Belt in Normandy. But equally, some of the claims that were heard at that event might lead one to fear that planning permission is a foregone conclusion. It is not! 

The list of areas on which any developer would have to convince the planning authorities such as Guildford Borough Council (GBC) that building on a sensitive site such as this is justified is long. Decisions are taken on the basis of a very complex set of local and national policies, and there are many grounds on which this prospective development can be opposed. In September we will host a couple of planning seminars to help residents understand some of these complexities better. Details are at the bottom of this newsletter. In the meantime, you might like to click on the image below and read the article we have written about what exactly is meant by ‘Grey Belt’. 

CPRE Petition on Grey Belt 

The charity CPRE (Council for the Protection of Rural England) has initiated a Petition to Parliament calling for a change to the Grey Belt criteria, which massively move the goalposts in favour of the big developers. (See this helpful article in the Guildford Dragon.) If this gets 100,000 signatures, it will have to be considered for debate in Parliament which - given that the 2024 NPPF changes were not voted on by MPs - could be significant. The link to the Petition is here; if you click on the map view, you will see that our part of the world has some way to go in terms of signing up - come on, folks!

Surrey Nature Recovery Consultation 

The southern half of the TW site is part of the “Wanborough and Normandy Woods Biodiversity Area.” It is ironic that, just as this planning application is about to come forward, Surrey County Council is consulting on its “Draft Surrey Local Nature Recovery Strategy”, which aims to reverse the habitat and biodiversity loss that Surrey, along with other parts of the country, has suffered: 

…we've witnessed a huge deterioration in the health of Surrey's natural environment due to complex factors, including pollution, pesticide use, diseases, loss of traditional land management practices and climate change. 

The Local Nature Recovery Strategy for Surrey will help us reverse this nature loss by setting out where and how to manage land and water to create a network of nature-rich sites which are bigger, better managed and more joined-up across the county and across the country. 

You might wish to respond to this consultation as a way of underlining that our corner of Surrey should be retained for nature rather than see a developer build hundreds of houses. 

Wanborough Fields Enforcement 

In recent times we have all witnessed with dismay the unauthorised goings-on in the field to the right of Westwood Lane,in the direction of Wanborough. It is easy to lose heart, but as we have previously reported, although the wheels of justice can turn slowly, they do turn. 

The image below shows the Enforcement Notices recently served on 36 defendants as a result of a Court Order forbidding any further development activities in the field. Clicking on the image will take you to the GBC website, where the Order and associated documents are available to view. All is not lost! 

Other Local Planning Applications 

Alongside the prospective major development, some others are worthy of note: 

24/P/01167: Appeal against GBC’s refusal of an application for a care home on a site opposite St Mark’s Church, Wyke - dismissed. Interestingly, the Inspector found the appellants had not convincingly argued that the site should considered to be Grey Belt because they had not adequately addressed the potential harm to sensitive habitats and risk of serious flooding (as per footnote 7 to the NPPF). It is worth reading the Inspector’s report in full to understand this better.  

24/P/01673 A retrospective application for the further mobile home that has appeared on the land to the south of the A323 heading towards Ash, now marked as ‘awaiting decision’.  It follows the recent very belated granting of permission for the two mobile homes in the field slightly to the west (‘The Laurels’) (21/P/02167). 

24/P/01857 At the fourth time of asking, a development has been approved on the former ‘Session Music’ site at the War Memorial crossroads. This is for 5 residential units and a ground floor retail unit facing Guildford Road.

25/P/00760 An application to remove restrictions on the hours of operation involving commercial vehicle movements at a large, currently unlet, industrial unit at Henley Park Business Park. It is strongly opposed by neighbouring residents, as can be seen by the comments on the planning portal. 

25/P/00903 An application for 50 residential dwellings (including 25 affordable dwellings) and Parish building on land at Hester's Yard, Wood Street Village. There is much local opposition and also some strong statements of support. This application will be a further test of the concept of ‘Grey Belt’, and the decision will therefore be of relevance to residents in Normandy as well as Wood Street. 

Planning Seminars: Save the Date! 

On 5 and 12 September, at 8pm in Normandy Village Hall, we will be hosting a couple of planning seminars, which will provide an opportunity for local residents to learn and understand more about the intricacies of the local and national planning system, in the context of the proposed major development in Normandy. For health and safety reasons, numbers are restricted, and places will be allocated on a first come, first served, basis. Please click on the buttons below to secure your place. 

In the meantime, CPRE have produced an excellent short guide on how to respond to planning applications, and for the more technically minded, the process by which Green Belt land can be classified as Grey Belt is explained on the GOV.UK website here. And please consider signing up to our social media accounts (buttons below) so you can help spread more widely the words we are putting out.