Planning Matters #11 of 2025 

14 September 2025

In this edition:
•    Extra Planning Seminar 23 September
•    Reminder to complete survey!
•    More applications in Ash and Normandy
•    Latest edition of 'The Villager' online

Extra Planning Seminar 23 September

We were delighted that well over 100 people attended our two Planning Seminars on 5 and 12 September to learn more about the planning system in this country in the context of the proposed major developments in the village. But we understand that a Friday night does not suit everyone, so we are hosting a third, on Tuesday, 23 September, in the Village Hall at 8pm. Do please sign up using the button below if you would like to come.  

Reminder to complete survey!

We have had a great response to our short survey aimed at gauging the mood in the village regarding the Taylor Wimpey (TW) proposal to build hundreds of houses in Normandy. (Since it launched we have also become aware of the Gleeson Land plans to build 200 houses at Shortlands Farm, but the survey is framed in terms of the TW proposal.) If you have not yet replied, we would encourage you to do so, as we would like to publish the results ahead of the next round of the TW ‘consultation’, and they will have more credibility the greater the number of people in the village who respond. It will take you just a couple of minutes!

More Applications in Ash and Normandy

A major concern raised by the Shortlands Farm proposal is the progressive erosion of the green space between Ash and Normandy. Recent years have seen a significant amount of development to the east of Ash, and more is in the pipeline.

In 2023 Bellway Homes won their appeal regarding application 22/P/01083 for  51 homes to the west of Harpers Road in Ash, just down from the Lion Brewery. According to a local media report they have just completed their purchase of the site and plan to start building in March next year. (This also illustrates that developers do not have to own land in order to make a planning application to build on it; this is also the case with much of the TW site in Normandy.)

In 2024 Bewley Homes submitted application 24/P/01158 to build 53 dwellings at Ash Manor, off Ash Green Road. There is a long history of local opposition to development on this site, which is close to the important heritage asset of the Manor House, and in 2021 a previous application was refused by the Planning Inspector on appeal. The latest application has recently been updated as the developer attempts to accommodate various objections that have been made. The ‘neighbour consultation expiry date’ is now 10 October 2025.

Meanwhile, slightly closer to home and on a smaller scale, 25/P/00882 is an application for the construction of a stable block, representing a change of use from agricultural to equestrian, on land to the west of Week Wood and north of Green Lane West. Although described by the applicant as being “within Ash Green a village and civil parish”, it is in fact just inside the boundary of Normandy and Pirbright Ward. It is not very far away from a site to the west of North Wyke Farm where a successful application (20/P/01895) for a similar change of use (based on historic usage) was followed not long afterwards by an unsuccessful bid (22/P/01107) to demolish the stable and build a bungalow.

Although these applications will all be decided individually on their merits, residents will be concerned that, if they were all agreed - not to mention Shortlands Farm - they would mark a further erosion of the precious green space separating Ash and Normandy. That, of course, is why we have Local Plans, to enable a more strategic view to be taken of where development should occur and where it should not. Unfortunately, given that GBC can no longer demonstrate a five-year housing supply, the chances are that some of these applications will be decided before they can complete the current Local Plan review process: death by a thousand cuts, you might say.

Latest edition of 'The Villager' online

The latest, September, edition of the Normandy Parish Council magazine, ‘The Villager’, is available in hard copy around the village, but also online here. It contains a detailed Position Statement from the Parish Council on the potential major development(s) in Normandy, as well as a piece from ourselves that includes images of the site proposed by TW for development.