Following the announcement from Michael Gove (the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities) on 19th December, the highly anticipated revised NPPF (National
Planning Policy Framework) is finally published, which cemented that housing targets are ‘advisory’ – they are not mandatory. It is also clearly stated that a local authority’s Green
Belt boundaries do not need to be changed to meet its housing target. This is fantastic news for Epsom and Ewell.
Last February, Epsom and Ewell Council published its draft Local Plan for 2022 to 2040. This included proposals to cover very significant areas of the Borough’s Green Belt – at Horton
Farm, the Hook Road Arena, and Ewell East Station – with housing estates. It defended these proposals on the grounds that it had to demonstrate that it was doing all it could to meet the Government’s housing targets. This justification is no longer possible. It is now evident that, if the Council were to continue
with its proposals to build on the Green Belt, this would be because it has decided to voluntarily sacrifice our most important open spaces, which the recent public consultation
on the draft Plan showed are highly valued by the vast majority of the Borough’s residents.
The Epsom and Ewell Green Belt Group, together with the Surrey Branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), is calling on the Council and its Councillors to instruct the
planning officers to republish its Local Plan within the next few weeks, removing all greenbelt sites, reducing the housing target to a rational approximately 3,500 homes for the
Plan period, and focusing on developing all available brownfield sites. We have produced a list of the changes that would need to be made to the draft Plan so that it complies with the
Government’s revised NPPF (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-planning-policy-framework–2).
Keep Our Green Belt Safe
Issued by The Epsom & Ewell Green Belt Group and CPRE Surrey
For more information and to sign the Petition, visit https://epsomgreenbelt.org/
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