Knowle Lane has plenty of green fields left – but look here to explore a new housing development idea.
Cranleigh Society looks at all the planning rules to find any that can be held up as applicable, with the aim of reducing stress on our village and its community.
Neighbour responses: this is a big one for us. The voice of the community helps us and our councillors to understand the concerns locally and will often try to make our statements reflect those views if they comply with a relevant condition in planning rules.
Our planning laws are so difficult to get around once a government says build more houses. The councillors aren’t allowed to enter into chats before planning applications are put forward because if they did they wouldn’t be allowed to vote. The reason is this – by the time an application is put before councillors our paid officers work on the application with the current laws in mind and state whether there are planning reasons to turn it down or not. Once the councillors hear and read all this information only then are they allowed to vote.
Here are some planning guidelines – planners and councillors have to look at these things –
The impact on any planning item e.g. when this item is applied for – it isn’t yet – land south of Cranleigh and East of Knowle Lane. You can play with Surrey County Council Interactive map – click here – to see that Cranleigh has no protections such as Green Belt or Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The current Parish Boundaries don’t protect this either.
The Cranleigh neighbourhood plan, recently proved (as opposed to approved) for having met and exceeded the minimum requirement for housing allocations by Waverley.
The Cranleigh neighbourhood plan conditions for all developments needing to take place within the residential curtilage, as set by current clauses and maps. ( Out of interest only, this development falls outside this)
Referrals to Natural England and other nature conservation agencies for impact on wildlife and amenity.
Surrey Highways: though we can do little more than review their assessment here. Challenges to the veracity of their assessment have little impact, if any. We have no science to back up challenges to their statements, though we can, of course, question the formulas used to assess traffic movement and sight lines. Having said that, we are not limited in our comments by this and are entitled to state our opinion if a matter is of concern. We do this often.
Water infrastructure: similarly to Highways, we have very little we can challenge. We have anecdotal evidence, and will use it if it is appropriate, but the developers will simply refer to the assessments of the water agencies for legality.
Town & Country Planning Act regulations: too complicated to go into detail here, but we thoroughly review applicable conditions and often assess the planning condition statement’s made by developers. They will often only quote the part of the statutes and approved plans that suit their application and not those parts that don’t.
The deadline for comments is
MONDAY 14TH NOVEMBER 2022
I can’t believe they are planning yet more development in Cranleigh. I have lived here for over 12 years and in the last few years there have been so many new housing developments to the detriment of the countryside. Cranleigh can no longer be called a village. The local services can not cope with the current overdevelopment and certainly any further building will just not prove favourable to its residents. Please reject any further applications
We do not think Cranleigh can support additional housing as all local facilities are already stretched to the limit if not over. We must remember that in the summer Cranleigh suffered an acute shortage of water due to the increase in housing which could not be supported by Thames Water. In particular the proposed development shows the only access into Knowle Lane, which will have to serve approximately 300 residents’ vehicles is a ‘country lane’ which cannot safely support any more traffic than it has already.
There is one word to describe this application – Greed!
regarding Knowle lane – the planning application is in – have you managed to have a look? There are many reasons to object.
The land owner is hoping to maximise his family’s income and there are few laws to stop him. I wouldn’t call it greed, just normal especially after so many losses over the pandemic times.
But I hope it doesn’t go through and so please do object on the WBC portal. WA/2023/00294
Yet another proposed development! Enough is enough! We do not need any more houses here. There are few opportunities for local employment so most working people drive to work in Guildford, surrounding towns or London. We do not need yet more cars – there is a deadly serious climate emergency, or don’t developers care?
I don’t think Cranleigh needs more new houses. The infrastructure the village cannot cope with more residential houses. The schools are at capacity as is the surgery.
The sewage system cannot take anymore and the peaceful roads around Cranleigh are not peaceful anymore.
This is a step too far. The current infrastructure cannot cope with the present developments, let alone another sizable scheme. The road network, waste and surface water provision, medical services and schools are all under strain. Knowle Lane is a rural road unsuitable to accommodate a greater number of vehicular movements and a single access to this proposed development will create a dangerous precedent.
If the scheme were to be passed by Waverley Planners it is unlikely to provide actual ‘affordable’ housing for those young families or individuals wishing to live and work in the Cranleigh area.
Pure greed from developers that apply the term sustainability liberally, without y sense of irony. So many brownfield sites close to public transport nodes, but they choose to build on greenfield sites with no transport links and plug into aged and crumbling infrastructure aided and abetted by those muppets in local and national government. I have attended previous “consultation”on development and questioned the Waverley reps. Oddly they didn’t have the figures to hand when it came to additional cars on the road, ability of the shops to service the existing or growth in population, embodied carbon of building 1000s of homes on greenfield sites or the amount of asbestos in the existing water supply pipes that keep failing.
I’m afraid this is not “consultation”, it’s a farce.
I strongly object to this proposed development on the following grounds:
1) Cranleigh’s infrastructure (Medical services/schools/water supply/sewerage/roads) is already overloaded. We are already paying for the previous development activities – infrastructure changes always either get delayed due to budget constraints or are simply ignored completely.
2) The proposed access onto Knowle Lane would create even more congestion and make the junction with the High Street even more hazardous to pedestrians, cyclists and other road users.
3) The additional traffic is inconsistent with the proposed changes to make Cranleigh High Street more pedestrian friendly – a proposal I fully support
Michael Gove has recently been reported to have said – New developments should be “more beautiful”, have the consent of the local community, be accompanied by the right infrastructure and protect the environment.
How do we determine whether the local community consents to this proposed development? In my view the only democratic way is to hold a Cranleigh Parish referendum.
Cranleigh is already suffering with so many new houses. The charm of the village has been list and thus development will overstretch roads, schools and medical facilities.