Category Archives: Environment

Elmbridge Local Plan now published

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A Local Plan that protects the character of Elmbridge

The Borough is required by government to produce a Local Plan that outlines how the housing need will be met for the next 15 years and the land that can be identified to allow for those future developments; it is underpinned by a number of documents that guide the council in its decision-making on what are acceptable developments in terms of good design, respect for the character of the location, coupled with environmental and sustainability considerations.

In order to provide a robust Local Plan to the Planning Inspectorate, our officers have consulted with residents and developers, they have investigated all land options and they have assessed every possible scenario, weighing national guidelines and planning legislation against the needs of Elmbridge and our residents. This Draft Local Plan represents that work and has the best interests of Elmbridge at its heart.

The Liberal Democrat and Resident Councillors will be putting forward a Draft Local Plan that will deliver the homes we need while protecting the character of our Borough including its precious Green Belt.

On 16 March 2022, the Elmbridge Draft Local Plan is being debated at a meeting of the Elmbridge Cabinet. The recommendations of the Cabinet will be presented to a Council meeting on 22 March 2022. If approved by Council, the next stage on the way to adoption is a ‘Regulation 19 representation’, after which the Plan will then be passed to the national Planning Inspectorate for examination.

Key points of the Draft Local Plan being presented to Cabinet on 16 March 2022

  1. The Plan allows for 465 homes per year over 15 years, not the 647 pushed for by the Conservative Government.

  2. The Plan will protect the Green Belt and enhance green infrastructure and biodiversity in the Borough.

  3. The Plan will shape development in the urban area to meet the needs of our communities, respecting and enhancing the unique characters of our towns and villages.

Read more on the council’s website here: News | Home | Elmbridge News

A new Local Plan for Elmbridge

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The Lib Dems, who form the joint administration of Elmbridge Borough Council with the Residents Association group, have fought for a Local Plan which cherishes the character of the area we all love and safeguards our Green Belt.

Lib Dem Leader on the Council, Bruce McDonald, said:

“We are putting community back at the heart of our Local Plan. It will help make Elmbridge the place we all want it to be as we rebuild after the pandemic. We want to make sure that our area is thriving with sustainable communities and businesses. We also believe that is is crucial that the residents of Elmbridge are given a voice in shaping our future. That’s why we stand against the Conservative government’s unrealistic housing target for Elmbridge. It has to go. The pandemic has proved how important our green spaces are to health and well-being. We have to put a stop to a system which would trample over our green spaces and damage the character of our towns.”

Lib Dems also challenged the Conservative government last year when they proposed huge planning reforms which would silence the voices of local residents in planning applications. After huge public outcry, and the Lib Dem victory in Chesham and Amersham, the Tories were forced to U-Turn and scrap their unpopular plans.

Local resident and Lib Dem campaigner, Gill Smith: “Lib Dems want to see our glorious area protected, and we want to make sure that local residents get a say in what happens in their local community. So many people tell us on the doorstep that they’re fed up with being ignored by the government and want to see a local team stand up for the things they care about, like our green spaces.”

 

New station car park cycle ‘sheds’

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Those who have visited the car park on the town side of the station recently will have noticed two new cycle storage facilities. The near one in the photo is for general rail traveller use which is in addition to the racks next to the ticket office. The far one is going to be used for a ‘collect and ride’ scheme operated by the Brooklands Business Park; this aims to encourage workers to travel by train and then cycle along the new Brooklands Accessibility path to their offices and workplaces – another way of reducing vehicle emissions and traffic congestion.

New GSK HQ

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Application 2021/4257- New HQ for GSK

Glaxo Smith Kline, GSK, has submitted a planning application to build on a vacant site in The Heights Business Park between the Sony Europe and the Proctor & Gamble offices. Designed to be the HQ of their new Consumer Healthcare company it would house a Research & Development and Innovation space, a state-of-the-art Shopper Science lab, general office space and global support functions. About 1400 people will be employed at the site, some being moved from the current GSK site off St George’s Avenue which we understand GSK will close and probably be redeveloped. 

We know some residents are concerned that permission is being sought for a new building when there are a number of office blocks in the vicinity which have been vacant for some time and others are worried about over-development in the Locke King / Brooklands area. It seems a pity that GSK didn’t seek to refurbish one or more of these blocks for their new HQ. However, these have received approval for a change of use to flats under the government’s Permitted Development provisions and GSK argue that only a state-of-the-art, purpose-built, energy efficient building would suit their purposes.

Churchfields Town Paths

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At last there has been a positive decision from the Local Inquiry that was held on the 7th September last year. The Inquiry was ordered by the Secretary of State and it has determined that the town paths running through the heart of Weybridge, which were upgraded last year as part of the new link between the town centre and Brooklands Business Park, could be shared by cyclists and pedestrians.

The paths have been used by recreational, slow-moving cyclists and by school children attending Heathside School for many years as a convenient and safe way of travelling around the town. We realise that some people feel vulnerable on the paths and your councillors have worked with the Weybridge Society to promote a Share with Care campaign; signs that have been specially designed will now be placed along the paths with the aim of supporting the campaign to encourage all users to be considerate, careful and safe.  

What you told us

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We’ve analysed the views coming out of the survey which was dropped through Weybridge Riverside letter boxes last November:

Excluding the don’t knows, 69% thought government needed to do more to tackle climate change, with more electric vehicle charging points and a proper commitment to insulate homes the main demands.

And 58% (again excluding the don’t knows) thought that more needed to be done to enable the building of affordable homes. But people questioned whether “affordable” homes were actually affordable and had few solutions to the problem.

People like living here because of the green spaces, river, convenience for London, schools, high street and safe environment. But they were concerned about overdevelopment, insufficient parking, air pollution and the future of the walk-in centre.

Support for traffic calming measures in the High Street was very mixed. There was concern about Traffic density and/or speed on Heath Road and at the top of Monument Hill. And several “rat runs” were highlighted (Portmore Park Road, Elgin Road and York Road).

Some misunderstanding!

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An offer of assistance with garden waste collections from Runnymede Council? Misunderstandings cleared up.

Elmbridge Borough Council has taken the extraordinary step of quashing the rumours started by Cllr John Cope, Leader of the Conservatives. He has repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims that Runnymede Borough Council has offered to assist EBC with garden waste collections whilst the service is temporarily suspended due to the ongoing HGV driver shortage. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/57810729

The first we (the Administration and the officers) heard of this claim was at the Council meeting on 29th September, when Cllr Cope accused EBC Leader, Cllr Chris Sadler, of having been on the receiving end of an offer of help from Runnymede and ‘failing to follow it up.’ A baffled Cllr Sadler confirmed that he had not received any such offer and asked for a paper trail in order to be able to track down the precise details.

No such paper trail was received. The same question was tabled by former Conservative Leader, Cllr Browne, for the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on the 21st October. LibDem Cllr Ashley Tilling, Portfolio holder for the Environment, checked with EBC and JWS* officers before the meeting and no-one had received any offers of help from Runnymede BC. Cllr Tilling asked Cllr Browne if he could supply any details so that this could be followed up; none were forthcoming.

The same claim of an offer was again made in the Council meeting on 8th December. But a new twist was added. This time Cllr Cope accompanied his claims with a ‘paper trail’ in the form of an email he had received that very day (8th December) from the Leader of Runnymede Council, Cllr Nick Prescot, which he claimed ‘confirmed his earlier offer.’

In fact, careful reading of the Runnymede Leader’s letter only served to confirm what Cllr Sadler had been saying all along.  There was never any formal offer of assistance to Elmbridge to help with the current crisis, just informal conversations at Surrey-wide meetings in the context of shared services generally. As Cllr Prescot clearly says in his email, these discussions were about:  “.. shared services….like CCTV, procurement, IT etc.”

To avoid any further doubt, we can also quote from Cllr Prescot’s email. He claims: “I have mentioned the offer of mutual assistance with the Leader of EBC, Cllr Chris Sadler, to offer our support to rescue garden waste collection services in Elmbridge. It was our (sic) intention that this would lead to further conversations of having a shared service in the future.”

Today, 16th December, EBC has issued a statement to quash the rumours that Runnymede offered help which was refused. They highlight the following:

1          EBC approached a number of other local Councils, including Runnymede, some months ago when it was becoming clear the garden waste service was under threat, to see if any assistance could be provided. No offer was forthcoming from any other borough at that time, or since, including Runnymede.

2          Senior Officers from Runnymede have confirmed that Cllr Prescot’s verbal offer was intended to refer to exploring the possibility of shared services in the medium term, not as a solution to the current garden waste situation.

3          Senior Officers at Runnymede have also confirmed that they have no capacity to help Elmbridge with garden waste collections at the current time, or in the immediate future.

4          The Energy & Sustainability Committee in Runnymede (the Committee that has responsibility for garden waste collections) has never discussed the possibility of helping Elmbridge Borough Council.

We too hope that this helps clear up any continuing misunderstandings that Cllr Cope and his colleagues may have. It is deeply regrettable that their misreading of the situation has led to unpleasant exchanges in the Council Chamber and personal attacks on social media that have called into question the integrity of Cllr Sadler and the actions of the Administration, who have steadfastly stuck to the facts throughout.

EBC and the rest of our partners in the Joint Waste Solutions group remain deeply concerned about our contractor’s inability to deliver the garden waste collections service that many of our residents have come to rely on and we remain committed to restoring the service as soon as we can.

*EBC is part of the Joint Waste Solutions (JWS) contract operated with Woking, Mole Valley and Surrey Heath councils and are in no position to unilaterally discuss alternative contractual arrangements at this stage.

River Safety

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The British winter doesn’t stop rowers and kayakers on our stretch of the Thames from venturing out when the temperature drops!

In the last few months, your local Councillors have worked with the Environment Agency (EA), other water-sport clubs and the River Users Group to try to make our stretch of the Thames a safer place for the enjoyment of river activities. Fallen trees, many partially submerged along the bank, have been a constant reminder of the ruthless chainsaw felling earlier in the year and the aftermath of some powerful storms. The obstructions they cause can easily cause a capsize of an unwary visitor in any small boat which, in freezing temperatures, can be dangerous.

Cllr Ashley Tilling & Eva Ferlez winning their event at Walton SBH

We are pleased to report that many of the broken trees and overhanging branches were cut back and removed just in time for the Walton Small Boats Head race on the 11th December.

We continue to try to identify places where we could plant new trees to help to combat climate change and to make our green spaces more attractive (see article here). We will also keep working with EBC to persuade the EA to take their responsibilities seriously and remove the unsightly and polluting illegally moored boats that continue to proliferate on our Elmbridge stretches of the Thames.

Protect our Rivers from Raw Sewage

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Our protest against dumping raw sewage

Last week the government rejected a Lords’ amendment to place a legal duty on water companies to reduce raw sewage discharges into rivers. Yet every river in England is polluted beyond legal limits. In England last year, water companies released untreated human waste directly into our waterways over 400,000 times for a total of 3.1 million hours.

Thames Water sewage data show hundreds of illegal spills:
https://on.ft.com/2ZEdJVZ

Can the water companies afford to improve their sewage systems to prevent discharges? This article suggests that they have spent billions on share dividends that could have been used to tackle this problem: cutting sewage spills 

Many people in Weybridge use the Thames to improve their well-being through sport and recreation. Our local MP, Dr Ben Spencer, voted with the government to reject the amendment to clean up our rivers. You can contact him by email to challenge him on his position: ben.spencer.mp@parliament.uk

 

Town Path Local Inquiry

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You will have noticed that the upgrading of the paths around Churchfields was completed in May. Not only were these busy paths widened to 3 metres wherever possible to make them safer for all users but the proposals put forward by Cllr Ashley Tilling (for lighting to be installed on the path between the playground and the allotments, to move the fences to provide a much safer s-bend next to the skate park, and for the route into town through the car park to be made good) were all agreed and implemented.

However, a Local Inquiry is to be held at 1000 on the 7th September (venue to be decided) to determine whether the paths should be shared for both cyclists and pedestrians. Written representations should be made by 10th August to Sarah.tudor@planninginspectorate.gov.uk, using the same address to register intentions to attend the inquiry.

To download the details of the Inquiry click on this link: Pre Inquiry noteDPIQ36302110 PIM Note 21 07 21