When a Local Plan is ‘withdrawn’ the procedure is to remove the draft Local Plan and ALL the evidence base from the Council’s website because they need to start again.

However, Tandridge District Council’s Planning Policy Committee on 21st March 2024, has recommended for Full Council to remove and then republish the evidence base onto another part of the Council’s site. 

The Council’s justification to republish these documents is they will be used ‘as a material consideration in the determining of planning applications’. Officers will then review and update the information where necessary.

SWGB strongly feels that:

1. It’s the Council’s own material, they don’t need it to be published on a website to use, review or update it. 
2. Any evidence that is publicly available on the Council’s website can be used by developers to support planning applications and appeals.
3. The evidence is based on the National Planning Policy Framework 2012! The Government has made several revisions to  this framework as we are now on the 2023 version. 
4. The Local Plan Inspector had nothing positive to say about the draft Local Plan 2033, as he was very clear in his report that the evidence base was out of date and the ‘exceptional circumstances’ for Green Belt release do not exist. 
5. SWGB feels that any previously allocated sites are now ‘null and void’ and that planning applications should only be judged on ‘Very Special Circumstances’ test and our current Local Plan, not on the flawed evidence. 

If the Council is serious about ‘stopping the rot’ from the flawed draft Local Plan 2033 then the evidence base should NOT be republished. This is just another attempt by our current administration to support planning applications on Warlingham’s Green Belt. 

Please watch item 5 of the Planning Policy Committee meeting on the 21st March 2024 (link here). Warlingham Cllr Keith Prew was against the republishing of the evidence base as he felt it will be used against Warlingham’s Green Belt.