Save Warlingham's Green Belt (SWGB)

‘Exceptional Circumstances’ The Local Plan process allows you to alter your Green Belt boundaries if there are exceptional reasons such as employment growth, a new school or doctors surgery etc.

‘Infrastructure’ roads, electricity, sewerage, water, schools, health provision and open spaces. New development is required to provide new infrastructure or upgrades to existing facilities to ensure that the needs of new developments can be met.  New development cannot deal with existing shortages.

‘Traffic generated by new development?’ Detailed transport modelling work to find out the impacts that significant housing and employment growth will have on roads. When the potential impacts have been identified, then an assessment of what improvements to roads and transport will be needed to ensure the current situation is improved and not made worse. Encouragement of walking, cycling and new transport.

‘School and healthcare capacity’ including sports and open space provision.

However,

There are ‘NO EXCEPTIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES FOR GREEN BELT RELEASE’

For example:

John Fisher Sports Ground and Greenacres Sports Ground was for a new primary school and 190 houses but there was:

• No public consultation on this, especially when John Fisher was slipped into the Local Plan last minute.
• Warlingham Village Primary School was to close and move to the new site but Hamsey Green Primary School capacity was never assessed; they had plenty of spaces.
• Since 2019, the Local Plan Inspector has repeatedly asked TDC for an update on education provision because he was not convinced that a new school was required. SCC did  supply TDC with an update, but this was not passed onto the Inspector.
• In 2021, Surrey County Council confirmed there was ‘no need’ for a new school.

So therefore, John Fisher and Greenacres should have been removed from the Local Plan.

Land at Alexandra Avenue and Greenhill Lane for 25 houses and ‘25 unit Extra Affordable Care facility’. An Extra Care home is where you have your own front door but shared community facilities such as a restaurant, lounge or gym but residents still have their own independence and can pay for care as and when they need it. However:

• Tandridge District Council and Surrey County Council, who are in charge of Social Care, have never had any communication in the suitability or need for Care Provision on this site.

• The developer has recently tested the market for an extra care development, but the results found that the entire site would need to come forward to be viable, it would need to be constructed at higher density, namely blocks of flats between 2.5 and 3 storeys, which would be out of character.

The developer has absolutely no intention of providing an Extra Care facility on this site and so the removal of this site from the Green Belt is ‘unjustified’.

INFRASTRUCTURE

• Tandridge District Council has admitted that sites were put in the draft Local Plan before infrastructure was assessed.

• Infrastructure listed were nothing more than wish lists:

‘‘Alexandra Avenue/Greenhill Lane’ and ‘Farleigh Meadows highways improvements were ‘Sunnybank alleviation’, as Greenhill Lane bridleway was to be made into a proper road.  Developer was only to provide signage on Alexandra Road and Greenhill Lane asking drivers to use Sunnybank instead, in order to prevent traffic on our rural roads. For Farleigh Meadows this signage was used as an exceptional reason for Green Belt release.

• Vague mention of expansion of Warlingham Doctors surgeries, not implemented.

• ‘School and healthcare capacity – Doctors did not respond to the consultation and school places were not assessed.

TRAFFIC GENERATED BY NEW DEVELOPMENT?’ SHOULD BE IMPROVED & NOT MADE WORSE!

• No proper transport assessment of our local roads, especially our village green, which is expected to take the cars from 400- 600 new homes. This development would make the already grid-locked Green worse!

• Tandridge District Council never looked at the Capacity of M25 junction 6 or the A22 before they submitted the Local Plan for examination.  Estimated cost to Junction 6 improvements is £70 million and no funding is in place. Developments in Warlingham will cause further capacity issues on the M25 because we are a commuter village as we don’t have large scale employment sites in the area.

• In 2019, Tandridge District Council were denied Government funding for upgrading the motorway due to the lack of consideration of the impact on our ‘local road’ network.

• Several of the Warlingham sites were to provide a cycle track from The Green to Upper Warlingham Station. No plan was considered as to how the costs would be shared between the different developers.

• When we were to lose our Warlingham Sports pitches for houses, they were to be replaced at the new ‘South Godstone Garden Village’ and Warlingham and Godstone. A cycle track was to be installed between Warlingham to Godstone so that we could cycle to Godstone’s new playing pitches, play 90 minutes of football and then cycle back home to Warlingham!