Mole Valley Green Belt
Boundary Review
Between now and the 28th March, the Council is inviting views
on its initial thoughts about reviewing the Green Belt boundary around
Mole Valley’s towns and larger villages which are set out in a consultation
paper.
I
am writing to you as you have previously made comments on, or expressed an
interest in, our plan making work.
We
hope the following questions and answers help you to understand why the Green
Belt boundary is being reviewed and how you can take part in the
process.
What is the Green Belt?
Some 75% of Mole Valley is within the Metropolitan Green Belt which
surrounds London.
The current boundary of the Green Belt in Mole Valley has been in place for around 30
years and in many areas over 50 years. The aim of Green Belt policy is to
prevent urban sprawl by keeping land permanently
open.
Why
is the Council reviewing the Green Belt
boundary?
Principally the need to review the boundary stems from the fact that the
Council needs to make sure there is enough land available for 3,760 new homes in
the period from 2006 to 2026.
Around 1500 of this total have already been built, almost entirely within
the District’s towns and larger villages.
However, it is recognised that even taking into account
previously-developed sites, there is not enough available land within the
built-up areas to accommodate the remaining number of homes that the Council has
to plan for. Therefore land outside the boundaries of the District’s towns and
larger villages represents the only other major source of land in the
District. This land is currently in
the Green Belt.
The
Council is acutely aware that using land in the Green Belt to provide new homes
will be controversial and is not taking this work forward lightly, but there are
exceptional reasons why it is necessary to do so.
Why
this number of new homes?
The
amount of new housing to be provided in Mole Valley
in the period to 2026 was established by the previous government in its plan for
the South East and then incorporated into the Council’s strategic plan for
Mole
Valley (known as the Core
Strategy). The current government is intending to abolish the regional plan in
due course and requires local councils to set their own housing targets.
However, this process will take some time to complete. In the meantime, it is clear that there
is not enough available housing land in the District to meet the housing
requirements in the Council’s current plan.
The
Council now needs to act swiftly to show where the remaining 2,200 new homes
will be provided in the District. If this is not done in a planned way, led by
the Council working in partnership with local communities, there is a risk that
ad hoc planning applications for housing in the Green Belt may be permitted
through the appeal process.
How
is the review being carried out?
Land in the Green Belt around the District’s towns and larger villages
has been assessed against a range of criteria. These criteria are based upon the
Government’s National Planning Policy Framework. The results of this assessment
are published in a consultation document called “Green Belt Boundary Review
2013”.
This consultation document does not identify sites for development or
land that should be taken out of the Green Belt. Rather, it is seeking to identify those
parts of the Green Belt that meet the purposes of the Green Belt least well. It
will be used to inform the preparation of a new plan that will identify sites
for development. A draft of this plan will be published for consultation towards
the end of this year.
We
want your views
We
would welcome your views at this early stage in the process so that we can be
sure that our assessment of the performance of areas of the Green Belt against
its purposes can be broadly agreed. It is this that will form the basis of the
work on identifying development sites.
The
Green Belt boundary review document and related information is available to view
and comment on by visiting our consultation
pages, by visiting www.molevalley.gov.uk/localplans and following the links or by visiting the Council Offices (Dorking),
the Leatherhead Help Shop and libraries in the
District.
If
you need any further help or explanation please do not hesitate to contact us on
01306 885001 or e-mail planning.policy@molevalley.gov.uk. Please also let us know if you no longer wish
to be contacted in relation to planning policy work in Mole
Valley.
Yours faithfully
Jack
Straw
Jack Straw
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