I would like to commend Mole Valley’s MP, Paul Beresford, for the lead he has taken in criticising the regionalisation of planning and sidelining of local people under the new Planning & Compulsory Purchase Act (Surrey Advertiser, 3 September 2004). This community leadership is in strong contrast to Guildford’s Liberal Democrat MP who supports the abolition of Surrey’s role in planning and wants building decisions to be made by the remote and unwanted South East England Regional Assembly.
Yet, Surrey also faces growing threats from Whitehall, not just regional bureaucrats. John Prescott’s Department has recently published new planning guidelines on countryside development (‘Planning Policy Statement 7’), with small print that weakens the presumption against building on Surrey’s best quality farmland.
I fear that this could open the floodgates for a barrage of attempts by developers to cover some of our most beautiful and valuable countryside with concrete, such as that across North East Guildford. It is clear that the Labour Government want to mitigate for their failure to stop the rural depression in agriculture - by bulldozing what’s left of it.
Cllr Sheridan Westlake
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