We
have a Neighbourhood Plan in
Runnymede, that went to
referendum last
week, that included a
detailed boundary change to the
Green Belt (1.76ha of
land to be removed from the Green
Belt to provide 40 homes which
will then enable the developer to
bring forward a range of other
facilities on the rest of the site
which will remain in the Green
Belt (the uses proposed are
appropriate in the Green Belt and
include a country
park). The forum's ideas were
clear at an early stage in terms of
their vision for the area. This vision was
formulated following extensive
community consultation which
strongly showed a desire for
additional facilities for the
community. The Forum came up with a
number of options to achieve their
vision, but
concluded that the only realistic
option available was to
take land out of the Green
Belt for a small
amount of housing in order
to fund the community facilities
that they wanted in the area. This
Plan was developed alongside the
Local Plan and so the Plan had the
support of the Council.
Another
Neighbourhood Forum, which is at a
much earlier stage in the process
i.e. have no Regulation 14 Plan
are also wanting to remove land
from the Green Belt. Not clear
currently what the exceptional
circumstances are for this change,
how much land will be required to
be removed, what the reasons are
for this removal and how that will
fit in with the recently adopted
Local Plan for Runnymede.
As it is the second NP that we are having to deal
with that addresses this issue I was interested to hear if
others have also experience in this area. (Sorry for the delay
in responding, have been having IT issues and the PAS website
seemed to be down on Friday).