Sunbury's Denial of Democracy

Inexplicably, but not surprisingly a government appointed inspector has overturned the unanimous decision of local councillors to refuse an application by developers to build a retirement village in Sunbury Common.

Local councillor Harry Boparai was interviewed by BBC Radio Surrey on the 2nd December:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0k8chmz

Of the 227 responses by local residents to the proposal, all 227 were against, mainly on the grounds that this farm land is high value green belt. There is also a lack of supporting infrastructure and the surrounding properties are liable to flooding. For these reasons local councillors unanimously rejected the application. However, in 1990, the Conservative Government gave government appointed inspectors the power to overturn the decisions of democratically elected local councillors.

Sadly, this has happened here. Local Liberal Democrat councillors, Harry Boparai and Suraj Gyawali, condemned the current planning process as a “Denial of Democracy.” The government appointed inspector agreed that the harm to the Green Belt was significant, but not substantial and she therefore found in favour of the developers. She decided that the need for housing outweighed the harmful effects of this development. The Local Plan was irrelevant to the application.

During the course of the £500,000 appeal proceedings, which Harry and Suraj attended to present residents' views, it was confirmed that the site, which had been used for landfill, is heavily contaminated. Beneath the surface there are, amongst other things, hidden pockets of gas and asbestos.

Unfortunately contamination is not a permissible ground for refusal. The developers may not have budgeted for this when they made their initial application a few years ago. To mitigate the health and safety issues they have pledged to lay membranes under the properties to prevent the seepage of gas into the homes. Also, they have promised to keep the asbestos damp during construction. Not only will these measures add to their costs, but the potential sale price of the properties will be vastly reduced. Who would buy a house built on asbestos and pockets of gas, and which is liable to flooding?

Therefore the developers will not make the profit they originally envisaged. Developers are currently sitting upon thousands of acres of land across the country with planning permission. This may happen here in Sunbury. If the developers do decide to proceed, Harry and Suraj will ensure that all 36 conditions imposed by the inspector are adhered to. The underlying problem is that there is no local democracy as far as planning is concerned. It is the Liberal Democrat policy to return planning decisions to locally elected councillors, who are accountable to their residents and who know what is best for their local community.

You can view the full decision by following the link below:
acp.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/ ViewDocument.aspx?fileid=59986942