What’s in a Name?

Names matter – and it matters how they are used. I live in Normandy – that’s Normandy in Surrey rather than Normandy in France, by the way – an important difference when you are setting your SatNav. At least I thought I lived in Normandy, until earlier this month when Guildford Borough Council (GBC) published its latest draft Local Plan. This includes proposals to create a massive building site on the green fields between the two settlements of Normandy and Flexford, taking the whole of the resulting conurbation out of the Green Belt. Then I realised that according to GBC I actually live in Flexford; or at least that I live in Flexford for the purposes of assessing my village’s contribution to the openness of the Green Belt, but that I live in Normandy and Flexford for the purposes of evaluating whether I live in a sustainable community or not…

Destroy, destroy, destroy…

How do these people sleep at night?  The Pegasus consultancy was re-engaged by the council to re-assess its own flawed previous Green Belt & Countryside Study, wherein Volume 4 written in response to the changed circumstances induced by the NPPF was roundly criticised by residents across the borough for errors in fact and analysis, and write a new Volume 5.  Its astonishing isn’t it, how in a democratic society the gamekeeper can be allowed to let the fox into the chicken coop again.

Lies, damned lies and… the Settlement Hierarchy

Thanks to the eagle eyes of borough residents, the slippery recasting of the Settlement Hierarchy between its first version in the Green Belt & Countryside Study [GBCS], Vol III, July 2013 and the Settlement Hierarchy tables released in the Local Plan Issues & Options, Appendix C, November 2013 has been revealed.

First shots fired in development salvo

An architect representing the owner of the land at North Wyke Farm, Normandy (Issues and Options Site 43, SHLAA Site 2007, H16-D, 3.4 Ha) brought along some initial outline illustrations of site development to wave in front of residents and the parish council at last night’s (Wednesday 27 November 2013) parish council meeting.

Four days to go – a resident’s advice

Dear Fellow Normandy Residents,

My apologies for bothering you again, but in case you haven’t managed to respond to Guildford Borough Council (GBC)’s consultation on the Local Plan I thought I would remind you that the deadline is 1700 hours this Friday, 29 November.

Keep Normandy ‘washed over’ by the Green Belt

Normandy is a dispersed community made up of 5 hamlets joined together by ribbon development.  From a planning point of view we are regarded as made up of two settlements, Flexford and Normandy.  This has been deliberately misrepresented in the GBC evidence documents as a Large Village when it is no bigger than and has almost the same services as the combined settlements of East and West Clandon.

Normandy hits local headlines

The pros and cons of the impact of proposals for eight potential development areas in Flexford and Normandy for over 700 new houses, and a hint of a whole lot more, featured on the front page of the Ash & Farnham News & Mail today.