In February and March Mole Valley District Council consulted residents on the draft of a New Local Plan which, when adopted, will set the ground rules for potential development in our area up to 2033.
The District Council received over 4,000 responses to the consultation and we would like to thank everybody who took the time to make their views known.
The consultation asked three initial questions and the results of these questions were:
We have taken a ‘brownfield first’ approach, with the need for new development being met within built up areas or on previously developed land as far as possible. Do you agree with our ‘brownfield first’ approach?
The Response: Yes 90% – No 10%
We have sought to make more efficient use of land of brownfield land through: town centre redevelopment; limited reallocation of employment land; mixed-use redevelopment; and increasing densities in opportunity areas. Do you broadly agree with these approaches?
The Response: Yes 79% – No 21%
However efficiently brownfield land is reused, there is still an unmet need for housing which can only be met on land that has not previously been built on. Do you agree with the use of a small amount of undeveloped, greenfield land for this purpose?
The Response: Yes 26% – No 74%
These responses give a strong indication of views within the community.
The District Council will now take a qualitative approach to reviewing the comments made and is currently working its way through thousands of responses that provide much greater detail on the opinions held by the community. This, together with refining the evidence used to put the draft Local Plan together, will take several months.
The key themes in these comments include the principle of development on greenfield sites, the distribution of future development around the District, infrastructure capacity and improvements, the conservation and enhancement of existing areas, and landscape and biodiversity concerns.
When we launched this consultation we promised that it would be a genuine consultation and that it was not a “rubber stamp” exercise. We will now be taking account of these responses before bringing a Revised Draft Local Plan forward and in preparing this Revided Draft the District Council will look at how it selects sites for development and will take account of your views.