Surrey County Conservatives

Barker Proposals will not be good for the people of Surrey 24th January

SCC’s Executive Member for the Environment, David Munro (Farnham South), and the Chairman of the Environment & Economy Select Committee, Marian Myland (Godstone), have criticised the Barker Report on Planning, which was published by the Government last week, for being undemocratic and bad for Surrey.

The report, commissioned by the Department for Local Government and Communities and HM Treasury, proposes significant changes to the way in which the planning system works.

While Surrey Conservatives can support the drive to simplify and streamline a system that is expensive to run, and can blight communities for years while decisions are made, in other respects the report is bad news for Surrey residents.

David Munro explains: “Firstly, it says that planning applications should be approved unless there are good reasons why they shouldn’t be. This dramatically shifts the ‘burden of proof’ onto local authorities and local residents, rather than having, as now, a level playing field. The result will be many more on-the-margin applications being approved than at present.

Secondly, Barker calls for a ‘review of Green Belt boundaries’, especially near towns. She ignores the fact that the whole point of the Green Belt – which protects over two-thirds of the county from harmful development – is to prevent urban sprawl encroaching on to our much-loved countryside. It’s not only country people who need the Green Belt, it’s town and city-dwellers who use it for essential recreation and leisure”.

Marian Myland added: “Many local people already feel powerless against developers. Barker will make matters worse. Local planning decisions should be taken by locally elected councillors at a local level, where they are accountable to the public, and it should be for Surrey residents to decide upon the future of our county”.

Summing up, David said: “The Conservative Party has already made it clear that we are emphatically NOT against more houses, especially for our young people and key workers such as police officers and nurses. But they must be built in the right place and have sufficient infrastructure (roads, schools, water, electricity etc) to support them. Barker tilts the balance too far between building more houses at the expense of losing valued areas of our green space which, once lost, is gone for ever”.