Member Article

Ingrid Tarrant spearheads campaign against Taylor Wimpey development in Surrey

Developers Taylor Wimpey face a growing backlash to plans for a 1,730-home development in Wisley, Surrey, after the Government’s abandonment of top-down housing targets.

TV personality Ingrid Tarrant has joined the the campaign against the controversial planning application, which is being led by Wisley Action Group (WAG) and has attracted more than 1,200 objections, including from Heathrow Airport, Gatwick Airport, The Royal Horticultural Society, Surrey County Council, Surrey Wildlife Trust and several parish councils.

Campaigners say the development would concrete over more than 150 acres of prime agricultural land and have a devastating impact on the Thames Basin Heath, endangering rare birds and other protected species.

A previous planning application by a Cayman Islands-based developer was rejected by the Secretary of State in 2018 on 14 grounds after the planning inspector ruled that the failure to provide adequate infrastructure was a major failing.

In 2019, the former Wisley Airfield site, which adjoins the historic village of Ockham, was stripped of Greenbelt status in the Guildford Local Plan at an emergency council meeting just a week before the Conservatives lost power in the local elections.

Controversially, the Local Plan assessed Guildford’s housing need at 10,678 homes between 2015 and 2034 but allocated enough sites for 14,602 homes. The Office for Statistics and Regulations [OSR] found that population estimates for Guildford “seem to be inconsistent with and potentially higher than local evidence would suggest”.

In December 2022, Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove told MPs the Government was abandoning top-down targets, saying there was no objective way to calculate how many new homes are needed in an area.

Now, campaigners believe Mr Gove’s intervention could prove pivotal when the Taylor Wimpey planning application is considered by the planning committee, expected to be in March 2023. The WAG campaign is being watched closely by the Community Planning Alliance, a national umbrella campaign, working with more than 500 groups fighting developments across the UK.

Campaigners argue that 13 of the 14 grounds on which the original rejection was rejected remain valid, including the impact on local infrastructure; thousands of extra cars on rural lanes; damage to the air quality; and the impact on heathland, threatening protected species.

Ingrid Tarrant, WAG supporter, said:

“Such a vast housing development would destroy historic Ockham and the surrounding area. It is pure environmental vandalism and a rape of the land. This part of rural Surrey has always been a farming community and home to generations of farmers, dating back as far as the Domesday book.

Once the land is developed it can never be returned to agriculture and we need native farmland more than ever, with so much turbulence going on in the world. The development was rejected by the Secretary of State in 2018 and that should have been the end of it. However, the fight continues, and I am confident we will defeat this scheme once again.“

Tony Edwards, WAG spokesperson, said:

“We believe we have a winning hand in the defence of this former green belt land, especially in light of the Government’s abandonment of top-down housing targets. Our battle is of national importance because if we are defeated it would create a precedent for developers to build on green spaces across the country”.

Rosie Pearson, Chair of the Community Planning Alliance, said:

“There are very good reasons why a planning application at Wisley Airfield has been refused previously. Guildford Borough Council has declared a climate emergency and development of isolated sites like the former Wisley Airfield should always be rejected in favour of compact, transit-oriented and walkable developments that meet local need, near local jobs.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Lucie Hayes .