Agenda and minutes

Planning and Regulatory Committee - Wednesday, 25 January 2023 10.30 am

Venue: Council Chamber, Woodhatch Place, 11 Cockshot Hill, Reigate, Surrey, RH2 8EF

Contact: Joss Butler  Email: joss.butler@surreycc.gov.uk

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Items
No. Item

1/23

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND SUBSTITUTIONS

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    To receive any apologies for absence and notices of substitutions under Standing Order 41.

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    Apologies for absence were received from Harry Boparai.

2/23

MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING pdf icon PDF 210 KB

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    To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 7 December 2022.

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    Minutes:

    The Minutes were approved as an accurate record of the previous meeting.

3/23

PETITIONS

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    To receive any petitions from members of the public in accordance with Standing Order 84 (please see note 5 below).

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    There were none.

4/23

PUBLIC QUESTION TIME

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    To answer any questions received from local government electors within Surrey in accordance with Standing Order 85 (please see note 6 below).

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    There were none.

5/23

MEMBERS' QUESTION TIME

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    To answer any questions received from Members of the Council in accordance with Standing Order 68.

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    There were none.

6/23

DECLARATIONS OF INTERESTS

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    All Members present are required to declare, at this point in the meeting or as soon as possible thereafter

    (i)            Any disclosable pecuniary interests and / or

    (ii)           Other interests arising under the Code of Conduct in respect of any item(s) of business being considered at this meeting

    NOTES:

    ·         Members are reminded that they must not participate in any item where they have a disclosable pecuniary interest

    ·         As well as an interest of the Member, this includes any interest, of which the Member is aware, that relates to the Member’s spouse or civil partner (or any person with whom the Member is living as a spouse or civil partner)

    ·         Members with a significant personal interest may participate in the discussion and vote on that matter unless that interest could be reasonably regarded as prejudicial.

     

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    Jeffrey Gay declared that he was a Member of Tandridge District Council and noted that he was not in attendance to the meeting at the district council related to Item 7 of the agenda.

7/23

Surrey County Council Proposal TA/2021/1983 - Pendell Transit Camp, Land off Merstham Road, Merstham, Surrey pdf icon PDF 803 KB

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    Use of the land as a ten-pitch transit site for the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community, including the erection of amenity blocks and site manager’s office, creation of a vehicular access, landscaping, parking and refuse storage and associated works.

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    Officers:

    Caroline Smith (Planning Group Manager)

    Nancy El-Shatoury (Principal Solicitor)

    Sonia Sharp (Senior Highways and Planning Solicitor)

    Stephen Jenkins (Planning Development Manager)

    Chris Turner (Senior Planning Officer)

    Dawn Horton Baker (Planning Development Team Leader)

    Samantha Murphy (Planning Development Team Leader)

     

    The Chairman asked the Principal Solicitor to provide an overview of the procedure for the application. The Principal Solicitor explained that the application to be considered was a Regulation 3 application, which was an application by the county council to the county council, and therefore there was no normal right of appeal should the application be refused. The Committee noted that, If Members were to come to the view to follow the officer recommendation to refuse, then the application would be referred back to the applicant with the grounds for refusal which would apply were the application to be determined. It is then open to the applicant to return the application to committee for determination with revisions or without revisions, or to withdraw the application.

     

    Speakers:

     

    Angela Balfour made representations in objection to the application. The following key points were made:

     

    1. That both Tandridge and Surrey officers recommend refusal as there was insufficient need to override the protection of the Green Belt and area of outstanding natural beauty.
    2. The applicant states that there was a clear need for a transit camp in the east of Surrey despite reporting 390 unauthorised encampments in the west of Surrey and only 142 in the east.
    3. Asked why there was a need to spend millions to move travellers to a site where they don’t want to be.
    4. That a landowner hoped to open a private transit camp near Guildford which would cost the county nothing but the council had only considered sites on its own land.  
    5. That apparently the Met Police could move travellers to the site, at the council’s cost, which could block use of the site by Surrey.
    6. That national planning policy for travellers required authorities to provide a settled based which would reduce the number of unauthorised encampments and ensure that Travellers’ children could attend school. The resident further said that the council had originally said that there would be no access to schools or GPs, but now claimed that internet sessions with a teacher, and drop in sessions with a healthcare provider could be arranged.
    7. Asked why detail on the number of people of the waiting list for permanent sites had not been released.
    8. That Surrey had closed 21 pitches locally and asked where these families had been relocated to.
    9. That Tandridge had a shortfall of permanent sites and that money would be better spent on providing small, permanent family sites.
    10. That experience showed that large sites or mixing transit travellers with permanent residents did not work.
    11. That the existing residents were appalled that they were not consulted.
    12. That there was no access to the local highway network as access roads were narrow, liable to floods and through residential areas.
    13. Noted that the site had air quality and noise issues.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7/23

8/23

DATE OF NEXT MEETING

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    The next meeting of the Planning and Regulatory Committee will be on 22 February 2023.

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    The date of the next meeting was noted.