The Role of CCHT in Planning

The Cobham Conservation and Heritage Trust (CCHT) has no formal legal status as regards both the planning and conservation agenda.  We are a voluntary body whose role is to influence decision makers as regards decisions that we feel best serve the interest of the local community in a sustainable manner.

CCHT is governed through the CCHT committee which meets broadly monthly, the membership of which is ratified annually through the annual general meeting of the CCHT membership. Detailed work is carried out through a sub committee and regular reports are made to the main committee for ratification of straightforward decisions and consideration of complex or high profile decisions.

Planning
In relation to planning the mandate of CCHT is to:

• Act in the interests of the broader Cobham community.
  
• Respect, protect and promote the important aspects of Cobham heritage – Conservation Areas, locally and statutory listed buildings, the Green belt and other areas of general or special interest.
  
• Respect the significance of historical artifacts in the context of a modern society.
• Act in accordance with the regulatory framework.
• In most instances we will not get involved in individual planning applications unless they impact important historical and heritage artifacts or create serious precedence which would impact the same or our community.
• To promote the importance of the planning agenda within Cobham and on important planning applications to actively promote the interests of the community and inform the people of Cobham directly and indirectly through a range of instruments – website, press, email, posters but not restricted to these vehicles.

In general terms CCHT will look to use volunteer resources to fulfill these responsibilities along with whatever additional resources can be obtained through statutory responsibilities or of other volunteer resources from other interested bodies. 

From time to time, external professional help may be sought as specifically approved by the CCHT committee.  We will work with other external bodies including those responsible for development and planning applications to attempt to proactively ensure that applications respect the principles of the CCHT.  We will also work with other interest groups to publicise the interests of CCHT planning and conservation including the press.