Cobham Heritage

Letter from Cobham Heritage to South Area Planning Sub-committee Ref: 1-7 Holly Parade

The Cobham Conservation and Heritage Trust has analysed the case officer's report which is recommending approval for the planning application 2016/2185 - 1-7 Holly Parade, High Street, Cobham, Surrey KT11 3EE.

We strongly object and have included the main letter below sent to South Area Planning Sub-committee stating why we believe the application should be refused.

Please come and support us at the South Area Planning Sub-Committee on Monday 12th December at 7.45pm at the Civic Centre in Esher.

8th December 2016

Dear Councillors

Application no.2016/2185 - 1-7 Holly Parade, High Street, Cobham, Surrey KT11 3EE

The Trust writes on this application, due for consideration by the South Area Planning Sub-Committee next Monday (12th December). The Trust is asking that the application be refused.

We are fully aware that Councillors may find it difficult to consider long letters close to the hearing date but the case officer’s report has only been available to us for a less than a week and the issues arising are so serious that it is not possible to condense our comments. We would ask you to bear with us in this instance.

The case officer’s report

The Trust cannot accept that the case officer can consider this proposal “in accordance with the development plan”. It is noted that while she refers by title to various policies, she does not go on to recite those in her report. The Trust will do that. This lack of detail is of concern. It can be seen from Paragraph 19 of the report that the Council’s Planning Department gave pre-application advice including on “…..impact on the character of the area……. ” following which “the application was encouraged.” Thus the developers were encouraged to proceed with their model on a major application before any proper engagement with the Cobham community as to what the community would like to see and would be appropriate for this site. The Trust deals with the overall lack of taking into account the views of the community later in this letter under “Unsound Consultation”.

The Trust would also comment here that the case officer looks to have the concept of 4 storeys accepted by saying that the fourth storey will not be “obvious when viewed from street level”. This is simply not true. The applicant’s own view from down the High Street shows the fourth storey (repeated in the inset montage in the addendum to the Design and Access statement). This view and the harmful view from Riverhill (footnote 1) does also show how the new building would tower abruptly and brutally above the Lloyds chemist building next door. The building would be overpowering and out of symmetry with neighbouring buildings and its jarring nature can be seen from the front elevation appended at the end of the case officer’s report.

Apart from saying that the fourth floor will be set back and therefore not visible there is still no justification of why a four storey building should be allowed here. Here is the first opportunity since the Design and Character SPD for Cobham Guide was consulted on and published in 2012 for the redevelopment of a significant site in the centre of Cobham. The applicants (and the case officer in recommending permission) are looking to completely ignore that and other basic guidelines in both the Core Strategy and the Development Management Plan.

Policy

The most important local policies are set out below with the Trust’s comments

1-7 Holly Parade, Cobham Planning Application goes to Sub-Committee 12 Dec 2016

We learned on Friday that the Elmbridge Planning Officer is recommending approval of the 1-7 Holly Parade application. It will now go to the South Area Planning Sub-Committee on Monday 12th December at 7.45pm at the Civic Centre in Esher to be heard by our councillors.

Our resolve to oppose this application is absolutely in no way diminished and we hope to speak at the hearing. We ask that as many of you as possible come to the meeting at the Civic Centre to show support for us. The way the campaign has been conducted by the developers has not been a happy episode for our community. So much more could have been achieved had the developers wished to consult properly, rather than impose their own solution on us all under the guise of a consultation.

Elmbridge Green Belt at Risk

Elmbridge Borough Council has reassessed its housing need through to 2035 and concluded that it will need to nearly double the number of new houses built to 474 per annum. This cannot be met from existing brown field sites alone and it will have a massive impact on our green belt.

One of the options is to classify that part of the green belt as "weakly performing" and make it available for development. Elmbridge BC has classified three areas as such; two of which are in the Cobham area:-

Chippings Farm between the Fairmile and the A3
North of Blundel Lane in the Knowle Hill Park and Fairmile Park areas

We are not talking about a few houses but big estates.

If these proposals were carried through they would have a devastating effect on our community:

The number of houses in Cobham and surrounding areas could nearly double in the next 20 years.
Cobham, Stoke D'Abernon and Oxshott would merge into one in terms of the built environment.
The infrastructure would be overwhelmed in terms of roads with even greater traffic gridlock, car parking, doctors' and dentists' facilities and schools.

There is at present no joined up thinking between local authorities. The Guildford proposal for over 2000 houses at Wisley has now been appealed and there will be a public enquiry. If this were to go ahead it will put massive pressure on our infrastructure before even thinking about Elmbridge's proposals above.

The key dates are:

Full Council meeting 7:45pm Wednesday 7th December 2016 and, if approved:
Public consultation starting Thursday 15th December for 8 weeks till early February 2017

One of our senior councillors, Cllr James Browne, has very kindly agreed to come to the next Cobham Heritage open meeting at the Cobham Village Hall, Lushington Drive on Wednesday 14th December at 8pm to talk about this. All Cobham Heritage members are encouraged to attend to find out more.