Parish Council News Update – February 2025

Letter from the Chairman

Dear Villagers,

As I write this, we are thawing from the second early January snow. Although the year has barely begun, change is writ large and the news is coming fast and furiously. Local government is about to have a massive restructure. The revisions to the National Planning Policy Framework were launched just before Christmas as was the Government’s White Paper on Local Government. A lot is changing. And many of those changes will impact us directly.

Chalkpit quarry housing estate application. This application drags on. You may recall that technical application updates kicked off an additional consultation that was due to close on the 21st of December. That consultation was extended until January and a response will go in shortly. As a reminder, this is an application to vary the minerals licence in order to build a large housing estate in the AONB. The updates to the National Planning Policy Framework that launched before Christmas did not make changes to protections for AONB or National Landscapes (as this area is), however it did expand the definition of grey belt. This application is one we opposed primarily because of the harms to the AONB, amongst other reasons, and we will continue to track it closely. The next steps and timing of the application process are as yet unclear.

National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). After consultation last year, just before Christmas, the government launched the updated NPPF, which is the body of policy that governs all planning in country. Some of the key changes include:

– Housing targets calculations change, and the Tandridge target increases to 843 new homes per year.
– Refusals based on the sustainability of a development must now have a strong rather than clear reason for approval. Strong has not yet been defined and will be subject to judgment and precedent.
– Greater weight will be given to applications for infrastructure, especially digital infrastructure.
– Substantial weight will be given to using brownfield land within settlements.
– Where an authority cannot meet its identified need for homes, commercial or other development through other means, authorities should review Green Belt boundaries and alter them unless to do so would undermine the rest of the Green Belt.
-In the greenbelt, applications on land that is Grey Belt would not be considered inappropriate development. Grey Belt land may be previously developed land, or any land that does not contribute to the purposed of the Green Belt. But such development should not create urban sprawl, nor cause neighbouring towns to merge into one another or harm the setting and special character of historic towns.
– New developments should not create flood risk.

Surrey Hills Boundary Review. You may recall that the Surrey Hills Area of National Beauty ( AONB, now renamed as National Landscape), has had a Boundary review. There are many additions suggested for the area, including the whole of Woldingham. The final consultation closed in December. With a few hundred more response to go through, the final draft proposal of the new boundaries will soon go to the Natural England Board, who will likely approve it as recommended and then send it to the Minister for approval. There is no specific timeline for Ministerial approval, but if done timely, this could happen by the end of this year. Hopefully the minister will not delay reviewing or approving.

Local Government Reorganisation. The Government’s white paper on local government was also released before Christmas. It proposes to reduce the levels of local government across the country. In Surrey, this would mean the District/Borough and County Councils would be dissolved and Surrey would instead become what is known as Unitary Authority, as either one unit or split into two or three units, with a Mayor above them. The planning process for reorganisation has begun.

The County is responsible for submitting plans to the Government but as yet does not appear to have developed any plan of engagement with the Parish Councils. In this new world order, there would effectively be the Parish Council, our new Unitary Authority, and Parliament. It simplifies layers but moves decision making on most matters (including planning) very far from us. Watch this space, Facebook, newsletters, WhatsApp groups and the noticeboards for more information about this once in a lifetime restructuring of local government.

I remain concerned about our ability to access the new Authority and have any influence. Surrey County Council wish to be in the first tranche of reorganisation and have submitted a letter to the Government accordingly. They plan to cancel the 2025 County elections with a view to being selected in this first wave, with a target of defining the new structure and boundaries of local government in time for May 2026 elections for the new authority and May 2028 Mayoral elections.

Gritting.

Please remember to make every effort to keep roads free of parked cars (where possible) when snow and icy conditions are predicted, especially roads with no outlet. The tractor and gritter need access and turning access. As of early January, we have not had to grit a number of times. Surrey Highways grits publicly owned roads. Based on forecasts, they grit Priority 1 routes (that carry 8000+ vehicles per day), Priority 1 and Priority 2 routes (that carry 4000+ vehicles per day) and on rare occasion priority 3 routes (routes with access to primary schools). Also, on occasion (depending on forecast). Highways ensures the High Routes, which are high altitude roads in the East of the County, are gritted. Surrey never grits residential roads.

You Parish Council contracts for a local farmer (Church Farm Services) to grit all our residential roads. A small team comprised of myself (your Chairman), Vice Chairman Carole North and Head of Finance Peter Hutchinson, look at the weather and the Surrey gritting scheme every day throughout the winter, confer with each other and then as needed instruct our gritter to cover the roads.

Monthly Council meetings.

Your Parish Council meets monthly at 7:30pm on the last Wednesday of every month in the Village Hall (and in in the Peace Hall in July), except December and August. The public are always welcome. If you would like to speak on any topic, please advise our clerk Karen at parish.clerk@woldingham.com and you will be invited to speak at the beginning of the meeting. Agendas are published at least 5 days in advance on the website and the noticeboard but please do advise us if there is anything that you would like the Council to address.

Wishing you all the best,

Chairman Deborah Sherry

Biggin Hill Update

Councillors Holbrook and McEwan attended the latest ARNAF Forum (Airport Residents Noise Action Forum) on December 3rd.

The Forum exists to:

• Be an effective medium for constructive dialogue and interaction between
London Biggin Hill Airport (LBHA) and local residents associations.

• Enable understanding of, examination of, and, where possible, improvement
of steps taken by LBHA to minimise disruption caused to the local
communities by LBHA business. This is specifically in relation to, but not
limited to, the Noise Action Plan.

• Act as a critical friend to the airport, at all times looking at constructive ways
to move towards making positive enhancements for the benefit of all.

• Provide an effective conduit for the transmission of outcomes and residents’
concerns to the BHACC (including through the NSSC as appropriate).

Our membership is by invitation only from the airport and we will continue to monitor and where possible suggest any changes to noise and flight paths through the forum.

The meeting started with sharing data collected from complaints received. It was suggested that submission of complaints in one area could be channelled through one person. This will be discussed further at the next meeting. The whole process of compliant flight against what is viewed on Webtrack will be discussed at length in the new year. It was noted that all flights arriving at Biggin Hill from the south west (03 Runway) where they fly through an NSA (Noise Sensitive Area) will automatically be investigated at the Airport.

The new approach being planned for the 03 Runway is behind schedule due to slow communication with the CAA. Test runs will be implemented in the new year which could take up to six months to complete.

Some time was spent discussing the NSA around Keston who are most affected by incoming and outgoing flights on Runway 21. There was also a discussion on Helicopter flights and the paths they should follow as they tend to create the greatest noise. The next meeting will concentrate on how to understand the complaint from Webtrak information.

Altogether there were 14 members form various councils and residents associations present. Only two are allowed from any group so together with Woldingham Association and ourselves we feel we have good representation.

Councillor Peter Holbrook.