Page 4 - John Belsey

I am, however, drawing attention to: (a) the need for transparency and honesty (b) to some
of the remedies that are available through other than planning channels and (c) the obligation
of relevant local authorities to assess the nature and “anticipated impacts of the proposed
development ”.
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Ashurst Wood Village Council (AWVC), MSDC and residents are entitled to be honestly and
fully informed and to expect a fair solution to the proposed development. In the alternative,
they must remain alert: establish and accurately document the facts so that if Ashurst Wood
deteriorates into a ghetto those responsible will be held accountable.

The absence of transparency today will become obvious in the future.
The following paragraphs set out points I invite you and your colleagues in MSDC and AWVC
to consider. Documents of special importance are “attached”. The “folio” references link to
documents on the MSDC website as listed on Attachment 4. For ease of reference footnotes
are consolidated in detachable pages.

1 MISLEADING APPLICATIONS

Original Application
1. The application (DM/18/1548) was registered on MSDC’s website in May 2018, supported
by an Application Form, dated 13 April 2018 (Folio 1). It records Ashgrove Homes
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Limited (AHL) as the applicant and GCP Developments Limited (GCP) as the owner of the
WH:EDF site. The application was prepared and certified as true by Darren Page of Lytle
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Associates – the design architects - acting as agent:

• Point 5 states that no pre-application advice site had been given;
• Point 14 states that the WH:EDF site was not currently vacant;

• Point 17 proposes 50 dwellings as market housing and 21 as Social Rented Housing;
• Point 21 shows the site area as 1.47 hectares: it does not clarify that 0.597 hectares are
ancient woodland that cannot be developed.

2. MSDC validated the application possibly increasing AHL’s confidence that AWVC was of
no significance and that approval was, more or less, assured. However, on 25 April
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2018@16.56, you informed Steven King, Planning Applications Team Leader at MSDC, of
a communication (Folio 33) from Jenny Forbes, Chair of AWVC’s Planning Committee
that the developer had not complied with the requirement to consult the Council or local
residents.

This was a serious breach of process, which Mr King had not noticed or had been willing to
condone.

3. Ms Forbes referred to a letter on behalf of AHL stating that “there had been extensive
consultations and that there was no purpose in repeating the process now as the
development has been agreed in principle and any comments or opinions can be
considered during the normal planning process”. She correctly described this as
“nonsense”.

There is no record on the MSDC website of any agreement in principle or otherwise.

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