Thank you to all those who came to St Andrew's Church, Cobham on Thursday 19th September 2019 to attend the Cobham Green Belt Group's public meeting to discuss the Elmbridge Local Housing Plan.
The church was packed out with concerned residents who wanted to understand more about the consultation options, especially when the Elmbridge council public meeting focused on Cobham, Oxshott, Downside and Stoke D'Abernon was unable to accommodate all those who wanted to attend.
After a warm welcome by Mike Branscombe, the vicar of St Andrew's, Sir Gerry Acher of the Cobham Conservation gave an introduction about the consultation and emphasised how important it was that all residents took part in the consultation before it closed on Monday 30th September 2019.
Adrian Wise, Chairman of the Cobham Green Belt Group, then gave a presentation about the consultation options and details of the housing numbers involved. He also explained why Option 4 was the best option. The presentation slides can be downloaded here.
Councillor James Browne then gave some further background about the consultation and explained all the local councillors were recommending Option 4.
Gerry Acher then opened the Questions and Answers section and invited other local residents associations to join the panel at the front. Residents then had the opportunity to ask questions and to express their concerns.
Finally, Gerry Acher thanked the panel and the residents for taking the time to get involved and urged everyone to take the next steps:-
The Elmbridge Borough Council (EBC) Local Plan consultation opened on 19th August 2019 as expected and now that we have access to the full consultation documentation our team is busy analysing the information.
The consultation information and online questionnaire are provided via the EBC consultation website which has had some technical problems, and some have had problems navigating the site and finding the questionnaire itself.
The technical problems seem to have been resolved but some are still having problems navigating the site. In particular, access to the online questionnaire is not obvious as it appears at the foot of the “A New Local Plan: The Options Consultation” page, which is not seen unless you scroll to the very bottom of the page.
The free EBC’s public meeting on the 2nd September 2019 for Cobham, Oxshott, Downside and Stoke D’Abernon is 'Sold Out' but we are pressing the council to provide an additional one for Cobham, Oxshott, Downside and Stoke D’Abernon. You can register to attend one of the other meetings even though their focus will be on a different area of Elmbridge. The dates of the meetings currently announced are:-
You can only attend one of the meetings and you must have a ticket. To obtain your ticket you must register online via the following link:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/local-plan-public-meetings-tickets-65086737183
All these meetings will be webcast live so you will be able to attend ‘virtually’ via the following link:
elmbridge.public-i.tv/core/portal/home
The Cobham Green Belt Group will be having a public meeting in mid-September (venue and date to be confirmed soon) to give residents an opportunity to ask questions about the process and hopefully get answers. We will be inviting our councillors to join us at that meeting.
Our team is analysing the information provided and will provide advice and recommendations via the www.cobhamgreenbelt.org.uk website by the 1st September 2019. This will enable our residents to take part before the end of the consultation on Mon 30th September 2019.
In the meantime, do register on the EBC Consultation website at
consult.elmbridge.gov.uk/consult.ti/system/register
and look at the information available.
One of the key EBC documents is “The Options Consultation Document”. For your convenience we have made it available via the following link in case you have difficulty finding it on the Elmbridge Consultation Website:
EBC Local Plan Options Consultation Document
For all the latest consultation documentation and the questionnaire, be sure to visit
consult.elmbridge.gov.uk/consult.ti/system/login