Residents' Association Forum

We have been notified by Elmbridge that an application has been put in "for the method of medolition and site restoration". No mention of building of new houses but there are plans available for inspection at the Civic Centre and on the Council's website. I have not looked at the plans so not sure what is being proposed. Do Goldcrest plan to demolish and sell on, I wonder?

Thanks for the heads-up, Ditty.  I'll ask our planning convenor, Graham, to find out what's afoot.

...and the reply is that Goldcrest who own the site are entitled to apply for demolition of (some of) the buildings.  The application reference is 2011/7917 and it is for: "Approval of details for the method of demolition and site restoration in relation to the demolition of Elmbridge Lodge, Weston Green Resource Centre and extensions to the rear of Ditton House"

They do not appear to be apply for, or intending, the demolition of the Old Cottage Hospital building itself, which formed an integral part of the development proposal that went to appeal, which they lost.  I think we can expect a new development application soon, which one hopes will still retain the OCH building as before, and will this time take fully into account the reasons for refusing permission (cramped, out of character with area) and for losing the appeal.  Inspector: "I have taken into account the contribution that the proposal would make to the provision of housing in an accessible location and to the Government's agenda for Planning For Growth, acknowledging that new development can contribute positiviely to the economy.  However, this would not outweigh the significant harm to the character and appearance of the area and to living conditions of the neighbours arising from the proposal"

A new application has now gone in for 3 houses on the site, plus retention of the existing main building, number 2012/1699

http://www3.elmbridge.gov.uk/WAM/showCaseFile.do?appName=planning&appNumber=2012/1699

Thoughts?  Looks fairly reasonable to me......

I agree, reasonable density and providing good family houses, all set well in context in a road with detached properties - all looks a good result to me.

So do I.  On a first look-through this seems to be an exemplary application; Goldcrest have taken on board earlier objections and reasons for refusal and have thoroughly prepared a reasoned design, in keeping with the area.  And as you say, a good result (so well worth the earlier resistance, note)

I am not sure of the detail concerning affordable housing cited in the earlier planning refusal,  but on considerations of design, scale and mass this looks excellent to my eyes.

If the scheme does go ahead, how do we ensure that some of the Community Levy money (old speak for sect 106) is actually spent in TD? It will be too late for Milbourne Pond, but I'm sure there are plenty of other candidates. I have never heard of 106 money spent in WG or TD. 

As far as I am aware there is no mechanism to tie CIL monies raised in one ward to expenditure in that ward.  CIL is set on borough-wide criteria, and collected by Elmbridge.  The essential differences between those funds and S106 are that (a) Elmbridge gets to set a rate for CIL based on elements the borough council itself chooses; a rate that extracts some golden eggs without killing the development goose; and (b) Elmbridge can retain the money, whereas with S106 the greater part went to Surrey for the infrastructure where they have responsibility.  Now, EBC can contract for specific things from SCC etc. and remain paymaster if it chooses.

I am not sure how the CIL money will be ring-fenced so that it cannot be used in effect as part of the budget, other than for new infrastructure.  If not properly ring-fenced, there is a risk that a council might use  CIL as a general sort of revenue and indirectly keep CT frozen for example, rather than spending on new infrastructure.  I must ask the experts. 

It's a new and untested area but, for example, at and after the one workshop I attended on the subject I was able to get Elmbridge planners to factor in heritage as part of the reasons for CIL.  (At least, that's what they promised when I emailed to complain about the later omission of that heading - must check what happened)  So that it should be possible to make a case that some specific project involving conservation should be funded from that percentage of CIL levied for protection of heritage.  I don't know how that's going to work in practice - probably best to ask one of the planning staff.

See http://www.elmbridge.gov.uk/Elmbridge%20Borough%20Council/Planning/FinalDraftChargingScheduleWEB.pdf (http://www.elmbridge.gov.uk/Elmbridge%20Borough%20Council/Planning/FinalDraftChargingScheduleWEB.pdf)

dated April 2012. 

No mention of heritage/conservation areas!  (Curses) there is mention of "Suitable Accessible Natural Greenspace" and towards the end of the document we read:

4.10: The Council are also required to allocate a meaningful proportion of CIL back to
communities. The Government are still to clarify what a meaningful proportion is and
once further details are available the Council will set out an approach to working with
communities in distributing CIL within their neighbourhoods.

And the earlier: http://www.elmbridge.gov.uk/Elmbridge%20Borough%20Council/Committees/Information%20Bulletins/2009/10/Information%20Bulletin%2010/CommunityInfrastructureLevy.pdf

"6. .....While CIL will make a significant contribution to infrastructure provision, core public funding will continue to bear the
main burden, and local authorities will need to utilise CIL alongside other funding streams to deliver infrastructure plans locally.

7. The Planning Act is clear that CIL may only be spent on infrastructure."

I agree Keith - in this case the resistance certainly seems to have paid off! :-)

I see planning permission has now been granted for the revised planning application. 

Good.  I think that's a satisfactory result.

Does anyone have any news concerning this development.  Seems odd that planning has been approved for 9 months, demolition took place some months ago and now...well nothing?

I hear that the company can't get construction finance, like Caring Homes

Goldcrest has reportedly sold the site with plans to Ashcroft Builders of Walton upon Thames.  A director of Ashcroft has said that they are in the process of putting together building plans (as opposed to architectural plans) in order finalise a programme of works.