WE LOVE THAMES DITTON !

Thames Ditton is a small place. It is not the same as large population centres elsewhere in the Borough of Elmbridge -- big towns like Walton-on-Thames, Weybridge, Esher or Cobham.

So it's not appropriate in a small place like Thames Ditton and Weston Green for profiteering property developers constantly to bulldoze existing houses and keep replacing them with unsuitable, out-of-keeping blocks.

The Government says there is a shortage of housing both in our Borough and all over the country. But that shortage is in affordable properties and social housing. Not the kind of high-end new flats and big new houses costing around £1 million or much more, that are now being constantly crammed into Thames Ditton and beyond by developers.

People of course need places to live, but this is not "affordable housing" -- it's UNCONTROLLED OVER-DEVELOPMENT THAT'S OUT OF ALL PROPORTION TO THE SMALL SIZE OF THE POPULATION OF THAMES DITTON!

And this same over-development virus is now fast spreading to other nearby places in Elmbridge, to the big towns as well,  and to other parts of Surrey, profoundly affecting the  quality of our environment and our way of life.

We've now joined up with 15 other major voter groups all over Elmbridge to form the ELMBRIDGE ALLIANCE (aka AERC) to put pressure on Elmbridge Council to ensure that developers are kept under control, so that: 1) The current absurdly high building targets are reduced to prevent rampant urbanisation; and 2) our precious Green Belt is kept out of the clutches of developers.

As well as us in Thames Ditton, Weston Green and Hinchley Wood, our member groups also come from the bigger centres like Cobham, Oxshott, Weybridge, Long Ditton, Esher and Stoke D'Abernon.

INCREASING UNCONTROLLED UNSUSTAINABLE OVER-DEVELOPMENT is destroying the environment and unique character of Thames Ditton and well beyond Thames Ditton -- the very reason we all came to live in this area in the first place!

Over-development creates population pressure that then has extremely SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES for many other vital aspects of our lives, such as: not enough school places, thinly-spread inadequate healthcare services, more and more traffic congestion, and weakened infrastructure standards.

It is entirely unreasonable that the density of these proposed new building developments is NOW OUT OF ALL PROPORTION to the small size of our population in Thames Ditton. And it's all just aimed at making a fast profit for developers!

Elmbridge Council says the current Government wants it to deliver 9,495 new dwellings throughout the Borough over the next 15 years. Those figures are entirely unrealistic  -- that's 633 dwellings a year. The total population of Elmbridge is around 137,000. The total population of Thames Ditton is only around 6,000.

Contrary to popular misunderstanding, the Local Plan that decides on these housing numbers is in the hands of LOCAL authorities. It is not IMPOSED by central government! 

So on the current figures, Thames Ditton / Weston Green get about 25 new dwellings per year, which is already totally unsustainable. And yet the current "Merrywood" proposal in Weston Green ALONE is for 26 NEW dwellings to replace just ONE SINGLE bulldozed house!

And then on top of that, there are the large number of ADDITIONAL development proposals for Thames Ditton also now coming through -- including around 100 flats close to Summer Road. So it's crystal clear that Thames Ditton/Weston Green is having to take on FAR TOO HIGH A PROPORTION of the current requirement for new Elmbridge developments! 

And yet one of the Thames Ditton Residents' Association Local Councillors has officially stated that these new building developments are "inevitable".

Councillors from the Residents' Association have been re-elected by the people of Thames Ditton for decade after decade, year in year out. But are our current Local Councillors providing adequate and EFFECTIVE OPPOSITION on our behalf in the face of all these new building developments?

Certainly some Councillors have intervened on some proposals at some times, but are they being PRO-ACTIVE enough and taking A STRONG ENOUGH LEAD ON YOUR BEHALF TO PROTECT THAMES DITTON, WESTON GREEN AND BEYOND in the face of the over-development onslaught we face? Are they and the other Elmbridge Local Councillors from other parties sufficiently accountable to we electors and are they defending sufficiently robustly THE INTERESTS OF THE ELMBRIDGE RESIDENTS who have elected them? 

We need to be sure that Local Councillors (those representing Thames Ditton and Weston Green, as well as all the Councillors elsewhere in Elmbridge who all sit on Planning Committees) are working in the interests of US -- the ELECTORS who voted them into office -- rather than working in the interests of property developers!!  Local Councillors are democratically answerable to US -- they are NOT answerable to property developers!

Our local MP, Dominic Raab (who used to live in Thames Ditton himself), frequently says that he fully supports the democratic planning decisions taken locally at Local Council level -- even when these decisions go against developers. He says it is local councillors who are "accountable" for planning decisions. Yet Mr Raab used to be an extremely senior member of a Government that routinely allows unelected National Planning Inspectors to OVERTURN the planning decisions that have been made locally.  

And now it seems that the government of which Mr Raab used to be a very senior member also wants to relax planning laws much further in order to reduce local accountability drastically and create a free-for-all for developers!

Even under the current rules, property developers have it easy. They can easily appeal and get a National Planning Inspector brought in from Bristol to overturn a planning decision rejection made at local level. Once these National Planning Inspectors have made the decision to ALLOW a development, there's ABSOLUTELY NOTHING MORE that local people or their elected councillors can do about it!  

Have all these politicians from ALL THE PARTIES worked hard enough to explain to we voters the reality of how the planning system actually works? And have all these politicians from ALL THE PARTIES worked hard enough to prevent the wrecking of Thames Ditton (and beyond Thames Ditton) by developers in order TO HAVE EARNED AND DESERVED YOUR VOTE? 

Profiteering property development companies are piling in all over Thames Ditton and Beyond to gain massive financial benefits from all the new developments we're seeing. They are engaged in backland "garden grabbing" and they don't care at all how it damages our local environment. They don't live here. Our objections aren't based on Nimbysim, they're based on not being prepared just to stand idly by watching Thames Ditton -- which we love -- getting wrecked!

PEOPLE IN THAMES DITTON AND BEYOND THAMES DITTON HAVE HAD ENOUGH !!

THAMES DITTON IS UNDER SIEGE FROM PREDATORY DEVELOPERS !

BUT NOW WE ARE SAYING: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH !

Tiny groups of voters / residents are attempting to fight their own small battles against the individual development that's affecting them very locally -- without seeing the Big Picture of all the INCREASING, UNCONTROLLED, DISPROPORTIONATE, OUT-OF-KEEPING OVER-DEVELOPMENT that's now going on all over Thames Ditton -- and Beyond.

WE'RE SEEING FAR TOO MANY BULLDOZERS IN THAMES DITTON AND BEYOND!  The Thames Ditton Residents' Association Local Councillors and the other Local Elmbridge Councillors from other areas and from other political parties who all sit on Elmbridge Planning Committees are in office because THEY HAVE ALL BEEN ELECTED BY US, THE VOTERS, TO PROTECT OUR INTERESTS! They have NOT been elected to represent the interests of property developers! And this of course also applies to Dominic Raab, our MP.  

And the Elmbridge Council and Surrey County Council authorities to whom we all pay out huge amounts in Council Tax are there to protect OUR interests.    

THANK YOU FOR SIGNING THIS PETITION.  PLEASE GET YOUR PARTNER / SPOUSE / NEIGHBOUR / FRIEND TO SIGN TOO -- THAT REALLY BOOSTS THE NUMBERS! 

PLEASE ALSO FORWARD THIS WEBSITE LINK TO YOUR NEIGHBOURS AND LOCAL FRIENDS SO THAT THEY SIGN AS WELL!

JOIN OUR "STOP WRECKING THAMES DITTON!" FACEBOOK GROUP.   INVITE YOUR FRIENDS ON FACEBOOK TO JOIN US AS WELL: www.facebook.com/groups/StopWreckingThamesDitton/

JOIN THESE LOCAL  GROUPS TOO:

Weston Green: www.facebook.com/groups/223528725626321

Summer Road: www.facebook.com/groups/327465001249934

Hampton Court: http://www.hamptoncourtrescuecampaign.com/?fbclid=IwAR0fNUWIIT4CJBgtgq3MzXRbKWBeKOO3wBJHU2Ss3mWh50ebLqdBbdL-sqM

We also support and collaborate with the following local Groups: Elmbridge Alliance (AERC), About Thames Ditton Community Group, Merrywood Weston Green, Hampton Court Rescue Campaign, Elmbridge Environment Concern Group, Seething Wells Action Group, Parents of Surrey, We Love Surrey, East and West Molesey Local News, Kingston Environment Forum.
 

EMAIL CONTACTS:-

Email Dominic Raab with your views at this address: dominic.raab@esherwalton.com

Email the Thames Ditton Residents' Association Councillors with your views at these addresses: abatchelor@Elmbridge.gov.uk, CJames@Elmbridge.gov.uk, esesemann@Elmbridge.gov.uk 

Email the Weston Green/ Hinchley Wood Councillors with your views at these addresses: jcrawshaw@elmbridge.gov.uk, gcoates@elmbridge.gov.uk, jturner@elmbridge.gov.uk

Email the Leader of the Elmbridge Liberal Democrats with your views at this address: bmcdonald@elmbridge.gov.uk

Email the Leader of the Elmbridge Conservatives with your views at this address: jcope@elmbridge.gov.uk

Email the Elmbridge Borough Council Planning Department with your views at this address: tp@Elmbridge.gov.uk

Email the Thames Ditton rep on Surrey County Council at this address: nick.darby@surreycc.gov.uk

Email the Leader of Surrey County Council with your views at this address: tim.oliver@surreycc.gov.uk

And here's the Elmbridge Council Planning website where you can view and register objections to planning proposals. Look at the end of the "Plans and Documents" section to see all the objection messages. You can also use this same website to object to any other new Thames Ditton and Weston Green planning developments you're unhappy about:

https://www.elmbridge.gov.uk/planning/find-or-comment-planning-application 

DON'T FORGET TO JOIN HUNDREDS OF LIKE-MINDED VOTERS IN OUR  FACEBOOK GROUP:

www.facebook.com/groups/stopwreckingthamesditton

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT !