PLEASE SHARE AND ACTION: With revised NPPF, it is now evident that it would be entirely voluntary for cllrs to still include Greenbelt in Local Plan.
Unfortunately, it seems that our Council's officers are not listening. We are informed by various sources that officers had set up unofficial workshops for councillors to discuss which sites to include in the final Local Plan. The FINAL site allocation will be decided on 10th Jan in a secretive, off-record, non-public meeting by some councillors. Although this decision will not be public, it is unlikely that the sites will be changed once they have been decided next week, due to the amount of time needed to prepare supporting documents accordingly(Council's meeting last Nov also confirmed this https://www.youtube.com/live/wIct5JWLhSM?si=Mf4vT7dDCKaNGrtu .
What's worrying is that we learned that in the last workshop, officers, supported by Derek Stebbings(ex Planning Officer at Chelmsford Council), have urged and pushed for councillors to accept that all Greenbelt sites to be included in the Local Plan, or risk having the Local Plan thrown out. This does not appear to be in any way constitutional. As absurd as it sounds, the arbitrary selected councillors who likely have not been delegated any authority to make a decision, will make the decision on THE most controversial topic of the Local Plan next Wednesday(more than 1 year before the official publication of Local Plan Regulation 19 in 2025)! The Local Plan has cost taxpayers more than £2million in the making. Do you think it would be ridiculous if the final decision was decided by a handful of councillors who might not be very knowledgeable on this subject in an unofficial meeting 1 year+ prior?
Therefore, I really urge you to spare 10 minutes of your time, and email councillors and officers(excel mailing list can be downloaded here https://epsomgreenbelt.org/who-to-object/ and request them to not include Green Belt in the site allocation. Key reasons being: Updated NPPF now officially confirms that the target is advisory, EEBC's real housing needs can be entirely satisfied by building on brownfields and towncenter locations, and with Reg 18 consultation majority of residents who answered survey are against building on the Green Belt.
I know we are all very busy with our life, but we can all spare a few minutes for the right cause. Thanks so much again for all your help so far. Let's still have hope. Please share and please do email councillors and officers.