Peter Seaward: BRA Chairman
We attended the full MVDC Council meeting on 3rd February to hear the debate and observe the vote on whether the Mole Valley Local Plan now in the form of what is known as Regulation 19 should be passed and sent to the Government Planning Inspector for examination and possible approval.
The debate was disappointing as it was discussed on strictly political party lines and although various Bookham Councillors made their contributions the outcome was as expected and the motion to submit the plan was approved.
It was a pity that with an outcome so predictable all Councillors failed to spend any time during the discussions debating what the consequences of these 353 dwellings per annum will be for Mole Valley.
In Bookham there has been no major infrastructure improvements for many years and so it would have been more than useful to hear what infrastructure changes will be put in place to manage the many problems that are and will continue to occur because of this extra building.
The BRA position is that we will continue to press Mole Valley and all our Councillors as to what will be done for infrastructure improvements should the plan be approved by the Inspector.
Now that the Plan has been democratically agreed by Mole Valley the next steps will be to be ensure that the BRA will be in the best position to respond when the Inspector calls for public and individual comments. It is not expected that anything will be heard for at least six months. During the period the Inspector will be considering the detail of the Plan as well as the many hundreds of pages of comments on the plan from individuals, and other organisations.
