GBC Local Plan Meeting June 2016

Just a few weeks after the local action group NAG packed the Normandy Village Hall there was no resident fatigue on show at last night’s Normandy Parish Council meeting to discuss the villagers views on the proposed doubling of Normandy and Flexford with the addition of over 1,100 homes and a 1,500 pupil secondary school on agricultural Green Belt land in the Guildford Borough Council Local Plan 2016.

With representation from the local MP Jonathan Lord and with borough councillors David Bilbe and county councillor Keith Witham the audience were completely engaged for well over two hours as each delivered their own view on the proposal after the Chair of the Parish council Alan Cheesman opened the meeting.

Personal statements, local observations and questions were delivered from residents from all parts of the village and Jonathan thanked the audience at the end for the polite manner of the meeting despite the obvious commitment to challenge the development from the floor.

The purpose of the meeting was to measure the majority view of those residents that came to the meeting to demonstrate the direction of the Parish Council’s response to the Local Plan. Whilst not a sophisticated or scientific method the ticket in one of three buckets was a simple way for people to show their inclination for development in their village. The result of this democratic vote was:

156 – Against the Local Plan all together

98 – A Little Development

0 – Local Plan as is

A total of 254 responses.

So the Normandy parish Council would like to thank all those that attended, the openness of their input and the way the audience conducted themselves throughout. We will be sharing the information gathered at the event on this site shortly.