1/5/2008

Surrey Local News

EXCLUSIVE - Dunsfold Park plans being unveiled

PLANS to build one of the biggest housing schemes ever proposed in Surrey will be fully unveiled next week.

Consultation on an outline masterplan for 2,600 new homes at Dunsfold Park, near Cranleigh, is due to start next Friday, when Waverley Borough Council publishes the planning application.

"Our master-planning submission is a major milestone," said Jim McAllister, chief executive of Dunsfold Park Ltd.

"It is the culmination of six years of extensive research, investigation and consultation to create an exemplary model for sustainable and green development in the UK."

Probably best known as the home of the BBC’s long-running Top Gear programme, the former airfield site already has a thriving business park.

The masterplan proposes digging up the runways and building a new environmentally friendly and self-sufficient community, surrounded by 350 acres of landscaped parkland.

Dunsfold Park Ltd will have to convince the council that the major development is a justifiable exception to existing policy guidelines.

As it stands, it is contrary to both the draft South East Plan and Waverley’s Adopted Local Plan.

Protesters have already promised to "fight it all the way" and have won the backing of local MPs Anne Milton and Jeremy Hunt.

Objectors say there is no need for a new town, that the site is in an unsuitable rural location and the scheme would cause severe traffic problems.

Dunsfold Park Ltd said the scheme contained key housing benefits that outweighed any conflict with development plan policies.

"We will build 910 affordable homes that will address acute shortages in the local housing market and enable Waverley to meet its housing needs," Mr McAllister said.

The Dunsfold Park masterplan would close the airfield but retain the heliport used by Surrey Air Ambulance.

The other proposed developments include:

• The airport's main runway becoming a water park which would separate an expanded business area from the new homes.
• The section of the Wey and Arun Canal that flows through the site being restored, and a canal basin and visitor centre created.
• A primary school and a special needs school, six shops and a convenience store, four restaurants or cafes, health and sports centres, a community centre, an ecumenical church and a 100-bedroom hotel.
• A new link road to the A281, but car use actively discouraged by a cordon charge being levied on vehicles leaving the settlement and the proceeds helping to fund a fleet of electric or biofuel-powered buses for the wider area.
• A state-of-the-art combined heat and power plant to help service the community, fuelled from locally sourced organic waste.

Last November, Dunsfold Park Ltd announced it had submitted a bid for the masterplan to become one of the UK’s first 'eco-towns', but it was half the size of the other hopefuls and failed to make it onto the final list earlier this year.

For the full story and background to the plans, see this week's Surrey Advertiser.

First printed in: Surrey Advertiser Online

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