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Woking Informer April 17th 2009

The Informer have printed a correction to the story last week stating that the planning application had been granted. Interestingly, it is Woking Council officials who seem to have been the source of the mis-information! Perhaps council officials expect Councillors to blindly follow the officers recommendations, and haven't heard of the democratic process? Wake up, the Councillors are perfectly able to make good judgements, and this is an excellent example of one. I am sure we will be asking some difficult questions to try and get to the bottom of how, and possibly even why, the wrong information was given out!

Update on Planning Meeting held 7th April (PLAN/2008/1191)
Councillors vote unanimously to REJECT the planning Application

There was much debate in the Chamber following presentations by Dan Freeland (Woking Planning Officer), Tony Dell (RWAG) and Chris Lacey (the developer). It should be said that Councillor Ashley Bowes launched the debate with a series of very well thought out arguments as to why Councillors should reject this application. Here is a politician who clearly researched his material before presenting it in a clear and concise fashion. This was done so well that all could follow his line of reasoning. Other Councillors followed suit, and there was respectful silence from the packed public galleries that overspilled into the Council chamber.
Then came to crunch time when Councillors were asked to vote on the motion to refuse planning permission. All hands were raised around the table, and the Chairman announced the decision to "reject".
The relief from the public galleries was instant and a huge cheer raised the roof!

We now await the next move by the developers with interest.

Thanks go to:

The Councillors for taking the issues surrounding the application seriously, and carrying out a thorough debate.
You, the local residents, for writing to the planners with your (many) objections.
The 70+ that turned up to pack out the public galleries at the meeting.
The RWAG committee for the huge ammount of time and effort they have put in over the last 4 years.

We should not rest for too long though, as there is still much to do to improve things in Rydens. As ever we will discuss issues and try to move things forward that trully benefit our community!

"Just to let you know that I continue to be committed to protecting open spaces such as Rydens Way - I want you to let me know if there is anything specific that I can do on your behalf but you know I am sure, that I am a supporter."

Should you wish to contact Humfrey, you can either write to him at the House of Commons, or e-mail him at malinsh@parliament.uk

It is with regret that we have to inform residents that our bid to regsiter the Green on Rydens Way as a legally recognised Village Green has failed. The Inspector's report runs to 150 pages and we will add further information when we have had time to read it in more depth. The information will be on the "Inquiry" page (top menu).Whilst we are disappointed in the outcome of the Public Inquiry, we are extremely grateful for the excellent support that we have had, and continue to receive. This is an excellent neighbourhood that we are part of, and we should be proud of that, and ensure we protect and improve it. If you wish to receive an electronic copy of the report, please e-mail us at rwag2007@btinternet.com.

There is also now a story on-line from the Woking News and Mail. If you then spend the time to read the Inspectors report, you may disagree with the staement that the decision was unequivocal?

It is important that we now focus on the next task in hand, which is to fight the latest planning application from Lacey Simmons. It is clear from talking with residents, that this is not the way forwards for Rydens Way. Already many people have written letters, with valid grounds for objection. Also the protection offered to the Green under PPG17 still stands and is not diminished by the failure of our Village Green Application, and we feel the Inspector report actually backs this up.

A date for the planning application to be determined has not been confirmed, but we expect it to be at the meeting at the Council Offices in the last week of February, or possibly March. I am sure that once again the residents will pack out the Public Galleries at the council chambers. Further details on the planning application are given lower down this page.

No real suprise, but there has been another planning application made my Lacey Simmons for the Green! Just to reassure people, RWAG published a newsletter in late November. It is important to understand that the planning process is completely seperate from the Village Green Application, so don't believe anyone who says otherwise!

In the right hand side of the table hit the click to view icon, and you can view associated document (plans etc). Then should you wish, use the submit comments box, and type in your reasons for objection! Make sure they are relevant to the planning issues.

Please note - you can write objection letters (or use the planning portal) till the day before any planning meeting to discuss the planning application. This is likely to be late February, so please get writing, and don't be put off by the Council's letter that stated the 17th December as the closing date for objections!

First of all thank you to the Woking News and Mail for alerting us to the item to be discussed at Woking Council's Executive meeting on Thursday 23rd October. The story was basically about Woking College's proposal to relocate to a new building, to be constructed in the coach park area of Woking Park. As far as we are aware, residents of Rydens Way are once again furthest from the thoughts of our local Council. One of our committee members attended the meeting last week, as we were very interested in what would happen to the old site in Rydens Way, when the college relocates (they hope it will open before the 2012 Olympics!). The Item was introduced / sponsored by Ray Morgan (not an elected Councillor!), and the main points discussed were:

We have made good progress, but we still have a little further to go to reach our target. Another £2000 and we will be able to meet our commitments for the forthcoming Public Inquiry. We realise it is a lot of money, whilst we are all going through the "credit-crunch", but please donate what you can. The committee are confident we can achieve our target with the continued help of the community!

This was made on Saturday 6th September. The winners list can be found on the lower menu bar marked "Prize Draw". Thanks to all opf those who bought tickets.

This was a resounding success. Find out more on the "Opera!" page located on the lower navigation toolbar.

Many residents have been asking RWAG committee members about the current lack of maintenance of the two main sections owned by Lacey Simmons (surrounded by the Surrey County Council owned 3 metres strip). We can confirm that the secretary of RWAG has again written to Douglas Spinks, the deputy CEO at Woking council, requesting action be taken. A response was received from Mr Spinks, stating that he would reply to RWAG as soon as the relevant council officers advise him further. Two weeks have passed, without any further news, so we will now follow up our request with a reminder! In the mean time, it is interesting to see how the different land owners of the central Green on Rydens Way approach maintenance. Woking BC, via their contractors, SERCO maintain land owned by both Surrey CC and Woking BC. They should also maintain the 3m strip surrounding the land owned by Lacey Simmons, but this seems to have been missed last week, although, to be fair, it was done some 3 weeks earlier.

The following series of photographs were taken on Saturday the 24th May, and the first two include local residents, trying to walk their dogs. You can clearly see that the lack of any attempt to maintain this publicly accessible land in the first photo (land mainly owned by Lacey Simmons , with Surrey CC 3 metre strip around the outside), makes it extremely difficult for adults and children alike to continue to access this land safely. This contrasts with the second photo, showing the recently cut grass on the section owned by Surrey CC, outside Woking College.

The final photo, shows the Turnoak roundabout in Woking. Obviously this is a public piece of land, passed by 1000's of people every day. The first lot of flowers has now died away, and the soil has been prepared for the next lot of planting to take place. One can only asssume from the sign placed on this roundabout, that Lacey Simmons view this as a prime roundabout to sponsor and therefore advertise themselves. So perhaps local residents in Rydens Way may wonder why the Geen does not get treated in the same way?

We made a new Village Green application under the 2006 Commons Act , on legal advice, which was submitted last week. After discussion between the applicants (us) the objectors legal team and the Inspector, it was agreed that legally the procedure of advertising this new submission has to be started again, as the previous application was under the old 1965 Commons Act. This now means that a further preliminary hearing is currently scheduled to take place on the 9th June 2008, and the main Inquiry is likely to be in October.

Thankyou to all of those that turned up for tonights meeting, your continued support is much valued.

Congratulations to our secretary Tony Dell, who today completed his sponsored cycle ride to Brighton. He managed this in a creditable time of 5 hours and 3 minutes, much to the suprise of him and others. We will go through the sponsorship forms in the coming days to identify who has won the 6 bottles of wine. More information will be posted to the page covering the cycle event in due course. Thanks to Paul Butler, for knocking on many doors in the area and persuading people to sponsor Tony, and Keith Powell for providing the support car and photography skills.

This event raise over £1800, so well done, and let's keep the money rolling in!

This has just moved a stage closer as we have been informed by Surrey CC that they have appointed an Inspector. Oh....and it isn't the one mentioned here previously, but it's nice to know that this page is read by "friends" of the developers! We have not been given dates for the Inquiry yet, but our guess is it is likely to be early summer. As soon as we have further information we will let you know!