The Objectors
Surrey CC Highways Department
Lacey Simmons (Barrister Mr Douglas Edwards)
The Inquiry
The Inquiry took place between the 6th October 2008 and the 17th October 2008, the first week was held at the Surrey History centre and the second week was held at Quadrant Court, Woking. We are grateful to Surrey CC for making theses local venues avaialble for the Inquiry. We should also thank Mrs Helen Gilbert and her team, who worked hard to ensure that everything ran as smoothly as possible, and to the Inspector, for helping the public understand what was going on.
The overall format of the inquiry can be summarised:
1. Opening statements on behalf of the Applicant and the Objectors.
2. Cross examination of the applicant's 13 witnesses by barristers representing the applicants and objectors. Also questions were put to witnesses by the Inspector.These witnesses were residents in the neighbourhood of Rydens Way.
3. Cross examination of the Objector's witnesses by barristers representing the applicant and objectors. Also questions were put to witnesses by the Inspector.
4. Closing statements and legal arguments.
General Comments and Plaudits
It is not appropriate at this stage to give a detailed account of what went on during the Public Inquiry, but thanks to the many people who turned up for the various sessions, over the two weeks. It is assumed that at some point the report will be made publicly accessible, for those who wish to find out more! We were disappointed that we never had the chance to cross-exam anyone from one of the principal objectors, namely Surrey CC's Highways department. We reserve judgement on the motivation for this.
Certainly we can draw some positive points out of the overall experience:
The Final Report
If you e-mail us at rwag2007@btinternet.com, we can send you the whole report electronically. Please give us a few simple details, like who you are, and why you are interested!
Whilst the report is150 pages long there is some useful and interesting information. The overall decision may have gone against us, but we are not convinced that the door is shut on a revised application that would address all of the points made by the Inspector. This revised application would have to be made before March 2011, to ensure it could not be defeated by virtue of any signage that was put up in 2006.
The report contains the inspectors views on the evidence he heard, and it has to be said that the witnesses supporting the application (the residents!) came in for positive comments. We would like to re-iterate our thanks for their public spirited action, as they put themselves up for quite a grilling.
As far as we understand the report, we seem to have proved several difficult yet key points:
"My impression, from having seen the area and having explored its immediate surroundings, with a fairly reasonable grounding of knowledge of English suburban areas, is that Rydens Way itself differs from the kind of featureless corridor which typifies so many arterial routes into our towns and cities, lined for mile after mile with houses forming the frontage of suburbs spreading behind, with large volumes of traffic flowing constantly through the artery either side of a central reservation. Perhaps it would have had something of that character had the bypass scheme gone ahead. Since that never happened, this truncated remnant of the scheme survives almost as a kind of oasis, certainly unusual if not unique, and has impressed itself upon every house built on either side of it, and inevitably to some extent upon those built in roughly the same period in its handful of tributary roads."
The Inquiry took place between the 6th October 2008 and the 17th October 2008, the first week was held at the Surrey History centre and the second week was held at Quadrant Court, Woking. We are grateful to Surrey CC for making theses local venues avaialble for the Inquiry. We should also thank Mrs Helen Gilbert and her team, who worked hard to ensure that everything ran as smoothly as possible, and to the Inspector, for helping the public understand what was going on.
The overall format of the inquiry can be summarised:
1. Opening statements on behalf of the Applicant and the Objectors.
2. Cross examination of the applicant's 13 witnesses by barristers representing the applicants and objectors. Also questions were put to witnesses by the Inspector.These witnesses were residents in the neighbourhood of Rydens Way.
3. Cross examination of the Objector's witnesses by barristers representing the applicant and objectors. Also questions were put to witnesses by the Inspector.
4. Closing statements and legal arguments.
General Comments and Plaudits
It is not appropriate at this stage to give a detailed account of what went on during the Public Inquiry, but thanks to the many people who turned up for the various sessions, over the two weeks. It is assumed that at some point the report will be made publicly accessible, for those who wish to find out more! We were disappointed that we never had the chance to cross-exam anyone from one of the principal objectors, namely Surrey CC's Highways department. We reserve judgement on the motivation for this.
Certainly we can draw some positive points out of the overall experience:
- Thankyou to Paul Butler, who has lived and breathed this application for the last 18 months. It is a brave and community-minded person that takes on the role of applicant, especailly without any legal training. He has shown total dedication to "doing the right thing" for his neighbourhood, which he has passionately fought to protect. It takes courage to be cross-examined by lawyers for about 6 hours spread across two days.
- Thankyou to the witnesses, all of whom live within the neighbourhood of the Green on Rydens Way - they were totally amazing. Time and again they accurately recounted their personal use of the green and that of others they had witnessed using the green over many years. They showed bravery, in the face of determined cross-examination, and remained objective throughout. Our witnesses are people you should all be proud to call your neighbours!
- Thankyou to Mr David Robbins, of Barlow Robbins LLP. His assistance throughout was of the highest quality, and his advice could always be trusted. He was also excellent at explaining to us (the non legal people), what was going on. Also at very short notice he visited our witnesses, and took supplementary statements.
- Thankyou to Mr Juan Lopez, our barrister. He was very helpful at ensuring we prioritised our efforts throughout the Inquiry, to maximise the benefits. He was also very knowledgable, and put our witnesses at ease. I should say that when he got to cross-examining the Objectors witnesses, he showed great skill at getting to the heart of matters!
- Thankyou to Mr Bob Milton from the Open Spaces Society. He is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to knowledge regarding the law on open spaces and rights of way. He is one of those men who hates to see the public lose their rights, and actively champions them!
- Thankyou to your RWAG committee who have proved that we are trully an "action group" and certainly not an idle "talk shop".
- Thanks to Peter Ford, who has been an inspiration throughout the existence of RWAG. This is a man who has helped the group with good advice and excellent contacts, and has never let us down.
- Finally, RWAG would like to thank all of those people who have helped, by providing witness statements, as well as financial support. You should know that whilst they wish to remain anonymous, several people donated 4 figure sums of money to help the Village Green application progress.
The Final Report
If you e-mail us at rwag2007@btinternet.com, we can send you the whole report electronically. Please give us a few simple details, like who you are, and why you are interested!
Whilst the report is150 pages long there is some useful and interesting information. The overall decision may have gone against us, but we are not convinced that the door is shut on a revised application that would address all of the points made by the Inspector. This revised application would have to be made before March 2011, to ensure it could not be defeated by virtue of any signage that was put up in 2006.
The report contains the inspectors views on the evidence he heard, and it has to be said that the witnesses supporting the application (the residents!) came in for positive comments. We would like to re-iterate our thanks for their public spirited action, as they put themselves up for quite a grilling.
As far as we understand the report, we seem to have proved several difficult yet key points:
- The existence of a legally defined neighbourhood around the local area that encompasses Ryden Way.
- That the Green has been used for legal sports and pastimes, by residents of Rydens Way, and some of the local roads. What the report implies is that we needed more witnesses from other roads in the defined neighbourhood.
"My impression, from having seen the area and having explored its immediate surroundings, with a fairly reasonable grounding of knowledge of English suburban areas, is that Rydens Way itself differs from the kind of featureless corridor which typifies so many arterial routes into our towns and cities, lined for mile after mile with houses forming the frontage of suburbs spreading behind, with large volumes of traffic flowing constantly through the artery either side of a central reservation. Perhaps it would have had something of that character had the bypass scheme gone ahead. Since that never happened, this truncated remnant of the scheme survives almost as a kind of oasis, certainly unusual if not unique, and has impressed itself upon every house built on either side of it, and inevitably to some extent upon those built in roughly the same period in its handful of tributary roads."