By Monica Jones and John Douglass
The article in the March magazine on Water-splash Farm and the increase in flood risk as a result of gravel extraction, raised a lot of in-terest and anger amongst readers. Although the subject has been in several magazine arti-cles during recent years, this time people seemed to wake up to the fact that it is going to have a huge impact on us.
And now, it is pretty much too late. Permis-sion has been granted and Surrey County Council seem content to have offered the pub-lic the chance to object. But they made it as difficult as they could. The website was very difficult to navigate. We were contacted by several members of the community who were irate at the plans and frustrated at not being able to find how to object. So they wrote to Shepperton Matters, in the strongest possible terms. The ‘public consultation’ was not in fact a public consultation at all. It was dis-guised as such, in the exhibition on the plan for Minerals and Waste Policy in Surrey and was held at Addlestone library, comfortably away from Sunbury or Shepperton, the areas which will be much affected. But locals ral-lied. Old and young pledged to give each oth-er lifts and make the journey to Addlestone together at the end of February. But they were to be disappointed as the ‘exhibition’ was called off due to staff shortages. It was put on a week later, with very little notice and little publicity. Smell a rat? I think so!
John Douglass, who wrote the piece in the March magazine followed up however; “I spoke at some length on the phone to Dustin Lees (Minerals and Waste Policy Team Lead-er). He explained that the recent consultation was largely strategic and was intended to noti-fy public and other parties that a new Mineral and Waste plan is being prepared. Hence he did not feel that a discussion about specific sites was relevant at this point”
Mr Lees explained, however, that a further ‘Preferred options public consultation’ will take place in the Summer of 2023 which will be looking in more detail at specific sites.
He also committed to visiting Shepperton Library or other suitable venue to discuss the draft policies or preferred sites that residents may be concerned about, at that time. That would be good news indeed and we will keep you posted.
Mr Douglass emphasised the concerns that he and others have over the choice of Water-splash Farm as a site for extraction. However his view was that given consent has already been granted there was no point in further discussions on that matter. Incredible!!
Mr Douglass raised the point that as Lead Local Flood Authority, SCC’s responsibilities did not stop with planning consent and that he would be pursuing this aspect. He advised that he write to Stephen Jenkins on the matter, which he did.
Mr Douglass also raised the disappointment and frustration that residents felt having turned up to the Addlestone consultation only to find that it was cancelled. He did apologise for the fact that it had to be called off out of necessity.
Sadly, we can shout and scream as much as we like but it won’t change the fact that plan-ning consent has already been granted. But this does not absolve SCC’s responsibilities as Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA) to prevent further damage to the natural flood defences in an area of already high flooding risk. Mr Douglass is also insisting that SCC thoroughly investigate the likelihood of the scheme causing drinking water contamination for the community at Fordbridge Mobile home park which is directly in the path of water. Thank goodness for people like Mr Douglass who is, for our collective benefits, continuing to put pressure on SCC. #
We will keep you updated.