Decision Deferred:
Earlier this week residents protested against submitted plans to remove an ancient tree located in Ash Green, near Ash Manor. The protest took place as the Guildford Borough Council (GBC) planning officials attended the site ahead of their planning meeting. A decision was expected on 18/P/02456, however this has now been deferred following the submission of new documents by Ash Green Residents’ Association (AGRA).
This deferment is to allow officers and committee members time to review the substantial new information and for now, the Ancient tree lives on!
At the meeting
Cllr Fiona White (Chairman) opened the meeting and stated,
“Firstly for anyone in attendance for the Ash Manor Item, I would like to make everyone aware that this application, which is 18/P/02456, has been deferred from tonight’s planning committee following the very late receipt of three weighty documents received at different times today from Ash Green Residents Association (AGRA) without any prior warning. Officers feel that given the circumstances, the information needs to be reviewed. This can only be done through deferral. Offices will seek to bring the item back at the earliest available planning committee meeting to consider the application.”
These “weighty” documents are publicly available on the GBC planning website, and have been highlighted below. Please also note due to the size and popularity of these documents you may need to try more than once to open these documents:
- 18_P_02456-AGRA_2-1535164 (The Residents’ View).pdf
- 18_P_02456-ASH_GREEN_RESIDENTS_ASSOCIATION_UPDATED_HERITAGE_OBJECTION-1535991.pdf
- 18_P_02456-ASH_GREEN_RESIDENTS_ASSOCIATION_UPDATED_ECOLOGY_OBJECTION-1535979.pdf
- 18_P_02456-AGRA_1-1535160.pdf
Following the meeting
Cllr Paul Spooner, who is a GBC councillor in attendance at this committee meeting representing Ash South & Tongham ward explained on social media that,
“Cllr Graham Eyre and I both support deferral and a full review of the evidence base prior to the application coming back to Committee“.
Cllr Paul Spooner described this as a “wealth of new information supplied by AGRA” which will now be carefully considered by all planning committee members to enable an informed decision at a future meeting.