Letter of Objection for Fairoaks Garden Village

I attended the exhibition in Ottershaw on Monday 23rd April, 2018 about the proposed development of Fairoaks.

Living in nearby Lyne I am very concerned, as are all local residents, about the scale of this development alongside the already approved Longross Garden Village, potential Woodham New Town, as well as large developments at St.Peter's hospital and Bittams Lane. I cannot understand how Fairoaks, along with the other developments, can be proposed in isolation without taking into consideration the impact of an additional 10, 000 dwellings will have on the surrounding area.

Our roads are already at full capacity and without a decent transport system people rely on their cars and will continue to do so. Our society in Surrey revolves around the car, from dropping the kids off at schools to driving to work and leisure activities.

Points that do not make sense for Fairoaks are:

• Lack of a GP surgery
• Park & ride in Ottershaw (it will be so gridlocked in Ottershaw that no one will be able to get there)
• Proposal for a primary school only - other children will have to be driven to New Haw, Chertsey, Addlestone or Staines.
• Traffic chaos coming into Ottershaw as well as Junction 11 of the M25 and the A320, with consequential impact on access to St. Peter's Hospital.
• Green Belt land should only be utilised in exceptional circumstances - these proposals deliberately place dwellings on what is green space. The green space will be lost and the existing bio-diversity in the area will be lost.

I have seen the A320 corridor proposals. The proposals are so vast that I cannot see the funding will be made available as well as the huge disruption to the area and the necessity to purchase third party land.

I am also concerned that any dwellings built will not meet the 40% affordable housing that should be built on new developments. Runnymede Borough Council have recently approved the St.Peter's site knowing full well that the proposal did not contain the 40% affordable housing. If it can be done on hospital land where there is a clear requirement for key worker housing then I cannot see that Fairoaks will meet the requirement. I know that often builders agree to build affordable houses but when the build takes place they claim they are not profitable.

There are plenty of brownfield sites, empty houses and office buildings which should be utilised before we start to build yet another vanilla Garden Village which will not deliver what is required and that is truly affordable homes.

Please keep me informed of the progress of the proposals.

Regards
Sylvia Whyte
Chairman of Runnymede & Spelthorne Liberal Democrats
169 Almners Road
Lyne
KT16 0BL