Re-designate land at Springfield Meadow from a reserve housing site to green belt

We the undersigned wish to petition the Mole Valley District Council to review the boundary of the green belt as part of the upcoming review of the Core Strategy and Land Allocations Development Plan Document. In particular we wish to see all of the land at Springfield Meadow re-designated from a reserve housing site to green belt for the following reasons:

• to preserve the setting and special character of Westcott and in particular views from the existing green belt and from the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty;

• to prevent further encroachment of development into the countryside;

• to keep the land permanently open for everyone to continue to enjoy it for recreational area use and outdoor sports such as hiking, cycling and riding which we have done for many years;

• to secure nature conservation interest by maintaining an important nature corridor on both sides of the Pipp Brook;

• to protect Springfield Meadow from inappropriate development as normal development plan policies are not proving to be adequate protection despite its green field status, flood risk, highways and access constraints, visual impact concerns and unsustainable location.

• Since the Green Belt boundary was originally drawn, the large amount of development in Westcott has saturated the local highway network making this site undevelopable as a reserve housing site. It should therefore now be included in the Green Belt so that over the long term it can instead contribute as a valuable area of open space used by wildlife, residents of and visitors to Westcott.