Constituency News
MP backs residents over development pressures
Local MP Chris Grayling is increasingly concerned at the number of inappropriate planning applications being made for sites all over the constituency. Too often, Chris believes, developers are putting in applications for the development of back gardens, or to replace just one or two houses with large blocks of flats. "The scale of the plans can be wholly inappropriate to the local area, and if they are allowed to proceed, many developments would lead to much greater traffic, putting great pressure on our already congested roads," he says.
Chris meeting local residents opposed to the plan to build a new supermarket on Upper High Street in Epsom
"I have to say that I am hugely frustrated by a planning system that seems to work in favour of developers and not of residents," Chris adds. "Individual planning applications are supposed to be decided by local councils - but central government is shifting responsibility for housing and planning strategy from counties to unelected regional assemblies. This means that we will have much less say over these issues in future than we do at the moment."
Chris also appreciates the strains faced by local residents who are faced with repeated applications for sites near their homes. "It strikes me as wholly wrong that developers should be able to make repeated applications for the same site, which the present law currently allows. In my view, all this is madness; I hope that I will be able to steer things in a different direction at some stage."