Liberal Democrats welcome massive response to draft Local Plan

Timetable extension proposed to allow full consideration

We have had a huge response with lots of detailed and thoughtful comments. We'd like to thank residents for taking the time to give us their views.

90% of respondents backed our brownfield first approach, and 74% disagreed with building on greenfield sites to meet Conservative Government targets. Other key themes included the distribution of future development, infrastructure capacity and improvements, conservation and enhancement of existing areas as well as landscape and biodiversity concerns.

The challenge now is to produce a plan that works for Mole Valley whilst also satisfying enough of the Government's requirements to ensure that your Council and local people can remain in control of the planning process.

There is much work to do, not just in considering the responses, but in refining the evidence we use to put the Local Plan together. This refinement will put delivery of new infrastructure at the forefront of our considerations. We will look again at how we select sites for development and take account of respondents' views, particularly in the light of the climate emergency and the impact of Covid-19 on the way we live and work. We are proposing to give our Planning Team extra time to come up with the best possible plan which works for Mole Valley. This is too important to take short cuts.