A SENSATIONAL intervention by the government could yet save areas of green belt in Reigate and Redhill from being bulldozed for housing.
Planning Minister Nick Boles has said he is "disturbed" by the language used by a planning inspector who last month ratified Reigate and Banstead Borough Council's Core Strategy – a 15-year planning blueprint which controversially outlines green belt land which could provide up to 1,400 homes.
In a letter written to the chief executive of the planning inspectorate on Monday, Mr Boles said he was "very troubled" after seeing media coverage of the inspector's findings.
His missive has prompted calls for all reference to developing "urban extensions" in the borough's green belt to be ripped up.
"On reading the report, I was disturbed by the inspector's use of language, which invited misinterpretation of government policy and misunderstanding about the local authority's role in drawing up all the policies in the draft plan," said the minister.
He stressed revision of green belt boundaries must be up to the council alone and made it clear the government could intervene in the Reigate and Banstead strategy, which has not yet been formally adopted by the authority.
The letter was written after Reigate MP Crispin Blunt complained about the inspector's findings, and the fact the council had been required to earmark green belt land which may be developed.
He said: "Councillors were railroaded by the inspector to add these areas [of green belt], otherwise they thought they might end up with a bigger housing target [than the 460 per year laid out in the strategy].
"I am absolutely delighted that ministers have agreed with the line I have been making, and made it clear the inspector has grossly overreached himself. I hope the housing number will now be reduced and the urban extensions struck out."
Borough councillor in charge of planning, Mike Miller, said the council had not yet been contacted by the Department for Communities and Local Government about the issue.
He was "shocked" when he saw Mr Boles's letter, he said, and confirmed the council could revise the strategy. It will be discussed at a meeting of the executive on March 20.
However, Cllr Miller doesn't believe it should be amended.
"I think we have done enough work [on other areas for development] to not have to touch the green belt in this plan period," he told the Mirror. "I am happy with it in its current form.
"If the executive ask me to make modifications, to alter it, I will consider that. If they approve it as it is, it will go to full council for ratification on April 10."
He said he thought Mr Boles's letter was "political" and questioned the apparently changing messages coming from central Government. That was echoed by others, after we showed them Mr Boles's letter. Gillian Hein, of the Surrey branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, told the Mirror: "Ever since the National Planning Policy Framework was introduced, there has been confusion between the competing policies and priorities on safeguarding the green belt and meeting objectively-assessed housing needs. The framework is ambiguous on this important issue. "We would welcome any revision to the Core Strategy which will reduce the impact on the green belt in Reigate and Banstead and also the impact this statement will have on other Surrey local authorities which are currently looking into potential losses of the green belt." Jonathan Essex, Green Party borough and county councillor, has also been critical of central policy. He said: "We challenged the government to lower the housing targets so we don't have to build on the green belt. "The government has got to fix the problems they have created if they want to protect green belt over housing. "We haven't yet signed our plan off, it is not too late."