The first Planning and Environment Committee meeting after the summer break took place on Thursday night.
It started with the Leader of the Liberal Democrat Opposition tabling an motion commending the officers on the successful adoption of the Core Strategy. This was unanimously approved. Although we do not yet know what changes the Planning Inspector made, we know that to get it approved in any form is much better than most authorities in England have yet achieved.
Much of the remainder of the evening was spent discussing how best to protect the green belt in Tandridge against unauthorised Traveller encampments and how to deal with any urgent need for Gypsy and traveller need while an East-Surrey wide strategy was agreed. Councillors were made very aware of the need to provide for minorities while balancing the interests of the majority of their constituents. In so far as unauthorised encampments go, we all agreed that while Council should support law abiding land owners against what can be a very distressing invasion of their land, land owners also have a duty to protect themselves.
We also discussed the Governments response to the South East Plan - this is deserving of a post of its own!
