Greenway Social Housing

On Tuesday I was able to look around the nearly completed new homes on the Greenway have have been built by the Raven Housing Trust on former Tandridge District Land. When completed they will be available house local families on the housing list.

I was very impressed. They are spacious with large rooms, built to a very high standard including the latest environmental features (such as solar panels to heat water and a high specification of insulation). And for the lucky new tenants Raven have even provided carpets. And while the majority of the new homes are flats the deveopment includes two 2-bed houses and one 3-bed one, providing much needed additional family accomodation in Hurst Green.

I believe most, if not all have been allocated, and the lucky new tenants will move in next week.

Planning Policy

More good news from the Coalition.

New planning advice - which has now been formally handed down from central government -means that there is no longer a presumption in favour of those who want to build new houses by grabbing back gardens, by saying it was brownfield land.

While this does not mean that houses will never again be built on gardens (and there is for now at least still a need to provide new homes in the district), it does mean that Tandridge DC will be able to take residents concerns into account as to when and where this occurs and say be empowered to say no when it is not appropriate or welcome, without the threat that the unelected Planning Inspectorate will overturn every decision.

Godstone Farm

This morning the independent report into the E. coli outbreak at Godstone farm was published. Local residents can find the report at www.griffininvestigation.org.uk.

Car crime

There have been a few incidents over recent weeks in the Oxted area of cars being broken into or vandalised. Local residents would be advised to keep more of an eye out than normal and report any suspicious activity to Surrey Police on 08451252222 .

End of the Housing Revenue Account

Tuesday's announcement that the Government is reviewing the unfair housing 'subsidy system' (which sees Tandridge tenants sending money via Whitehall) to badly run Labour councils is very welcome. Giving power back to Tandridge to run its own affairs would be a positive move, they key issue is to ensure that we do not end up having to assume too much debt from other authorities in order to facilitate this.