Surrey council to proceed with local plan after a pause 

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Epsom & Ewell Borough Council has voted to ‘un-pause’ its local plan at an extraordinary council meeting. 

It will now proceed to Regulation 19 public consultation on the proposed submission version. 

A motion was brought to an extraordinary council meeting in March by seven councillors proposing that the local plan process should be paused. The motion explains that a pause would allow for more work on identifying brownfield sites, further options to be considered that do not include green belt sites, an analysis of Epsom & Ewell’s required future housing numbers based on 2018 data, and a clearer understanding of the government’s legislative intentions in regard to protections for the green belt and the current mandatory target for housing numbers. 

Local media reported that ahead of the March meeting, a petition was signed by 10,000 residents and a protest took place outside Epsom Town Hall. Concerns included the loss of green belt land. 

Steven McCormick, chair of the Licensing and Planning Policy Committee, said: “We recognise that the pause came about because of the strength of feeling in the community regarding the inclusion of green belt sites in the draft local plan, and want to reassure our residents and partners that their views and feedback will be taken into account in the next iteration of the local plan. Since the local plan was paused, council officers have been working hard on analysing all responses received during our draft local plan consultation period in early 2023.” 

A call for sites has returned some additional potential brownfield sites for development which McCormick said the council would now consider. It will also prepare an updated local development scheme setting out the key milestones for progressing the local plan towards adoption. 

30 October 2023 
Laura Edgar, The Planner