THREAT TO OUR VILLAGE
- Nigel Eastment
- Feb 20, 2021
- 2 min read
Updated: Dec 5, 2021
The recently announced property developments are just the start. You can still make a difference and influence the plans for Ottershaw!
Over time Ottershaw has developed from a rural backwater into a village which until now has just managed to retain some contact with a rural atmosphere. The current development proposals are an immediate threat and be sure there will be more developments coming. If residents don’t all get involved now, we will shortly become no more than a London suburb.
Immediate and Inevitable Local Threats:
Ottershaw East – 200 houses on Brox Road (being planned now!)
Brox End Nursery – minimum 40 houses, (permission granted)
A320 – Promises a greatly enlarged Ottershaw roundabout and relocated car park – plus years of roadworks on other junctions and St Peter’s Way/M25
Brockhurst – hedges and trees are under threat – ‘green infrastructure’ is vital to the village.
Travis Perkins Site (Arnold’s Yard as was) – Brown field site will not be left vacant.
The developments cannot be prevented but they can be mitigated. You need to be aware what is happening and to respond to all the ‘engagements’ and ‘consultations’ when they arise – even if they are often no more than cynical manipulations, it is our only option.
Links to the current ‘manipulations’ can be found on the following websites:
OWAIRA https://www.owaira.com
Ottershaw Neighbourhood Forum https://www.ottershawforum.com
Ottershaw Society http://www.ottershawsociety.org
To keep informed why not join all 3 local organisations? Get involved to protect Ottershaw.
Also check out Facebook, esp Ottershaw Grapevine and OttershawIndependents
Of course there is more - Ongoing and Inevitable Threats within Runnymede:
St Peters Hospital – 220 houses (underway)
Bittams Lane – iro 600 houses
Longcross Village – iro 1,700 houses
Nothing can stop these but if you join local organisations you will be kept aware.
Proposed during last Local Planning – not yet determined.
Christmas Tree Farm:
Great Grove Farm (inc Otter Nursery Land);
Lesser Development Potential, put forward previously.
Cactus Farm, Bousley Rise
A320 Field, behind the Castle.
Field Nursery, Brox Lane
Green Infrastructure – this is vital and something we can influence
The features that will help us to retain our fragile link with our rural past are hedges and trees. RBC is not proactive in protecting our green infrastructure. It is our only effective mitigation for the current extreme expansion that threatens Ottershaw.
PLEASE JOIN YOUR LOCAL ORGANISATIONS TO HELP PROTECT YOUR VILLAGE.
Excellent points on the wider picture, well worth wider distribution:
Increasing brownfield sites and reduced population pressure.
Interestingly enough RBC were quite dismissive of the Ashfront's houses in Ottershaw, as not being in keeping with the local style - and so not relevant as a arbiter of local style. I was interested as my impression is that they are almost universally liked by the residents.
It is quite difficult not to feel dispirited and to wonder whether writing letters re planning applications is of any value other than as a possible cathartic exercise. That is my impression of "fighting " to prevent development of BEN. It is probable that all we achieved was a delay of development. In retrospect we might have done better all those years ago to support Ashfront's proposal as Paul Sweeney and his successors have been responsible for some attractive properties in the locality. I doubt what is proposed on BEN will be half as attractive. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Given that there will now be an opportunity for redevelopment of increasingly available brown-field sites, due to a reduction in…