11.11 Planning Statement
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Horizon Cremation Ltd Land off Oxted Road (A25), Oxted Planning Statement February 2021 T: 020 7353 8765 W: www.mdaplanning.co.uk Table of Contents 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 1 2 The Application Site ........................................................................................................................... 3 3 The Proposed Development ............................................................................................................... 4 4 Relevant Planning Policies ................................................................................................................10 5 Planning History ................................................................................................................................16 6 The Green Belt .................................................................................................................................22 7 Summary and Conclusions ...............................................................................................................26 Appendices Appendix 1: Tandridge District Council - Relevant Planning Policies Appendix 2: Surrey County Council - HER Monument Full Report Appendix 3: EIA Screening Opinion Response Appendix 4: Planning Officer’s Report 1 Introduction 1.1 This Planning Statement has been prepared by MDAssociates on behalf of Horizon Cremation Ltd in support of a full planning application for a crematorium off the A25 Oxted Road, Oxted. 1.2 The application is for a single ceremony hall crematorium set in 4.45 hectares of surrounding landscape. The description of development is: “Construction of a Crematorium with Ceremony Hall, memorial areas, garden of remembrance and associated parking and infrastructure.” 1.3 This Planning Statement will set out the scope of the proposal and review the relevant Planning Policies against which the development should be assessed. 1.4 An application for this same proposal was submitted in March 2020 and consultation with statutory Authorities and the public followed in April, May and June. Unfortunately, the application (ref 2020/690) was refused planning permission on the 02 October 2020 on the grounds of, inappropriate development in the Green Belt; the impact on the character of the site and surroundings and potential harm to the landscape and views into the AONB. There were however no technical reasons for the refusal. 1.5 This Statement forms part of a wider planning application submission package and should be read in conjunction with the following documents: • Design and Access Statement prepared by LA Architects; • Landscape Visual Appraisal prepared by ERZ Studio; • Need Assessment prepared by Horizon Cremation Ltd; • Site Search Appraisal prepared by Horizon Cremation Ltd; • Consultation Statement prepared by Horizon Cremation Ltd; • Transport Assessment and Travel Plan prepared by Systra; • Ecological Assessment prepared by Ecology Solutions; • Flood Risk Assessment/Drainage Strategy prepared by Grossarts; • Air Quality Assessment prepared by Phlorum; • Topographical Survey prepared by Survey Solutions. 1 | Page 1.6 The remainder of this Statement is structured as follows: • Section 2: The Application Site - this describes the application site and its context within the wider area. • Section 3: The Proposed Development - this sets out the details of the development proposals. • Section 4: Relevant Planning Policies - this identifies the key national and local planning policies which will need to be considered in determining the application. • Section 5: Planning History - this outlines how the previous application ref 2020/690 was addressed and in relation to site specific, technical matters, namely, design, transport, sustainable drainage, air quality and ecology and the responses from statutory and non-statutory bodies. • Section 6: Planning Analysis and Conclusions - this will consider the Green Belt designation for the site and explain the Very Special Circumstances that exist in favour of this application. • Section 7: Conclusions - this will then review the planning balance for the proposal and conclude that the development fully accords with both national and local planning policies. 2 | Page 2 The Application Site The Application Site 2.1 The Site is an area of grazing land approximately 4.45 hectares in size. It is located between the village of Godstone and the town of Oxted. The M25 motorway is located approximately 0.8km north of the site boundary at its closest point. Beyond the M25 to the north lies the Surrey Hills AONB. 2.2 The site is bound along its southern boundary by Oxted Road (A25), whilst Tandridge Hill Lane borders the site to the west and Barrow Green Road runs along the eastern boundary. A footpath and bridleway are located along the northern boundary, separating the site from the adjacent regenerating woodland around the former sand quarry (Oxted Sandpit). The site is undulating in form with the land falling away north from the A25. The fall in the land from Tandridge Hill Lane to the north east corner of the site by Barrow Green Road, is some 10m. 2.3 The area generally has a number of uses that one would expect to see in a suburban hinterland such as this namely, the Garden Centre, two golf courses, a riding school as well as active quarries mining the escarpment for sand and chalk. Godstone Golf Club is situated to the west of the site whilst Tandridge Golf Course lies to the southeast. 2.4 In planning policy terms the site is within the Green Belt but it is not part of the Surrey Hills AONB which is located to the north of the M25. Nor is it in the AGLV which is further west from this site towards Godstone. It is also not in an area that is proposed to be part of the revised AONB area which is located south of the A25. It lies within the landscape character area Greensand Valley (GV4), directly on the boundary of Wooded Greensand Hills (GW12) as designated in the 2015 Surrey Landscape Character Assessment. Figure 1 Site Location Plan (taken from Transport Assessment) 3 | Page 3 The Proposed Development The Applicant 3.1 Horizon Cremation Ltd is a relatively new entrant among the private sector crematoria providers having been set up in 2016 by its co-founders Stephen Byfield and Jeremy Hamilton who were motivated to get into the business after their own poor experiences of attending crematorium services. They have looked at every aspect of crematorium design and operations with a fresh perspective to improve the experience for the mourners including the design of the buildings and the quality and training of staff as well as the operational side, with the use of the most modern, non-polluting equipment available. 3.2 Their first crematorium opened in June 2018, the Clyde Coast and Garnock Valley Crematorium, built in a regional park with stunning views across the Firth of Clyde to the peaks of Arran. It has been highly praised by all those who have been there and last year was voted the best crematorium in Scotland at the Scottish Funeral Awards. Horizon’s intention is to create new crematoria which are well designed and offer high levels of customer care in areas where there is an obvious need. Planning permission was secured for two further crematoria in 2019 at Cannock and East Renfrew. The Need for the Proposed Development 3.3 Horizon Cremation builds and operates crematoria in areas of the country where current facilities are over- stretched. The firm has identified that the District of Tandridge does not have its own crematorium and that it is also short of burial ground space. Cremation became particularly popular following the Second World War; 81 percent of people in England are now cremated rather than buried and that trend is increasing. With the number of deaths set to increase over the next thirty years, the demand for new crematoria will continue to rise. 3.4 In assessing the need for a crematorium in Tandridge, Horizon have looked at both quantitative and qualitative considerations. Quantitative issues have an automatic effect on qualitative factors, so both should be assessed. 3.5 The quantitative analysis is based upon the assumption, widely accepted and supported in previous planning appeals, that an acceptable catchment of a crematorium is a thirty-minute drive time at cortege speed and a cortege drives at about two-thirds the speed of normal traffic. 4 | Page 3.6 The analysis assesses the degree to which the proposal brings a crematorium within reach of people who are currently more than a 30-minute drive away from an existing facility. The population living in the north of Tandridge District and those living in a significant area to the east (accounting for some 2,600 deaths per year) are currently outside a 30-minute drive of a crematorium. The existence of a significant population who live outside the catchment of a crematorium has been recognised at appeal as evidence of need. 3.7 Building the crematorium off the Oxted Road in Tandridge will bring a crematorium within a 30-minute drive for the first time for a significant population in this area, amounting to some 1,700 deaths per year within its catchment area. 3.8 The existing crematoria that are generally used by Tandridge residents now are the Surrey and Sussex Crematorium at Crawley and Randalls Park at Leatherhead – both of which are well in excess of a 30 minute drive time for the majority of the residents. The catchment maps