Upper High Street - Knock It but Don't Block It

With local Conservatives urging residents to block the consultation on the future of Upper High Street, local Liberal Democrats are now fighting for the consultation to stay alive. Plans for Upper High Street, Depot Road and Church Street are in the second stage of consultation which ends on 13th July.

Lib Dem Planning spokesperson Cllr Colin Taylor said: "Local Residents should realise that unless an agreed planning brief is put in place, speculative developers will be able to put forward almost any scheme they like and get it approved at Appeal, even if the councillors on the Planning Committee reject it."

He continued "So by all means criticise the current proposals and put forward alternatives, but don't deny Epsom the protection that it needs, just because you disagree with the details of some of the officers' outline suggestions."

Lib Dems say that the current draft is just a proposal by planning officers at this stage and doesn't necessarily represent a policy approved by the elected councillors, which will be finalised taking into account the public comments from the consultation. They are particularly concerned about inconsistencies with regard to the floor area of the main retail unit fronting Upper High Street itself and have submitted a long list of comments to the council.

Cllr Julie Morris, leader of the Lib Dem group, added "It is a little naive to suggest the consultation is postponed indefinitely. Alerting the council to the fact that residents find the design of new buildings unacceptable is good and worthwhile. I would suggest that residents, particularly in The Parade, remind themselves which councillors on the Planning Committee were supportive of the Travelodge development, which we most certainly were not."

Even when formally adopted, the UHS Planning Brief will only be an outline plan showing the sort of proposals that the council would prefer. It will be used as a guide to developers as to what might be acceptable to the council and as a basis for the Planning Committee to judge future planning applications that developers will put forward. It will not permit the council itself to do anything.

Postponing this second phase of public consultation could be disastrous.