PLANNING DEVELOPMENT LEATHERHEAD (Hansard, 13 February 1958)

§ Mr. Peter Rawlinson (Epsom)
I am glad of the opportunity to raise tonight a question touching a part of my constituency and which affects it very much more than the question whether a few politicians are to be made life peers or women are to enter the other place. It is a matter of grave concern, because it affects the extensive development of part of my constituency and is causing grave worry to all the people in the area.
It is not a personal case. I am not the person most affected by it, but I have had in the past few months representations from individuals, local associations and, above all, from the Leather-head Urban District Council, which has been very worried by the lack of support it has been experiencing from the Minister; and I support the council wholeheartedly. Officials of the council met the Minister's technical officers yesterday afternoon, and I am sure that they put to them the matters which I shall raise here as emphatically as I propose to do.
710 The development of Leatherhead, which is within the Green Belt, is a matter best decided by local judgment and local opinion. We have not received from the Minister that support for local judgment and opinion that I would have liked to have seen. Feeling among the local residents and elected representatives is very vehement and I ask my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary, after he has heard what I have to say, and he has received representations from the Leatherhead Urban District Council, to come to Leatherhead and see for himself.
In the office of the Clerk to the Leatherhead Urban District Council is a picture of my hon. Friend. I think it was taken when he was opening one of the houses in the area, a few years ago. But if my hon. Friend would care to have a statue erected in the grounds, I would ask him to do something about this problem and to see for himself that there is a considerable amount that could be done.
Like an ugly rash, there has appeared over all parts of Leatherhead, including parts of Ashstead and the attractive villages of Bookham and Fetcham, a "banjo" development which is completely altering the character of one of the most attractive places in England. It is not only altering the character, but ruining the amenities, and threatening the supply of services to the local population, including the sanitary and education services.
At the end of the war, the urban district of Leatherhead, according to Sir Patrick Abercrombie, consisted of the small town of Leatherhead, to the east of which lay Ashtead an overgrown village with considerable modern estate developments stretching out towards Epsom Common. To the west were the villages of Fetcham and Bookham which were good examples of an express desire for owning a largish plot of ground in the country and having one's own house built upon it. That was the character of the locality at the end of the war, but by 1951 the population had reached 27,720 and, by the end of 1957, 33,189. If that is cont. pared with the town map laid before the Minister four and a half years ago, it will be seen that the population of 33,000 should only be reached by 1971. In other words, we are already fourteen years ahead in the population of this 711 area. Between 1951 and 1956, there was an immigration to the area of 4,670, an increase of 17 per cent., which, I am told, was greater than anywhere else in Surrey except the increase in the town of Woking.
The bulk of these people are not employed in local industry, but in Greater London. One can tell that is so by the fact that more than 1,000 more season tickets were sold between 1951 and 1956, an increase of 70 per cent. All this means that by 1971 it is estimated that, far from the population being only 33,000, it will be 40,000 or more, an increase of about 25 per cent.
The effect of this is the great worry and concern of those who live in the area and represent the inhabitants of the area. It is turning Leatherhead into a suburb. The fears, which honestly frankly and vehemently, are increased because it is felt that the Minister is indifferent to this problem, and because this town is in the Green Belt many people in the area think that there is going to be an encroachment on the Green Belt and that all the ideas of holding the Green Belt are, in fact, false. I hope we shall heat from the Parliamentary Secretary tonight that that is not so.
The ordinary problems about which I am continually writing to my right hon. Friend and to the Postmaster-General, about roads, telephones, and so on, are all minor matters. One of the major matters is the question of drainage. In 1955, a scheme was approved in principle for the improvement of the drainage in Leatherhead. That, however, was approved only in principle and, because of various difficulties over capital payments at this time, only a modified scheme was approved. I am glad to know that recently—I understand within the last day or so—there have been indications that approval may be given to go ahead with the whole scheme.
But if it is only a modified scheme, it will not include various filters, humus tanks, and sludge disposal. My hon. Friend may be interested to know that the Bookham works, one of the two in the area, has been having a dry weather flow not of 125,000 gallons per day, for which it is designed, but of about 180,000 gallons per day. If there is to be this increase of population the full 712 scheme must go ahead and be able to deal with this problem.
That is only one of the difficulties which have arisen for the local authority. Another very grave difficulty which is arising for the inhabitants of the area is the question of schools. I have with me a memorandum from the Fetcham Residents' Association about schools. If that is the position in Fetcham and Bookham, and also, to a certain extent, in Ashtead now, what will be the position when there is a population of 40,000. There is clearly now a need for two more primary schools, but when and where can we expect them? Apart from this, there is also the matter of allotments, playing fields, and industrial research station development.
I have at one end of my constituency perhaps more industrial research stations than there are in any other constituency, while, at the other end, there are probably more mental institutions than there are elsewhere. At the one side, we have the scientists, and at the other end the mental patients. In any event, it is quite clear that these industrial research stations need ground for development, and, in all, it is estimated that about 100 acres of land will have to be found sometime for these various forms of development.
Why is it that we blame—and we do blame—the Minister? We think that he has not listened to local judgment. He has allowed recently five appeals. In the case of Homefields, in Leatherhead, the appeal was allowed in May of last year; in the case of Forest Lodge also in May of last year; in that of the Orchards, Ottweys Lane, Ashtead, in August last year; and in the case of Grove Farm, Guildford Road, Great Bookham, in January of this year. We feel that he has not considered the problem as a whole.
Of course, the Minister's inspectors go there and deal with cases on their individual merits, as they are obliged to do, but they do not see the general picture. They do not see the situation as a whole. With the exception, I am told, of but one inspector, they have looked at it from the narrow point of view of that particular appeal. May I make it quite clear that I do not blame them at all for that, but I say that the whole problem should be looked at having regard to the general character of the 713 locality and to the various cumulative effects of this "banjo" estate building.
The result has been—and it is quite clear that this is so—that the character of the locality has been threatened. This is a place only 16 miles from London, and one to which thousands of people come on Bank Holidays and on other occasions to wander through and visit some of the loveliest country in the south-east of England. We see developing this rapid urbanisation of the village of Bookham, one of the most attractive of all the villages in Surrey. Through this development, it has got into such a state that the whole village no longer has the character of a village that it ought to have, but is becoming rather like the developments which we see in some small American towns, where, instead of any division between the houses, the gardens run up alongside, and the whole area has a semi-detached, suburban character.
Of course, the demand and the market is only for small houses at prices certainly no greater than £4,000 and many below that figure. Even where it has been stipulated to be an area of low density and a large frontage, the new houses are small and characterless. Looking at the architecture of these houses, one sees that they leave a very great deal to be desired. The ones erected by the local authority are, in some cases, more preferable to those built by private enterprise.
It is felt by all the constituents whom I represent that pressure is being put upon the Minister to expand and dig into the Green Belt. That is a very serious local fear. There is also the fear of the cumulative effect of all this development until a stage will be reached when it will be hard in the end, to resist. Of course, it is understood that there must be some measure of sensible in-filling where there has been previous development.
One meets always the housing problem, but it is not one to meet local needs, but to meet the needs of people from Greater London, and, certainly, Leather-head is an area which has done its part in that respect. I think that it is mainly the "foreigners" who have come into the area who have been provided with this accommodation. The fear is that land will be swallowed up and that that will be the end of Leatherhead as a Green Belt town.
714 When this matter was raised by me to the Minister he told me in a letter of July, 1957, that a close watch would be kept upon the situation. Is a close watch being kept? If so, by whom? Who has visited the area? Who has made a tour of the district and seen the effect of the development? I have extended an invitation to my hon. Friend to see for himself, because I do not think that the proper impression can be gathered merely from studying correspondence and files. If the Minister could find time, he would be well rewarded if he came to see for himself.
In this case, we in Leatherhead certainly feel that the gentlemen in Whitehall do not know best. We think that in Leatherhead about a great many things, but, in particular, we think it about this. We feel that local government and local opinion should here be supported. I want my hon. Friend not to underestimate the vehemence and the violence of the feeling which is being aroused in the area by the fact that the Minister does not see his way to support local opinion and the Leather-head Urban District Council. I shall he grateful to hear from my hon. Friend what views he holds about it and I only hope that he will come to see the area for himself, because it is a serious problem in one of the most attractive parts of the south-east corner of England.

§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (Mr. J. R. Bevins)
The problem which my hon. Friend the Member for Epsom (Mr. Rawlinson) has put with such characteristic forcefulness is one with which my right hon. Friend is familiar. As my hon. Friend rightly said, it was the subject of discussions at a meeting of my Ministry with representatives of Surrey and Leatherhead only yesterday. I agree that it is difficult to envisage what is happening in various places throughout the country, and if I can find the time to make a diversion into this part of Surrey away from the rather more wearisome labours in West-minister, I shall be pleased to do so.
I appreciate that disquiet is felt both by the local residents and by the local authorities about the amount of development which is taking place in the Leatherhead and Ashtead area, but, as 715 my hon. Friend knows, much as we want to restrain the growth of this green belt town, it is a fact that a good deal of low-density building took place between the wars and it is extremely difficult to turn down proposals for the infilling and rounding off of existing housing development.
Perhaps I may briefly go over the ground and make one or two suggestions. The Surrey Development Plan, of which the Leatherhead town map is part and which I hope will be approved in the next two or three months, estimated that the population of Leatherhead would rise from about 27,000 in 1951 to 33,000 in 1971. In the result, these estimates have been falsified, because the population has already grown to about 33,000 and if all the houses for which planning permission has been given were now built and occupied, the population would be about 37,000. It is a fact that already most of the land which was programmed for development in the first five-year period of the plan has been used up. About three-quarters of the land programmed for development in the second period of the plan is now committed for development. I believe that I am right in saying that the land which was programmed for the second period amounted, in all, to about 175 acres, and that about 132 acres have already been committed for building. I should add, however, that of the 132 acres that are so committed, only 23 acres have been allowed on appeal by my right hon. Friend, and the balance has, in fact, been allowed by the local planning authority.
I should also like to make it clear that most of the consents for building, whether during the first period or the second, have been issued by the local authority and not by my Ministry. I have taken the trouble to extract the actual figures for the last three years, and I find that for 1956, 1957 and 1958 my right hon. Friend has had before him, in all, 25 planning appeals for this particular locality. Following public inquiries, 13 were dismissed, and of the 12 that were allowed nearly all were cases of infilling and there has been no evidence that the new building would strain existing services.
716 I think that my hon. Friend will see that existing planning consents—the majority given by the local planning authority and only a minority by my right hon. Friend—are bound, in the nature of things, to change the character of the town and to lead to at least some increase in population.
It may be wondered why the council's original estimate of population proved wrong. To begin with, the council disregarded some of the planning consents that had already been given. I am afraid, too, that it did not foresee the pressure that would come for infilling for what was already a partially built-up area; or, for that matter, for the building of houses in the grounds of existing large houses. All this, as my hon. Friend will well know, has been accentuated by the pressure of expanding industry, and particularly of the research institutions which, I understand, are likely to continue to expand for some time to come.
I agree that recently the council, with the support of local public opinion, has tried to stem the tide by refusing permission for the development of land in the second period of the development plan, and by stopping the breaking down of large curtilages for house building. It has been argued that, in some cases, local services such as sewerage, are inadequate to take further building in Leatherhead. I am advised that this is not a very plausible argument, because part of the council's sewerage improvement scheme has already been approved.
I rather think that my hon. Friend suggested that that scheme might so far only have been improved in principle, but deferred owing to financial restrictions—

§ Mr. Rawlinson
If I did convey that impression, it is quite wrong. I do appreciate that the whole of the scheme was approved in principle but that only a modified scheme, until, I believe, quite recently, has, in fact, been commissioned to go ahead. Now I am told that perhaps the whole of the scheme may be able to proceed, but it will take at least a couple of years.

§ Mr. Bevins
I appreciate what my hon. Friend says, and I assure him that if further developments to these local services are required in the interests of 717 public health we shall do what we can to help.
It has also been suggested, I think by the local authority, that we ought to slow down the influx of people into the district so as to leave room for future local needs. Much as I sympathise with this desire, it is hardly an adequate reason for turning down planning applications for housing in an area which, after all, is zoned for houses. Perhaps I ought to add that, with some very insignificant exceptions, building has not been allowed on appeal outside zones zoned for residential use.
I am told that the industrial research establishments are likely to bring in at least another thousand workers during the next 10 years and it is estimated that about one half of these people will be newcomers to the Leatherhead district. Any idea that these people, who were, after all, included in the population estimate, could be housed by expanding in the green belt outside Leatherhead is quite out of court.
In short, what is happening in Leather-head is due partly to miscalculations, for which my Ministry cannot accept responsibility, and largely to the pressure of events. Any criticism of my right hon. Friend for allowing a limited number of appeals—and that is all that this is—is a criticism of the council for the planning permissions which it gave before 1954, because most of the planning appeals— 718 and I stress this—which my right hon. Friend has allowed have been for infilling between existing properties for which the local authority gave its own planning consent some years ago.
It is now for the local authority to consider what it wants to do and to amend the development plan accordingly. For example, there is nothing to prevent the local authority examining proposals for splitting up curtilages with a view to discriminating against applications which are likely to be injurious to amenity. It might also consider the need to restrict the growth of industry from which so much pressure to build obviously derives. There is, of course, a further point already mentioned by my hon. Friend, that owing to the rising population of Leatherhead, additional schools, playing fields and so on are now needed and it is possible that those needs can be met by redefining residential land in the plan for that purpose.
I hope that what I have said has not been unhelpful to my hon. Friend. This is a matter which we shall continue closely to watch and, as I said earlier, I hope to have the opportunity to go over the ground with my hon. Friend in the near future.