A public inquiry started this week into Rutland Group’s plans for a 2,600-home development at Dunsfold Park in Surrey.
The former RAF airfield, which has been a location for the BBC’s Top Gear and James Bond film Casino Royale, went to public inquiry after Waverley Borough Council rejected a plans for a sustainable eco-village at the 528-acre site.
Rutland, led by chief executive and founder Jim McAllister, is arguing that the council paid to much attention to the concerns of minority groups such as Stop Dunsfold Park New Town.
In evidence before the inquiry McAllister said: ‘My concern is that the Council gives undue weight and attention to powerful minority groups to the disadvantage of the real needs of other borough residents such as those locally who have a desperate need for affordable housing and have little, if any, chance of having their needs met.’
He said he was fighting the council’s planning rejection because the development would be an ‘exemplar of the way in which we will have to live in the future.’
The council is justifying its decision at the inquiry saying that development of this scale is such a remote location is unjustified. It says the development would result a large increase in car use and would mean an undesirable amount of development in the rural location.
The enquiry is due to last for 16 days and the Secretary of State is expected to announce her decision in autumn this year.
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