Dear Residents,
SGHRA has been notified by Surrey County Council of the new consultation end date for objections to the planning application to expand the existing pet cemetery and crematorium at Silvermere Haven on Byfleet Road (Surrey CC Ref. 2022/0190).
It is for individual residents to decide if they wish to object, and this should be done on an individual basis. This application is being dealt with by Surrey County Council as the Waste Management Authority and not Elmbridge Council who are a consultee. The reference on the Elmbridge website to the application being decided today is misleading. Individual objections should be forwarded to MWCD@surreycc.gov.uk before 13 March 2023.
Residents who do not wish to engage directly with the County Council can simply email their name to SGHRA at mail@stgeorgesra.com and we will submit a collective petition on behalf of those residents who wish to object, but do not have the time to do it personally. (Residents doing this should be aware that for an objection to be valid with Surrey CC, we will need to include, in the collective petition on behalf of residents, some personal details of the persons making the objection i.e., name, address and email address.)
In deciding whether to object, and the potential grounds for objections, residents may wish to consider the following:
- Pet crematoriums are an inappropriate and harmful development within the Green Belt.
- The “very special circumstances” requirement for development within the Green Belt has not been demonstrated, as private commercial gain – whereby cheaper Green Belt land is used – is insufficient justification for an exception.
- The application seeks to increase incineration capacity in a building five times the size of the existing, which is inappropriate for the site within a residential area. The proposal is better suited to a location in an industrial area.
- The additional traffic resulting will impact already congested local roads.
- The proposal has potential to harm local air quality due to emissions resulting from the storage and incineration of animal carcases, particularly in the event of accidental discharges and their aspiration to operate the incinerator 24 hours over seven days a week.
- Given the significance of the proposals impacts a request can be made for the proposal to be considered by way of a Public Inquiry.
If residents feel strongly about this issue, they may also wish to engage with the local ward councillors, who are on the Elmbridge Council’s Planning Committee:
- Cllr Peter Harman: pharman@elmbridge.gov.uk
- Cllr Charu Sood: csood@elmbridge.gov.uk
In addition the local County Councillor is Cllr Tim Oliver who is also Leader of Surrey County Council who can be contacted on tim.oliver@surreycc.gov.uk and who is the key representative who residents may wish to engage with directly.
Should you have any questions regarding the above, please contact Arnold Ward, SGHRA Planning Manager, at Arnold.Ward@stgeorgesra.com
