Dear Residents,
SGHRA has been notified by Surrey County Council of a 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. Objections should be forwarded to MWCD@surreycc.gov.uk before 13th March 2023.
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 Cllr Tim Oliver, who is also Leader of Surrey County Council, can be contacted on tim.oliver@surreycc.gov.uk and is the key representative who residents may wish to engage with directly.
If residents would rather not engage directly with the Council on this matter, they can inform us of their wish to object and we will submit a collective objection on behalf of those residents who wish to have their names added to the petition.
