CRISPIN BLUNT Member of Parliament for Reigate HOUSE OF COMMONS LONDON SW1A 0AA
	Telephone 020 7219 2254 Fax: 020 7219 3373 Contituency: 01306 888228 email: crispinbluntmp@parliament.uk  website: www.crispinbluntmp.com

Dear Tadworth Resident,

Please accept my apologies for not being able to attend this meeting of STAG in person.
Your meeting begins as an important debate on Iraq and the Middle East in the House of Commons ends. Whilst the Prime Minister hasn't seen fit to attend I hope you can understand why I feel it my responsibility to be in Parliament. However your campaign and the wider issues that surround it are central to the interests of all the constituents I represent. That is why 1 have asked my parliamentary assistant, Charles Pitt, to present this statement to you and to report to me on the results of your meeting.

When I was re-elected in May 2005 1 pledged that my top priority would continue to be to try and help protect the character of this constituency from the threat of overdevelopment. The current impact of new housing and infill housing on the constituency, of which Tadworth is an important part, is very damaging. Not only does over-development change the look and character of an area, it causes increased traffic and further burdens on local public services. Responsibility for development does not, sadly, lie principally with locally elected politicians but with the national Government. Housing targets imposed from

Whitehall, channelled through the unelected South-East Regional Authority, make it very difficult for our Borough Council, through its Planning Committee. Tonight two of your local councillors are working on planning. One serving on. the Committee and Cllr Rachel Tumer presenting the case against a development on The Avenue of a 56 bed residential home.

However local people are not without influence locally, particularly if organised, and I am therefore delighted to see how well motivated and well organised the Save Tadworth Action Group has been in generating interest in this development planned for Cross Road. I thank Trish Canham for her hard work in coordinating this. Without the voluntary efforts of groups like yours the developers' task would be much easier and our environment altered much faster and with less consideration to the consequences.

We are operating in an environment where anyone lucky enough to own a property that is targeted by a developer has the prospect of a windfall which may hugely improve the economic prospects of their family. We cannot expect our neighbours, if they find themselves in this fortunate position, to overturn their family's interest. Therefore the defence of the interests of the wider community are the planning laws and regulations set by the various layers of government and their effective implementation. Proposals have to be stopped on their planning merits as they are likely to be adjudicated by a Government Inspector on appeal even if a local community is united against them. However much I and others would like to change this to give real authority to the local authority in the future, the Cross Road development must be challenged with expert planning opinion on a battlefield not of local making.

I am satisfied that the specific proposals for Cross Road could have a negative impact on the Community and should be resisted. Tadworth is already an area in which fewer and fewer younger people can afford to live. Such a large number of retirement homes in the centre of the village, added to the potential development Rachel Turner is resisting tonight, could continue to change Tadworth's character in the wrong direction. That alone would be a conclusive consideration my opinion and you will have my support in presenting the best overall planning case to defeat this proposal.

Crispin Blunt MP