CAMPAIGNERS seeking to take Waverley’s Local Plan back to the drawing board have set their crosshairs on neighbouring Guildford Borough Council after councillors signed off plans to build thousands of homes on the green belt.

Guildford Borough Council’s Local Plan will see 10,678 new homes built by 2034 – with councillors voting to remove 15 villages from the green belt.

Waverley Borough Council’s Local Plan – adopted in February 2018 – to build 11,200 houses by 2032 is being challenged by Surrey Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) and Protect Our Waverley (POW).

Surrey CPRE director Andy Smith said: “We are anxious that all Surrey’s districts and boroughs should have a sound, sustainable, robust local plan.

“Unfortunately we have serious concerns about the plans produced and approved by both the Guildford and Waverley borough councils, and about the approach taken by the government’s planning inspectorate to these local plans.

“CPRE is already challenging certain aspects of the Waverley plan in the courts, and we are currently discussing with parish councils and residents’ groups in Guildford whether or not there should be legal challenges to that plan, too.”

A Waverley spokesperson said: “Nothing in Guildford’s newly-approved Local Plan should have any bearing on the appeals by Surrey CPRE and POW.

“Guildford’s aspiration to build more homes than their identified need does not reduce the number of homes we need to build in Waverley, which was finalised at the adoption of our Local Plan.

“Our plan continues to be our principal planning document and we are committed to defending it.”