Page 42 - Oxted Local April 2025

42 April 2025
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Oxted Local 
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As you will have seen in the national and local media, Godstone High
Street, the only thoroughfare through Godstone, suffered a major
collapse in late February. The situation has since been downgraded
from a Major Incident, and we are now working with Tandridge District
Council – as the supervising authority – to help communicate updates
to residents and local businesses and feed their concerns to the teams
managing the incident.
As part of this, we have attended meetings with local residents, local
businesses, the Parish Council, Surrey County Council and utility
companies to speak to residents about how we can help them during
this time.
At one of these public meetings we recognised that many local
businesses felt that communication and updates could be improved,
so we organised a meeting for local businesses to raise their concerns
with representatives from the Surrey County Council team managing
the repairs and Tandridge District Council. The businesses were keen
to stress that despite the disruption, they are open for business – so
please do continue to support them as much as you can.
We discussed how they can apply to the Valuation Office Agency (VOA)
for a temporary reduction in business rates due to reduced footfall.
Many business owners shared their concerns that any delay in receiving
rates relief would have a deeply concerning impact on their cash flow
and ability to stay open.
Claire has since written to the Chief Executive of the VOA, urging him
to instruct a team within the agency to make urgent contact with each
of the businesses affected by the situation and share a dedicated point
of contact who can provide updates on their case. You can read this
letter on Claire’s
Facebook page,
where we will
share a response
as soon as we
receive it.
In other
developments,
on 27th February
the Transport
Secretary
confirmed that
the Government
is “minded to
approve” the
Development
Consent Order
for Gatwick’s
runway
expansion.
While the
Government
is broadly
supportive of the examining
authority’s report, full Government
consent is subject to further
information from Gatwick on a
number of specific issues. These
relate to transport and road
capacity, air noise limits and noise
insulation schemes, wastewater
treatment, sustainable growth, and
good design.
To provide Gatwick sufficient time
to make these amendments, the
Transport Secretary has extended
the Government’s final decision
date. Gatwick will have 24th April
to submit their final expansion
report, and the Government will
then have until 27th October 2025
to make a decision. We will make
sure to publish this when it is
announced.
As always, while Claire is on
maternity leave our team is
working as normal. Please do
continue to contact us on claire.
coutinho.mp@parliament.uk if
there is anything we might be able
to help you with.