Grid Ref TQ 291 802 · Elmridge Common

Elmridge Meadow has eleven weeks left.

The council’s draft Local Plan swaps six acres of common land — skylark nests, ancient hedgerow and all — for an overflow car park. We’re the neighbours who use this ground, and we’re not signing off on that quietly.

names on the petition

acres of common land at risk

days until the planning vote

-The Threat-

How a meadow ends up in a planning document

Elmridge Meadow has been common land since 1846 — grazed, walked and picnicked on by five generations of the town. In March, the council listed it as “surplus open space” in the draft Local Plan, part of a bid to add 340 parking spaces for the retail park next door. The land loses its protected status the moment the plan is adopted.

Planning documents rarely announce themselves. This one arrived as three lines in a 400-page appendix — no consultation with the residents who back onto the meadow, no ecology survey commissioned until campaigners paid for one themselves. The timeline below is the one the council is working to.

14 March

Draft Local Plan published, meadow marked “surplus”

2 April – 30 July

Public consultation window · open now

14 September

Planning committee vote

-Why It Matters-

It's not just a field

Skylarks, orchids, a hedgerow older than the town

Ecologists counted 34 species on site last spring, including a ground-nesting skylark pair protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act.

The only green space within reach for 400 homes

The nearest alternative park is a 25-minute walk across two A-roads. For the Elm Court estate, this meadow is the garden nobody has.

It's doing a flood engineer's job for free

The meadow's soil absorbs run-off for the estate downhill. Council reports from 2021 credit it with preventing surface flooding twice.

-How You Can Help-

Three ways to make yourself heard

None of these take long, and the committee reads every one of them.

SIGN — Add your name to the petition

It goes straight to the planning committee ahead of the July consultation deadline.

SHOW UP — Come to the public meeting

22 July, 7pm, Elmridge Community Hall. Numbers in the room matter as much as numbers online.

SPEAK UP — Write to your councillor

We've drafted a short starting point you can send in under five minutes, before 30 July. Ask us for the letter template.

-Field Log-

Latest from the meadow

30 Jun

Consultation deadline confirmed for 30 July after residents’ request for an extension.

18 Jun

Ecologist’s skylark survey submitted to the planning office as supporting evidence.

04 Jun

Elmridge Primary’s Year 5 class presented their meadow wildlife project to the parish council.

22 May

Petition passed 2,000 signatures in five weeks.

-Add Your Name-

Every name makes the file harder to ignore

Takes about thirty seconds. We’ll only ever use these details for the campaign — never sell them on.

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