Ash Neighbourhood Plan Referendum: Vote on 29 October

Voters in Ash parish will decide on Thursday 29 October whether the Ash Neighbourhood Plan becomes part of the planning rules for their area.

If more than half of those who vote say yes, Guildford Borough Council must use the plan when it decides planning applications in the parish (Guildford Borough Council, 25 September 2026). The vote covers Ash, Ash Vale and Ash Green. Nobody outside the parish gets a ballot.

The question on the ballot paper is (Notice of Referendum, 21 September 2026):

“Do you want Guildford Borough Council to use the Neighbourhood Plan for Ash to help it decide planning applications in the neighbourhood area?”

Deadlines

Your polling station is on your poll card. You need photo ID to vote in person. A lost or undelivered postal vote can be replaced from Friday 23 October until 5pm on polling day by calling 01483 444115 (referendum details).

What is in the plan

Ash Parish Council wrote the plan, which runs from 2025 to 2045. It has 13 policies (Ash Neighbourhood Plan, referendum version). The ones residents are most likely to notice:

• Where building goes. All significant new development is steered into the existing built-up areas of Ash, Ash Vale and Ash Green, with a focus on reusing brownfield land. No new homes within 400 metres of the Thames Basin Heaths protected heathland.
• A gap between Ash and Ash Green. A defined Local Gap is meant to stop Ash Green village being swallowed by the big housing site to its north. Development that would join the two is not permitted.
• 33 Local Green Spaces. Recreation grounds, play areas, nature reserves and two allotment sites are protected from new development except in “very special circumstances”, the same test used for Green Belt. They include Carrington Recreation Ground, Snaky Lane Local Nature Reserve, Ash Common Recreation Ground, Coronation Gardens, Harpers Recreation Ground and Rowan Field.
• Design codes. Separate design rules for Ash, Ash Vale and Ash Green village. In Ash Green, applicants must assess the effect on heritage assets and protect views of the Ash Manor buildings.
• Shops, jobs and community buildings. Policies protect local centres, employment land and existing community facilities.
• Energy efficiency and active travel. New buildings have to show how they will perform on energy use, and walking and cycling routes are to be improved.

Why it matters in Ash

Ash has grown fast. The Local Plan’s big site to the south and east of Ash, known as A31, allows for 1,750 homes. By April 2024, 1,481 of them were built or had planning permission, leaving 269 to come. Two more sites off White Lane, Ash Green, propose about 58 and 62 homes.

The plan does not stop any of those. A neighbourhood plan has to fit the Local Plan’s strategic policies, so it cannot remove sites the Local Plan has already allocated. What it changes is how the next applications are judged: where they go, what they look like and which open spaces are off limits.

That matters for cases like the Shortlands Farm appeal, where a 200-home scheme went to a planning inquiry in September.

What the examiner changed

An independent examiner, Jill Kingaby, found the plan met the legal tests once modified. She recommended it go to a referendum (Examiner’s Report, 27 August 2026). The council accepted her changes. Among them:

• the housing mix policy was removed, because it repeated the Local Plan’s rules (40% affordable housing on sites of 11 or more homes). Its content moved to an appendix
• Keogh Barracks playing fields came off the green spaces list, because the public cannot see or use them
• Ash Green Meadows came off as well, because it is already protected as Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace
• land west of White Lane stays on the list, despite being private, because it is special to the homes that back on to it

She also decided the vote should be limited to the parish itself.

What it means for you

If you live in the parish and want a say, check you are registered by 13 October. You can read the plan online, at Millmead House in Guildford, or at Ash Library on Ash Street. The library is open Monday 2pm to 5pm; Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 10am to 1pm and 2pm to 5pm; and Saturday 10am to 4pm. It is closed on Wednesday and Sunday.

Anyone chairing a campaign for either side is asked to contact the council’s electoral services team. For planning applications near you, see our Guildford planning applications page.