UPDATE February 3rd: - Apologies to those who already signed (including all you lovely spam-bots!) but it was suggested to me that I do a more 'official' petition directly on the Reigate & Banstead council website. Here's the link to that petition: http://petitions.reigate-banstead.gov.uk/green-belt/ I'll leave this one up for the meantime for the extra information and just in case people prefer to sign anonymously. Sorry again for the confusion.

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(source - pdf)

As per the resolution agreed upon by around 100 people at the public meeting in Redhill on January 21st, 2013:

We the undersigned are 'implacably opposed to any development on the green belt within the borough of Reigate and Banstead', due to concerns including, but not limited to:

- the loss of green spaces and public access
- the likely increase in traffic and higher stress on existing infrastructure
- the lack of ambition in identifying brownfield land sites for redevelopment as housing, e.g. offices.
- the fact that the borough have been working to a target of 460 new houses per year, compared to a Surrey average of 240
- the likelihood of new projects serving city commuters rather than providing affordable housing for the local community
- the prospect of unchecked urban sprawl due to unscrupulous developers and a lack of effective regulation to restrict their operations

For more information about the proposals, which at the moment would allow for the construction of 700 new houses in both areas outlined above (1,400 in total) and a further 200 around Horley, see the Reigate & Banstead Green Party's page: 'Save the Green Belt' and the Facebook campaign: 'Save Reigate's Green Belt'.

There is a public consultation with a deadline of February 4th, 2013 - read the borough council's consultation document here (pdf) and respond using the representations form (the word doc) on this page.