Post 95 – 13/07/25 – Hotel Holloway Update – Application Withdrawn
We are happy to report that the application to lift the planning restrictions around the use of George Eliot Hall in Harvest Road, Englefield Green has been withdrawn. This we believe was due to a technical reason in the application.
As you may recall, Royal Holloway wanted to remove the restrictions so that they could rent out the 617 rooms to non-students outside of term time.
The application, if approved, would have had a considerable impact not only on residents in the immediate vicinity, but also on the local community as a whole.
We hope that this is the end of the matter but will continue to watch the Planning Alerts with a degree of trepidation – we believe that it will only be a matter of time before the application is resubmitted.
We do hope that Royal Holloway has learnt a lesson here and will consult with the local community before submitting any future planning applications….
Here, the application came as a surprise to the community’s representatives who only found out about it through Runnymede Borough Council’s ‘Planning Alerts Service’ too.
Royal Holloway could have (and almost certainly should have) presented their plans to the Royal Holloway and Runnymede Consultative Group Forum….
According to Royal Holloway’s website, the university is ‘committed to engaging and consulting with the local community’ about its plans to develop its estate. The same website describes the Royal Holloway and Runnymede Consultative Group Forum as:
‘a forum where topics of interest and/ or concern to the communities in the Egham and Englefield Green Village areas can be discussed and debated by representatives from and stakeholders in those local communities with a view to identifying possible solutions, agreeing actions and allocating responsibility for those actions.’
Indeed, during the meeting of the forum on 18th June 2024, the Chair, Professor Tracy Bhamra, reminded the group of the purpose of the meetings by quoting those very words. She went on to say, “The goal is that through shared understanding and collective action, issues can be resolved and agendas of mutual concern progressed.”
I think we can all agree that the university’s plans for George Eliot Hall (and the potential consequences for the community) are very much topics of interest and concern for the local community and yet they were never raised by Royal Holloway.
We maintain that Royal Holloway’s Senior Leadership Team – which includes Tracy Bhamra – does not really care very much for its neighbours as demonstrated by its behaviour in this case.
We hope that they start to understand that they cannot continue to behave in this hypocritical manner. They really need to take a look at themselves and their values with more sincerity in order to instil a change of mind set and corporate responsibility.
May we also take this opportunity to thank all those that submitted a letter of representation against this planning application and especially to EGVRA and the Englefield Green Forum for their efforts in opposing it on behalf of the local community.
To see the letters of representation, please navigate to the Runnymede Planning Portal:
https://planning.runnymede.gov.uk/Northgate/PlanningExplorer/GeneralSearch.aspx
and search using the Application Number RU.25/0256.
Best wishes,
We Need To Talk About Royal Holloway
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