Protect Our (little bit of) Waverley had a busy week last week. At the beginning of the week they mustered what bore more than a passing resemblance to an Age Concern Outing outside Waverley Borough Council’s Offices to wave their placards – ineffectually as it turned out – at the Councillors about to vote through the Daft Locl Plan. Then on Thursday night they were out and about lecturing Bramley residents, whom they claimed weren’t doing enough to object to the proposed development at Dunsfold Park!
Poor old Bramley got leaflet bombed a few days before the meeting with every other shop-keeper in the village being persuaded to host a poster.
Far be it from the Waverley Web to tell Bramley shop-keepers how to manage their businesses but surely they need to wake up and smell the coffee! It’s through traffic, not local footfall alone, that helps maintain Bramley’s enviably vibrant High Street. And, let’s face it, a traffic jam in Bramley means cars actually get to slow down and take a peek at what Bramley’s shops have to offer. Without the A281 running through the middle of it Bramley would be just another blighted village so be careful what you wish for Bramley.
But maybe, just maybe, Bramley’s already got the message ‘cos according to PoW only a measly 167 people in Bramley have signed up to object to Dunsfold Park being developed and that just isn’t good enough!!! So come on Bramley, pull your finger out, Dunsfold Village needs you. Never mind if Bramley goes the way of Dunsfold and loses its shops, its schools, and everyone has to chip in to buy shares in the local Nisa and keep it running with volunteers, as long as Dunsfold New Town doesn’t get built that’s all that matters.
And on that note, Farnham needs to look out too. Apparently, some bright spark asked PoW at the Bramley meeting why they weren’t advocating more development over here in Farnham?
The PoW representative looked shifty as well he might. Of course, PoW would love to have all the development over here in Farnham but they can’t say that … at least not in so many words … and certainly not now!! Not if they want to avoid trench warfare! But never fear, if the going gets tough the tough will get going and throw Farnham to the dogs … or do we mean the Planners! Not that it really matters, it’s all the same to PoW. They don’t really give a damn where the housing goes in Waverley as long as it’s not on hallowed turf, otherwise known as anywhere within spitting distance of the village of Dunsfold.
So watch out Farnham, you read it here first:
PoW’s pretending to play nicely for the moment and wants you to think they’re manning the barricades with you but the minute they get so much as a sniff that all is lost, they’ll be pulling up the drawbridge and declaring civil war! Don’t say you weren’t warned!!!
So speak now,or forever hold your peace, if you want homes built on a brown field site, and…don’t let anyone kid you the traffic situation in Bramley will be any worse off regardless of development at Dunsfold – because Plan B will be to build them all over the countryside in and around the Cranleigh and eastern villages! In the meantime, of course, Horsham is building everywhere!
Not very accurate this WW is it. If you care to visit Dunsfold village and actually chatted about the plan with the actual villagers you would discover that Dunsfold folk don’t really think that the “New Town” would have such a detrimental effect on Dunsfold par se. If it were to go ahead, there would probably be some sort of mitigation in the form of width limits etc. stopping traffic passing through it so actually Dunsfold believe that the village will not be affected. Who will really be affected are those in the surrounds… roads and villages inc. Cranleigh where the increase in building, HGV and vehicle traffic will pass and with the massive population influx ever growing as the settlement develops.
It is simply in the wrong place, it really is as simple as that.
And your are right about the age range of people at the Demo but you try motivating the young on a matter such as this. I am youngish but when I speak to others my own age or younger, they are not really bothered and I wasn’t either when I was younger, I didn’t care where they built stuff. Now I do and so will they when they are older and realise the open spaces and fresher air outside of the towns could have been saved if only people had bothered to try and stop it.