HERE WE GO LOOBY LOO … HERE WE GO LOOBY LA LA LAND …

It was a dark and stormy night  on Dunsfold Common. Most residents were in their beds but in one, not so quaint cottage, candlelight flickered and strange sounds  rent the air as a bunch of desperados sat around the kitchen table waiting for their latest plan to hatch.

What the hell was that we hear you ask?

That, dear readers, was the birth of Protect our Little Corner of Waverley’s Easter Surprise!

The  Stop Dunsfold Park New Town has now morphed into a Society to Save Dunsfold’s Heritage –  Seriously!… If so – where have they been all these years?  

Have they ever visited the Dunsfold Park Museum – you know the one that contains memorabilia collected over many thousands of hours by many hundreds of people for more than a decade – Wakey Wakey!

 So desperate is:  Protect our Little Corner to prevent development of any kind at Dunsfold Aerodrome that it has  cranked up its creative juices to spew up  its latest ploy!   Claiming   to conserve every aspect of the historic site –  even submitting an application to make the Aerodrome…

 Waverley Web wants  to know? Was Westminster’s Fairy Maleficent  Matron Milton  at the birth of  this latest Easter chicken?   Call us cynical  but it  appears to those of us who actually want to see Brownfield sites developed in preference to concreting over  Waverley’s countryside that the opposition may have misjudged what they are wishing for. Maleficent Milton’s spell  weaving  may leave  Waverley residents regretting  her interference!   Would she prefer…

Due to MM’s Meddling,  prompted by POW –  ‘Your Waverley’ is now calling for even more sites to be put forward for development in the East.  It’s not enough that ‘Poor Old Cranleigh’ – as it is dubbed  by Waverley Councillors – is being shat upon from a great height by giant concrete mixers at:

Amlets Lane, Horsham Road, Knowle Lane and West Cranleigh Nurseries, Little Meadows  – to name but a few! Oh no, thanks  to Maleficent Milton’s  Magic Wand, Waverley now wants  sites to take another 1,800 homes in Cranleigh and the villages to fill  the shortfall if Dunsfold Aerodrome’s call-in – at Maleficent’s personal behest – leads to the failure – not only of the Council’s latest daft Local Plan – heavily reliant on housing at  the Aerodrome – but also the Dunsfold developer’s planning application! 

•  Are we the only ones that find it strange that the residents of Alfold and Dunsfold have shown precious little interest in the Aerodrome’s history for the past 17 years since BAe upped sticks and left?

 

• Stranger still that there’s no mention on their website of the amateur Museum that has existed at the site since the Dunsfold Developer took it over; it’s run by former WWII servicemen who were based at the Aerodrome.

 

• And, stranger still.  Does anyone  remember when Alfold Parish Council – who are one of several Parish Council’s banding together to oppose development at the Aerodrome – vetoed the erection of a memorial in Alfold to those who lost their lives at the Aerodrome? The reason for their refusal? There was little point in a memorial because the sacrifice of those whom it would commemorate were all dead!!!

 

• Odd too that there’s no mention of the fact that the development proposals for Dunsfold Park include plans to commemorate the wartime history of the Aerodrome by creating a park on the runway which will be lined with Canadian Maples; thereby opening up the old runway to be enjoyed by all.

Of course  They don’t tell us that, as a privately owned site,  there can be no obligation on the Aerodrome’s owners to permit the public access to Surrey’s ‘most secret airfield.’

However, if, development goes ahead those items of the site’s history – that they claim to be so keen to protect – and  deemed worthy of protection WILL BE  PRESERVED and open for all to commemorate along with  a new venture – plans for which are already well progressed. 

The  Stop Development at Dunsfold at Any Price brigade could be mistaken for an April Fool spoof had it not been launched after the event! As usual, the antis behind this latest spoke-in-the-Dunsfold Developer’s wheel  have a – no names no pack drill approach, although a quick browse of their website reveals one of the usual suspects is up to his bushy-brows in it. A… Mike Nicholson, whose name repeatedly crops up as a  neighbour objector  is prominent amongst them.

According to their website, DAHS — exists to ‘research and make public all of the history of what has been called ‘Surrey’s most secret airfield’, to celebrate historical achievements, and preserve precious assets and memories for the benefit of current and future generations. We believe that the right and proper way of doing that is for all statutory bodies, local councils and stakeholders to work together to establish a robust framework for the airfield that will inform and guide its future management and development, recognising its heritage value. A conservation area covering the site would be an ideal means of achieving this.’

Of course they do!

Translation: a conservation area covering the site would be an ideal means of achieving absolutely bugger all development at the Aerodrome whatsoever!

The list goes on … of what  they think makes the Aerodrome so special:

The relatively ‘untouched’ nature of the 1942-built airfield

In case they hadn’t noticed, a significant number of big grey buildings have just been erected on the northern perimeter of the Aerodrome.

The survival of a large number of key physical assets, including the runways, in their original form

A tenant at Dunsfold Park told wrote to us recently that there  are so many  potholes in the original 1942 runway that it would put a third world highway to shame.

They say:

Wings and Wheels – major air show and motorsport event attracting 25,000 visitors and over 1000 participants and Home to the BBCs Top Gear programme watched in 214 territories worldwide and has an estimated global audience of 350 million

What’s the betting this motley bunch  are the self-same people who have done nothing but complain to Waverley Borough Council about Wings & Wheels and Top Gear since their inauguration. 

If Dunsfold’s Developer wants our advice then  in the run up to the next Bank Holiday week-end, hand the site over to the Travellers currently residing on Stovolds Hill – reputed to be the largest concentration of Gypsies  in the country – and growing by the day! They could also decamp from Farnham’s Dogflud Car Park, where they have resided recently and achieve more in a few days than it has in fifteen years!

With a bit of hard graft and a fair wind they’ll have sunk septic tanks, laid asphalt, moved their mobile homes onto the 600 acre site and laid astro turf down the runway, all whilst Waverley Borough Council is on lock down for the week-end!

Those with long memories will recall It took a decade-long legal battle, costing Council Tax payers a reputed £7 million, to evict the Travellers who occupied the Dale Farm site. In recent years the Traveller community have proved themselves very adept at manipulating the legal system to ensure their rights, as a self-proclaimed vulnerable minority, are not impinged, thus enabling them to evade legal eviction notices in a way that no ordinary tax payer or developer could even dream of. 

Mischievous of us to mention – yes – but just a thought … from Waverley’s scurrilous blog that tells the home truths that others dare not!