Don’t they ever learn – there is no such thing as a secret meeting of Waverley Borough Council because every time you slam those doors, fill a room with the great unwashed to plan even more housing estates in the borough – we find out your dirty little secrets!
We at the Waverley Web cannot claim credit for sniffing out ‘YW’s’ latest cunning plan to get up close and personal with developers. All those people eager to spew concrete down on Waverley’s fields and woodland – including ancient woodland, – in a bid to build more ticky tacky homes. That accolade goes to the…
Cranleigh Civic Society who discovered ‘YW” had rented space in a favourite meeting spot at Godalming’s Baptist Church, that even its usual insider whistle blowers knew nothing about. Like all media, we follow the CCS all the time.
See the email chain below: (even the Monitoring Officer has to give honest replies to objective questions – sometimes.)
The CCS says: However, we find it hard to believe Waverley’s statement, that there was no suitable venue within the Council Offices. They had from February to organise this!
We at the WW also wonder, why Cranleigh/Ewhurst/Dunsfold Parish Council representatives are never invited to attend these meetings, after all, it would appear, those areas are the most affected? Perhaps, in a few months time, when the (doctored) minutes are put up on the website (if you are able to find them) we will all know who attended – won’t we?
Last time it came to light through good investigative journalism by The Waverley Web, who exposed ‘YW’ Waverley’s secret meetings with a host of developers eager to dig into Cranleigh. Our post was quickly followed up by the local press.
How did the Waverley Web find out?
Because, so delighted were the Cranleigh councillors, The Ellis, and Stennett duos, and a Cranleigh developer (KPI), that they couldn’t hide their glee or keep their mouths shut at the prospect of creating Cranleigh New Town and bringing – “more footfall into the high street.” So, they just blabbed and blabbed!
You can read our post of 9th October here:https://waverleyweb.org/2015/10/09/here-they-go-again/
and again…
The Hoppa Bus will be departing shortly for the latest of Waverley’s ‘Not-So-Secret’ Secret Meetings
This is just one of the ways Waverley is forcing development of thousands of new homes into the East and West in particular, Cranleigh without even consulting the locals, or sorting out its numerous infrastructure problems first.
Says the Cranleigh Civic Society:
Please come to the Village Meeting at 7pm on Thursday 25th May at Cranleigh Village Hall and learn about the various ways Waverley Borough Council is unfairly treating Cranleigh residents in their rush to get housing built in Cranleigh. And, more importantly, what you as residents can do about it. Oh, and please tell all your friends and neighbours!
Email trail:
———- Forwarded message ———- From: MonitoringOfficer <MonitoringOfficer@waverley.gov.uk> Date: Mon, May 8, 2017 at 2:02 PM Subject: RE: Secret meeting this week
To: Adrian Clarke , MonitoringOfficer <MonitoringOfficer@waverley.gov.uk>
Dear Mr Clarke
Thank you for your email and I can confirm that a meeting is taking place this afternoon between developers, utility companies and Waverley Borough Council. This is not a secret meeting, but a meeting to which members of the public are not able to attend. The reason for the meeting taking place at the Baptist Church in Godalming today is because there was no suitable venue available at the Council Offices in the Burys.
The first meeting of the Group took place in February, the minutes of which have been available to view on the Waverley website. Here is a link to the page on the website where the minutes of today’s meeting will also be posted in due course.
Kind regards, Emma
[Incidentally, Robin Pellow is no longer employed at Waverley Borough Council and the Monitoring Officer is now Robin Taylor. He can be contacted via the monitoringofficer@waverley.gov.uk email address.]
From: Adrian Clarke Sent: Monday 08 May 2017 09:48 To: MonitoringOfficer
Subject: Secret meeting this week
Dear Mr Pellow,
We learned at a meeting with a utility company last week that Executive members of Waverley Borough Council have arranged a secret meeting this week with developers and utility companies to discuss Waverley’s plans for dumping new housing estates in Cranleigh.
We were were told that the venue is the Baptist Church in Godalming, a venue chosen well away from the council offices at The Burys so that the meeting can be held in secret.
Please would you confirm if this meeting is, or is not going ahead, and if it is, if the public are invited to the meeting to scrutinise Executive members’ actions.
We enclose a copy of an editorial in the Surrey Advertiser dated 16-Oct-15, exposing this dubious practice in the past. We had hoped that Waverley’s Executive members had in the meantime adopted a more open, honest approach to your meetings.