Tomorrow a High Court judge will decide whether Part 1 of ‘Waverley’s Local Plan is sound or whether a challenge by the Campaign for the Protection of some parts of Rural England, for a Judicial Review, can go ahead.
He will also hear challenges from Protect Our Little Corner of Waverley against development at Dunsfold Aerodrome and a Milford man against anyone building in his backyard – you can read it by clicking on this link here: Nightmare on Waverley Street?
If this, or the other challenges are allowed and a full Judicial Review/s ensues, it could be nine months and shedloads of money away. The housing numbers agreed by a Government Inspector could then be in doubt and it will be back to the drawing board! Has Waverley Borough Council got it right? Should it be forced to take 50% of Woking’s unmet need?
Here’s what one Waverley resident thinks. Do you agree?
You know that game “pin the tail on the donkey”?
Well, just suppose you were a visitor to Waverley and you were invited to pin the whole housing numbers target onto one point on a map of our borough, but in this case, you were allowed not to have to wear a blindfold? Well then, you’d pin it on Milford, wouldn’t you?
You’d pick the place in the Borough which had plenty of undeveloped land, is close to a mainline railway station (that could easily have its platforms extended) so people could get to work, was close to the A3 and the A31, and close to enough to existing main settlements for shopping, schools and so on. And you wouldn’t have to worry about Green Belt as there are plenty of new housing growth areas springing up around the country on Green Belt currently. Anyway, if you build a housing estate on a pretty green field, whether or not it happens by historical chance to be called “Green Belt” doesn’t change it from being a pretty green field.
Yep, Milford, it would be.
So can anyone tell me why instead Waverley is dumping new housing into Farnham and Godalming which are already grid-locked with traffic, and into the area of the borough furthest away from main roads and rail stations (Cranleigh, Dunsfold, and Alfold)? Is there some glaringly obvious point I’m missing here?
Thanks, Waverley Web for letting people like me air their comments.
The letter writer asked to remain anonymous.