Just when you thought the silly season was over and we, at the Waverley Web, were beginning to think about looking out our winter woollies, turning up the Aga and dusting off the wood-burner, a burst of late summer sunshine seems to have given Protect our Little Corner’s Bob Lies a touch of sunstroke.
Having spent the summer passing round the begging bowl, after the last JR Judge refused to confirm that PoW could not rely on the Aarhus Convention to limit its costs to £10,000 and would, instead – SHOCK! HORROR! – have to appeal for this indulgence to the next JR Judge, Mr Lies and his cohorts have been fretting about how to raise the wherewithal in case Waverley wins and their second homes are put at risk!
Yup, they don’t care about other people who can’t afford a home in the borough and they sure as hell don’t want to put their own homes on the line like the brave, Farnham residents did.
Past help has come from the Parish Councils but the Waverley Web has been advised that even they are beginning to baulk at funding the PoW Crusade, which looks set to run and run and run … all the way to the top – if the High Court doesn’t agree with them, what do they know? It will be the Supreme Court and then the European Court of Human Rights. Next stop the Vatican and if that fails God himself – after all, he’s supposed to be an Englishman … isn’t he?!
We’ve heard that Mr Lies has been busy mulling over how to embarrass Waverley Borough Council, get local residents on his side and cause a splash in the local papers. Spin? Moi? Heaven forbid! It’s a simple case of all’s fair in love and war!
What? You thought local residents were on side and all singing from the PoW hymn sheet? Only in his fantasies!!!
Unfortunately, Mr Lies, has discovered he can’t have his cake and eat it! On one hand, he’s telling everyone, including High Court Judges, that the majority of Waverley residents are behind PoW and his organisations speak for thousands whilst, on the other, he’s pleading poverty.
Walking the tightrope is our Mr Lies! What the Judges want to know is, if he speaks for so many, how come PoW’s so short of funds, and demanding the protection of the Aarhus Convention?
He’s damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t!
So, in the interests of … well, um, err … in the interests of self-interest, he’s stopped perpetuating the lie that PoW is all about protecting Waverley and finally admitted that it’s all about protecting Awfold and Dudsfold: Revealing its original aim to stop Dunsfold and to hell with the Cranleigh and the rest of the borough!
One of our moles forwarded us a copy of Mr Lies’ holiday project. He’s been busy concocting a letter in which – with faux indignation – he’s demanded to know what Waverley thinks it’s doing wasting Council Tax payer’s money defending the indefensible – ie, the proposed Dunsfold Park development?
We would have thought even Humpty Numpty Mr Lies could have worked that one out but, given it’s the silly season, we’ve decided to step into Leader Potts’ fishnets and craft a response, on her behalf, so she doesn’t have to take time out from topping up her tan to respond to the old windbag.
The following has been posted by a fly-on-the-wall at La Potts’ poolside:
La Potts: ‘Take a letter Mr Horwood!’
Dear Mr Lies
Mr Horwood ‘Tch! Tch! Tch! Julia! Sloppy! You don’t want to let anyone know you’ve been reading the Waverley Web!’
La Potts ‘Well how else am I supposed to find out what’s going on in the Burys…? Let alone the Borough!’
‘I refer to your letter of …’
I refer to your recent letter, addressed to Tom Horwood, enquiring why WBC is ‘wasting so much money defending the challenges from CPRE and POW, which if successful’ – you claim – ‘will reduce the housing requirement for the whole of the Waverley Borough’. As you then go on to answer your own question, I’m not really sure why you posed it but, assuming it wasn’t purely rhetorical, the reason we’re defending it is that if PoW and CPRE succeed in their challenge, the Borough will almost certainly be left without an adopted Local Plan. And that places not only the Council but its residents and taxpayers in the worst possible position. Instead of a win-win, it’s a lose-lose!
Every would-be developer in the Borough and beyond will be knocking on our door, our in-trays will be overflowing and our server will topple-over from the speed with which the planning applications to dig up every garden and green field in the borough – that hasn’t already been concreted over – or flooded. And don’t get me started on the subject of flooding …
Far be it from me to criticise my predecessors but, frankly, I’ve had enough. My colleague, Liz-the-Biz …
‘What? Oh, very well, if you insist!’
My colleague, Mr Horwood, and I inherited an unholy mess after 10 years of Mrs MOP …Matthew Evans and don’t even mention Robert Knowless or Shut the Gates!
Mary Orton-Pett cow-towing to Richard STG, Robert Knowless and ‘Brian – they’ll be housing at Dunsfold Park over my dead body – Ellis’s belief’ that Waverley was a sacred cow and no one, least of all the Tory Party, was going to make it build anything anywhere! And, arising from that bloody-minded pig-headedness, Cranleigh, Godalming and Farnham – to name but a few of our beautiful towns- are now changing beyond recognition as developers are digging up green fields, concreting over orchards and even developing on flood plains! And all of this whilst the biggest brownfield site in the Borough was ignored and told there would be housing there over their dead bodies. Well, all I’ve got to say to that is, one down, Mr Ellis, two to go!
And, I’ve news for you too, Mr Lies: that isn’t happening on my watch! I’m a pragmatic woman …
Why is Waverley not taking the ‘do nothing’ option and letting PoW and CPRE ride roughshod over its Local Plan?’
Because if the Local Plan fails – which it could well do – the thousands of woman hours and hundreds of thousands of pounds that have been spent in getting to this point will all be for nothing and we’ll have to go back to the drawing board and that will cost Waverley residents and taxpayers even more than it’s costing to defend the Local Plan that I and Liz-the-Biz have secreted blood, sweat and tears over!
Read my lips: WE ARE NOT going back to the Dark Ages when Shut-the-Gates and Knowless doffed their caps to the likes of you and your small and steadily decreasing band of like-minded bigots. Liz and I have a plan and it’s to build on the biggest brownfield site in the Borough. Which is what the government wants, the people of Cranleigh and Farnham want and even CPRE wants – everywhere but in Waverley!!!
Got it? Now stop bothering me and go get a life!
Yours etc …
Dear WW
I am afraid I have to disagree with you – You may not like POW – But they DO have a point. Why are Residents having to stump up 300K to defend parties that do not require Financial Assistance. Secretary of State (don’t think it is coming out of his Privy Purse!!).
Guildford BC had the Cojons to say NO to meeting 50% of Woking’s Unmet need and we should have done the same, but WBC in their Terror of not getting the Local Plan signed off – Doffed their caps and agreed to everything that was demanded.
I think they were wrong and I don’t care how much blood and sweat Liz the Biz and her team or Cllr Potts have shed,, they have not done what was in the best interests of the People of Waverley. You know as well as I do that even Farnham that HAD a Plan was shafted …and had to increase their numbers.
In the long run I do think this is an important Precedent and if we don’t stand up for this one Now – I think the Borough will regret it. It is Not just about DP – which I think we all know will happen in some shape or form, but it is about WBC understanding WHERE People want to live and ensuring that there is decent infrastructure in place in those areas. Making sure we do not build on land that will in the future flood either the New residents or those down the road. That there are means of Transport – that do NOT involve having to drive all the time. That we protect the environment for all but especially those to come in the future.
That we provide schools and medical centres before we bang on about Leisure Centres. Fitness & Wellbeing is all wonderful – But having Doctors that open on Weekends and evenings (as mentioned on your previous post) would be a step in the right direction.
If WBC spent half as much time thinking long-term with SCC about the Infrastructure of Surrey – we would all be in a better place than we are now. We are still being led by the nose by developers with influence in High Places. No-one can deny the need for housing, especially Social Housing – But that is NOT what these Developers want… They want to make a lot of Money as quickly as possible – Then leave some shadowy Management Company in place to pick up the pieces.
Enough said – Back to the Sun lounger and a long tall drink… It is after all ….. Monday???
Lucky you, sitting on your sunlounger. We agree with much of what you say, except of course that brownfield sites, should be developed first. You will be shocked to see what is going on over there in the East. Perhaps that holiday could be extended – a few weeks, months, dare we say… years! You wouldn’t recognise the place when you returned!
It is tempting I must say!