Waverley officers led by Head Honcho Tom Horwood have been busy since the election armageddon… very busy! 

Panic, not they haven’t been getting rid of all those documents they refused to share with their opposition colleagues over the past decade – well at least we hope not? They wouldn’t – would they?

No – they have been shredding the paperwork brought in by all the former Tory councillors, whose desks have groaned under the weight of  Agenda’s and committee papers/reports – some of which go back to the dark ages. The Paperwork they won’t be needing now they can spend more time with their families?

And there were we thinking that most of the millions of pages spewed out every month from Waverley Towers were electronically delivered. But appears not, as one newby waiting to take his seat tonight told us the CEO  said officers have been very busy, shredding. And, there were we thinking they were down at Bet Fred putting money on who was going to run the Waverley Show, not betting on who would get to shred?

The Full Council and Mayor making ceremony will be held tonight.

Vote Rainbow Alliance – get two Tories?

According to some – it was the Waverley Web that scuppered the Tories!

Including our owner(?!?!) David Wylde (bottom left) Our Publisher (?!?) Jerry Hyman not pictured, presumably because he was writing posts from his spider’s web?

What a joke. Whilst we here at the WW regularly feature letters from Dear David, we thought Jerry or (Jaz) as his ‘friend’ Wannabe Waverley councillor Adam Taylor-Smith calls him, was far too busy?

Wasn’t the borough councillor for Firgrove Ward busy enough masterminding the election defeat inflicted on both borough and town councils? Did he have enough spare time to fill in by writing for us and sweeping the A31 on his way to Waverley council meetings?

We want to know why these two boys aren’t turning up for their shifts?!?

What a clever man he is, and he has a day job?

Suffice to say, as the picture from the amazing Farnham Herald reveals, the new guard Farnham Residents now outnumber their Tory colleagues by 18 seats to four. Could Farnham Town Council become a non-political council in the future? 

But in Farnham, is it chaos already?
The Mayoral role has been extended until 27th June to give them more time to argue amongst themselves perhaps?

And there we all were thinking we had voted for change? A new era for the borough dubbed by the tories as ‘Your Waverley’ that would, at last, become ‘Our Waverley.’

Whilst Waverley voters may have bought the T-shirt for a Rainbow coalition, who will actually run the council??

Before the voting slips are even cold, we understand True Blue Mary Foryszewski, will be anointed into the most powerful Job –  Mayor of Waverley! And a former Tory (who will from now on be referred to as “APOT’ – A Pissed off Tory) becomes the new Council Leader. The self-elected leader of the Farnham Residents’ will thankfully be supported – and oh boy will he need supporting – by Lib Dem Deputy Cllr Paul Follows. A man who gathered more support in the recent elections than all the Tories put together.

So why has The Rainbow Alliance chosen to hand over control of the council to a Cranleigh woman who hasn’t exactly covered herself in glory in recent months?

After losing her chairmanship of Cranleigh Parish Council to the feisty Elizabeth Townsend, she literally threw in the towel and failed to turn up to a single meeting! Except of course for the opening of an envelope in her role as deputy Mayor.

Having incurred the wrath of every single one of her parish colleagues for opposing a Memorial Garden to commemorate war veterans, she then appeared in the Conservative In Touch pre-election rag, applauding its existence! 

So Why has the new administration appointed John ‘APOT’ Ward to lead the council forward into the brave new world of Waverley? A man who has had a poor attendance record, and who hasn’t exactly shone in holding the Tories to account as a Farnham Resident! Well, we suppose a Farnham ‘POT’ is better than a ‘Farnham POTTY?’

Let us all live in hope, even if we die with disappointment and boredom, that after a year as Leader in Waiting, Paul Follows will become the head honcho we have all been waiting for? And just in case wannabe borough councillor Angela Richardson is reading this and believes the WW is the PF Fan Club?  We put our weight behind the people who communicate with the public and tell it as it is. Not those who treat the residents of our borough like mushrooms keep them in the dark, and throw a load of manure over them from time to time – ok?

We have looked back to find any previous examples of an administration holding power allowing the opposition to appoint the new Mayor. Perhaps one of our more enlightened followers will tell us? contact@waverleyweb.com

It isn’t only Bramley’s By-pass Byham that wants to re-route the traffic – Cranleigh man wants to do it too!

And… on Monday ‘Your Waverley’ will give the go-ahead for a three-day concert at its Licensing Committee. A committee that has not even been officially formed yet!

I hear footsteps slowly walking
As they gently walk across a lonely f[ield]
And a voice that’s softly saying
Darling this will be goodbye for evermore

There goes my reason for living
There goes the one of my dreams
There goes my only possession
There goes my everything

As my memory turns back the pages
I can see the happy years we had before
And the love that kept this cold heart beating
Has been shattered by the closing of a [field]

Warbles Tammy Wynette, providing a fitting swan-song for Cranleigh’s latest green field, for a Folk Concert that is being promoted to herald the opening of the new Cranleigh By-Pass. All in the name of Charity!

Taking a leaf out of By-pass Byham’s book, Cranleigh’s movers-and-shakers (known locally as ‘pi**-takers’!) are also keen to re-route the traffic. And – if they cannot do it legally, they will do it by stealth!

 On Monday, ‘Your – oh so complicit – Waverley’s Licensing Committee will give them the go-ahead for the three-day event, which will be held annually. A Quasi-Judicial Committee that has not even been officially formed yet!

With yet another planning scalp tucked under its bulging belt on one part of the Knowle Park, the Knowle Park Initiative is now well on the way to creating By-Pass Stage One: Starting in Alfold Road and serving the new KPI/A-2 Dominion 75 home development, which includes an additional “emergency exit for emergency vehicles.”

Councillors Townsend (Cranleigh), Follows (Godalming) and Hyman (Farnham)  all questioned the need for the so-called ‘emergency access’ given that it hasn’t been requested by either the fire brigade or ambulance service because the spine road of the development is deemed sufficiently wide to take large vehicles.

On the back foot and only days away from shutting up shop for the elections, officers at ‘Your Waverley’ agreed, once again, to shut the stable door after the horse has bolted, saying, “in future applications [they would] ask the emergency services for their views on whether such accesses are necessary.”

WTF? You couldn’t make it up, really you couldn’t!

Anyone else detect a very strong stench of rotting fish in the state of Cranleigh?

Not least because we, at the Waverley Web, have never known another developer – like Barratt Homes, Berkeley Home, Cala Homes, Crest Nicholson, Millwood Homes or Uncle Tom Cobley Homes to ever seek similar alternative accesses for emergency vehicles!

Here’s your Cranleigh Man – now with more time on his hands -to do the work? 

So when the WW heard from a Cranleigh follower that another ‘new access” – only temporary (of course!) – was required to take traffic for up to 5,000 people from Knowle Lane – through Knowle Park to Alfold Road – for a Folk Festival planned for September, every orifice began to twitch!

Below is a comment sent to contact@waverleyweb.com from Angry of Cranleigh:

Trees and hedgerows removed at their whim in the name of yet another charity – 1177, which is arranging a festival to raise money for the church? Really?

… look behind this and you will notice the start of a so-called ‘temporary road’ for Cranleigh’s very own Friar Tuck. Going to where? You may well ask!

To Robin Hood’s new development? This will increase the value of his housing with a straight road into Cranleigh’s Knowle Lane.

Where then, you may well ask? Another so-called charity wants another “emergency access” Down Snoxhall Road across our precious Downslink, across residents [AKA Parish owned])’ land outside the Bandroom and into the car park and village!

Of course, this will all be denied by the Fat Friar, Robin Hood and his merry men, all of whom will benefit greatly from this new temporary road, for which trees are currently being felled(!), making the Friar’s land ripe for even more development at some point in the future no doubt!

So poor old Cranleigh gets poorer by the day thanks to Robin and his merry men! Not only has its residents lost their land (we believe the land to which the writer refers was sold for a £1 to Cranleigh Village Hospital Trust (CVHT) by Cranleigh Parish Council for a so-called village hospital, which has now morphed into a private ‘Care Home’) and their money, now their High Street and Knowle Lane are permanently log-jammed and impassable due to HGVs, which is driving shoppers out of Cranleigh New Town.

And now it looks set to be closed off permanently so the lardy Friar Tuck and his motley men can get even lardier!.

By checking’YW” website it appears Cranleigh Parish Council had strongly objected to the application.

Welcome to Godalming Town Council 2019-2023

Fresh from their election success the Rainbow Alliance has prompted a few changes which have gone down like a lead balloon.

Popular Godalming resident Penny Rivers became the Mayor of Godalming and Paul Follows takes the helm.

With faces resembling slapped asses, during those elections, the few remaining Tory councillors, opposed a very simple motion to sort out some outdated wording in the council’s Standing Orders. Taking note of the many female members of the new administration it was proposed that instead of ‘Chairman’ – the reference to the lead of committees becomes “Chair” so now the new mayor will no longer be referred to as the ChairMAN – but as The Mayor.

The plonker, who is one of only three Conservatives who remain, opposed the change and asked for his opposition to be recorded.

The Tosser was Cosser (as in Steve)

You would think, that at the first meeting of the new council, the Tories might have been chastened by their huge defeat and remained silent. Kept their powder dry for a real fight, over something substantial affecting Godalming. But oh! no, let’s put the boot in early and squash the upstarts. “Better to keep silent and be thought to be a fool, than open your mouth and remove all doubt?”

We will not even mention – perish the thought – that one of the Botts who got the boot – had to step into the previous Mayoral Role, whilst he serves Her Majesty!

Cllr Follows says that –

“accessibility, equality and much-needed modernisation of the administration of the town council, in general, will be a constant of this new administration.”

“We will be sensitive to tradition and custom but it will not be at any and all cost. We will acknowledge and celebrate the rich history of our town but we will not exclude people because they ‘don’t fit a mould’ or type that some of the previous councillors tried to perpetuate.”

Cllr PennyRivers The new Mayor of Godalming mentor and colleague of the new Chair of Godalming Town Council Paul Follows.

…This is the notice ‘Cross of Cranleigh’ has suggested Surrey County  Council erects at its Community Recycling Centres!

Waverley Borough Councillors who believe the recent local elections were all about Brexit couldn’t be further from the mark according to many of the billet-doux that have been dropping into our inbox since the Tories’ recent election Armageddon.

Visitors to Cranleigh’s recycling centre at Nanhurst Crossroads have been irked beyond belief to discover that their so-called Community Recycling Centre is cutting back – yet again – on what it will accept. The list is endless but, to give you a flavour…

no more:

• black bag waste
• TVs and monitors
• carpets
• furniture including mattresses
• hard plastics
• garden chemicals and paint
• wood and timber
• roofing felt
• tyres

The powers that be claim this is a ‘trial’ whilst they ‘review alternative options for maintaining an effective service’ but the truth is, as many residents have already guessed, Nanhurst Recycling Centre was earmarked for closure but local residents kicked up such a rumpus that instead, the Council has embarked on a closure by stealth plan.

The first part of its cunning plan involved reducing the number of days the centre was open from seven days a week to three!

The second stage is to cut back on what can be recycled so drastically that they reduce the footfall at the centre …

The third stage will be to announce that footfall has decreased so dramatically that there’s insufficient demand so it is closing the site.

RESULT!

Meanwhile, vehicle emissions in the Borough will increase as Cross of Cranleigh, Ballistic of Bagshot, Defiant of Dorking and Worried of Warlingham have to drive all the way to Caterham (yes, you did read that right: CATERHAM – 30 miles and 58 minutes from CRANLEIGH!) to dispose of all of the aforementioned.

And they wonder why Fly Tipping is on the increase?! Durrhh!!! Who wants to spend a precious two hours of their spare time on a round-trip from Cranleigh to Caterham to dispose of their recycling?!

It wouldn’t be so bad if residents were being offered a discount on their Council Tax so they could offset their fuel costs and carbon emissions but, oh no, the Surrey plonkers  have the great distinction of having increased its Council Tax by 88.9% in real terms since 1997 – whereas Council Tax as a whole in England during that period has increased by 57%!!! according to the Taxpayers Alliance. A band H taxpayer in Waverley is shelling out £4,014 per annum this year, whereas the national average in the South-East is £1,814! Which begs the question, what is SCC doing with all this dosh? Shovelling it into their gold-plated taxpayer-funded pension schemes and funding shops here in Farnham?

And, whilst we’re on the subject of where does all our taxpayer money go, can anyone explain to us why Surrey is offering to produce its six-page Changes at Surrey’s Community Recycling leaflet in six different languages other than English? Including texts which, to our untutored eyes, appear to resemble Arabic, Cyrillic, Chinese, and Spanish – although we’re happy to be corrected if that’s not the case! According to the 2011 Census data, White was 90.4% of the ethnic population in Surrey. Therefore, if we need to save money, rather than cutting back on the number of recycling centres why don’t we cut back on the number of documents the Council translates into multiple languages if only 9.6% of the local population need a translation? Especially given that Google Translate offers the service for free!!!

So, Dear Mistress Milton and Dr Povey it’s not all about Brexit, it’s about GARBAGE! Get it? Sort it!

Do not criticise the following if you wish to remain a member of the Cranleigh Community Board run by Cranleigh Chamber of Trade’s head honcho Batty Bamford.

• Any businesses or restaurants where you may have experienced less than perfect service. OR YOU WILL BE OUT.
• If you are a gipsy living in or around Cranleigh –  do not comment on the board – or you will be out!
• NEVER EVER STAND UP FOR THE GIPSY POPULATION LIVING ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF CRANLEIGH! Or you too – Will be out!
• Never ever, ask questions of the Cranleigh Village Hospital Trust.
• Do not make any reference to the fact that it is no longer a hospital, but is a care home, and do not criticise or question the change/s.
• Do not criticise or make comments about the huge amount of development now thrust upon Cranleigh. It is there to provide the shops with more footfall and is supported by ‘some’ members of the Chamber of Trade.
• Don’t moan about traffic or parking problems.
• Never post pictures of burnt jacket potatoes.
• The board is there for you to wax lyrical over the delights of living in Cranleigh. If you don’t you’re out.
• Don’t refer to Batty Bamford as the Cranleigh Dictator who has more fingers in pies than Greggs Bakeries. Our apologies if there is a bakery in Cranleigh?

If you want honest debate, join the alternative called the Cranleigh Community Group that is almost uncensored is run by Andy “Flash” Webb a Cranleigh villager, born and bred and who now lives in Alfold.

Oh dear! It would appear we have upset the ‘mighty Bamford’ to whom Steve Taylor refers!

Now there we were thinking he was just Batty, but he actually tells porkies too. So we will remind him of this post below when he blocked a Dunsfold Gipsy (Tory Gaskin) who wrote to us over here in Farnham to tell us.

As for your comments about this site supporting developers. Correct. We support developers here in Farnham and in the rest of the borough who build on brownfield sites. Unlike you Mr Bamford who support not only development in the countryside, for your mates, but development on the Green Belt too. Tell the truth Mr Bamford, or someone will tell it for you.

Youth Crime and hate crime is rising in Cranleigh New Town and the Eastern Villages.

It came as no surprise to us here at the Waverley Web that an Independent won the Haslemere Surrey County Council  By-Election.  

She proved herself a formidable and hardworking councillor when she represented the Town from 2013.  Which is more than can be said for the Tory who replaced her, and became another CHINO – ‘Councillor Here in Name Only.’ He attended only 14% of council meetings!

And – another Tory bites the dust!

These testimonials say everything about Nikki Barton.

With no party line to follow and, as someone living within the ward she is hoping to represent, Nikki has a proven track record of not only listening to the views of the community but, where necessary, taking appropriate action. A true community player with no hidden agenda, who I know will truly and honestly represent the issues and concerns of the people of Haslemere. Ken Griffiths, AKA Community Ken

The Rail Partnership has been a huge positive to Haslemere, Nikki and her team work very hard to promote Haslemere and what the town/area has to offer. Her work to put Haslemere on the map has surely had a profound effect on the number of visitors coming to the town and with our great location opposite the station this footfall has undoubtedly had an increased effect on the trade we receive. Manager, The Station House Hotel

Nikki Barton was a strong supporter of the local community and to me personally here in Haslemere in January 2017 when the Alzheimer’s Society decided to close the Dementia Day Care Centre where my husband and many others suffering from Dementia attended. Nikki recognised our local vision for the need to help keep this valuable service for Clients and Carers. She voiced our concerns at meetings at both local and County levels and stood beside those of us who were determined to keep this service operational. Without her unwavering encouragement, support and negotiating expertise, we would not have had the voice to bring about the opening of a new thriving Community Charity for dementia care in Haslemere, The Hunter Centre. I am proud to support and recommend Nikki as an Independent Candidate for SCC. Margaret Barlow, Trustee – The Hunter Centre

Our family has complex needs and we were struggling with different issues. Nikki quickly grasped what was needed and organised a meeting with head of Children & Family services (and other services involved) to ensure our family received more comprehensive and joined up support. We are grateful for her focused and pragmatic support. Mrs B. –  Haslemere

 

These further testimonials on the HASLEMERE FIRST FACEBOOK PAGE were from the time Nikki Barton was a candidate for the Surrey County Council elections that were held in May 2013. She was duly elected on 3rd May 2013, thanks to great community support.

It used to be said that if you cut Haslemere through its centre it would be blue all the way through. Times have changed and even the die hard Tories are disgruntled. We have had nothing but frustration and poorly thought out policies from our Tory council and councillors for the last 2 years at least. Haslemere is changing and voting Nikki Barton in as an independent councillor who has Haslemere as her priority is the way forward! I support her wholeheartedly! Viv Shorleson, Haslemere First page, Facebook

Coming out of Facebook hibernation to express my admiration and support for Nikki Bartonwho is running as an independent in the county council elections on Thurs 2nd May. I often find myself thinking that the only way to change things is to get involved and Nikki is certainly doing that, despite having three young children and volunteering locally. After spearheading the parking campaign in Haslemere last year, I think she sees that she can make a difference, putting issues ahead of party politics. Nikki, I salute you! Pamela Gimblett, Haslemere First page, Facebook

Good luck Nikki – you are a breath of fresh air! Georgie Cullen, Haslemere First page, Facebook

MANIFESTO TESTIMONIALS

Nikki is passionate about the Town in which she lives and is prepared to find time out of her busy schedule as a young mother to fight for the benefit of this our Town and the surrounding countryside. Unlike most other candidates who put their Political Party first, Nikki will always put the people of Haslemere and their wellbeing First and Foremost. Ken Griffiths, Manifesto Leaflet, Haslemere resident

Nikki cares about the future of the town and will listen to what local people think is important rather than follow the party political view. Julianne Evans, Manifesto Leaflet, Haslemere business owner, JL Nobbs

Nikki listens and she cares about people and their aspirations.  She is real and does not try to be what she is not.She knows she cannot be all things to all people but she will not fob them off with platitudes either. Robert Serman, Manifesto Leaflet, Haslemere resident

TWITTER TESTIMONIALS (@VoteNikkiBarton)

I have known Nikki for several years. She is loyal, trustworthy and passionate. Will be a superb councillor for Haslemere. Ian Holden, via Twitter

It’s a brave thing to do. To be an independent candidate in a Tory *stranglehold* @VoteNikkiBarton deserves support in #Haslemere on 2nd May. Melanie Rollinson, Woodie & Morris, via Twitter

Delighted ur on Twitter. Will support u! Your commitment and dedication to local life is admirable. Bisous. Xx @VoteNikkiBarton, Anna Marie Hunt, via Twitter