An appeal against Waverley’s refusal to open up the countryside to build another 99 homes in the village has brought a cry for help from its residents.
They want the rest of the borough of Waverley to get behind their fight to bring a halt to development in a small village that has far exceeded its quota.
The village now faces fighting yet another appeal by Thakeham Homes to build on land owned by the Merchant Seaman’s charity to the west of Loxwood Road.
The Sussex-based developer wants to get its bulldozers through the door for 99 homes, having been refused 425 on appeal in 2017. Care Ashore and Thakeham Homes’ boat sunk by a Government Inspector! It is basing its case on the fact that Waverley does not have a five-year housing land supply, making villages like Alfold highly vulnerable. This scheme alone would have tripled the size of the village.
Planning permission exists just yards away from the proposed site for a circa 3,000 home garden village on Dunsfold Aerodrome. Work by the new owners is expected to begin in March.
Work is also progressing on the final plans for the new Wings Museum, which hopes to attract 20,000 thousand visitors p.a. Although Waverley Planners refused the scheme only yards from the Thakeham site, it was allowed on appeal by a Government Inspector. The Museum wants to be on-site in two years. Just WINGS this time no WHEELS – between Alfold and Dunsfold.
Villagers believe the latest bid by Thakeham is the thin end of the wedge and will see Alfold swamped with new homes once approved. WA/2020/1684.
The diagram below shows where new homes have either been constructed or where homes have an extant planning consent.
I am not totally convinced these figures are correct but having asked various sources no one has said I have got them wrong so I Will post on Appeal. This is what these IDIOTS are doing here and all over our little Surrey Village – I am not a NIMBY I just believe the Government need to provide the INFRASTRUCTURE before they allow Planning. A village of 450 homes (2011 Census) to double in size is just WRONG and shows the lack of any understanding of the issues here in Rural Surrey – As you know we have no trains, doctors, schools, limited buses, 1 Pub (Currently Closed) 1 Restaurant – (Thus-Sun)
Village Hall/Playing fields (random open hours) 1 Bus Main service every 2-3 Hours to Guildford) I Hope MP Gove looks at these issues and Understands that it is NOT NIMBYism it is desperation to protect our rural villages that have no designated protection due to being rural. HELP!
Here’s Mrs Wordworth’s letter to the Inspector. Letters had to be with the department by 21 September. – villagers were given only three weeks to respond for a public hearing on 7 December with a decision date on 12 January.
We strongly advise our followers to read her letter – if it wasn’t so severe, the lack of infrastructure is almost laughable!
Thakeham Appeal Docs ALL 19 September 2021 -2
I just can’t see how Alfold can take more housing. The ‘for’ arguments of the ‘Councillors Ellis’ (in their time- two votes one mind) to take the huge number of houses in Cranleigh were all about the proximity of the sites to the Village centre and the amenities found here. Oh and affordable houses for local people which never materialised from their buddies’ schemes, the ones where they declared an interest at the start of the planning meeting. Shameful. No one walks to the shops in Cranleigh- they all drive. There are no amenities in Alfold. If Surrey County Council close the railway bridge on Elmbridge road before it collapses, and with run-common road in its second year of closure, its really difficult for Alfold residents to access anything here, they’ll have to sit in the traffic on the way to Horsham or Guildford. On a cold clear morning you can really smell the pollution from the standing traffic trying to get anywhere on local roads.
Hi WW – Eeek I thought you and your team may have Tidied up the rather sloppy Document I emailed to you… I was in such a rush to get it done before the deadline of 21st September – We were given less than 1 month (by the time the Appeal Letters arrived) to get our Paperwork in before that date, some of us are still working so couldn’t spend as much time as needed to go through it all.
I don’t know if you lot have taken the time to read the Squillions of Pages that Thakeham homes have put up on the WBC Planning portal – But it is ridiculous and obviously designed to make finding any relevant Papers a nightmare.
I can understand WBC abiding by the Government Guidlines to speed things up.. But Really?? there are over 100 individual Papers (some multiple pages) Thakeham uploaded in August/September 2021 for the Appeal – Did they REALLY need to upload all the PLOT Pages as individual Documents? Surely they were there in the Original Application. They then “slipped in more important pages in between – Smoke screen – I think!! – I cannot Paste the screen shot in – But if you look at the website it is fairly obvious.
To be honest – I don’t hold out much hope getting any Support from the rest of the Borough – Certainly not after the debacle with the Haslemere Application – that was in their Local Plan – but failed to get approval. Thus far I have only heard Cllr Cockburn stand up and say that the East of the Borough is taking a disproportionate amount of Applications – so for that I am hugely grateful, but apart from that… Well as I say I won’t be holding my breath! Until WBC get on with LPP2 – and Alfold their Neighbourhood Plan we are Screwed.
This will not be the only Appeal we see here – Nor the last Application…. Look out for what happens at Wildwood Golf Course. I am sure the new owners envision an Eco-Friendly Retirement Village of 200 odd homes or maybe more? The damage they have caused on-site is horrendous – But Mother nature is slowly trying to re-wild the wileful distruction – But we have noticed in the last few months that many of the Water-fowl have disappeared (Canada Geese, Greylags, Swans, Egyptian Geese) We have only seen a few Ducks and Coots and the odd heron in the air … Hope there isn’t any leakage from the Soil Disruption into the Ponds/Lakes which I believe feed into each other.
All the Ecology mats/ Boxes etc put on the site in Spring 2021 are still in-situ… Are they still valid? see this site https://www.bsg-ecology.com/survey-calendar/
These developers have no shame and will do anything to get their sites approved and then sell them on – It is a Shameful- Developer Lead system we have now and if MP Gove doesn’t overturn the Proposed changes to the System then we will lose our Countryside forever.
It won’t affect me too badly but it will affect the next generation……
PS I am not MRS Wordsworth – That was my Mum!
Well if that letter was sloppy then it is brilliant compared to some we have seen. Sincere apologies for mistaken you for your Mum, however, she would be very proud of her daughter standing up for the village of Alfold. And, yes, we found the Thakeham Papers completely baffling.