She knows you know – who to blame for the hole Waverley Planners are in having lost two vital planning appeals – which she claims is a
“total disaster for the borough.”
There she crows pointing at the culprits – the deputy leader of the Tory opposition is in no doubt who to blame – no guesses there then? The Rainbow Coalition?
The councillor for Farnham’s Bourne says Waverley must now grant planning consents for sites that conform with the development plan because…
“Until the borough begins to grant permissions on suitable sites it will lose appeals on unsuitable sites. The borough needs a robust 5-year housing land supply, and a fuly adopted Local Plan. It is not the Government’s fault and the Lib Dems must stop playing politics with planning policy and must accept responsibility for it lamentable performance on planning as a whole.”
Now, here at the Waverley Web, we thought Cllr Cockburn was not only listening but heard both recent appeal inquiries?
But perhaps she didn’t want to hear the legal eagles consistently point to Waverley’s lamentable record of development in the early years of its Local Plan! Oh! Carole – you are not a fool – as the song goes, in fact, you are a knowledgable and savvy politician, who should know better than enter the blame game.
So when it comes to blaming be careful who you crow for?
- Q Who sodded about with Local Plan Part 1 for donkey’s years? A Waverley Tories.
- Q Who failed to recognise that Dunsfold Aerodrome was a brownfield site and fought the developer at appeal – costing Waverley taxpayers millions? Remember ‘Shut the Gates’, ‘By-Pass Byham’, ‘Robert Knowless’ and Sleepy Goodridge? “they will build at Dunsfold over our dead bodies.” A The Tories!
- Q Who failed during the early years of LP1 to grant hardly any planning permissions? A The Tories.
- Q Who delayed the Local Plan Part 2, immediately before the May 2018 elections because it was too hot to handle in Haslemere? A The Tories.
So now who has to stop playing politics Carole?
Why am I not surprised that the Tory party are blaming the current administration when the truth of the matter is historical and all due to the actions of a previous Tory administration. I saw similar in another local authority area where I used to live, where the current Tory opposition are blaming the Residents Administration for a number of current issues that the cause of which was in fact was put in place by the last Tory administration, knowing full well that it would cause problems a couple of years later
Most of the issues in Farnham were caused when the LDs pushed the planning through between 2003 and 2007. Paul Follows is just the new Chris Mansell. Only without the same intelligence.
While the blame might well rest with the previous administration, why the reference to crowing. It puts you at the same level as the Tories. The arguments are strong enough without insults
No insult intended, however, when will these Tory councillors stop blaming the present administration for the terrible mistakes they have made over many years! It is extremely frustrating for everyone listening to this constant diatribe of accusation when they demonstrate such a selective memory of the decisions they made in times gone by.
The present problems with losing appeals are due to the lack of a robust 5 year housing supply and a fully adopted Local Plan. The last administration under the leadership of Julia Potts fought tooth and nail to get Dunsfold Aerodrome through the planning process even going to the High Court to ensure it’s inclusion to the housing numbers. The current Waverley administration needs to stop playing politics with the housing numbers by trying to appease their supporters and get on with the job they were elected to do. There are some talented councillors that need to step up to the plate and get on with things as for nearly three years our taxpayers have not noticed where their money has gone.
Regarding Red Court the simple fact is that it was always going to be approved. The Waverley Officers were very clear on this. And it was the Lib Dems and local Independents who sought to play politics here. They succeeded in delaying the approval but they could not avoid the inevitable.
This whole town has been dominated by this one single planning issue for three years. We have town councillors who are effectively single issue campaigners but pretend to be interested in the wider community. They aren’t at all. Some of them continue to tweet endlessly about what a disaster it is that Red Court has been approved. It is a disaster for them because they live next door to it. Most of the town don’t care. They can cite 500 objections of course but following approval being granted such was the local concern there was not one single post on any of the local community Facebook groups about it.
The rest of the town has been ignored as a result of this bizarre focus on one issue, led by a small minority of the entire parish – who conveniently all live next door.
Whatever has gone on before Cllr Cockburn is quite right to argue that too much politics has been played with the Red Court campaign.
I also find some of the language used in this post and imagery a bit unbecoming of the author.