A proposed development that one objector claims –
“Could change the face of Milford forever and for the worse.”
Residents may have seen that the planning application for the Secretts site in Milford has been submitted. Objections are already flooding in.
one objector says, ” in the present economic climate, we need to look after our farmland and be self-sufficient.”
LAND AT SECRETTS, HURST FARM, MILFORD
Ptarmigan Milford and Bewley Homes PLC have made a Hybrid planning application for a development comprising: a full planning application for the demolition of existing buildings and the development of 216 dwellings, a new farm shop, a change of use of the existing farm shop building to provide 533 sqm of commercial accommodation as a rural business hub provision of public open space, new sports pitches and associated infrastructure, landscaping, drainage arrangements, parking and formation of new access points; and an outline planning application for the demolition of the existing black barn and erection of a new health hub with all matters reserved except access.”
A ‘pedestrian walk’ will also need to serve as a dedicated cycle link between the Hurst Farm site and the community at Ockford Ridge. Witley Parish Council has neither supported nor objected to the scheme. However, it is concerned about footpath WA/2022/02194.
This is an essential benefit of this development as it provides the opportunity to provide safer cycling access for students from Ockford Ridge who attend Rodborough School and provides the opportunity for them to avoid having to cycle along the A3100 between Godalming and Milford. Witley Parish Council is concerned; therefore, the application to Guildford Borough Council does not mention the path through the SANG, which also serves as a cycle path.
Residents are encouraged to have their say The application can be found here:
https://planning360.waverley.gov.uk:4443/planning/search-applications?civica.query.FullTextSearch=WA%2F2022%2F02194#VIEW?RefType=GFPlanning&KeyNo=537818&KeyText=Subject.
Here’s what Lynne Nasti of Garden Cottage, 8 Chapel Lane, Milford, Surrey, had to say:
Whilst not opposed in general to more housing in Milford, I believe this proposal will change the village forever and for the worse.
I can’t imagine what is going through the minds of those Milford councillors at the parish, district and county levels who have let this get this far.
Why are they putting the desires of landowners and developers before the needs of the majority of hardworking, honest families who live in this village?
I agree with all the criticisms already submitted on the implications for local people on their health, safety and general well-being.
What worries me though, is that the council will be deciding this application and how it will affect Chapel Lane in particular, based on flawed or incomplete information.
For example:
- My house on the junction of Chapel Lane and the lane formerly known as St Joseph’s Walk (entrance to the timber yard) is not even shown in many of the maps submitted. The only photo of the access off Chapel Lane to the timber yard was taken pre-June 2016. The land on which my house is sited appears as a scrap of wasteland.
- The developers continue to verbally reassure Chapel Lane residents that the timber yard access to the Secretts site will only be used for emergency access whilst the application is littered with references to access use for construction. The air quality in this lane is already impacted due to emissions from vehicles and plants associated with the timber yard – another development that should never have been allowed to happen.
- The developers are bling about the arrangements for the main site entrance off Chapel Lane. I don’t believe they have any feel for the amount of traffic that will be using this junction nor the size and numbers of the lorries used to access the timber yard. I can see a bottleneck going back to the roundabout with Portsmouth Road and Station Lane every morning or evening.
When AVS took over the previous farmers’ market in 2003, they promised we could expect no more than one articulated lorry per day using the access. The data for this latest development shows this has risen to 50 articulated lorries a week in and out of Chapel Lane, plus hundreds of smaller lorries and trucks.
Combine that with the regular drama we have outside the bowling club in Chapel Lane with illegally parked cars leaving these huge lorries with no room to manoeuvre round the corner. The result is that traffic gets blocked back to the main road until we find the car’s owner causing the problem.
We did get some watered-down parking restrictions outside the bowling club, but everyone either ignores them or cannot see the lines in the road because of the flooding caused partly by the heavy use of a little village lane by articulated lorries. This can be confirmed with parking enforcement, who have been forced to withdraw penalty notices for this reason.
Flooding is a huge problem for Chapel Lane, so it is concerning to see at this late stage in the application that the lead flood response at the county level thinks the drainage proposals are not well thought through.
In addition, and contrary to what the developers say, there is not a footpath on both sides of the entire length of Chapel Lane. The proposed changes will increase the risk for pedestrians, including children crossing the lane to get to school.
I am also not reassured to learn that the predicted medium adverse visual and landscape impacts on my home would eventually be ameliorated by horticultural screening.
Our representatives at the parish, district, and county levels have already let us down once in Chapel Lane by allowing a light industrial operation to take over the site of a former farmers co-op. Are they really prepared to do so again by letting this development go ahead?
I Object
Shackleford Parish Council has objected because it will affect Eashing Lane.
In fairness I think Lynne is mistaken to think that her local councillors (none of whom are from my party, so I’m not writing from party interest) were in a position to block the proposal (or earlier ones). Planning applications are decided on by a committee with a range of councillors from across the borough. It’s obviously important that the objections raised by Lynne and others are fully considered (and balanced against the need for more genuinely affordable housing in the area), and approval with conditions to address the concerns is one possible outcome.
Am I nor correct in thinking this site is already an allocated site within Waverley’s Local Plan, which went out for consultation? However, I do think a single access point for an estate of 216 dwellings is bonkers…..a recipe for traffic chaos
Single accesses are just part of all planning applications – as ludicrous as it sounds, but in the main due to Surrey County Council not wishing to adopt the roads. I cannot begin to imagine what these estate roads will look like in 10 or 20 years. Numerous sites are already built around the borough with single accesses – and many more to come. We agree it is utterly bonkers.
This area is already totally clogged with traffic – so to add another 216 homes, potentially around 400 more cars to this single access point is ludicrous. The roundabout adjacent to the Co-op is already a nightmare with traffic trying to egress Station Road – often backed up because of drivers waiting to get into Tesco. Its madness. We already have to plan any trip out of the house to avoid general rush hours otherwise we get stuck in traffic adding to the pollution with engines running in endless queues. If the Milford golf course eventually gets the go ahead – although the “jury” is still out on that one, the area will simply be gridlocked for most of the day I suspect.
Godalming will undoubtedly join us in grid-locked Farnham and other towns and villages in the borough of Waverley that sit nose to tail. It may have noticed among all the rest of the crash and burn in yesterday’s Budget Statement that fuel duty is also rising. Not that we heard that in the actual statement – we might have been crying into our coffee when it wasn’t announced by our Jeremy. So we can be safe in the knowledge that even more of our money, whilst we gas-guzzle in those endless queues, is helping fill that big black hole. Beam us up, Scottie! Mr Hunt had made no mention of a possible rise in his autumn statement on Thursday – but Office for Budget Responsibility documents released after the announcement said a 23 per cent rise was on the cards from March.
Such an increase would add 12p to a litre of fuel, the rise first in a decade of the rate of duty being frozen.
Asked about the measure on Friday morning, Mr Hunt told BBC News: “Well, let me clear on that. That is not government policy. We will make a decision on that at the next budget in the spring. OMG – more to come will his shopping list never end.
It’s got a second access. Look at the plan on your own post. It’s down the side of the garden centre.
Apologies, The latest plan has no Eashing Lane access point but rather two access points onto Portsmouth Road. This will result in the northbound traffic to the A3 having to go through the village where it will meet the southbound traffic at the mini roundabout heading to Godalming and Milford amenities.
Portsmouth Road. WW believes that further traffic analysis and modelling are required. How will the emergency services navigate
their way through a gridlocked mini-roundabout?
You what? Why wouldn’t the northbound traffic for the A3 come out of the Chapel Lane exit, turn right and head off to the lights and up to the A3. It doesn’t need to go near the mini-roundabout.