Is someone keeping Alfold in the dark about a cunning plan for a controversial Alfold housing scheme?

Horsham-based Thakeham Homes, who secured permission at Appeal for 99 homes in Loxwood Road, told Government Inspector Harold Stephens BA MPhil Dip TP MRTPI FRSA at a Zoom hearing it would build residential  housing, 30% of which would be “affordable.”

Now guess what? The whole site has apparently been sold to a housing Association called Abri Housing or maybe Oriel Housing, and now …

100% will be to let or for shared ownership.

Here’s the appeal decision: document 8475987

So there you have it, Alfold folks. Hundreds of residents are arriving soon In your little village with zilch public transport, no school, a shop in the petrol station, no pubs most of the time and poor infrastructure – water, sewage or at times enough electricity to boil a kettle etc.!

She wrote said in correspondence.

Power issues in Alfold are a major concern for residents who live in the village. Regular power cuts, regular low-voltage incidents where kettles take half an hour to boil – and things are due to get worse with more development planned for the area.

MP Angela Richardson on Alfold’s case?

And they call this  PLANNING! 

And, last but not least, the developer claimed the village was close to five – yes, really, five railway stations!

 As soon as the Appeal was in the developer’s bag, do we mean bank? Residents heard that Housing Association Abri Homes, based in Eastleigh, Hants, had taken it over.

When the Waverley Web started snooping, we found no accounts lodged for Abri at Companies House for the past three years. So now, according to Thakeham, it was to be developed by another housing association called Oriel Homes.

Alfold Parish Council has been seeking clarification for months on exactly what and who would develop the controversial site off Loxwood Road. Local Cllr Kevin De anus appeared in the dark, and numerous letters to Waverley’s Chief Executive, the Planning Portfolio Holder, and Chief Planning Officer drew a blank. 

Thakeham’s Community Infrastructure Levy (the amount paid to the local authority towards infrastructure – e.g. schools, roads, transport etc., stood at  £2,504. 424.29 Not bad, eh?

But then you’ll see it was reduced to a miserable 954,154.02  for social housing relief. The developer didn’t even have to pay that. It could have got away scot-free.

But here’s the rub and Alfold residents are not happy about it! Dot and Doris are fuming. It would appear that (a) the whole site will be up for social rent and shared ownership – which the Government wants and supports with cash handouts and ‘Your Waverley’ loves. Thakeham has already consulted the village on another 66 homes to add to the 99and makes no secret that it intends 425, the number refused at its first Appeal, which had included a GP surgery, shops and a school! 

We will all wait with bated breath to see if the promised demand-led bus service turns up!

Liability Notice

The plot thickens, or is it the sewage? Services to the new development will not be Thames Water but a private Water Company called Icosa Water Services. Here’s an e-mail from a Waverley Officer concerning a public consultation,

So public was the public consultation that neither the Parish Council nor residents, including neighbours right along the Loxwood Road, who Thames Water presently serve, knew anything about it. Did the ward member Cllr Kevin De anus?

Here’s the e-mail dated 19 December 2022, document 8709788 Sewage

And here’s Icosa info: document 8709785 Icosa Water Alfold