The rum bunch that is Cranleigh Village ??? Trust that was the Cranleigh Village Hospital Trust which morphed into Cranleigh Village Health Trust had gone quiet for a few years.
But get ready, folks – it’s back! With a cunning plan.
Cynical souls that we are, we never doubted they would come back with yet another cunning plan for Cranleigh’s paddock field, once owned by “the village” and sold for £1.
Why? We hear you cry? Because duped village leaders were told they would get a shiny new hospital to replace the old cottage hospital – now a healthcare hub.
For those who recently arrived in town, the charitable body lost the support of the NHS for said new hospital, so it decided to build a private nursing home on behalf of a suspect outfit called HC-One. Its ownership would spread from Cranleigh Common to the Cayman Islands and back! Refused unanimously by Waverley Planners, the Trust, which collected millions of pounds of public money, has now reared its ugly head again.
Now every Doug and Doris – residents of the villages that dug deep to fund the 22-year fiasco, is asked to complete a survey of possible uses for the former playing field. No prizes for guessing who is controlling the survey.
Cranleigh Health Trust Secret Meeting with village leaders
The Paddock Field is the triangular piece of land in Knowle Lane between the entrance to M & S and Snoxhall Fields.
We need this field to be kept as green space for the community and not sold off to a developer for more non-affordable housing.
This survey only includes questions relating to building on the land. The covenant on the land, which we understand has already been changed once, states that it should benefit the health of the community.
What could be more beneficial to the community and the environment than leaving it as much-needed green space in the village? Some people will say that we have a new park, but if it wasn’t for that park being built, the new housing development from Knowle Lane through to Alfold Road would not have been given the go-ahead.
There is nothing in the survey to say what the CVHT would do with the money if they sold the land or what will happen with the £2.2m they say they already have in their account?
The CVHT’s main objective was to build a new hospital on the land but over the years this morphed into a mainly private care home with a small percentage of community beds that were not actually for the local community but for anyone within the Waverley area. Planning permission for the private care home was applied for twice and was refused on both occasions.
The CVHT funds came mainly from public donations and fundraising in the belief we were raising money for a new hospital. Because the charity used the word hospital in their title, long after they knew there was no hope of a new hospital ever being built, the community were still donating money in the belief this was still going to happen.
Apart from one public exhibition of the plans for a new care home they have never been very open or communicative with the community and have always sought private meetings with the Parish Council about their plans for the land.
When the campaign was set up against the plans for a new care home, I met with the CVHT about it and voiced our concerns and lack of communication from them.
They have since employed Martin Bamford to run their website, Facebook and twitter accounts and true to form, he has blocked anyone who dares to speak out against them.
You are welcome to join our campaign group https://www.facebook.com/groups/590560504690466/?ref=share_group_link
So firstly I really do not understand why the meeting tonight with the parish council is private, surely this concerns all the local people who contributed to the CVHT charity and surely the land is owned by the said same people.The parish council by allowing this private meeting is only adding to the suspicion surrounding the CVHT, I would also like to know if the people on the committee of the CVHT were elected by the local people to make decisions on their behalf of what happened to the local peoples money.
Join the club, from what we hear on private e-mails the rest of the population cannot understand why the parish council chairman has allowed this. Perhaps a few interested residents should pop along and find out? The WW understand the plumply salaried CVHT Secretary is now a Trustee. But we maybe wrong.
I have been informed that the meeting will now be held in public.
I bet that has upset a few interested parties
Ha, ha, I wonder why?
The meeting is tomorrow (Wednesday 26th) at 7pm
Now that is a good result, maybe you should go along and let us know how it goes?