It was better late than never for a developer that has been holding its breath for two years awaiting a decision to build 12 homes off Amlets Lane Cranleigh.
Despite objections from nearby residents, Land & Partners secured 100% backing from the Planning Committee for its latest outline scheme. Cranleigh Parish Council also supported the development close to the now-established Cala Homes development.
The Eastern Planning Committee deferred the scheme in April on Biodiversity concerns. However, officers assured councillors they were satisfied that the 10% biodiversity net gain had been met. The eastern and western planning committees have now been dumped for one central planning committee.
Some members were amazed that the promoter had included four “affordable” homes for those on Waverley’s long housing register!
Farnham’s Carole Cockburn said she could barely believe the developer’s generous offer and asked officers why they insisted on a LEAP & LAP (Children’s Play area) when there was ample room for children to play in the extensive gardens. Why not let the homes have even larger gardens? She argued that the provision was not sensible for such small developments.
Don’t children play in their gardens anymore?”
Will a Waverley developer soon be holding an anniversary party?
Although some members were concerned about the lack of water suffered by Cranleigh and its ongoing sewage problems, Thames Water assured everyone in a long and wordy explanation – that all would be well in the area, as it addressed the town’s problems.
In an email dated 8th June 2023, Thames Water advised the following:
In terms of this particular development, Thames Water does not anticipate there being local network capacity issues preventing its connection to the supply system; however, as for all potential development, local network flow and pressure tests will be undertaken to ensure suitability and identify, if required, any additional network upgrades to accommodate.
The Cranleigh area has historically been vulnerable to supply interruptions due to it being supplied solely by Netley Mill Water Treatment Works and existing within an ‘island zone’ (i.e. with no current means of alternative water supply resilience in the event of an unplanned, prolonged water treatment works outage)
There are plans to address this resilience concern going forward. The most notable planned investment is for a new transfer main from the western part of Thames Water’s water supply area. This is expected to provide sufficient volumes of additional water supply into the Netley Supply Zone to mitigate outage events and support longer-term growth in demand. This new main is Page 12, being delivered as part of Thames Water’s AMP7 Investment Period, covering 2020 to 2025. The proposal is currently in the detailed design phase.
This investment will reduce the risk of supply interruptions to customers within the Cranleigh area (and all areas supplied by Netley Water Treatment Works)
WA/2021/01837 – LAND CENTRED COORDINATES 506215 140275 SOUTH OF AMLETS LANE NORTH OF RUSSET GROVE CRANLEIGH