Is this the tree-lined road to… nowhere?
Workers have been creating a multi-million-pound access road into the Dunsfold Park Garden Village for over a year. Many hundreds of mature trees were planted, and many thousands of whips to create an extremely impressive entrance. But is it a road to nowhere?
During a recent Waverley meeting, when councillors discussed housing supply for the updated Local Plan, Cllr George Hesse asked Chief Planning Officer Claire Upton-Brown if Waverley’s housing supply figures would be affected if the Dunsfold Park scheme began.
He said: “Theoretically, if it started and some were completed, that would certainly help our five-year housing land supply, wouldn’t it?” he asked.
“That would be quite possible,” said Ms Upton-Brown – “It will be re-visited soon.”
“Chairman,” Cllr Cockburn said: “May we have an update on Dunsfold unless I’ve missed something in an e-mail.”
“Certainly,” said. Ms Upton Brown. “We shall update on Dunsfold in about a month’s time.”
So, the Waverley Web asks:
When will Trinity College Cambridge’s Bursar pull his finger out of his ass and start excavating? Or will he wait until planning inspectors have allowed other would-be developers to concrete over every village and town in Waverley before deciding whether he wants to build on Dunsfold Park?
The Waverley Web understand the final phase of the new entrance road works will be completed soon, connecting the old aerodrome directly onto the A281 Guildford to Horsham road. This will join the new roundabout to the impressive new, tree-lined approach to Dunsfold Park. Then, a section of the A281 will become redundant and reintegrated into the surrounding land.
On the Dunsfold Park website, it says:
More information about the new access road and the masterplan for Dunsfold Park can be found on our website, www.dunsfoldparkmasterplan.com, and our Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/dunsfoldparkofficial, which will be regularly updated so that people can track the latest progress of these works.
Dunsfold Park aerodrome will be redeveloped to form a new sustainable garden village with public open spaces and facilities, including shops and restaurants. It is commonly referred to as Dunsfold Park.
The Secretary of State granted planning permission in March 2018. The permitted development will include:
1,800 new homes
new school
new community centre
expanded business park
supporting infrastructure.
These new facilities and the expanded business park will create more local jobs and help grow the local economy.
This is the first phase in a wider Local Planning Policy to provide around 2,600 new homes on the site (plus associated facilities).
Really? And when is this plan – so long in the making – actually going to come to fruition? Does the Bursar think he’s dealing with nincompoops? We know it’s not too much of a hop, skip and jump from NIMBY to Nincompoop, but just how long does it take to build a house … or 250 of them?
You couldn’t make it up; really, you couldn’t. The Flying Scot fought tooth and nail for eleven long years to get consent to build housing on the largest brownfield site in the Borough, and now, seven years after consent was granted, there’s still not a house in sight. Meanwhile, other would-be developers, who all applied for their approvals after Dunsfold Park was consented, have created new estates in every other green field all over the Borough whilst Dunsfold Park remains barren …
Isn’t it time someone at Waverley had the cojones to tell the Bursur to *iss or Get Off The Pot?!?!
We need to know the reasons for the delay. Are Trinity worried about lack of buyers ? Is it site problems such as contamination or potential flooding.? Is it water or electric supply inadequacy?
All of the above sounds about right!
I always felt that Waverley were foolish to put all of their Eggs in one Basket and now the chickens have come home to roost (forgive the metaphors!!)
When the larger towns voted for Dunsfold Park “Garden Village” they all breathed a sigh of relief that the Housing would be built outside of their Patch as most of the Councillors for those parts didn’t even know where Alfold was and as Alfold & Dunsfold and the surrounding small villages were just that, SMALL, their votes against the development didn’t count, when held up again the far larger towns in the Borough.
If you look at the Developments that Trinity College have done in the past they have been predominately Research & Development and Science parks. They must have known about the potential Contamination issues surely?
Heyho and so the story goes on…………………