Cranleigh Parish Council is keen to provide the village with a multi-use games Area known as a MUGA.
However, it has already run into trouble with Sports England, which told Waverley Planners that it will not support the loss of the town’s playing fields to provide a games area with fitness equipment, youth shelters, and a table tennis table at Snoxhall Fields.
The site is located on the eastern side of the playing fields, just to the north of the football ground. Beyond the Downs Link to the east is the Snoxhall Pavilion.
D & M Planning, on behalf of village leaders, says the National Planning Policy encourages healthy, inclusive, and safe places to promote social interaction and recreational and cultural facilities to serve community needs. It says the project provides access to a network of high-quality open spaces and opportunities for sport and physical activity, important to the health and well-being of communities. While maintaining it, it guards against the unnecessary loss of valued facilities and services. It also accords with Cranleigh’s emerging Neighbourhood Plan.
It acknowledged that the proposed new recreational facility would have some visual impact in ASVI (Area of Strategic Visual Importance). However, the development’s location, modest scale, and appearance would satisfactorily integrate into its immediate setting. In any event, any possible visual harm would be outweighed by the social and community benefits of the proposal.
SPORTS ENGLAND
It doesn’t consider that the proposal demonstrates sufficient benefits to sport to outweigh the detriment caused by the loss of playing field, as set out in our E5 exception and paragraph 103 of the NPPF. Further information is required, which addresses its concerns. It, therefore, makes a statutory objection to the application.
Saying:
Should the local planning authority be minded to approve this application contrary to Sport England’s statutory objection, then the Town and Country Planning (Consultation) (England) Direction 2021 requires the application to be referred to the Secretary of State, via the National Planning Casework Unit.
Why not use the High Street everybody else does. Vans, cars, buses, heavy equipment lorries. Look at the aggression in the faces of the drivers of the endless earth removers. They drive like they own the High Street. There are periodic extended traffic jams lasting more than 25 minutes just to get from Jewsons to the Cranleigh Arts Centre.Why not let sports people join the chaos. Having lived close to the village since 1990, the traffic chaos is of epic proportions All the Estate Agents talk glowingly about the wonder of owning an expensive home in Cranleigh. I invite you to look at the dilapidation of shop frontages of great and successful retailers along the High Street.The weeds outside the entrance to the Health Centre. Bramley Linen Care are under new management, but there are more weeds than ever. This may seem a little flippant but any prospective house buyer would do well to spend time in our village over several visits at different times and realise that they should proceed with caution. They would then understand the short comings that the Estate Agents have no interest in being honest about.