Development by Stealth the Thakeham Way
Having lost an appeal to build 425 homes in 2017 and then won an appeal for 99 homes in 2022, Thakeham Homes is delivering a masterclass on how to create a new town out of what was once a little rural village on the Surrey/Sussex border. It intends to build another 245 dwellings in the village Waverley Planners dubbed “Poor old Alfold.”
This makes a complete mockery of the planning and appeal system.
Developers line up to tear yet another bite out of Alfold Village.
Despite Waverley planners throwing out most planning development applications, Government Inspectors have consistently overruled them, resulting in doubling the size of the once rural backwater.
Thakeham’s mantra – If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again – has stood them in good stead in the past and will, no doubt, stand them in good stead again!
And if you thought things couldn’t get any worse, to add insult to injury, neither Thames Water nor Southern Water will be dealing with the effluent from those who can afford to rent or buy a share in a home in the Loxwood Road site. The contractor will be trucking out the muck after storing it on site first. Bet they won’t tell would-be tenants they’ll live on a sewage farm! You couldn’t make it up; really, you couldn’t. Talk about YUK!
s a knock-out for ‘Your Waverley,’ in round one of controversial planning appeals.
Alfold Parish Council is urging residents to express their concerns about the village’s mushroom-like expansion – 85% since 2019. That’s right, folks; in 2019, there were 408 dwellings. Outstanding planning permissions to build are now approaching 500 … and that’s before the latest cunning plan from Thakeham Homes hits Waverley Towers. If it carries on at this rate, Alfold is going to be bigger than Dunsfold Park New Town before a foundation stone is even laid at the beleaguered former aerodrome where Trinity College Cambridge’s Bursar – Richard Turnhill – seems reluctant to cash in on the hard-won planning consent that was some 14 years in the making!
Thakeham has invited villagers to rock up and have their say at the Church Hall on the 23rd and 24th of April —no, not the Village Hall, but the cupboard-sized Church Hall – having bribed the Church with a new dishwasher! The Clerk has asked residents…
“To be patient,”
Alfold Parish councillors have been begging Your Waverley for over a year now to come clean about the tenure of the 99 homes already underway. The planning consent was for private and some homes for social rent. Now, all 99 are offered for rent and shared ownership, which can mean only one thing—the London boroughs will be shipping more flotsam and jetsam Alfold’s way!
Thakeham’s latest advert in the local press: Come to Loxwood Fields and step on the housing ladder with a 5% deposit and as little as £5,032 Abri Homes cry.
Shouldn’t it have been called: “Where once there were Alfold Fields?”
It is 245 at market value and 105 affordable. So 350 in total for this development. So with the 99 they are already building the total is 449. More than the 425 the inspector rejected at appeal last time!
Farnham residents and Lib Dems pushed for houses in the Alfold area including Dunsfold Park and less in Farnham and Haslemere. If only more homes had been given planning permission AND built then the Inspectors wouldn’t have approved the applications in Alfold .
Agree. Pushing for homes in an area with no schools, no railway, little or no bus service, no GP services, one petrol station shop and now – no pubs!! It’s called Sustainable development!!
No! Grumpy Waverley did not. The Conservative Administration gave consent for Dunsfold Garden Village 15 years ag. The Rainbow Administration, resisted most of the greenfield development in Alfold but supported some brownfield sites. Most planning applications were refused by Waverley, and won on appeal with consent from a Government Inspector.
I reckon you are both wrong (i.e. Grumpy and WW). The Conservative Administration at Waverley proposed including Dunsfold Park in their Local Plan Part 1 in 2015/2016 and that plan was finally adopted in February 2018. The Dunsfold outline/masterplan application was called in by the Secretary of State and the decision was by the SofS (or somebody on his behalf) and was granted in March 2018. So about 6 years ago by my calculation, not 15.
There have been so many SofS for local government I can’t even remember which one it was in 2018 but I think it may have been Sajid Javid….
This is a “Paper Exercise” by Thakeham so they can tick the box to say they engaged with the Village, then they will dip into Social Media and lift out the odd message that says the country needs more housing and obviously that should be here in Alfold!
This whole Consultation Stinks, they know that even with 400 odd homes they cannot hope to put in the Infrastructure that a site the size of Dunsfold Park Garden village could and should. So piggy backing off them isn’t going to cut it…
In fact in their Consultation Report of December 2023, after the various Round Table meetings held in the Village, they point out that much of what the Community actually REALLY Want is NOT deliverable by them as it requires Third Party Consent such as Schools, Medical facilities, Transport Infrastructure….etc. They even have the nerve to put Sewage Work Upgrades into the section that says HARD TO DELIVER & LESS DEMAND – Really? Ask those that have had their Loos overflowing and the playing fields covered in Pooh!
If they are so desperate to put housings in Rural Fields in our Village why not put themselves forward to build out on Dunsfold Park? I am sure Trinity College would love to have a developer that really wants to build so many homes for the benefit of our village and others nearby…..
Doh – Let me guess, because most likely DP land will require decontamination due to its previous uses and that makes the build out MORE EXPENSIVE and Thakeham wouldn’t want that would they?? no they want to dig up Farm Land, which is far far cheaper.
It will all come back to an Appeal – As I am sure WBC Planning Officers will reject it (too busy looking at 199 Lodges on Wildwood) as I would hope the WBC Planning Committee would, but it will then come back to the usual Waverley doesn’t have a 5 year Land Supply -which I thought Gove had dropped!! – but maybe he didn’t tell anyone else. We have a Neighbourhood Plan in place and that was supposed to Protect us, but Thakeham obviously feel it is not worth the paper it is printed on. Shame on them!
I guess the only hope we have is that by the time it goes to Appeal we will have another Government in place that isn’t lining their coffers from Thakeham donations and Job Offers.
As ever Grumpy of Alfold
(not the other one!)
Denise
No Rule of Law?
The cumulative effect of these approvals is an ignored material consideration. The rule of law is the concept that both the government and citizens know the law and obey it. Unfortunately, the Planning Inspectorate can choose to ignore the law, such as The Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017) because their planning decisions can only be challenged in the High Court, an unsurmountable barrier for most of their planning victims. With neither democratic authority nor democratic accountability Planning Inspectors also act as “lawmakers” judge and jury. They are only required to consider appeals from developers. No wonder the Borough is polluted with unsustainable development delivered by unaccountable planning inspectors.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2017/571/introduction/made