Farnham’s Centrum Business Park owners want to build 162 dwellings on East Street.
WA/2024/01557
You can view the Planning & Design Statement of the total proposed development here at Centrum Business Park.
Wannabe developers claim that the site has become a random mix of buildings over the years, resulting in an area of Farnham with no real identity or sense of place.
It wants to restore this by reintroducing residential dwellings as the primary building use. New residential buildings opposite the site along East Street could act as a much-needed catalyst for new houses in what could be considered a somewhat forgotten part of the town.
It says that introducing active frontages and meaningful pedestrian routes through the site will facilitate pedestrian movement, which is currently impossible. Overall, the development will help contribute to the revival of the area to the east of the town centre, and it seeks to introduce a vibrant scheme with a distinguished identity that Farnham can be proud of.
A Heritage Statement and an Archaeological Assessment have also been submitted as part of the planning application.
The proposed residential, with associated ancillary uses, will positively contribute to the development of the local economy by providing much-needed homes near the Town Centre.
The site is allocated for residential development within the Farnham Neighbourhood Plan.
There is Lidl’s. Mo test and Phylis Tuckwell all needed plus other business. So leave them alone. The old Chinese yes.
Hmes in – businesses out. That seems to be the order of the day.Don’t we need both?
I think that this area does need a focus and it would be more coherent if it embraced the whole area. That’s certainly the only way to provide ‘meaningful pedestrian routes’. Given that Lidl’s is moving out, and the old chinese restaurant is derelict, it’s a shame that they redevelop the whole site. Critical questions for me are how affordable these new homes will be and how robust is the transport plan given the paucity of parking provided.
How “affordable” is “affordable” is a question so often asked. “Affordable for whom exactly?
Call me a cynic, but it is ‘so often asked’ because the largely academic debate is usually used to cloud the issue and imply that it’s not worth having. It clearly is. The ratio between salaries and rent/mortgage payments is now so large that most young people cannot afford to get on the housing ladder or into decent quality rented accommodation without significant outside help i.e. from their family, friends etc. Government schemes to subsidise buyers only exacerbate the problem.
Local authorities (and the public) should be insisting that developers make an effort on this and provide minimum levels of low rent homes and they should have power to enforce this. Equally, they should be empowered to build more social rent homes themselves, possibly in tandem with private developers. The current rules on right to buy receipts etc. mean that this is not generally viable.
My ideal would be social rent homes as part of the Farnham Business Park development but otherwise there should be a housing association partner to provide well-managed social homes.