As the tumbleweed blows and a herd of white elephants thunder towards Farnham, a Waverley Councillor is calling on Surrey colleagues to come up with a solution for its £70m Commercial Investment Cock-up.
Cllr Tony Fairclough Seconded by: Cllr Mark Merryweather featured from left to right will propose at this week’s Full Council Meeting that Tory-controlled SCC devise a Business Plan that takes the Blight out of Brightwells. A Tory-devised development dubbed by residents as a white elephant they opposed from the outset.
The Waverley Web wonders where the woman who promoted the scheme, former Farnham Borough & Surrey County Councillor Denise Le Gal, is now.
With only seven tenants in place, the vast majority of the retail units in the Brightwells Development remain unlet, almost one year after Practical Completion was achieved.
The car park is not yet fit to be handed over to this Council (Waverley) and is currently generating no revenue despite the significant service charges arising from the green wall that surrounds it.
It is understood that Coppa Club is the second of three anchor tenants to pull out of the Brightwells Development, despite the fact that the redevelopment of Brightwells House was apparently completed to Coppa Club’s particular specifications, which, if true, will make it almost impossible to let to an alternative tenant.
There can be no doubt that the Brightwells Development requires a business plan. The failure to develop such a business plan will have a significant negative effect on the revenues of both Surrey County Council and Waverley Borough Council, resulting in either a decline in the services that the residents of both Councils rely upon and/or an increase in the taxes required to pay for them.
The silence surrounding Surrey County Council’s proposals to revitalise the Brightwells Development is deafening. In its 2025/26 budget, Surrey County Council chose to saddle taxpayers with £4.4m of additional costs, yet all that’s being offered are promotions such as the opportunity to …
“Win A Weekend At Brightwells”.
Without an effective business plan from Surrey County Council, one developed and communicated in partnership with the parties most affected by it, this Council is concerned that the Brightwells Development will become the very thing that Farnham residents feared.
A desolate ‘ghost town’ and potential magnet for anti-social behaviour. In short, a blight on the town of Farnham. This Council Resolves to:
Call upon the Leader to write to Greg Stafford, Conservative MP for Farnham & Bordon, within seven working days of the Council minutes being published
To formally request that the MP for Farnham & Bordon asks the Conservative Administration at Surrey County Council to engage with local and financial stakeholders to develop an effective business plan for the commercial elements of the Brightwells Development, including the Brightwells Car Park;
To note in the letter, the Council’s concern is that the failure to develop such a business plan will have a significant negative effect on the Page 341 Agenda Item 12. revenues of both Surrey County Council and Waverley Borough Council;
To cc’ the following individuals in the letter: The Clerk of Farnham Town Council The Leader of Surrey County Council A copy of the letter, representations or response should be circulated to all Councillors within seven working days of receipt of a response.
Museum
Library
Community organisation admin hub
It’s the answer.
Yes. It will cost but it releases buildings to cover those costs.
And makes the area a centre of life rather than a deep hole of loss.
MeaninglissMud
Great idea – but what about Brightwells House? What a catalogue of errors and not a Comedy of Errors for the residents of Farnham who warned that would happen. Some of whom took the council to court and lost a great deal of money into the bargain. WW wonders what The Farnham Four would say.
Didn’t Waverley BC Local Planning Authority (LPA) give Crest Nicholson planning permission? The LPA are also responsible for ensuring compliance with Brightwells Environmental Impact Assessment and planning conditions. It should also be made transparent why Surrey CC gambled taxpayers money on this overdevelopment folly and those responsible held financially accountable. Why is local government so financially imprudent they ignore statutory investment guidance.
Denise Le Gal is still about, she was in Castle Street recently!!!