Bramley putting up the barricades.

Last week, Bramley Village Hall was packed to the gunwales as residents came together to defend the village allotments and what is collectively known as the ‘Bonfire Field’ from Paul Hunt Investments Ltd (PHI).

PHI has been steadily helping developers to concrete over Bramley for the past 12 years and has been responsible for a mixture of some attractive developments (a former builders yard that had been the site of a manor house that was demolished in the 1950s became a scheme for eight dwellings on the footprint of the original house and now resembles a smart Neo-Georgian terrace) to the deadly dull Orchard Cottage (a three-bed detached house that has nothing to recommend it and is a blot of blandness on the landscape).

PHI now has ambitious plans for a scheme of 26 dwellings (including 14 affordable properties) on land at Park Drive in Bramley, which is located within the Green Belt and AONB. The site will be known as Byham Meadow (presumably a nod to Councillor By-Pass Byham!).

Let’s all By-Pass Bramley – shall we? Or…maybe, just maybe…. we should all By-Pass Byham?

Having previously worked in cahoots with Bramley Parish Council in its submissions PHI bemoaned the fact that a recent request to meet with Bramley PC was refused on 12th July 2023 and during a telephone conversation between their client and the Chair of Bramley PC, the Chair confirmed that the PC would not support the application and would not allow a consultation with the community to take place at the Village Hall as the PC felt there was enough social housing in the village.

Undeterred, PHI embarked on its own community consultation, including, for the first time, setting up a website to seek the opinions of every household in Bramley.

Councillor Jane Austin, ably supported by Kevin Deanus and a gentleman she repeatedly referred to as her ‘lovely husband’, chaired the meeting at the Village Hall, where residents expressed their concerns.

However Councillor Kevin Deanus issued a cautionary warning to the residents of Bramley when he told of how the sleepy village of Alfold had morphed from a population of under 300 dwellings to over 1,000 dwellings in a relatively short period if the latest planning application with Waverley is consented – which, in all likelihood, it will be!  There was a collective drawing of breath as those present digested this startling information.

However, it didn’t stop residents from raising issues such as: 

• Inadequate access to the site.
• Disappointment at the possibility of the Green Belt / AONB being concreted over despite there being no extenuating circumstances.
• The uncertainty over whether the so-called affordable element of the housing would actually be affordable – would it be Social Rent [equating to circa 55% of typical market rents], Affordable Rent [equating to 80% of prevailing market rents] or Shared Equity [where the local authority or registered providers can offer tenants a share of the property].
• PHI was trying to rush the scheme through before Bramley’s Neighbourhood Plan was adopted.
• Loss of wildlife habitat – particularly for badgers and slow worms, which are abundant, according to those living near the site and regularly using the allotments.
• Flooding. One lady, who said she’d had an allotment on the site for many years, told of how, in the early years, she tended the allotment year-round. However, in the last few years, since other developments had been built nearby, the allotments were now flooded and a muddy quagmire for several months of the year.
• Pressure on existing services, such as water.  The Hall rang with laughter when Councillor Austin explained that Waverley BC, in its wisdom, had consulted with Southern Water as a statutory consultant on the planning applicant, when the Council should have consulted Thames Water!

Oh dear!

Southern Water had responded to the Council as follows: 

‘Thank you for your email.  Unfortunately, Southern Water cannot comment on this application because the development site is not located within Southern Water’s statutory area for water supply/wastewater drainage services.   Please get in touch with Thames Water, which is the relevant statutory undertaker.’

Although it has no bearing on the application, when appealed to, a member of the Bramley Bonfire Committee confirmed that if consent were granted for the application, it would, in all likelihood, be the end of the Bramley Bonfire – at least on that site.  He said that, due to the proximity of the proposed housing to the bonfire and, more importantly, the accompanying firework display, he felt that, on grounds of health and safety, it would be impossible to continue holding the much-loved annual event there or to obtain the necessary insurance to do so.

PHI is relying quite heavily on Waverley BC, following the mothballing of Dunsfold Park by its owners, Trinity College Cambridge, now unable to demonstrate more than 1.28 years of housing supply.  This failure results in something called ‘Tilted balance’ in favour of sustainable development.  They also claim that their scheme will assist in ‘addressing the housing crisis in Bramley and the wider area of Waverley …’  Suffice to say, it’s news to Bramley PC and the majority of Bramley residents that there’s a ‘housing crisis’ in Bramley! Or presumably anywhere else!

Anyway, why Bramley? After all, why not Cranleigh, Ewhurst, Alfold, Dunsfold, Farnham, Haslemere, anywhere but certainly not Wonersh or Bramley?

Furthermore, according to PHI, ‘The provision of 26 dwellings should be considered a ‘windfall gain’, as the site is not currently allocated.’

At the end of the meeting, a show of hands, invited by Councillor Austin, clearly demonstrated that no one in the packed Village Hall supported the development. Whether Angela Rayner will care what a room full of middle-class, predominantly Conservative voters in a quiet village in Surrey thinks is another matter!

Suppose you want to share your views on this latest attempt to concretely over our villages. In that case, you can go to Waverley Borough Council’s website and the planning portal and look up Planning Application WA/2025/00581.