Just when you thought the Cranleigh Village (Don’t mention the H-word) Trust debacle couldn’t get any worse, enter stage left Batty Bamford. Again!!

Batty – has latent ambitions, we’re told, to step into the shoes of the late, unlamented Life of Brian, former Chairman of Cranleigh Parish Council.

Bully-Boy-Brian didn’t believe in democracy and whilst, give him his due, he chaired parish council meetings, all the important decisions were made behind closed doors, with a chosen few, including wife of Brian. They were duped into accepting a land swap for a football field with a Ransome strip surrounding it? Embarked upon some extremely dubious shenanigans to provide an access along the Snoxhall Fields access road – and supported use of former parish land to allow A2Dominion to build residential flats there. But even they didn’t know that an A2D director was a CVHT Trustee? From the information spewing into us from a host of people, including former councillors, we could go on, and on…

But then we will leave it to (Don’t mention the H word) who are busy running ragged trying to convince everyone in and around Cranleigh New Town there really is something in it for them. There are two meetings tonight! One at the Civic Society another at Snox Hall where the parish council consider the scheme – on land it once owned and swapped for a replacement HOSPITAL.

 

Apparently, according to the Mutter on the street new bully-on-the-block Bamford is incandescent with the Waverley Web because we have … wait for it, …wait for it … Drum roll because It’s a biggy:

We have dared to TELL THE TRUTH!!!

Because if you don’t – someone will tell it for you.

 

Yes, there you have it, folks, the Waverley Web has dared to reveal the little secret that the Cranleigh Village (Don’t mention the H-word) Trust is desperate to conceal: that it isn’t what it says on the can!

Instead, the promised new village hospital that Cranleigh residents, businesses, schools and other organisations fund-raised so hard for is DEAD and, in its place, the Trustees have cobbled together a deal with a multibillionaire  owned private sector company HC-ONE to build a private nursing home, with none of the usual services associated with a cottage hospital and a mere 20 out of a total of 80 beds provided free for residents of the borough rather than the Cranleigh residents who did all the heavy-lifting in relation to the fundraising.

According to embattled and berated Cranleigh residents and businesses – who wish to remain nameless for fear of reprisals – new BOTB Bamford considers himself to be the public face of Cranleigh. Never mind the views of the democratically elected Parish Council, in his capacity as Vice-Chair of Cranleigh Chamber of Commerce, new BOTB   wants to speak for all of Cranleigh – or at least all those that he thinks matters! 

What is it about some people that the minute they assume a semi-public role – even in a tiny pond like Cranleigh – that makes them think they morph overnight into sagacious men of business and statesmen of the village? And why do they think they can completely disregard and sweep into the gutter the aspirations and views of the many thousands of residents who believed in and fund-raised for a new village hospital – not only in name but in deed?

The answer, in part, is that power corrupts – even in tiny doses, which is all new BOTB  currently has. But can you imagine what a jumped-up popinjay he’s set to become if ever he reaches the giddy heights of Chairman of the Cranleigh Chamber of Commerce? May God preserve us if the Cranleigh Chamber of Commerce doesn’t!

Sadly,  he has convinced himself that he’s the only person with the wit and ingenuity to decide when a village hospital is a village hospital – or not as is the case here – and if anyone disagrees with him woe betide them – or so we’re told – more of which below.

We at the Waverley Web are shaking in our bunker because, we’re told, despite a 14.4% rise in crime in Surrey for the period 2017/18, with an astonishing 72,800 incidents reported during the period, Peanut wants the police to investigate us!

Yep, folks, you did read that right. According to our Cranleigh followers, BB is running around Cranleigh streets telling anyone who will listen that he wants the police to waste their very limited and valuable resources investigating and exposing the contributors to the Waverley Web, instead of concentrating on the more pressing issues of an 8.4% rise in burglaries in the county, incidents of domestic violence, rape and vehicle-related crimes.

Our crime? Apparently, we’re guilty of upsetting him and his village-wide view. Now, of course, we understand that the police are required to protect and support minorities, but, seriously, does he  really think being one of the few people in Cranleigh to support the debacle that the Cranleigh Village (don’t mention the H-word) Trust has become is really what being a member of a minority group is all about?!

Whilst BB ponders that complex problem, we await the dawn raid and have a working title of Truncheons at Dawn for the ensuing article 

Our followers over there in the New Town are filling our inboxes with stuff about crime, vandalism, flooding, overdevelopment on its countryside, HGV’s thundering through their High Street and more… including, loss of recycling… In fact, we could write a book, not a blog!

 We here at the Waverley Web are being constantly bombarded with all things Cranleigh and the Eastern villages – and we wonder why?

 Over here in Farnham we are, about to lose our recycling facilities too – and our post office! Yours may be next?

Now another Charity Shop is moving into Cranleigh – this time its the Cats Protection League and according to our followers over there, it has had a nice new shiny newly-built shop tailor-made for them! 

The Deputy – no doubt soon to be Chairman, of the Cranleigh Chamber of Commerce, is asking the townsfolk what they think about the newcomer. Well, it’s been raining cats and dogs for weeks, but perhaps he doesn’t like cats? Perhaps the locals are becaming too vocal, because by the time the WW logged on the post had been removed by The Controller.

Martin Bamford
Admin · Yesterday at 10:35
Brand new shop unit built and we get…another charity shop. Thoughts?

Beckie Weeks Someone asked what the people of Cranleigh would like to see in the village rather than another charity shop. Although I agree Cranleigh is a village which compliments shops such as Manns and Cromwell’s there are people in the village who sometimes can’t afford to shop there regularly. Maybe giving the option of a small version of pound land, savers, Wilkinsons perhaps would be good to extend the shopping range to all of Cranleigh and keeping people shopping in the village rather than travelling to nearby towns…and what they save in bus fare could then be spent on a cuppa at Cromwell or treat in Manns!!! Cranleigh is now diversifying in the range of people living here so maybe the shops could reflect that??? 😊


Peter Stanford Beckie Weeks I agree, affordability is the key both for the shop owners and the customers, but how to attract the shops is a big question.
I would add to your list Aldi, shopping that is affordable but still retains quality.
The people of Burpham didn’…

Beckie Weeks Peter Stanford also would be good but would they put it in Cranleigh with 3 supermarkets already!!! It would be awesome though!!! But yes if the shops were there to please all sorts of customers we could retain village life. People have said maybe it’s rent of shop units being so high..so maybe bring the rent down per month but write a longer lease in the contract so the shops pay less but are here to stay for longer periods of time????


Hannah Nicholson Martin Bamford is this really necessary on this page when you actually posted about this already?


Hannah Nicholson Grow up eh, you are like a child behaving like the class clown to attention seek and thinking you’re funny. It’s pathetic. Anyone looking at this ‘community board’ and thinking of moving here for a nice community would drive the other way.

Presumably written by BB?

You know what! There are some residents who wanted more homes to provide more footfall for the shops. And, do you know which towns are benefitting from the townsfolk of Cranleigh?  Godalming and Horsham! So much so, that its High Street is thriving – and a new Lidl is about to be built near its station. So perhaps you have to be careful what you wish for?