Much ado about the location of a new Cranleigh Leisure Centre.

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Since ‘Your Waverley’s commitment to spend £12.7million on a new leisure centre – there has been much talk about where it should go? Should the Village Way centre be demolished and rebuilt, or refurbished and improved?

Rumours are rife about re-siting it on the proposed new private nursing home site in Knowle Lane now there is to be no replacement village hospital – or building it on the Snoxhall Playing fields?

Neither is an option as the Cranleigh Village Hospital Trust has tied up the former parish-owned land for a private nursing home development and the parish council which has been shafted by the charity, has tied up all the remainder of the parish land it owns into a Community Land Trust, to ensure it doesn’t happen again! This was prompted by the scurrilous behind the scenes dealings of a former parish council chairman who wanted to build on the nearby Beryl Harvey field donated to the village by the late Gordon Harvey, in memory of his wife. The benefactor’s son kiboshed the bid, with villagers backing, at a public meeting, and the plan to build houses on the allotment/conservation area in Knowle Lane was subsequently scrapped. 

We are reliably informed by villagers in the East, that as with the “replacement cottage hospital,” which will not now go ahead, local fundraising also paid for the creation of the original Cranleigh Leisure Centre, so villagers believe they are entitled to have their say?

We had hoped to bring you a  link to all the possible plans for the Village Way site – which should be open for consultation to allow Cranleigh residents to decide! But it has been removed by Waverley Council!

After 6 months of the details of all Waverley’s leisure improvements being online, the council took down the presentation after residents started to discuss it on Facebook. They realised it contained figures to be paid to a third party before a deal had been done.
Luckily residents here in Godalming had started sharing screenshots.

Don’t click on the link because it won’t work – a bit like Waverley Borough Council!

https://modgov.waverley.gov.uk/documents/s19759/Options%20Presentation%20for%20OS%2020.11.17.pdf

 

Blightwells here we come!!

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And guess where the developer’s money’s going? … To fund improvements to Godalming and Farnham Leisure Centres and build a new £12.7m centre in Cranleigh New Town!

 

WHY? Because there’s an election coming!

 

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We couldn’t have put it better ourselves Neil!

 

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Need a job?

 

 

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Thank heaven there are a few councillors left at Waverley that care about – the new town they have dubbed – ‘Poor Old Cranleigh.”

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Just a handful of councillors – abstained – from supporting the layout and landscaping of Miller Homes consented application to build 120 three and four storey homes on the former Hewitts Industrial Estate in Elmbridge Road – why didn’t they vote against it is anyone’s guess? Do they get to feel Betty’s Appealing Boot if they dare oppose a scheme which was described by a string of councillors as:

“AWFUL” “THE WORST DESIGN I HAVE EVER SEEN,” “FOUR STOREY BLOCKS LIKE LINES OF CARAVANS.’ ‘MONOCHROME,’ ” A DESIGN THAT IS SO UNIMAGINATIVE IT IS RIDICULOUS.” ‘DIDN’T THINK IN WAVERLEY WE WOULD BE BUILDING IDENTIKIT HOMES,” ‘HOMES THAT LOOK LIKE SOMETHING OUT OF THE HOBITT.’ “NEVER SEEN ANYTHING SO UNINSPIRING.” 

Here’s `Kevin Deanus Councillor for Alfold.

 

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However, Waverley was between a rock and a hard place after a Government Inspector over-ruled its refusal and allowed the application to turn the former light industrial estate into a housing estate! But surely with a bit of negotiation, they could have persuaded the developer to provide something more suitable?

Even Elizabeth Townsend – Chairman of Cranleigh Parish Council appeared unperturbed that the former industrial estate, which will further urbanise the once rural area of west Cranleigh, and change it beyond recognition. But she did voice her concerns about landscaping near the entrance, the treatment of the ancient woodland, and the possible overlooking of cottages nearby by such large buildings.

However, 17 members of the Joint Planning Committee granted the reserved matters with four abstentions – so life goes on over there as another set of bulldozers and HGV’s roll into -“Poor Old Cranleigh!”

Here’s the village’s design statement for what it’s worth! And – here’s a decent Alfold Councillor Kevin Deanus telling the planners exactly what he thinks of the plan!

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What is the most well-used phrase at ‘Your Waverley’s council meetings?

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If, you get the answer right. 

 

We will put you out of your misery… the phrase most often used in response to councillors questions by officers, the leader, and the executive is…

“WE ARE SATISFIED.”

And.. if ‘we are satisfied’ then so must you be?

 

The 2019 Council elections have arrived at ‘Your Waverley.’

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And electioneering has started!

Tory councillors didn’t even attempt to hide their loathing for any challenge or questions from the council’s minority parties at the recent Full Council Meeting. No wonder it took over a week to post the webcast, it burned the master’s fingers, so he went fishing!

That pesky Godalming new boy Councillor Paul Follows has been getting up the ever-widening nostrils of the Tories ever since he set foot onto The Bury’s Hallowed Ground! And.. they don’t even try to hide their contempt … because there’s an election coming on!

You can watch the Potty One’s eyes narrowing and she ummed and ahhd and tells him he will receive a more detailed answer from somewhere, sometime, somehow in the future. WW wonder – does he ever get one?

Screen Shot 2018-07-30 at 13.15.39.pngAt the last two Full council meetings, the Godalming upstart has dared to ask a few simple questions after being  asked to agree more money for the Judicial Reviews – you know the ones Protect Our Little Corner and the Campaign to Protect Some parts of Rural Englands’ fights to be played out soon in the High Court?  

Q He asked: What are the consequences to the local plan as a whole if the JR’s were successful because obviously, it impacts the Green Belt status of a big chunk of my ward, and elsewhere in Godalming?

Positive or negative – it has consequences and I just wants to know what those were. Is the whole plan undermined, or just parts?

What does he get? – Blank looks and is ignored.

Gone are the days when minority parties, or for that matter Waverley’s residents, were given the benefit of a civil straight answer – in public – and were treated with a modicum of respect. Challenge the tories at your peril, you will be ridiculed for daring to question where and how public cash is being spent.  Ask Gerry Hyman he’s got the T-shirt.

Paul Follows was one of the very few councillors not to vote for the Local Plan, he abstained. His concern, being that it was vulnerable to a JR challenge and that shed loads of public cash would likely be chucked at its defence…which turns out to be the case! 

This week the Godalming upstart was at it again… this time asking questions on the proposed funding for Waverley’s leisure centres. Not too many mind, because Cranleigh’s Boudicca, who has been rewarded with the deputy mayoral role after being kicked out by her ‘colleagues’ as chairman of Cranleigh Parish Council, ruled he had asked enough!! Nothing like a bit of power is there, especially when it has been taken away from you on the home patch!

He had dared to ask why a Press Release was sent out to the Media before the Full Council had an opportunity to comment on the Executive’s decision to spend squillions on new and existing centres? And… he’s a little concerned, despite being generally supportive of leisure facilities, about where the money is coming from and the increasing tax burden on Waverley residents?

Here’s Bramley’s By-Pass Byham, who now wants Bramley to have a leisure centre starting the election ball rolling: Didn’t someone tell the poor old duffer that it has taken many, many, many years to get any money for East Street and it has only just gone into the bank? And nobody is quite sure that his administration hasn’t presided over a white elephant?How did Waverley Conservatives manage to shrink the Brightwells dividend so much?

Oh! and why, because the Executive had only been held a few days earlier, under them there rules, why a debate on the decision could not be held and.. he couldn’t get any answers?  

Why ask another question then Councillor Follows? You know you won’t get an answer… because

YOU ARE NOT A TORY – GET IT!

Here’s your answer – Silly Billy! ‘There is an election coming on Councillor Follows, YW will be throwing money at the public over the coming months and standing up in the council chamber saying stuff like this? Just in case they decide to vote for your lot – or any other lot come to that!

 

 

 

 

COULD DINOSAURS COME BACK TO CRANLEIGH?

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Screams the headline on the Cranleigh edition of the Sorry Advertiser. How we all love the silly season – particularly when some of the WW is away lounging on sunbeds in the Scilly Isles!

Unlikely, says the Waverley Web … because they’re alive and well, chewing the fat of the land in Alfold, Chiddingfold, Dunsfold & Hascombe. They lurk behind hedges in their million-pound mansions and they wouldn’t dream of slumming it in the emerging New Town that Waverley Councillors now refer to as Poor-Old-Cranleigh!

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These Dinosaurs, who evolved from Stop Dunsfold Park New Town into Protect our Waverley (all in the interests of self-preservation you understand) have fought tooth-and-nail for the past 10 years to preserve their own villages in aspic, at the expense of the rest of the Borough – Cranleigh  Godalming, and Farnham in particular.

On a serious note, Fossils Galore (no, we didn’t make that up, but we might well pinch it as our new sobriquet for PoW!) are hoping to secure support for a dedicated museum and activity centre following the discovery of the full skeleton of an Iguanodon dinosaur at the Wienerberger factory in Ewhurst last year. Didn’t they know most of the old fossils are already sitting in the Natural History Museum in London?

The Waverley Web thinks it’s a great idea but strongly recommends Fossils Galore waits on the results of PoW’s Judicial Review because, if unsuccessful, they could find themselves with a cartload of prehistoric beasts to add to their collection:

• Pride of Place in the exhibition could be given to the Velociraptur – otherwise, know as ‘Crap-Peddler-in-Chief’ Bob Lies
• Tyrannosaurus – otherwise known as Tyrant-in-Chief Peppa-Pig, who hasn’t got a good word – let alone a nice one to say for anyone! Anyone for a chipolata?
• Spinosaurus – Spinmeisters-in-Chief Chris Britton & Sarah Sullivan

Clearly, it’s the Silly Season in the sticks!

How did Waverley Conservatives manage to shrink the Brightwells dividend so much?

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Or Perhaps as an alternative headline as suggested by Farnham’s Laurence Garner in this letter to the brilliant Farnham Herald…and which has been sent to us.

 Council taxpayers ‘royally swindled’

Sir,
On the front page of your July 19 edition, you quote councillor Julia Potts boasting that there was ‘money in the bank’: £3.2 million from Crest Nicholson. Your older readers may recall that when Waverley decided in 2002 to award the contract to Crest Nicholson they boasted that there would be £20 million for the council to spend.
It was on this basis that the council over-rode the wishes of the people – expressed in a public consultation – and awarded the project to Crest Nicholson. Since then the value of the land shrank to eight-and-a-half before finally shrinking mysteriously to three-and-a-half million.
Up until 1973, Brightwells Gardens was the property of the people of Farnham, a pleasant amenity: mature trees, shady lawns with park benches and flower beds, a tennis court, a bowling green, and originally an open-air swimming pool; a pleasant spot in the heart of the town.
This was gifted, in a moment of folly, to WBC. After the agreement with Crest, the garden was deliberately degraded by Waverley to an unsightly slum, the bowling green trashed, the tennis courts wrecked, the gardens neglected before finally being sold to Crest Nicholson. They now have the impudence to call the Brightwells scheme a ‘regeneration’.
Councillor Potts neglected to mention that the £3.2 million must be off-set against the £4 million spent by WBC to buy The Marlborough Head public house and the £3.2 million spent on the Gostrey Centre extension to the Memorial Hall – a project originally to be built by Crest at Brightwells at their expense.
The fact is that the council tax payers of Farnham, and all Waverley, have been royally swindled by WBC, whether by design or through incompetence, it really doesn’t matter.
Laurence Carter, Wykeham Road. Farnham

However, what he omits to say is the council also allowed the Gostrey Centre for the elderly to deteriorate over many years. In fact, if a well-intentioned chef hadn’t reported the disgraceful state of the kitchen to Waverley’s own environmental health officers, it would have been forced to close down much earlier. But allowing it to deteriorate fitted in nicely with ‘Your Waverley’s cunning plans!

Yolande Hesse has written.

Sir,
On the front page of your July 19 edition, you quote councillor Julia Potts boasting that there was ‘money in the bank’: £3.2 million from Crest Nicholson. Your older readers may recall that when Waverley decided in 2002 to award the contract to Crest Nicholson they boasted that there would be £20 million for the council to spend.
It was on this basis that the council over-rode the wishes of the people – expressed in a public consultation – and awarded the project to Crest Nicholson. Since then the value of the land shrank to eight-and-a-half before finally shrinking mysteriously to three-and-a-half million.
Up until 1973, Brightwells Gardens was the property of the people of Farnham, a pleasant amenity: mature trees, shady lawns with park benches and flower beds, a tennis court, a bowling green, and originally an open-air swimming pool; a pleasant spot in the heart of the town.
This was gifted, in a moment of folly, to WBC. After the agreement with Crest, the garden was deliberately degraded by Waverley to an unsightly slum, the bowling green trashed, the tennis courts wrecked, the gardens neglected before finally being sold to Crest Nicholson. They now have the impudence to call the Brightwells scheme a ‘regeneration’.
Councillor Potts neglected to mention that the £3.2 million must be off-set against the £4 million spent by WBC to buy The Marlborough Head public house and the £3.2 million spent on the Gostrey Centre extension to the Memorial Hall – a project originally to be built by Crest at Brightwells at their expense.
The fact is that the council tax payers of Farnham, and all Waverley, have been royally swindled by WBC, whether by design or through incompetence, it really doesn’t matter.
Laurence Carter, Wykeham Road. Farnham

Were Cranleigh firefighters around to fight this blaze near woodland?

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The car ablaze adjacent to woodland near Keepers Cottage, Cranleigh!

Because most of the time Cranleigh’s single pump machine has been seen racing around the Surrey countryside attempting to cover for other stations that are either unmanned or are running an overtime ban!

Of course, for Surrey County Council, paying part-time (retained) firemen to stand-by in other parts of the county isn’t cheap. It costs shedloads of money to take firefighters out of area! In addition, they are then unavailable to cover their own areas so if an incident occurs in Cranleigh firemen then travel from Dorking travel home again and then trouser even more cash. If the waste of taxpayer’s money wasn’t so serious it would be funny?

You couldn’t make it up?

But then why would Dumb & Dumber at County Towers give a damn. They’re too busy putting the cold steel of council budget cuts right through the heart of our vital emergency services. So much so Surrey’s head honcho in the brigade has been kicked into touch because he’s not prepared to put his name to cuts that he believes will impact on manpower and put Surry’s residents lives at risk. So his loyal staff have banned overtime! 

You can read it here: Dumb and Dumber do it again?

Waverley planners are not bats, they are devious, dishonourable​​, and don’t even obey their own YES men/women!

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BETTY PUTS THE BOOT IN ON BLIGHTWELLS BATS and the Farnham residents who mourn for the town!

Well, Councillors Follows; Townsend; Hyman and Ward are you going to sit back and accept the duplicity of your planning officers, you know, the ones you employ to do the bidding of the elected representatives of the public?

Didn’t you witness the request by your colleagues on the Joint Planning Committee to add a condition to Crest Nicholsons’s Planning application No  Screen Shot 2018-06-25 at 17.53.11.png

A Condition that would protect the bats in the “Maternity Wing” of Blightwells Cottage and anywhere else on the Farnham East Street site? A CONDITION Not an Informative? An informative that just reminds CNS that it is an offence to disturb protected species under the wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 should a protected species be found during the course of the works!

Stop work?!

Wanna bet no bats will be found there?  But if its alright with Bet the Boot – then its all legal and above board… isn’t it?

It’s official – Waverley Planners have gone Bats!

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