Tag: Berkeley Group

The Berkeley Bunnies bid to build hutches, ​not burrows has failed – spectacularly.

Waverley Planners has booted out a Phase of 130 homes destined to be part of a 425 swathe of housing between Knowle Lane and Alfold Road, Cranleigh.

Why?  

You may ask – would one of the most prestigious housebuilders in the country want to construct the affordable home element of its development, below the National minimum space guidelines?

This IS Cranleigh Phase 2.2 130 Homes with 77 Homes  = 59% below Government Minimum Space Standards 

Even Worse- Why?

Having acknowledged that a number of the proposed units would not accord with space standards. Did Waverley’s planning Officers dare to tell members of the Joint Planning Committee that? 

‘Officers nevertheless consider that an appropriate standard of accommodation would be provided on site.’

The Government Technical Housing standards – nationally described space standards (2015) requires dwellings to meet certain internal space standards in order to ensure that an appropriate internal standard of accommodation has been provided for future occupiers.

 How duplicitous of Waverley’s so-called ‘planning experts’ to attempt to dupe the councillors they are there to serve, into believing there was some sort of increase in the number of affordable properties being offered by the developer. When it was patently obvious that there were not?

But councillors from across the borough were UNANIMOUS in their condemnation of Berkeley Homes’ attempt to shove up the size of more lucrative market homes and stuff vulnerable families, now and in future, into small units, below Government space standards, some in three-storey blocks!!

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Alfold’s Councillor Kevin Deanus lambasted the developer saying it was putting …

‘Profits before people.”

“Of the 130 homes, 75 fail to meet space standards (57.7%) Berkeley’s should be ashamed how it has treated affordable homes in this matter. It is shameful that it has pushed up the 4-bed by 40sq m. This is something to do with profits. This after it promised it would build something of which Cranleigh could be proud.”

This week Berkeley’s announced that the ‘Executive homes,’ adjacent to Knowle Lane were going on the market at £1.3+m. 

One after another – including Cranleigh councillors Liz Townsend, Mary Foryszewki slammed the scheme. With Councillor Foryszewski claiming this BIG developer which history had shown had plenty of money to throw at even more planning appeals, could do it again! But her attempt to seek a deferment for talks failed.

Others, from across the borough,  claimed the scheme was so flawed it had to go…

“back to the drawing board.” 

There were also very serious concerns about the Phasing and part phasing of the project which councillors believed could lead to dangers for people living on the parts of the site already developed. It is an open secret in Cranleigh that the developer is transporting thousands of tonnes of spoil from its Rudgwick site to build up land levels and that ancient woodland has been damaged. 

My my! – What high manhole covers the BB’s are building in Cranleigh.

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Now you see it! Screen Shot 2018-11-14 at 18.40.02.png

Now you don’t!

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https://youtu.be/zEKk0RgRAVQ

Berkeley Homes Space Standards

My my! – What high manhole covers the BB’s are building in Cranleigh.

FINISHED FLOOR LEVEL – Otherwise know in Cranleigh as F**k the Flood Levels!

 

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 What high manhole covers the Berkeley Bunnies are installing on their site in Knowle Lane, Cranleigh!

An eagle-eyed resident who took this photo forwarded it to the Waverley Web as they couldn’t quite believe what they were seeing. ‘Surely, this must just be a positioning exercise?’ was the question they posed. One of our many Cranleigh correspondents wasn’t so sure and, after diligently checking the planning application came back and said, ‘Nope! What you see is what you get’!

Bluntly, both Berkeley Homes and Waverley planners knew that the Knowle Lane site wasn’t sustainable under the sequential test but they pushed it through anyway and the manhole covers will need to be this high above ground level in an effort to avoid flooding.

Few Cranleigh residents will forget the flooding in these fields – and elsewhere in Cranleigh – during the heavy floods of December 2013. But neither the Berkeley Bunnies nor  Waverley Planners care because they won’t be living in the houses the next time Cranleigh Floods.

Have we heard a peep out of POW about the ‘sustainability’ of this development? Not bloody likely? 
Where were POW when Cranleigh residents were fighting, tooth and nail to oppose development on a site that, in addition to flooding, is on a narrow country lane, betwixt and between the rear entrances to Sainsbury’s and Marks & Sparks – both of whom receive daily deliveries from HGVs – and a business, called Kerbside – which does what it says on the tin! – causing traffic chaos.

Not to mention CVNT’s (Cranleigh Village Nursing Home Trust’s) plans to build a private nursing home with a 28 flat apartment block adjacent to it, just a hop, skip and a field away across the lane?

If ever a development was unsustainable – one of POW’s favourite refrains – it was this one!

But, despite its name – Protect our Waverley – the only part of Waverley Capt’n Bob and his cohorts are interested in protecting is their own little corner, over there in Dunsfold. They really couldn’t give a damn if the good folks of Cranleigh see their furniture floating down the High Street as, memorably, happened in the great floods of 1968 … Nik Pigeon and Chris Britton hope to have sold their houses and wiped the dust of Waverley off their boots by then and Capt’n Bob, like Noah, will sail serenely on with Stacey Strumpett & Cliff Clavin on the Good Ship POW!

What a crock of crap poor old Cranleigh is sitting on thanks to the greed of the Berkeley Bunnies, the stupidity of Waverley Planners and the selfishness of POW and its supporters!

We simply console ourselves with the thought that what goes around, comes around and, talking of crap, just how is Awfold going to cope with the affluent’s effluent emanating from Thakeham Homes’ scheme at Springbok? No doubt bosom buddies Betty Ames, Chris Britton, Nik Pigeon, & Crystal Tipps Weddell have all the answers! And we just can’t wait to hear them … we could do with a good laugh in face of the latest crisis in Cranleigh!

And, we thought we had it bad over here in Farnham – beginning to make Crest Nicholson look like Mary Poppins.

Berkeley Bunnies – when you are in hole – stop digging?

‘More Barratt’s than Berkeley’s’  was how Waverley councillors described the detailed design for the first phase of 55 executive homes on part of Cranleigh’s once green and pleasant land. So they refused its application and told the national house builder, with a reputation for providing quality homes, to go ‘back to the drawing board.’

Despite the planning ‘experts’ at ‘Your Waverley’ supporting the design of the scheme, councillors from around the borough backed the locals who   claimed the development would do ‘nothing’ to enhance the character of Cranleigh – as the design and layout was ‘mediocre’ and ‘unimaginative’ and the  two-three storey sentinel blocks (which the developer had wanted to be gated,) facing onto a rural lane, was out of character – and more suited to Walton and Weybridge.

This was to have been the first phase of 425 homes to be built on land behind Stocklund Square with access off Knowle Lane. Granted by a Government Inspector following  an appeal.

Despite all their shoving, cajoling,  pushing and prodding, the ‘experts’ were unable to lead councillors by the nose  – and the scheme was rejected. Weeks earlier Berkeleys was also told it couldn’t take down ancient woodland – despite Liz The Biz Simms, ‘YW’ head honcho explaining a while back it could always be, re-planted. Ugh!

We, and probably you, would like to know –

Who is actually running the planning function at ‘YW’ – is it Gone to Potts? The Executive? The Planning Officers? Or is it the democratically elected members?

Because if it’s all the former, then why is taxpayers money being wasted on all those allowances , special responsibility payments, travelling expenses and pensions that 58 councillors are paid, when they could be done away with? 

From now on officers can grant up to 25 dwellings without reference to the planning committees! 

So now, a company that once hoped to be accepted in Cranleigh New Town, has upset the locals and instead of listening to all the cogent and reasonable arguments from the locals, and doing a small re-design, they are spending lots of dosh on lawyers and QC’s just to spite the taxpayer by appealing…. 

AGAIN!

Remember! The company has already done this once. The original application or 425 homes was refused by ‘YW’ – not its officers of course,  and allowed at appeal. The Inspector, at that time, allowed five storey homes on the site!!!  Less like Cranleigh more like Canary Wharf!

Why – have they decided to Appeal! Quite simply….Because they can!

It just shows how much profit they make that they can afford to do this on a matter of pique. I suppose as their CEO awarded himself a bonus of £23 million last year and only contributes a small sum of £3 million towards infrastructure he can afford to do it.
Of course if you look at it from his point of view, Berkeleys were led to believe by the WBC planners that all would be well and it would be plain sailing through the planning process, so you can imagine his frustration.  
The design was challenged on two main points – the 5 houses fronting Knowle Lane (a rural lane) were effectively 3 stories high, and not in keeping with Cranleigh whose vast majority of houses are only 2 stories high. Secondly the design was trying to make it look like a gated community. But as one councillor – Brian Freestone, told the Joint Planning Committee, ‘we welcome the new residents into Cranleigh, but how can we do that if they feel elite and cut off from us? This argument and others won the day.
If Berkeleys had engaged with Cranleigh Parish Council, in open forum rather than behind closed doors with ‘YW, all this could probably have been avoided.
Berkeley’s attempt to throw its  toys out of the pram is a flagrant waste of money and will not be approved by its shareholders. Even more damaging is the cost to cash-strapped WBC and therefore us the taxpayer.

Have ‘Your Waverley’ and the Berkeley Bunnies played a foul on Cranleigh’s sports men, women and children?

Here they go, here they go… to…Alfold…Dunsfold…Ewhurst…Horsham or the lowest bidder?

A decision by “Your Waverley” and …  for the moment –  by, others … UNKNOWN, – may have signalled the end of one of the oldest football clubs in Surrey.

 The insensitivity of  Waverley Borough Council  could prove to be the last straw that breaks the back of Cranleigh’s 124 year-old  Football Club…

** Ah well! What happens in Farnham to-day – happens to Cranleigh and the rest of the borough tomorrow!

WHY?

By providing £173,000 towards an All Weather Football Pitch at – Cranleigh Public School

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Please Sir – can you find Cranleigh footballers a new home?

It is widely  known locally, that Berkeleys had promoted other schemes to improve the lives of young and old – as part of its contribution towards  the creation of Cranleigh new Town.

It offered ‘Your Waverley a £1.3m community building on part of its site of 425 new homes between Knowle Lane and Alfold Road, Cranleigh. This was scuppered by a Cranleigh borough/parish councillor! 

It is also well-known locally that Park Mead School requires £25,000 towards improving its facilities!

But ‘Your Waverley’  – decided it was prudent to provide £173,000 to one of the country’s top private schools.  At a time when the car park to the Snoxhall Playing fields is  closed due to health and safety hazards and the Snoxhall Pavilion,  where senior and youth footballers took cold showers throughout the Winter,  – is,  a disgrace ! 

This sentence is taken from the council papers in a list of contributions by Berkeley Homes, as part of an Infrastructure package. Other developers are putting money into Cranleigh Arts Centre.

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However, at behind closed doors meetings with officers, Cranleigh borough and county councillors and the developer, Berkeley Homes’  offer was shunned in favour of…the above. 

 The details of a £3m legal agreement that Berkeley Homes will contribute  for infrastructure were recently revealed by officers. There was an  outcry at a recent public meeting when villagers learned that it included £173,000 for a synthetic pitch to be constructed near Glebelands School.   Waverley planners were considering details of the first (55) of four phases of 425 homes planned at the back of Stocklund Square.

Waverley Web asks ..was no thought at all given to grass-roots sport in  Cranleigh?

This latest revelation, for the cash-strapped football club, could now be   the final straw – and at a meeting last week, the club  warned – it may have to leave Cranleigh after 124 years!

One player wrote to the Waverley Web saying: “the shock revelation that this huge sum of money has been contributed towards a pitch for Cranleigh School – and that villagers will have to pay to use it, is the final kick in the crotch for our players.

We have been struggling for years. It costs four times as much for our teams to play in Cranleigh than in any of the other villages around – the facilities at Snoxhall are non-existent, and quite frankly are a disgrace. The parish council has recently closed the car park – and we have heard to-day that we, and visiting teams,  will in future,  have  to pay to use it.  Which is against League rules, and we may be thrown out!

 We  feel we no longer belong in our own village. We believe  Waverley Council is considering building a new Leisure Centre on part of our playing fields – and we understand, the parish council, who owns the land  is trying to “protect them”  from the land grabbers at Waverley. So if we leave Cranleigh perhaps we will be doing everyone a favour?”

It may be too late, but some thought needs to be given to ensuring the development and success of grass root sport in Cranleigh, particularly football, which attracts over 400 youngsters and older players every Saturday.

We want to know? – Where are all the children of all these families  proposing to  live here going to play sport in the future?

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** Farnham folk Petitioned the Queen to remove the town from Waverley. Cranleigh folk take a Vote of No Confidence in Waverley. Farnham’s Memorial Hall and playing fields used by the football club,  kicked out and moved elsewhere. Waverley has its eye on  Cranleigh football grounds ….and  Haslemere’s youth facilities.. etc … Sound familiar?