Willy the Web is going slightly mad!
The men in white coats really are on their way to Waverley Towers – or will they be beaten by the men in grey coats?
read here:Are Waverley Planners going stark staring mad?
We urge everyone to watch the webcast of Waverley’s Joint Planning Committee next Wednesday particularly if you live in the East of the borough in Cranleigh. Then you will see this disreputable council at work. Better still – go along and watch?
The same madness that has been going on in Farnham regarding East Street and Brightwells is spreading like a disease across the borough!
Click on the music above to get yourselves in the mood
You can watch “your Cranleigh Borough Councillors” Brian Ellis, and Stuart Stennett go along with all the other JPC members, (though from past experience we doubt that will include Mary Foryszewski,) from other parts of the borough, grant permission for another 340 houses in the Alfold Road at Cranleigh.
Perhaps Councillor Stennett will declare an interest and leave the chamber – as he’s a chump of the applicant – but WW is not holding his breath! Councillor Ellis called the planning application in and has been working together with Mr Stennett and the council officers for years at secret meetings with wannabe developers, Knowle Park Initiative included. After all, according to our followers – Councillor Ellis wants to be Cranleigh New Towns’ first Mayor. Don’t buy your tricorn hat yet Cllr E!
But perhaps – just perhaps, the Dummies on the JPC should read this little missive from Cranleigh resident Adrian Clarke who has more than a passing interest in poo! This could leave them all slightly flushed. Because – quite simply The Environment Agency say it is “technically infeasible” to upgrade the Cranleigh sewage works to meet the housing already granted, – let alone more… Why? Because the technology doesn’t exist – just read it for yourselves.
One more piece of the jigsaw though, and it’s the “elephant in the room” no one wants to talk about. In the last 3 years, Cranleigh Waters (the stream Cranleigh Sewage Works discharges into) has become ephemeral. This means it flows OK in winter as it always has done, but in summer it flows much less, and at times it stops flowing altogether. (The Environment Agency told us it is because of low aquifers, increasing water abstraction upstream, global warming and increasing population density).
The Environment Agency said a few weeks ago that it is currently “technically infeasible” (their words) for Thames Water to upgrade the sewage works in Cranleigh to meet growing housing developments because the technology doesn’t exist to upgrade the plant in Cranleigh to give a clean enough discharge into the stream. Cranleigh Society explained this to Elizabeth Sims at Waverley in December (I know because I was at that meeting) and she and the other planners are simply ignoring this, hoping the problem will magically go away. The Environment Agency is well aware of the problem, and we’ve sent them photos of a dry stream bed on the 6th October last year, but they are too weak to do anything about it, as much of their power has been stripped by Government in the last 2 years. Take a look at –
I just thought you should know this critical piece of information, as I think that it has has become the single biggest problem for new housing schemes in Cranleigh. It’s “Catch 22”. Waverley are pushing their allocation onto Cranleigh as we don’t have any Greenbelt Protection. The Environment Agency knows about the ephemeral nature of the stream but they are keeping quiet about it. Waverley are keeping quite about it saying that if the Environment Agency doesn’t properly object, then what’s the problem? And Thames Water blithely look on as the Environment Agency hasn’t updated their Permit to Discharge for Cranleigh since 2009, so they don’t have to actually DO anything! The perfect storm of bungling caused by Waverley sticking their heads in the sand on this.
And against this background, I find it incredible that Waverley are recommending that KPI and Little Meadow go through at the JPC meeting on the 27th.
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However, Mr Clarke sadly we don’t find it incredible. We think Waverley planning officers and your borough councillors over there have been planning this for years! Remember all those secret meetings?
The Council is finally losing the plot! They will sacrifice the Green Belt next! Why doesn’t everyone in Cranleigh wake up and smell the poo- and get over there next Wednesday in their droves, and tell them – enough is enough and if you do not stop this madness we will challenge you in the Courts?
A spokesman for the Roberts family said shortly after planning permission was granted, that he was determined that when the site was sold, it would contain green space, a community building and whilst providing much needed homes, would also be an asset to the village.This vision will be continued by the new owner.
