Tag: Cranleigh

Has the Cranleigh Society taken over the role of the parish council?

Who exactly IS speaking up for the people of Cranleigh?

The Cranleigh Society was once a respected part of the local scene. Adopting the slogan –

“Speaking up for Cranleigh.”

Now it has become a village spin machine., often speaking with forked-tongue. This failing organisation which has lost officers and members could fold at is AGM if it cannot find new officers. A stream of chairmen have resigned, the latest who worked with the Protect our Waverley Campaign and the (CPRE) Campaign to Preserve Rural England to stop development on the only brownfield site in the borough, whilst watching the eastern villages losing acres of countryside to new homes, most of which have proved unaffordable for local people.

Recently the new town dubbed by Waverley councillors as…

“Poor old Cranleigh,” 

… featured last week’s Financial Times in- an in-depth study highlighting problems Cranleigh shares with others, over its huge number of bursting water pipes containing asbestos. However, though we hear from the locals that although the FT  journalist was pointed by the Cranleigh Society in the direction of  former member Adrian Clarke, prominent in the investigation of the asbestos scandal, CCS chose to make comments such as these.

So is the Cranleigh Society which first highlighted the asbestos issue – now speaking with a forked tongue for the people of Cranleigh? 

Screen Shot 2019-04-07 at 20.38.33.png

A scandal over blue asbestos in drinking water in the village dubbed ‘Poor Old Cranleigh’ has now hit the headlines of a National newspaper.

 

Screen Shot 2019-04-07 at 20.22.42.png
 

“Speaking up for Cranleigh Parish Council.”

 

Screen Shot 2019-04-07 at 20.22.59.png

 

Here at the Waverley Web, we receive regular missives from the Society. Many of which are so inaccurate and biased, in favour of certain developers, that we have stopped using them. Our Farnham Society, which is well-established and trusted, speaks up on issues affecting our town but obtains its members’ views first.

This latest is a typical example of its propaganda about a controversial plan to build a private care home instead of a hospital. An issue among donors for a hospital and day hospital which is causing great concern locally. Has a charity made it’s very own April Fool of the eastern villages?

Where has all the money gone?

here’s what the CCS had to say about new amended plans.

Screen Shot 2019-04-07 at 20.23.19

So according to the gospel according to the Cranleigh Civic Society or perhaps a  member of the Society, “an amended junction is safe.”

A crossroads, rather than a roundabout,  in Knowle Lane between the Berkeley Homes site and the new Private Care Home. Adjacent to entrances a few yards away for lorries delivering to Sainsbury’s’ and on the other to Wiskar Drive and M & S Foods. Which are yards away from the Kerbside Garage and the junction with the High Street?

So the WWeb wonders why the parish council is holding an Extraordinary meeting on 11th April when the Cranleigh Society has everything under control and all is tickety boo? WW wonder if the Society ever reads the Cranleigh Community Group Board?  A  group that is uncensored and reflects local views?

 Strange that the CCS, failed to mention that the plans also include another entrance. An entrance to the residential flats over the Snoxhall Sports fields single – access road which crosses the LITTLEMEAD BOOK AND THE DOWNSLINK?!?

 

A scandal over blue asbestos in drinking water in the village dubbed ‘Poor Old Cranleigh’ has now hit the headlines of a National newspaper​.

Only look at this article taken from the Financial Times if you have a strong stomach, never drink water, or don’t live or work in Cranleigh.

Do read it Thames Water and Wannabe Waverley Councillors.

FT1.jpg

Click on the link below to read the article.

AsbestosPipesCranleigh

Within hours of a full-broadsheet page FT article hitting the streets, the castigation of a Cranleigh engineer had begun.  Don’t rush down to the Cranleigh newsagents, as over here in Farnham we heard that “a mystery gentleman’ bought up every copy of the prestigious FT – probably because he wanted to check his investments on the FTSE??!! Or maybe it was a developer?

However, fear not – we snaffled a copy over here, and offer our sincere sympathies to the residents of Cranleigh & the eastern villages who have suffered hundreds of burst pipes. Pipes that are leaking blue asbestos into their drinking water!

The WW first wrote about this phenomenon a year or so back. Not that anyone takes any notice of anything we say! However,  due to the dogged determination of  Cranleigh Society engineer Adrian Clarke the health implications were brought to the attention of MP Anne Milton and the statutory agencies.

The Society subsequently set up a Flood Forum which called to account Thames Water; The Environment Agency, Waverley & Surrey County Councils and the Health & Safety Executive. Who has simply done, little or nothing, except talk a lot we are told. Because pipes all over Cranleigh keep bursting, some have leaked for months if not years, putting fibres into drinking water!

Ignored by ‘Your Waverley’ but Thames Water is forced to recognise there IS a problem with blue asbestos in the East’s water supply!

 Cranleigh’s very own Erin Brokavich in trousers, namely  Adrian Clarke has taken his sorry story to the FT after watching workers wearing protective white masks as they removed burst pipes. Pipes made of asbestos cement. The former factory inspector has failed to persuade anyone- including the MP – to have pieces of pipework examined under laboratory conditions.  Nobody is suggesting that Cranleigh is the only place in the country with asbestos pipes, however, it is undergoing an explosion of housing development, just as we are in Farnham. But all progressing without proper attention to overburdened infrastructure – including water and sewerage treatment.

Screen Shot 2019-04-01 at 22.42.23.png

Adrian Clarke  pictured here believes: ‘ Screen Shot 2019-04-01 at 14.44.48.png

If it is dangerous to inhale asbestos- then it is dangerous to drink.”

Whilst the World Health Organisation (WHO) has no concerns, and neither do Thames Water, SCC or ‘Your Waverley’ councils. However, scientists are not so sure, pointing to the asbestos industry’s questionable research carried out on hamsters and rats.

“The WHO study was based on limited research and was incorrect,” Arthur Frank professor of Public Health and professor of medicine at Drexel University in Philadelphia told the FT. A man who knows his stuff and who has helped asbestos victims in court cases.

Screen Shot 2019-04-01 at 15.23.17.png

“There is plenty of evidence that water rushing through asbestos cement water pipes leaches out asbestos fibres and there is no question in my mind that ingestion of asbestos causes gastrointestinal tract and kidney cancers.”

Cranleigh’s campaigner agrees.

“People are still dying of asbestos-related diseases. Everyone assumes they inhaled asbestos at some point in their lives. But what if people are dying from drinking asbestos fibres in water?”

Note: Thames Water told Cranleigh residents it would be renewing a considerable amount of the 1950’s and 60’s pipework. It hasn’t. Despite the fact that increased water pressure to thousands of new homes is progressing, and blowing mains and pipework to older homes. For Sale signs litter Cranleigh’s Streets and new homes are languishing on the market despite huge incentives including price cuts. 

 

Has the Silly Season arrived early at the Sorry Advertiser this year?

We know the daffodils are sprouting and the sap is rising – but have the Cranleigh birds been singing just a little too loud and long to the local rag about the siting of Cranleigh’s new leisure centre? 

Whose cunning plan was that, WW wonders, to frighten the voting fodder witless?

We’re aware that Dunsfold Airfield may soon have oil-wells springing up along its runway (journalistic licence for gas exploration, in the Dunsfold environs!) but a £14m leisure centre too?

Somehow, we doubt it!

We haven’t asked the Flying Scotsman to confirm or deny the rumour – as we think he must still be miffed with us for publishing his off-line invite to the ungrateful Denise Wordsworth to join him for tea and biscuits, for he never responds to our emails … and he’s certainly never invited us round for tea!)

But in this particular instance, we think we can safely speak for him. Because if he had thousands of Cranleigh New town’s residents rocking up on his doorstep for a swim and a jog around the parkland, there ’d be hell-to-pay from the Provisional Wing of Protect Our Waverley. They may have gone preternaturally quiet since losing all their Judicial Reviews but that’s just made them even more determined to look for an opportunity to take the steam out of the Flying Scot’s funnel at finally bagging 1,800 – 2,300 homes. His sporran must over-floweth!

However, we understand there’s considerable angst amongst Waverley officers – our moles there are very reliable – because, thanks to Cranleigh Parish Council handing over a piece of parish land it once owned to a local charity for a private care home – the new leisure centre may have to stay exactly where it is! If it’s demolished the centre will be closed for a couple of years and clubs and members of the public will have, perforce, to take a dip in the lakes which the generous Mr Vrijland intends to build in the nearby Knowle Park as part of his ambition to

“give something back to the people of Cranleigh,”

all whilst trousering squillions from the sale of his former lettuce nursery to provide the people of Cranleigh with 265 homes and now he’s asking for more!! 

Screen Shot 2019-02-15 at 10.34.55.png

 

 

Don’t​ mention the word. ‘HOSPITAL!’

Particularly if you dare to share this post on The Cranleigh Community Board!

Because according to e-mails we have received from followers over there in the East – the Cranleigh Mafia is at work. ‘The Chef’ aka  Martin Bamford (he has so many fingers in so many pies) has removed this post shared by his members on the board he now owns and censors. No Gipsies and No Private Nursing Home speak?

Why we wonder? Is this a little too close to the truth?

We have also heard that the Cranleigh Parish Council will be considering The Giant Nursing Home scheme at its planning meeting next Monday.

THIS POST COMES WITH A HEALTH WARNING THAT HAS BEEN ISSUED BY EVERYONE – EXCEPT THE CRANLEIGH VILLAGE HOSPITAL TRUST! 

The words – “Hospital” must not be used!!

This is the plan for a £30/40m Private Nursing Home together with residential accommodation being put forward by A2 Dominion Director “Mr Cranleahy”and HC-One  –  as a replacement for “dare we, dare we, say it? … Cranleigh Hospital. Dammit, now we have!

CRANLEIGH-HOSPITAL2.jpg

In a nutshell,  we’re told – on good authority.  The people of Cranleigh and the nearby, villages were asked to raid their piggy banks and dig deep into their pockets to replace  – Cranleigh Cottage Hospital axed by the health authority.  And… they did… raising millions.

But now, we’ve been inundated by complaints and questions from local people who ran fundraising events – local schools, pubs, clubs and individuals – you name it, they raised it.

Now that dream has turned sour and instead of living the dream local people find themselves living  – Nightmare on Knowle Lane.

The trouble began, we understand, when “big boy” developers, such as A2 Dominion and HC-One, got involved and the scheme morphed from a new local hospital with beds for local people into something so far removed from this original concept, even the founding trustees don’t recognise it!

Angry residents tell us their questions go unanswered by Cranleigh Village Hospital Trust (CVHT) – the original organisation set up to promote the concept of local beds for local people, free at the point of demand.

We at the Waverley Web are not entirely au fait with the scheme – which has been in the pipeline since before we were even a germ of an idea – but our Cranleigh followers have been on the case, trying to winkle out some answers and this is how they faired.

• It is an 80-bed care home – it is NOT a hospital!
• It will NOT have a minor injuries unit – X-Ray, MRI or outpatients. These services will be provided by the official Cranleigh Village Hospital, operated by its Cranleigh League of Friends. We have ascertained this organisation has no link whatsoever with the CVHT Charity. Neither does it attend its meetings or have any inclination to do so.
• There will be 20 beds for community care – managed under a joint budget operated by the Guildford & Waverley Commissioning Care Group( G&WCCG) and Surrey County Council Adult Social Care (SCC).
• These beds will replace some,  (20) but not all, of the 60 beds lost when Surrey County Council closed its Longfields Home some years ago – a site now earmarked for 25 homes! Clearly a win-win for SCC but not for the good folk of Cranleigh and the surrounding villages!
• The 20 community beds will be open to ANYONE  in the GWCCG area – which covers Guildford & Waverley, not just Cranleigh and the surrounding villages.
• We are told by health workers – who have contacted us in confidence – that it is to assist with Royal Surrey County Hospital’s bed-blocking, some of which is as a direct result of SCC’s decision to close its homes in the borough.

Now pay attention!  Here’s where it gets a bit complicated.

Residents have written to us because they simply cannot unearth the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth from CVHT. What they want to know is:

Q:

Will fund-raisers and residents of Cranleigh and the surrounding villages get priority over out-of-area patients, if they require a bed?

A:

Of the 80 beds – 60 are for a Private Patients only – the remaining 20 are named as ‘community beds.’

So, in a nutshell, as Monsieur Barnier is so fond of saying: the answer is ‘NON!’
But, to elaborate, if two patients needed one of the 20 available beds – one from Guildford and one from Cranleigh – then likely as not, depending on their condition – the “local” may get first dibs. However, beds will not be kept vacant “just in case”. “It just wouldn’t make economic sense.”

Also, nursing homes are now becoming an outdated service. In NHS jargon, its the future direction of travel for patients to remain in their own homes, assisted by staff and new technology. A bit like the model already being funded by The League of Friends. According to its records of funding for its ‘End of Life Care’ programme for years.

One official who dare not be named for fear of reprisals from the CVHT spokesman, Martin Bamford, told the WW:

“An outmoded scheme – a dinosaur – is being foisted on the town of Cranleigh. Two Monolithic buildings that will tower over Whisker Drive, all because the Charity clings like a limpet to the wreckage of a disappearing dream which has now morphed into a money spinner for developers”. The whistleblower claimed the parish council had been duped, as it was never its intention to support a private care-home provider on land once owned by the parish. Neither was it residents’ intention that the site be used for residential accommodation when hundreds of “affordables” are currently under construction in the town.”

“Some, purporting to be the saviours of Cranleigh, should hang their heads in shame. The winners here are: the health authority, SCC, and a billionaire health provider – AC-ONE Mr Chai Patel.

The losers? – local residents who were duped into parting with their cash. Many of whom would never be able to afford a private nursing home bed or take advantage of the social care community beds they’re money has funded!

To be continued ….

Screen Shot 2018-11-30 at 16.22.34.png

Screen Shot 2018-11-30 at 16.22.47.png

Screen Shot 2018-11-30 at 16.23.12.png

The Waverley Web is not entirely sure why the Charity is still using the image below which is a blatant disregard of the advice it has been given?

Screen Shot 2018-11-30 at 16.22.59.png

When is a hospital not a hospital? When it’s in “poor old Cranleigh? – whose residents appear to have been SHAFTED by a charity!

Long awaited plans for new healthcare facilities in Cranleigh to be submitted. WHEN exactly? Are there plans afoot to bring Cranleigh traffic to a standstill?

They’re off nice and early in Cranleigh? Campaigning for the 2019 local elections.

It’s girl power – where are Cranleigh’s blokes?

Or… perhaps not. As these Tory ladies are calling canvassing  by a new name it’s now called ‘surveying residents.’  And there were silly old us, thinking that surveying was the practice carried out by developers before they start covering the countryside in concrete?

Wannabe Waverley borough and Cranleigh parish councillors are stomping around the streets as they rev up in readiness for next May’s borough and parish elections. 

No point waiting for the starters’ gun is there? Get out their girls, start mixing with the voting fodder. By the  sounds of it all is going well according to the very ambitious – Ewhurst’s Angie of I’m a Cranleigh parish councillor, then a borough councillor – and I’m on my way up the greasy Tory pole to Westminster – because I bag loads of  dosh for them all over the Guildford and the East – Tory patch so I can become Annie’s replacement? But first – I have my eye on keeping the Tories in power at Waverley?

Don’t they have enough CRANLEIGH people over there to speak up for the New Town? Let us hope here in Farnham we can manage to stump up a few true locals?

We’ve heard over here there is a groundswell of Independent, Residents’ Associations and Liberal Democrat candidates out there seeking to snatch some of those seats in a bid to change the face of Waverley’s Tory dominance. Go girls go.

Screen Shot 2018-11-25 at 10.14.18.png

Cranleigh Parish Councillor Angela Richardson, Waverley Councillor and Parish Chairman Liz Townsend and Waverley’s Deputy Mayor Mary Foryszewski out pressing the flesh with Cranleigh’s voting fodder.