Tag: Cranleigh

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 don’t!

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https://youtu.be/zEKk0RgRAVQ

Berkeley Homes Space Standards

Surrey’s Fly Tipping Horror

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Here’s what County Hall could look like in the future?


Just as residents reel from Surrey County Council’s shock announcement that it wants to close Recycling Centres around the county including  Cranleigh & Farnham – here’s a clip on what reduced recycling already looks like in the county:

The Council is “consulting” on permanently closing between four and six CRC’s.  Farnham is on the list – so is Cranleigh; Bagshot; Dorking; Lyne (Chertsey) and Warlingham. 

Residents in Farnham are foaming at the mouth saying they will be forced to travel to Witley or over the border into Hampshire. Cranleigh people are already travelling into Horsham across the West Sussex County boundary as their site is only open at weekends and is causing traffic chaos in Elmbridge Road.

 

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Cranleigh people are arguing their County Councillors to step up to the Mark. By the way, has anyone seen their Little Povey?mylittlepovey2 

 

 

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A group that ‘Speaks up for Cranleigh’ wants to know if residents want the Downslink upgraded?

Hasn’t it heard – doesn’t it read the Waverley Web? –  A Hambledon councillor has met with the heads of Network Rail and SW trains and MP Jeremy Hunt to bring back the Horsham to Guildford railway line along the Downslink through Cranleigh.

Here’s what The Cranleigh Civic Society says:

Some people think that other countries are much better at encouraging outdoor activities; even for those who can only go for walks, bike rides and push-chairs or wheelchairs travel.

Have you ever visited French, German, American or other areas where it’s just normal to find well-maintained paths in and around towns, villages and the countryside?  Are those places popular with good quality tourists?

So how would it be if money from all the building works was spent of making sure we have a great footpath all along the Downs Link?

Wouldn’t it be great to no longer fear the railway line after rain for all the black mud created up one’s back when cycling, all over the dogs and unable to use pushchairs and wheelchairs?

(Not quite sure what it actually means in the paragraph above? – Do cyclists ride roughshod over dogs over there in Cranleigh?

Our Waverley would have to be made very aware of this public desire.  Let us know – by contacting us directly!

Here’s what Councillor Nick Holder told his Waverley Coucil colleagues. 

How will a second runway at Gatwick affect the residents of Waverley?

 

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Cranleigh and the villages in the East are part of the area knows as the Gatwick triangle.

 

The East of the borough including Haslemere, Chiddingfold, Cranleigh, Ewhurst and the villages in between are all affected by Gatwick air traffic. Some more than others.

The decision by Gatwick Airport to issue a Masterplan, which includes proposals to convert the Emergency Runway into a fully active second runway has prompted an outcry.

The Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign Chairman, Peter Barclay says – “We strongly oppose any second runway at Gatwick and we will fight this proposal tooth and nail.” He said the proposal could bring in an extra 80,000 additional flights a year.

Cranleigh has already been described by airport officials as The Gateway To Gatwick, but other villages including Rudgwick are affected by the increasing number of flights.

The Emergency runway is located parallel to, and approximately 190m north of the main runway. Planning permission was granted 40 years ago on the basis that it could only be used for emergencies. However, that legal agreement expires in August 2019. So Gatwick’s second runway could arrive through the back door. However, it will need approval from the CAA and other safety bodies, as well as requiring planning permission for a change of use.

Objectors argue should this go ahead, it will substantially increase the noise and disturbance to residents living to the north of the airport, particularly on those living and working beneath the now concentrated departure and arrivals flightpaths to both the east and west of the airport.

There will be a 12-week consultation on the Master Plan once published.

 

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.