The Waverley Web has begun the process of ‘Fact-Checking’ some of the literature that has been dropping through your letterboxes in recent weeks.
Having carefully read through this one, it would appear the Lib Dems have forgotten one very big achievement. It hasn’t mentioned that for the first time fo years, residents can now watch a webcast without interruption. Councillors are sitting, and have been told when to switch on their microphones and the public can actually hear the debate.
It is also very noticeable that webcasts are put up almost immediately, during the previous administration it sometimes took almost a week!
The WW applauds you. But sincerely hope that the LD eye doesn’t come off the Waverley ball due to a General Election?
Cllr Townsend – Waverley Borough Councillor for Cranleigh and Chairman of its Parish Council has today announced her resignation from the Conservative Party.
Waverley Borough and Cranleigh Parish Cllr Liz Townsend is now hand-in-hand with former MP Anne Milton in their efforts to put ~an Independent MP for the Guildford & Villages into the seat at the General Election.
It has been obvious to anyone who watches the Waverley Borough Council meetings on its webcast – sad souls that a handful of us residents are! That Cllr Elizabeth Townsend has become an increasingly independent thinker – and doer.
Like many councillors before her – her politics came with a small p – but her Dogged Determination to serve Waverley, and in particular Cranleigh residents, – came with a BIG D. Which sometimes took her out-of-step with Tory colleagues. Particularly with her concerns for the environment.
Although seemingly overlooked and undervalued by some of her own Waverley Conservative colleagues, she is highly regarded by the public and her colleagues in all the other parties. Cast your minds back to a time when Tory-controlled Waverley refused to allow her to join the influential Joint Planning Committee. A committee faced with major applications – including Dunsfold Park Garden Village a 2,600 home – development that would have a major impact on Cranleigh and its services.
So it came as no surprise to us, here at the Waverley Web that Cllr Liz Townsend has resigned to-day from the Guildford & Villages Con Assoc – to become, what perhaps she always has been – an INDEPENDENT.
As Chairman of the parish council, she single-handedly masterminded Cranleigh’s Neighbourhood Plan – a feat of enormous and time-consuming proportions, as it maps out Cranleigh’s future and underpins Waverley’s Local Plan.
She has fought tirelessly for the people of Cranleigh and beyond, cares passionately about the environment, and the effect development is having on the character of the countryside both on her own patch and on the areas of Godalming, Haslemere and ours here in Farnham. nobody shows more frustration at the loss of habitat, loss of ancient woodland, hedgerows, and TPO covered trees than Cllr Townsend. She has shown herself to represent our beleaguered town of Farnham with exactly the same fervour as her own area. There is nothing parochial in her fight for what is right for the people of Waverley. But faced with a choice of what is right for the country has prompted a once committed Tory to hand in her card.
So let’s all hope that the new Coalition Alliance that is now running ‘Your Waverley’ will recognise her immense skills, and reward her courageous stand – with more responsibility for shaping our borough over the next four years. Because there is little doubt, Waverley’s Tory Group has lost one of its best assets. We wonder what Cllr Potts will have to say now her ranks are being depleted further? Watch this space.
Councillor Paul Follows, Deputy Leader of Your Waverley said:
The cross-party administration of Waverley Borough Council is very pleased to welcome Cllr Towsend to join the governing group of (now) 35 councillors.
Cllr Townsend is known for being a hardworking, principled local councillor and will be, I am sure, an asset to the group in our ongoing work for the residents of Waverley.
It is clear that the Conservative party has in recent months shifted to the right and to a place where moderate, centrist, pro-remain and pro-environment Conservative councillors and supporters feel uncomfortable and ultimately that they have no home. Leaving a party of your own choice takes great courage and many of the group understand that position. There will always be a place for such people in the cross-party alliance whether they sit as a member of a party or as an Independent.
Some Tories are showing themselves to be as disrespectful to the fallen – as they are to the voting public.
You may be unable to spot all those Waverley Borough Councillors who lost their seats in the May elections, but thankfully we here at the Waverley Web can!
One ousted Tory Jim Edwards commented on this scurrilous blog that the Lib Dem candidate had dared to put up a poppy on his post. A post that was informing everyone that he had absolutely intention of campaigning during the Remembrance Day period! What Humbug!
Was it just former Councillors invited? Or just Saga members?
However, he failed to mention that Angela Richardson the new Boris Babe surrounded herself and her NBF with… a wreath of the words… ‘At the going down of the sun, and in the morning… how disgraceful was that?! Boris’s new babe!
Don’t worry Angela – once met never forgotten. And the WW only met you once! And, that was when you were asking us for money to help the Guildford & Villages Con Assoc – ensure Anne Milton was elected.
She’s not just Boris’s Babe though? She has even managed to persuade Matt Hancock the former Secretary of State for Health down to the old Cranleigh Village Hospital to-day for a photocall. Our Annie couldn’t manage that even though she was a Health Minister for years. But then, she didn’t buy her way into the Conservative Association – she earned her way in.
Though of course, Annie took her gun to health officials on numerous occasions while in Government – including those who closed Cranleigh’s community hospital.
Guildford Conservative Association and all the branch’s of the Tory tree will be gearing up over the coming weekend to choose the candidate for the ‘once-safe’ Guildford and eastern villages seat.
While some wannabe Tory candidates are getting up close to Boris, MP Anne Milton is fighting in Parliament to ensure all those extant planning permissions for housing on her patch are built-out.
She asked Secretary of State for Housing Minister Esther McVay to “do something” to force developers to build much-needed homes, instead of surrounding sites with hoardings. She says while there is a requirement on developers to begin building within a set period from the granting of planning permission, there is no equivalent requirement to finish what they start, let alone a deadline to do so. This leads to building land left abandoned and unused, housing completions lagging behind housing need, and leaving people without homes.
It was business as usual for one of the finest, hardworking and most respected constituency MP’s Guildford, Ewhurst and Cranleigh have ever had. She told a Westminster Hall debate this week that:
“Local authorities simply do not possess enough tools to force the hand of [property] developers,” Ms Milton had requested the debate on Building Out Extant Planning Permissions to express her frustration that slow progress by developers meant many sites with planning permission were left undeveloped while people suffered from housing shortages”.
“We need houses that people can afford in areas such as Guildford and Cranleigh, where prices are eye-wateringly high (the average house price in Guildford is more than £550,000), and get the socially rented homes we also need.
“But it sometimes feels as if successive governments are simply unwilling to do anything that will upset the developers’ apple cart.”
Ms McVey said:“When we talk about the number of homes coming forward, we all agree there have been many decades of not building enough. Demand has outstripped supply for many years. In the past year, more than 220,000 homes have been built, more than in all but one of the past 31 years.
“We need to do more, and more is being done, but a significant amount has been done already. We are going in the right direction. The government are putting another £44 billion into home-building.
“What we are doing is bringing forward an accelerated planning Green Paper. There will be not just a single solution that ensures that developers build-out there will be an array of solutions, using both carrot and stick approaches. Those methods will be set out in our new Green Paper, which is coming
