Will public pressure force “Your Waverley’ into taking the European Court of Justice ruling seriously. Or will it just carry on doing what it has been doing for 11 long years and….continue…
Tag: Farnham
When is someone, somewhere, going to stand up and tell Waverley Council it is no longer fit for purpose!
A COMEDY OF ERRORS.
The residents of Farnham deserve better than to watch this for the first 15 minutes of Waverley most senior planning committee as they debated the details of a major – 120 housing scheme on the old Hopfields that affects the residents of Crondall Lane in Farnham!
You guessed – that webcast that was flogged on E-Bay wasn’t working… again…!
The system is not for purpose and neither is the council!!
They also deserve better than the muddled, confusing, misleading, and according to many councillors the “gobsmacking” apologies for errors, inaccuracies, misinformation and the revelations provided by planning officers. The joint planning committee heard with incredulity last night, that a major developer’s infrastructure contribution for a circa £150/120m development of 120 homes at Crondall Lane, had dropped from an amazing £914,000 at the outline stage of the scheme – to £514,000 at the detailed stage.
Oh! and guess what – Surrey County Council couldn’t come up with a project for provision of the necessary primary school for the children from those 120 homes, so they just let the developer get away with contributing, – yes, you guessed, nothing! Is that the same county council that has just put up our council tax by 6% because it is strapped for cash!
Suffice to say a member of the public Stewart Edge, raised a shedload of issues; but of course, we couldn’t actually see him! Farnham Residents councillor Jerry Hyman raised another shedload and whenever he bowled a googly at the so-called ‘experts’ he was either fed a fair amount of the stuff we put on our roses or was shut-up by Chairman Peter ‘ I tell residents ‘what I think of them only when the mike is off’ Isherwood! And his side-kick Carole Cockburn said, – we are where we are – ‘though I am a bit concerned for the residents of Beavers Close and Beavers Road’ (in other words ignore all the mistakes) and then she said – let’s approve it!
Just as we all just got to the point when Councillor Jerry proposed that the application be deferred – following cries from others of –
“the committee was misled at the outline stage” – “Why weren’t we told there was to be a £300,000 reduction in the Infrastructure contributions,” “why have certain conditions been excluded, others are not tight enough.” “Why can’t `I understand the report,” Why aren’t the pages numbered – it is so confusing.” What if our decision here tonight brings on another legal challenge? And from non-other than councillor Brian Adams the former Portfolio Holder for planning – I am astonished at the scale of the changes,” and so it went on and on… and on!
The Betty BIZ said: “The mitigation agreed remains sound, it is not appropriate to revisit that.”
However, Jerry Hyman said the council’s lawyer Dan Lucas told the Joint Planning Committee IN APRIL 2017 that the “catchall principle does apply to habitat applications and so the principle of development can be reviewed and, in fact, must be reviewed if an error was made!
And then just as it got really interesting … the WEBcast finally gave up the ghost and died!!
Probably because ‘Your Waverley’ has just cocked up again!
SO HAS EVERYONE VOTED FOR THIS FLAWED TAYLOR WIMPEY SCHEME WHO HAS OFFERED UP A PIECE OF LAND IN CROOKHAM PARK AT THE QUEEN ELIZABETH BARRACKS PARK NEAR FLEET IN HAMPSHIRE. A SITE THREE MILES AWAY AS MITIGATION FOR THE LOSS OF LAND IN CRONDALL?
PERHAPS SOMEONE SOMEWHERE WILL TELL US ALL WHAT THE DECISION WAS AND IF IT WAS DEFERRED?
We are putting our bets on with Bet Fred for another Tory whitewash!
Here’s the link to the webcast that starts at 1 hr 25 mins. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIsaHhaW-Hc
We have the answer from one of our followers:
Councillors have granted full planning permission for 120 homes on the Beavers Rd ‘hop fields’ in Farnham – despite a dramatic £380,000 cut in Taylor Wimpey‘s infrastructure contributions for the long-mooted scheme. Full story in this Thursday’s Herald.
Waverley/Surrey Conservatives missed £380,000 from Developers on Hopfields!
Local Liberal Democrat Stewart Edge has slammed Waverley and Surrey Councils for giving up £380,000 of available infrastructure development money from the Hopfields development – leaving no contribution for additional primary school places required for children living there.
At the final Hopfields planning meeting, Stewart asked why the proposed ‘Section 106’ infrastructure contribution totalled only £534,152 when the total had been £894,518 at the meeting in 2015 when outline permission was granted.
The startling answer was that Waverley and Surrey’s Conservative Councils between them had failed to specify specific projects that the rules said were needed to claim the full amounts.
So they signed contracts which fixed the contributions demanded from the developers £380,000 lower than available – and in the final planning meeting said they could do nothing legally to increase these now.
What a disaster! £380,000 less for public services; £380,000 more for developer profits.
In memory of what might have been in Farnham?
Remember this Press Release?
THEN:
Press Release from Council Leader Julia Potts, 5th Sept 2016, celebrating works on the extension to Farnham’s Memorial Hall completing in September 2017!
“The Memorial Hall is an incredible tribute to Farnham’s history and the council is committed to enhancing the space for all. The plaque commemorating those in the community who sacrificed their lives during the First World War has been safely removed and will be reinstated into the new (sic) refurbished hall when it reopens in September 2017.”
Now:
Waverley Press Release 14th March 2018 :
Delays to Memorial Hall opening
The opening of the Memorial Hall is to be delayed following recent weather conditions impacting on the project timetable.
The project was already behind schedule, due to difficulties in procuring the right materials for the build last year. Unfortunately, the council is now faced with considerable delays to the Farnham Memorial Hall refurbishment.
To fully understand what is required to finish the refurbishment the council commissioned an independent survey. The survey has highlighted that, due to the poor weather conditions, a considerable amount of remedial work is also required. This is in addition to the work required to complete the project.
Councillor Jenny Else, Portfolio Holder for Health, Wellbeing and Culture, said:
”I cannot express how disappointed and upset I am that the project is not only much further behind than we expected, but also requires a lot of additional work to rectify damage that has been caused by the weather. I am concerned that this is only going to worsen due to the heavy rainfall that has been forecast for the coming weeks.
“This will also come as a disappointment to the services and the people that will be based in the hall when it is finished. We have informed them of the situation and will continue to provide them with the support they need during this frustrating time.
“We are now considering how to move forward. Sadly we cannot give a revised estimate about when the hall will be open until our consultant and the contractors have identified what remedial work is required.”
So tell us Aunty Elsie – who exactly has cocked this one up?
Have you donned your camouflage outfit in readiness to miss the flack flying?
We all know here at the Waverley Web that the Potty One has a sense of humour.
Of course, she does – she has all in fits!!
She has even thrilled the shareholders with a stroke of genius!
08.03.18 – Farnham Herald – How did Crest pull that off copy
Virgin caring for Farnham…just! But… what do the changes mean for Cranleigh?
Virgin Care is to continue providing adult community services in one corner of Surrey after winning a contract extension.
Under the deal – agreed recently – Virgin Care will continue to provide services to Surrey Heath Clinical Commissioning Group’s population, plus those living in and around Farnham for another year.
Q So where does this leave the new private nursing home proposed for Cranleigh?
Q And exactly who will have access to the community beds Cranleigh Village Hospital Trust has been promising the town for over 20 years?
Virgin Care provided services to the whole of western Surrey until last April. At that point, CSH Surrey took on services in the North West Surrey Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) area. From next month services in Guildford and Waverley will pass from Virgin Care to a consortium of the Royal Surrey County Hospital Foundation Trust and local GP’s.
So, £328,000 was extracted from our health economy because the powers that be couldn’t conduct its procurement process properly!
This left Virgin Care covering just the 95,000 Surrey Heath population and the area around Farnham, a town of 40,000 people.
Governing body papers for North East Hampshire and Farnham CCG for January show local leaders had been concerned that the much-reduced contract would not be attractive for Virgin Care because of the loss of economies of scale and that the company might serve notice on the CCG.
But in a joint statement, Surrey Heath and North East Hampshire and Farnham CCGs said a £10.8m contract had been agreed with Virgin Care to continue for another year, based on the previous year’s spend but with a small uplift for inflation.
It said: “Both localities are fully developing plans for community services in light of the North East Hampshire and Farnham vanguard and Surrey Heath new model of care, and continue to do so within the Frimley integrated care system. Our intention is to ensure the market is engaged when appropriate as part of this process,”
Ten of the Virgin Care-run inpatient beds at Farnham Community Hospital are used by patients from the Guildford and Waverley CCG area, including some requiring rehabilitation after stroke.