Another 54 houses for Cranleigh – **Decision Deferred!**

Another 54 houses for Cranleigh – **Decision Deferred!**

As an update on this post from last week, the JPC voted 9-5 to defer the decision on this application, on grounds of flooding and odour from the nearby sewage works.

 

Thakeham Homes application (Planning Ref : WA/2016/1921) for 54 houses off Elmbridge Road goes to Joint Planning Committee this Weds 28 June 2017 6:30pm at Waverley Offices in Godalming. Officers are recommending this for APPROVAL.

thakeham-homes-block-plan

This entire site was underwater in Dec 2013/Jan 2014 – the road, which was higher than the site, was impassable.

In January 2015 about 30%  of the site was flooded.

The site also enjoys sewage odour during the summer months – this has got to be a low point even for Waverley! Under 2.3 Odour Complaints of the Odour Assessment it is alleged that odour is only a problem to residents living NE and SE of the site and that only one property to the south complained.

Is that, perhaps, because the main area to the south is the green field where development is being proposed?

Thakeham Homes have stated that “odour is not considered to be a constraint to residential development at the site”.

Would you like your children to buy a house here with no guarantee of flood insurance and likely to have unpleasant odours?  Doesn’t sound like idyllic village life to us.

What you can do:

Attend the JPC meeting:

6.30pm 28 June 2017 Waverley Borough Council offices, The Bury’s, Godalming.

Object online: http://planning.waverley.gov.uk/live/wbc/pwl.nsf/(RefNoLU)/WA20161921?OpenDocument Click on  and enter your details and comments.

Write to Waverley Borough Council:

https://www.cranleighsociety.org/2014/10/25/joint-planning-committee-contacts/

Write to Anne Milton:

Ask her to call in this outrageous application. Email her on anne.milton.mp@parliament.uk the reference is WA/2016/1921 Land South Of Elmbridge Road, Cranleigh perhaps notice will be taken if lots of people request it.

 

Narrow Lanes blocked by Cala Homes lorries

Narrow Lanes blocked by Cala Homes lorries

One of our members has contacted us to express extreme concern over the size of the lorries travelling up and down Amlets Lane to deliver building materials to Cala Homes.

It seems that these drivers are not following the agreed route to and from the building site, and this is causing dangerous conditions for other road users.

Following our recommendation, the lady involved sent a letter to Waverley Borough Council, as below:

Dear Waverley Borough Council

I would like to draw your attention to massive disruption for locals, a potential driving hazard and a danger to cyclists, horse riders, pedestrians etc.

I was driving along Amlets Lane in Cranleigh towards Barhatch Lane last Thursday, 1st June at about 8am. I had just passed the new entrance for the Cala Homes development when I met a huge lorry coming round the bend towards me across the white line. I hooted as he was in my lane and I had to slow down to less than 5mph to be able to pass it.

Having only just managed to get through, I was then met by an even larger articulated lorry (carrying massive concrete pipe sections) parked by the grass triangle where Amlets Lane joins Barhatch Lane. I complained to the three men on foot waiting there in high vis jackets, about the huge lorries using tiny lanes (with a bend) and one of them said that he was the driver for the parked HGV lorry! He said the lane was too narrow for him to get through, although I presume he later did so.

About an hour later on the same day, I was travelling back along Amlets Lane but in an easterly direction towards Smithwood Common Road/Horseshoe Lane, when I met yet another large lorry. The photos below clearly demonstrate that it was well over the centre line. It was simply impossible to pass it. The lorry had a tail back of traffic behind it so I (and three cars behind me) had no option but to reverse back along a windy narrow lane until we got to a driveway to get out of the lorry’s way.<

Three massive lorries in only a few minutes on one day. All hindering traffic and causing obstructions and /or dangers for other road users. The lane is very narrow and has no pavement. I believe the ‘one way system’ for lorries should be used (as demonstrated by the red Cala Home signs along the road) but clearly this is already being breached as I saw lorries coming from both directions!

Cala Homes and/or Waverley Borough Council must do something about this. Building has only just started. Such massive lorries are bound to have a huge impact on our local lanes (which are already full of pot holes) and/or be a danger to other road users, cyclists and pedestrians. It would be useful to ask all local residents to take photos of offending vehicles. I’m sure you would be inundated.

Please ensure I receive a reply to this email, in the absence of which I will take the matter to my local MP, the Police, Surrey Highways and other interested parties. Please include a correspondence address so I can contact Cala Homes about the issue.

I understand that there was very recently a fatality on Amlets Lane. It would a terrible tragedy if lorries arriving/leaving the Cala Homes development were involved.

Kind regards

This is the reply:

Thank you for your email of 9th June in which you raise concerns about large vehicles travelling along Amlets Lane to the CALA Homes development in Cranleigh. I have now had the opportunity to gain further information from Officers and I would respond to your email as follows.

The routing of traffic accessing the CALA Homes development is controlled by a Construction Management Plan (CTMP), required by a planning condition attached to the permission to develop the site. The CTMP was agreed by the Council following consultation with Surrey County Council (SCC) as Highway Authority.

The CTMP sets out the preferred route traffic accessing the CALA Homes development should take. The agreed route is along Amlets Lane from the direction of Smithwood Common Road. On leaving the site, traffic should again head along Amlets Lane back towards Smithwood Common Road. However, traffic leaving the site may also turn right out of the site and head towards Barhatch Road.

Taking into account your concern, our Planning Enforcement Team will investigate whether or not there has been a breach of the CTMP with regards to your comment about a large articulated lorry being parked on the grass verge at the junction of Amlets Lane and Barhatch Lane. Following investigation, Officers shall respond to you directly on their findings.

I am also aware that Officers from our Enforcement Team previously investigated a complaint relating to the construction of the access and sightlines formed at the entrance to the CALA Homes development. Surrey County Council as Highway Authority was asked to confirm whether or not the works carried out to form the access and sightlines were acceptable in highway safety terms. Subsequently, an Officer from SCC visited the site and confirmed that the access and visibility splays have been constructed in general accordance with the planning permission. As such, the Highway Authority is satisfied with the construction of the access and sightlines.

Although Waverley Borough Council, in terms of the CTMP, may have an element of control over vehicles travelling to and from the site, it does not have the authority to carry out works to the highway or investigate any potential road safety issues. Therefore, should you have any additional concerns about Amlets Lane and, in particular, road safety concerns, may I suggest that you raise your concerns with Surrey County Council as Highway Authority. The Highway Authority is contactable on 0300 200 1003are via email to: contact.centre@surreycc.gov.ukmailto:contact.centre@surreycc.gov.uk.

I trust my response answers the points raised. However, should you require any additional information, then please contact Mr William Gibb, Planning Enforcement Officer. Mr Gibb is contactable on 01483 523 581.

 

Finally,you asked for contact detail for CALA Homes and these are as follows;

Cala Homes (South Homes Counties) Limited
Tilford House
Farnham Business Park
Weydon Lane
Farnham
Surrey
GU9 8QT

Telephone number 01252 736750

I am copying in for information your M.P Anne Milton, the Cranleigh ward councillors and in addition your Surrey County Councillor, Dr Andrew Povey so that he is aware from a SCC highways perspective of your concerns. His contact details are;

Andrew.f.povey@surreycc.gov.uk

Kind regards

Julia Potts

Cllr.Julia Potts

Farnham Upper Hale Ward

Leader Waverley Borough Council

01483 523484

So, there you have it!

If you are not happy with this response, and have encountered these large lorries going in the wrong direction, had any incidents or are just concerned, please write to Julia Potts at Waverley Borough Council, Cala Homes, and Andrew Povey at Surrey County Council.

Email: Julia.Potts@Waverley.gov.uk

Email: Andrew.f.povey@surreycc.gov.uk

Post: Cala Homes (South Home Counties) Ltd, Tilford House, Farnham Business Park, Weydon Lane, Farnham, Surrey. GU9 8QT

Cranleigh Stuffed!

Cranleigh Stuffed!

One of our Facebook friends asked us to post a map of all the development in Cranleigh to indicate to residents the true scale of our problem.  Well here it is, hot off the Waverley Planning Maps website:

Cranleigh Planning Applications 2011 onwards

This only shows planning applications from 2011 onwards.  You will no doubt recognise the mega site south of the High Street which totals 765 new dwellings alone!  This includes Berkeley Homes 425 dwellings (spanning Knowle Lane to Alfold Road), Little Meadow (Alfold Road) 75 dwellings and the Knowle Park Initiative (A2 Dominion) 265 dwellings (Alfold Road as well!). We do not understand how Surrey Highways thinks the rural roads will cope, with the explosion of  houses Waverley has planned for this area. and how they believe road safety will not be compromised.

Those of you also concerned about the sewage and foul water from all of these houses, will no doubt be astonished to learn, as we were last week at a meeting in Guildford with Thames Water, that no provision has yet been made for the expansion of the sewage treatment works on Elmbridge Road and no consideration has been given to the river into which the effluent flows.  We have reported countless times that Cranleigh Waters now regularly dries up, yet apparently, according to the “experts” in their desktop studies, it can cope with double the number of houses, and double the amount of effluent being poured into it, yes another minimum of 4,455 new dwellings, without any pollution problems whatsoever!

Over the last couple of days, Residents have yet again been reporting to us more Thames Water contractor vans across the village (picture below opposite turning to Elm Park 5 June 2017).

Elm House opp Elm Park 5 June 2017

Thames Water confirmed it had spent £1M on new filters to improve the sewage treatment works for EXISTING residents only, but as yet have not secured funding, or designed the sewage works for the new loos, showers, dishwashers, washing machines etc in the pipeline for 1,300 new houses in Cranleigh, let alone the 2, 600 (Local Plan figure) for Dunsfold or 600+ on the Springbok Estate.  This is utter madness!!  And yet still more applications pile up – another 98 on the primary school sites and another 101 in phase 2 for the Crest Nicholson site off the Horsham Road, which some of you may have attended the consultation in the village for.  Does it end there?  No of course not the numbers just keep growing, whilst the certain environmental damage on our doorstep is being firmly ignored.

What legacy is this Waverley Borough Council leaving to the next generation of residents in Cranleigh?

Waverley Leader advised of No Confidence Vote

Waverley Leader advised of No Confidence Vote

Cranleigh Civic Society have confirmed the vote of “No Confidence” taken by those attending the public meeting on 25 May 2017 to the Leader, Julia Potts, of Waverley Borough Council and are now investigating in full the options available to us and the next steps we will be taking.


Dear Ms Potts

As you are aware, Cranleigh Civic Society recently organised a public meeting at our village hall at which we shared our knowledge of what is happening now, and what is being planned for the future of our village. Many of the 229 people who attended passionately expressed their anger and concerns about the volume of housing your team has approved to be built on our green fields and how many more you intend to send our way.

Equal to this were the worries about how our already poor infrastructure will cope with the huge increase in the population. As promised, I relayed your message of how much you care about our village, and I must tell you it was not well received.

At the end of the meeting we offered the opportunity for them to vote by a show of hands if they wanted to send you a strong and clear message that they do not have confidence in your team’s ability to care for the quality of our lives and wellbeing  through your actions and inaction; 226 voted to support this statement, one opposed and two abstained.

I trust this message is clear.

Phill Price

Chairman

Cranleigh Civic Society