RESIDENTS of the Bourne have this week expressed their anger and frustration over a loophole in the planning system that could result in further 'garden-grabbing' developments. Permission was granted on appeal for three houses at Little Park in the Packway in January but developers sold the land before construction to a separate development company, who have now horrified residents by applying to build a fourth house on the site. As the land already has permission for three houses, the new development will be considered on its own merits as an application for one house and not the four that will ultimately be built. This approach has been described as "sneaky" by residents who believed the worst had passed after Waverley's decision was overruled by the inspectorate earlier this year. Charles Lennard, a resident of The Packway, claimed that the planning officers who advised the council to vote for the development of three houses on the site will be inclined to do the same again, undermining council policy. "If they had applied for four houses originally then they would have had great difficulty getting permission," he explained. "It appears that there are planning regulations in place that have been accepted by the council as their strategy for the area - this is what is known as policy BE3 - but the planners feel they are able to say that the regulations don't apply even though the residents and the councillors believe they should. "The effect of this is that when this one goes to appeal, as it probably will, you get this ridiculous and embarrassing situation for Waverley where it seems as though they have overturned their own policy." Mr Lennard's wife Margaret spoke of her anger over the lack of honesty on the part of developers in bringing the application forward. "Both my husband and I are very angry about this as we feel that the developers have been very devious in their actions," she said. "They were not honest with us in any way at all. The man who sold the house to the first developers, who have now sold it on again, cut down all of the trees about three months before filing the application, which was very sneaky. He did the dirty deed before anyone could tell him not to." John Horncastle of Vicarage Hill, which adjoins The Packway, said that the power wielded by Waverley planning officers is "disgraceful" and undermines the very notion of democracy. "I think the real problem here is the lack of accountability of the planning officers," he said. "We have a situation where the planners are making recommendations to the council that contradict their own policy in regard to BE3. If this further development at the site were to be included in the original proposal, it would probably have been rejected under the local plan. "The council's own BE3 policy was damaged by the appeal decision. Agreeing to this would make the policy almost worthless. This is a case of democracy being over-ruled by bureaucracy." Waverley councillor Carole Cockburn said that although the planning officers had recommended the previous application for approval, there is no reason to suspect they would do the same again. "Sometimes the planners agree with us and sometimes they don't," she said. "If I could predict what they would do then I would be a much happier person. Unfortunately nobody knows what the officers' recommendation is going to be with this one as we haven't received the report yet. This is still a melting pot and I believe it is too soon to come up with any of these suggestions regarding the conduct of the planners." Local MP Jeremy Hunt described the application as "blatant sidestepping of local democracy" under the current Government. "Waverley turned down the application but a quango in Bristol has taken the decision that three new homes should be built on one back garden, with little regard to the appropriateness for the area. "Now a developer is trying to squeeze in yet another home - it just seems as if what local people feel has absolutely no impact on planning decisions."
