WAVERLEY Council's negotiators appear to have carried off a major coup, securing the surprise agreement of developer Crest Nicholson to a large reduction in the East Street redevelopment scheme. The potential scaling-down of the area and height of the scheme, and most significantly, the scrapping of the 10-acre underground car park, comes after four years of the project stagnating under the deposed Liberal Democrat administration. The "breakthrough" was announced to The Herald on Monday by Waverley's new chief executive, Mary Orton, who has taken the lead in negotiations with Crest since the end of June. She revealed that the focus is now on a scheme that would take two-and-a-half years to build, rather than the dreaded four-and-a-half years involved in the application that has been on the table since last September. "Work has still to be done and it will be several weeks before we can put forward more details," she said. "Negotiations have covered much ground, but we still have some way to go to safeguard Waverley's position. Crest Nicholson has been realistic to help us reach this stage." The new scheme carries no hope of resurrection for either the Redgrave Theatre or the Brightwell Bowls Club, but the move will still be seen as justification for the years of dedicated opposition by pressure groups in the town. Along with scrapping of the underground car park, which added so much to the cost and timescale of the scheme and disruption from construction traffic, redevelopment of the current Sainsbury's car park is also to be shelved. This will cut the size and bulk of the scheme and enable it to be undertaken in one phase, as well as reducing the need for new car parking. The number of new homes would fall from 294 to around 230, while retaining the 30 per cent proportion of affordable housing. And a smaller cinema, with three screens rather than eight, is under discussion, enabling some multi-storey parking to be provided on that part of the site. Waverley has asked for new building designs - in particular the replacement of much-disliked flat roofs. The requirement is for the main residential buildings to be reduced to three storeys from four, as will the combined commercial and residential building on the old cinema site on the East Street frontage. Mrs Orton said she was delighted with the speedy progress made by the negotiations. "One of the messages I would like people in Farnham to take from this is that the concerns they have expressed have been heard and I am confident have been reflected in the new scheme." The chief executive stressed that the scheme must remain viable for the council, although past expectations of a large capital receipt have evaporated. "It won't have the same capital land value, but I am confident that this scheme will be much better received by the people of Farnham," she said. Council leader Richard Gates, who initiated negotiations with Crest when the Conservatives took control of Waverley in May, commented: "We have really stuck to our guns and Crest has taken a constructive approach to revising the plans in response to our comments. "There is still further discussion to take place over the detail, including finances, and the proposals are not yet at a point where we can begin consultation, but I am optimistic. "We have really tried to meet the wishes of Farnham, and to take concerns into account, and we shall be asking Farnham people to comment on the changes when details are finalised." Nevertheless, there remains an expectation that in the coming weeks Crest Nicholson will launch an appeal over the council's failure to determine one of the three sets of applications it has submitted. The move would be necessary to protect its contract to undertake the development, which coulkd otherwise be terminated by Waverley when the longstop date of September 30 is reached. Paul Callcutt, director of Crest Nicholson, commented: "We are entirely satisfied that the current planning applications meet the council's development brief and comply with government guidelines for this form of development. "However, we have been asked to work up a smaller scheme with a shorter build time and have produced a revised concept design following a number of constructive meetings with officers and members. "This proposal still needs further work over the coming weeks to ensure that it is both practical and viable, but subject to this we are hopeful that it will meet the new administration's requirements. "While it may be that we need to appeal one of the earlier planning applications for non-determination simply to protect our contractual position, we would hope that while negotiations on the new concept are progressing well it is this that remains the focus of our future discussions with the council." There has been a guarded welcome for the reduced scheme from Brian Davey, speaking for pressure group East Street Action. He congratulated Mr Gates and Mrs Orton on the effort and energy they had shown in the short time they had both been in office, adding that the population had clearly made the right choice at the May elections. "This has met many of our objections. We note there is more work to be done and we shall be interested in learning the final results of future negotiations." Mr Davey said the axing of the underground car park was especially pleasing, as was the reduction of residential development to three-storey and the introduction of pitched roofs. All-important, he warned, would be the design for the East Street frontage. "We would want to see that have a seamless continuation of the existing urban grain and scale of the nearby conservation area - something like the Borough rather than like the Woolmead."
