SURREY County Council has stepped forward as a shock funder for the Brightwells development in Farnham town centre this week.

Amid rumours that Waverley Borough Council had at long last secured external funding for its controversial redevelopment of the land south of East Street, the county council has confirmed it is to financially support Brightwells to help get the long-delayed scheme off the ground.

In a last-minute announcement before the Herald’s deadline on Wednesday, a county council spokesman said: “Surrey County Council is investing in the proposed Brightwells regeneration plans for Farnham as we are committed to supporting economic growth in the county.”

The details and extent of Surrey’s funding remains unclear, but the announcement of funding potentially removes a huge stumbling block for Waverley’s plans to ‘regenerate’ East Street with new high street shops, restaurants, an Odeon cinema and 239 flats.

A spokesperson for Waverley Borough Council added: “I can confirm that Waverley Borough Council is working with Surrey County Council and Crest Nicholson on the commercial element of the Brightwells Farnham Regeneration Scheme.

“Waverley sees this as a positive step forward as the regeneration of Farnham will provide much-needed affordable housing, an improved retail and leisure offer and hundreds of new jobs to the area.”

The announcement caps a flurry of recent activity on the scheme, including several amendments to Crest’s 2012 planning permission as well as Waverley’s go-ahead for the developer to carry out significant sewer works on the site this summer without first building the promised temporary A31 construction access via a bridge over the River Wey.

It also comes after Farnham resident, David Beaman proposed a motion at the annual Farnham electors’ meeting last Thursday calling on the town council to support the Farnham Interest Group’s threatened judicial review of the East Street scheme.

Mr Beaman’s motion highlighted that Farnham Town Council has “consistently expressed its desire for an alternative development of the East Street site and has objected to a number of applications to implement and vary the present planning permission granted for this site”.

The motion also called on Farnham Town Council to support a public appeal to raise funds to cover the costs of any legal action that may ensue, and was overwhelmingly supported with 52 votes for, to three against and 15 abstentions.

Town council leader John Ward told those present that Mr Beaman’s proposal is just an “advisory motion” and does not enforce the council to do anything. However, he vowed to bring it before the next council meeting, and will allow members to debate it and come up with a decision on how to proceed.

Mr Ward added a judicial review “can be extremely costly” and other less expensive forms of action should be considered before heading down that route.

The meeting closed with a question from a member of Farnham Town Council’s opposition Farnham Residents group, Mike Hyman, who highlighted one of the main issues concerning Farnham residents is traffic congestion and poor air quality at The Royal Deer junction where East Street meets The Borough.

He requested a public demonstration of the Paramics real-time computer modelling of Crest Nicholson’s proposals for the Royal Deer as part of the Brightwells scheme – and town clerk Iain Lynch responded that a meeting could be arranged.

However, the Mayor of Farnham, Pat Frost, admitted she is unsure whether this has been done. “There have been some Paramics modelling done but not at that junction, as I understand it. The town clerk will ask the question and we will get the people who do the Paramics modelling to come down and give us a demonstration.”

Speaking after the meeting, Farnham Residents leader Jerry Hyman told The Herald that ever since the original 2008 planning application for East Street was approved, Waverley has “pretended” that the reconfigured Royal Deer junction was modelled as part of the application’s transport assessment.

He continued: “We’ve asked dozens of public questions to see the transport assessment’s Paramics traffic modelling and have pursued relentlessly, but in seven or eight years we have not been able to find evidence that the junction has been modelled or get anyone to admit that it hasn’t.

“The mayor’s comment represent the first time anyone at Waverley has openly admitted that the reconfigured junction has not been modelled, and that the transport assessment is therefore fraudulent.

“Crest has always said the impact of the junction would be negligible. But in fact the new Royal Deer junction would double the pedestrian and traffic waiting times, and now we know the transport assessment was falsified to give the impression of a development that would not congest the town centre.”