HASLEMERE Museum’s hall was filled to capacity for the annual town meeting on Wednesday last week.

So many residents wanted to quiz guest speaker Richard Homewood, Waverley’s head of environment services, on plans to de-register Wey Hill Fairground car park as common land and introduce parking charges, that there was no time to hear from two fellow speakers.

Michael Lockwood was due to talk about the youth group – A Place to Be – which meets weekly at The Wey Centre, in Wey Hill, and Ken Griffiths was going to given update on the WWI centennial commemorations planned at St Christopher’s Church.

In his annual report, town mayor Malcolm Carter highlighted the “huge problems” caused by a spate of 19 general permitted development orders in Beacon Hill, with changes to residential use but no parking spaces provided.

The meeting heard Waverley was considering imposing an article four direction for the area, which would mean that rather than general permitted development orders changes of use would be subjected to proper scrutiny and submitted as planning applications.

Mr Carter welcomed the recent openings of three post office branches – in Haslewey community centre, Beacon Hill and Camelsdale – and said he hoped there would be good news on the threatened loss of the main post office in West Street.

He described the loss of three banks in the town over the last two years as “unacceptable” and said the town council was working hard to ensure that another cash point could be provided when the High Street NatWest shuts in June.

Problems are already being caused in the High Street by the shortage of cash machines, with the NatWest only giving out £20 notes because it can’t keep enough in the till and Waitrose being overloaded with “cash back” requests.

He urged residents to report potholes to Surrey County Council online and said a single pothole in Wey Hill had had to be repaired three times in the last fortnight.

The town council is carrying out a parking review and Mr Carter noted the problems caused by the steep parking charges levied at Haslemere station and cheaper fees at Waverley car parks, which meant more commuters parked in nearby borough council car parks and forced out shoppers.

Responding to the concerns about the future of Wey Hill Fairground, he stressed the town council did not want the land to become a “cash cow” for Waverley, but result in a development that would benefit the town.

Addressing concerns about the future of the Wey Centre in light of Surrey County Council’s cuts to services, he said the building had not been “looked after” by Surrey, but he understood proposals to repair and improve the well-used facility were now being looked at.

Waverley has allocated the Wey Hill site used by Scouts and Guides, Haslmere Air Cadets, St John Ambulance and the Montessori Nursery for housing in its Local Plan and the organisations have been in discussion with Waverley for many years about where else they could relocate to.

Mr Carter said: “The refurbishment of High Lane Community Centre is due to be completed in May and Guides and St John Ambulance will relocate there.

“Discussions are continuing about the air cadets relocating to Woolmer Hill and the intention is that the scouts will stay in Wey Hill.”

He concluded his report with the success of last year’s hard-fought town campaign to save the dementia services at Marjorie Gray Hall, when Alzheimer’s Society announced it was closing the centre. The campaign resulted in the formation of a new charity and the launch of the Hunter Centre at the hall.

Mr Carter said:“The Hunter Centre is the best thing Haslemere has done.

“The campaign set a fundraising target of £50,000 and it hit that in December.

“The centre is full three days a week, so it is floating financially and is very well supported. The aim is to open for a fourth day a week in April.

“People are coming from across Surrey and as far away as Petersfield and the centre has just received £4,000 from Haslemere’s Tesco.

“Haslemere is also becoming a dementia-friendly town and will have trained staff in some of the shops. There will be a public meeting about it at The Georgian Hotel, on May 16.”