AS the town celebrated the opening of its new Charter Walk shops last week and the unveiling of a bust of Queen Elizabeth 1, the public was still being denied entry to the development from the town centre car park

With the development unfinished and behind schedule, dogged by additional drainage work, access and other problems, the sign in the Haslemere town centre car park still shows an opening date of March 2001.

Building work on the site began in autumn 2000, but legal problems led to the site only being accessed from West Street.

But with a completion date now set for next month, the shops are likely to remain empty until the new year and the question of access from the town centre car park remains.

Rapidly made ready for the official opening, the mall is once again firmly closed and the bust covered up, while contractors move in once more to complete the the long-overdue development.

And at the unveiling ceremony of the bust of Queen Elizabeth I last Friday, the Mayor of Haslemere, Michael Barnes, referred to the crucial piece of ground which has blocked off one of the access routes to and from Charter Walk as Òa ransom stripÓ.

Developed as a walk-through between West Street and the car park, that access includes an L-shaped piece of land owned by the Gibbs Trust, a family trust which owns both land and properties in the town centre.

It has left one piece of a wall at the car park end of the development unfinished and the developers planning adaptions to one of the shops to allow access.

The irony of the situation is that the managing trustee of the Gibbs Trust involved in the protracted negotiations with the developer over the strip of land is Simon Hodgins, the nephew of the late Margarette ÒPoppyÓ Rhodes, who the bust of Queen Elizabeth 1 is in memory of.

High metal fences have gone up and the strip of land has been barred to both the developers, its contractors and members of the public by a court injunction.

Former Haslemere mayor Fay Foster likened the metal hoarding to the Berlin Wall.

She said: ÒIt is very sad and the sooner the legal problems can be sorted out the betterÓ.

And the sculptor Malcolm Stathers said: ÓThe precinct looks absolutely ridiculous as it is.

ÒIt will be a great shame if the public donÕt have access - I find it all very strange, unacceptable and very sad,Ó he said.

Speaking for the developers Chelsworth Leisure, director Jeremy Stevens told The Herald: ÒThe hoarding has to remain to prevent people from committing a trespass.Ó

The chairman of Haslemere Society Robert Serman said the situation was ÒpreposterousÓ.

ÒI think it is regrettable that the town seems to be unable to make progress in spite of all the efforts that have been made by quite a lot of people including the society and I believe the trust could be better served by more enlightened management.Ó

Mayor Michael Barnes said he was Òvery concerned at the continued action being taken by the managing trustee of the Gibbs Trust in not allowing access across the Òransom stripÓ between the end of Charter Walk and the car park.

ÒI appreciate that the trust is operating within its legal rights but not within the spirit of allowing the people of Haslemere to enjoy free passage that the walk now creates to the car park,Ó said Mr Barnes.

He also said it was a Ògreat disappointment that since the unveiling of the bust, Òthe walkway has had to be closed again to allow it to be completed - I want to see the walkway opened as soon as possible so Haslemere can be proud of its first piece of public sculpture in a development of shops which will benefit the community as a whole.Ó

Mr Hodgins told The Herald that an injunction had been taken out against the developers over a year ago to stop developers crossing the trusteesÕ land and that both the developers and members of the public could not use it. He said that the matter was between him and the developers and that negotiations were still taking place.

Mr Hodgins said he had no comment to make over other shops and property the trust owned in the town which was empty and was also a cause of concern to Haslemere Town Council.

A spokesman for Waverley Borough Council, which owns the town centre car park, said that the L-shaped strip in question Òis part of a complicated pattern of ownership and at present Waverley cannot speculate as to its futureÓ.