RESIDENTS living close to the Kilnfields redevelopment and High Lane Community Centre in Weycombe Road, are up in arms over the state of the land surrounding the controversial building. Once described by a resident as looking more like an "industrial fish-packing factory", the distinctive blue-roofed single-storey building, erected several years ago, came in for some more flack this week. Residents hit out after claims that the land around it "has been left to lapse into unsightly weeds and a generally unkempt appearance". And in a letter to The Herald, Barbara Hastewell, from Parsons Close, spoke of an array of issues that were still outstanding at the Kiln Fields redevelopment site, despite the developers, Lovells, and Waverley Borough Council staging a football match several months ago to celebrate the completion of the work. Miss Hastewell claims that verges around the playing field had been left to become "extremely overgrown" and several trees planted two years ago were dead within weeks of being planted, and not as a result of this year's drought. Gates to the play area removed two months ago, she claimed, had not been replaced, and builders' rubble and bricks made access to homes "fairly dangerous to those unsteady on their feet". "This was to be a show area, a show of what might one ask?" asked Miss Hastewell in her letter. "Surely after all of the upheaval that we, the residents of High Lane, have had to put up over the past few years, we deserve better than this." "The building is still an eyesore, and it all seems to have been done on the cheap," Miss Hastewell told The Herald this week. Another letter to The Herald in the same week came from Weycombe Road resident Daphne Horwood, who said the redeveloped High Lane sports field was a "disappointment". "People are still not happy with it," she said, claiming in her letter that the "much criticised community centre is under-used". Referring to the football pitch Mrs Horwood said: "Since levelling, the green is only approachable on three sides by uneven downward slopes, the fourth being a high bank with a long flight of steps." The slopes, she claimed, "were never mown and were wild and overgrown. "They have now been strimmed, in parts only, leaving swathes of waist-high weeds on very rough ground," she said. Mrs Horwood also takes issue in her letter over the lack of seating around the green. One resident from Bartholomew Close, Bob Scott, who has lived in the road for 19 years, claims he has spent much time clearing rubbish from the site. He told The Herald: I have had to come to terms with the building, but the grounds have never been looked after properly. "I've been clearing up the site for years." "The building shouldn't be there and it shouldn't look like it does. It's just not good enough - it's the beginning of the end." Another resident, who did not want to be named, said that he was tired of "clearing up the mess, weeds and rubbish. "I am fed up with it, I don't like living in a pig sty - the weeds are a disgrace," he said. And he claimed the last time anything had been done to the the landscaped area was last winter. Criticism of the blue-topped community centre stretches back over several years when it was first built, just yards from homes in Weycombe Road, amid claims that it had been built in the wrong place. The issue provoked a huge political row between the Lib Dems and Tories on Waverley Borough Council at the time, and despite a plea from Haslemere Town Council to change the colour of the roof and cladding, the bright blue paint has remained. In a statement this week a spokesman for Waverley Borough Council said: "The council has endeavoured to provide a facility to meet the community's need for somewhere for local groups to meet, together with a full-size playing pitch. These needs were highlighted in the early consultation process with the local people, and the planning application was approved on that basis. The spokesman said that "although an event was held to mark the end of the building work on Waverley Borough Council properties, the work on the estate is not yet finished as Lovell the contractors are still building houses. The completion of the roads and adjustments to the landscaping issues, both on the estate and on the recreation area, will be addressed during the autumn period before final completion." Playing Field Close and Parsons Close, said the spokesman, will become cul-de- sacs and there will be no through traffic on the estate. "The dry summer has meant it has been a difficult growing season. Some plants, especially young ones, have not survived and others having suffered from the drought are not looking their best. However these issues will be attended to, and all dead trees will be replaced as soon as more normal weather patterns establish themselves. It is also intended to provide two new seats at the lower end of the recreation area later in the year," he said. l See letters, page 11.