WAVERLEY Council's executive is set to decide whether the council has the public mandate to progress further with its proposals for a slimmed down East Street development scheme. Results of the consultation on the brochure East Street – Getting it Right for Farnham, will be considered at a special meeting of the executive next Monday. Crucially, Waverley is about to address the issue of whether to give landlord sanction to CNS, an essential process if the developer is to progress the scheme through a planning application. Each household in Farnham is supposed to have received a copy of the brochure, which explained how the proposals could be reduced from 294 homes to around 230, with a much smaller cinema, fewer four-storey buildings, the huge underground car park replaced by more limited multi-decked provision and the promise of how buildings would be more sympathetically designed. The council received back 1,197 forms, with 1,074 of those who replied recording a vote on the question of whether council negotiators were on the right track. Council leader Richard Gates, who described the level of response as "quite good" said 754 (around 70 per cent) said yes; 320 said no. "This type of exercise does tend to draw in the opponents rather than the proponents, so I am pretty pleased with the 70 per cent outcome from that voting," the leader commented. The executive will have before it an officers' summary of the views expressed, but every single comment (apart from a few unprintable ones) will be published on the web in the meantime, said Mr Gates. Mr Gates accepted that the weight of feeling expressed in some quarters demonstrated that there were still concerns. But he stressed that granting landlord's consent was very different from granting planning consent and some issues, in particular traffic concerns, could only be fully dealt with through the planning process. But as The Herald went to press, East Street Action was set to contact all 57 councillors in advance of Monday's meeting, warning that, as far as East Street is concerned, housing density is "the elephant in the room". Referring to the consultation brochure, the pressure group commented: "Soon honeyed words and artists' impressions will have to be turned into reality." Their representation to councillors stated: "Before councillors can formally approve the current proposal, the major issue of the number of dwellings the site can absorb must be resolved. "A plan for 230ish homes on the restricted site will determine housing density, the number of four- storey buildings, the amount of residential parking and the traffic impact created by the development." Using the figures in the leaflet, East Street Action says the designation of 40 per cent of the 8.5 acre site for public enjoyment leaves 5.1 acres or two hectares available for development including the dwellings, car park, shops, restaurants and cinema. "Even if all other buildings were to be ignored, the housing density would be 230 dwellings on two hectares, or 115 dwellings per hectare." However, they state, the contract between Waverley and CNS stipulates that the residential element should not exceed 65 per cent of the development area. "Dividing 230 dwellings by 1.3 hectares produces a housing density of 177 dwellings per hectare," the pressure group concludes. They go on to draw a parallel with Waverley's planning policy which states that encouragement will be given to proposals which provide for between 30 and 50 dwellings per hectare (net). "Higher densities will be particularly encouraged at places with good public transport accessibility or around major nodes along good quality public transport corridor," states the policy. "Does Farnham have good quality public transport corridors?" asks East Street Action. "It appears not," they observe, drawing attention to the view of three inspectors who considered the draft SEERA Regional Plan and found Farnham's east-west rail and road connections to be "generally poor".
