LOCAL councillors and interested parties attended a special forum to discuss development proposals for the Farnham Hospital site on Hale Road. Prior to the meeting, Patrick Haveron, the chairman of the forum and Waverley's portfolio holder for planning and major projects, said: "The forum process is proving invaluable to the planning process at Waverley as they are helping to raise and address many important planning issues. "These pre-application discussions will enable Bellway Homes to shape their planning application in a more informed way by listening to the representations made." After remarking that the development was an "interesting" one, Mr Haveron handed the reins to Paul Falconer, who heralded an "open discussion, which would set out the issues and assist the developers. A presentation by John Brindley, the planning manager of Bellway Homes, ensued, outlining the developers proposals for the erection of 134 dwellings, plus a children's nursery, after the demolition of existing buildings. The site, sandwiched between the busy Hale Road and Guildford Road, is set to include five one-bedroom apartments, 58 two-bedroom apartments and seven three-bedroom apartments. Also included are 10 two- bedroom houses, 32 three-bedroom houses and 22 four-bedroom houses. Some 54 of these are set to be affordable housing - 40 per cent of the development. Nick Goddard of Farnham Town Council raised concerns about the spread of affordable housing within the site, as well as issues surrounding traffic and overdevelopment. Gerry Wright from Westbury Gardens Management Company continued: "We have a number of concerns, including the volume of traffic of Manor Road, and have a number of proposals to alleviate this. "We suffer very badly from parking in Manor Road at the moment, and we would like the proposal of single yellow lines between the hours of 9 am to 5 pm between Monday and Friday. "Could Manor Road be made into a 20 mph single lane?" he asked. "Looking at the drawings, we are concerned about the main entrance to the development. Finally, who will maintain the pleasure area? I think you'd be wise to ascertain who maintains it," he added. Gordon Harris of The Farnham Society was more vociferous in his appraisal. "We are severely critical in the way this process has been handled," he said. "Given the impact which development of the hospital site will have on the local infrastructure, we consider that the development should not have been considered on a piecemeal basis. "We remain very concerned that the development on the site will prevent the hospital expanding and prevent car parking," he added. Following the presentations, WBC councillors raised issues surrounding single-lane traffic, bus stops and public transport, before Victor Duckett spoke his mind. "This is a disaster in the making and I think we will rue the day we approved this. "If I had been chairman of the planning committee, I would never have let this through," he said.
