WAVERLEY Council has named the "interested parties" who have been invited to take part in the first Development Control Consultative Forum concerning East Street on Thursday next week. The list consists of Farnham Town Council, Surrey County Council, Farnham Chamber of Commerce, Farnham Maltings, SIAD, the South East Regional Design Panel, East Street Action and the Farnham Society. Described by the Waverley Council as a new approach to a more open and informative planning process particularly aimed at large and complex applications, the aim of these forums is to improve the speed of the planning decision-making process, improve the quality of submissions from developers and ultimately the quality of the proposed development. Members of the public may attend but only invited relevant parties are allowed to speak. The forum will start at 4 pm - a timing which this week prompted a protest by Adam Taylor-Smith, a Conservative councillor for Witley and a member of the development control committee. Mr Taylor-Smith, a solicitor, said he would be working and unable to attend and that at least four other committee members were in the same situation. He pointed out that although he would be involved in taking the decision on the East Street application, he was being denied the chance to attend an important briefing. A Waverley Council statement, however, identified 4 pm as "the optimum time to enable as wide a cross-section of those involved and interested in the redevelopment to attend as possible". The forum will be webcast, providing an opportunity for those who cannot attend to view it live either at home or using one of the work station computers at Waverley's locality offices. The first meeting of the forum is intended for the developers to give a broad position statement outlining where they are in their preparation of a planning application. This and subsequent meetings will also focus on important matters including the masterplan, highways and environmental issues. Patrick Haveron, Waverley's portfolio holder for planning, said: "The consultative forum is a new way of gathering information for the planning process and I want to send a clear message that the role of Waverley members and officers is to operate in an informal, listening mode. "East Street is a complex subject and it is essential for development control councillors from across the whole of Waverley, not just Farnham, to be up to speed with the issues. He added: "East Street is major project and once the developers have submitted their planning application, the government will expect Waverley to assess it within 13 weeks. The forum will play a vital role in helping us to achieve this target." Members of the public can view the meeting live via Waverley's website at http://www.waverley.gov.uk">www.waverley.gov.uk. Waverley Council has responded this week to a claim by Brian Davey, of pressure group East Street Action, that "the very heart of the document" was withheld when he eventually received a copy of the conditional contract relating to the East Street development. Mr Davey said he requested a copy of the document under the Freedom of Information Act on January 2 and received "a severely edited copy" on May 10. The information witheld, he claimed, related not just to financial matters, rendering it "impossible for the public to verify that the terms accepted by councillors after proper public scrutiny have been included in the conditional contract". Waverley, in a statement, said that every request it receives under the Freedom of Information Act is dealt with within the guidelines of the legislation. "Although most information is available to the public, there are 24 exemptions that cover matters such as personal information, security issues, the commercial interests of Waverley and third parties and confidentiality issues. "Information is only withheld if it falls within one of the exemptions and if it is considered not to be in the public interest to release."
