THE chairman of Waverley Council's executive, council leader Gillian Ferguson, will face a public grilling next Tuesday, from opponents of the recently submitted East Street development application. Five people have given notice that they will be using the public question session of the executive meeting to seek answers on a variety of related matters. The application, currently available for viewing at Farnham Locality Office, shows 10,197 square metres of retail, restaurant and cafe- bar accommodation, 294 residential units, an eight-screen cinema, basement car parking for 694 cars, works to the existing Gostrey Centre and - despite the fact that the Brightwell Bowls Club has been served notice to quit - a replacement facility for the club. The proposal is described as an outline planning application for a phased, mixed use redevelopment - a description that has led to most of the questions. The questioners will refer to requirements in the conditional contract that detailed plans should be approved by the council before submission of the planning application; also, to Waverley's ruling that a phased development is not acceptable. "Why are the requirements of the council being ignored?" Miss Ferguson will be asked in a question claiming that "there seems to be little control exercised over Crest Nicholson Sainsbury's".
