FARNHAM Town Council has questioned whether works already undertaken to improve the facilities at the Memorial Sports Ground in West Street contravene the restrictive covenants placed on the land when gifted to the town by Farnham United Breweries.

In its formal response to two retrospective planning applications by Farnham Town Football Club for temporary changing rooms and an extension to its car park at the Memorial Ground, the town council has expressed its belief “the application[s] may be in contravention of covenants on the land” and calls on Waverley Borough Council, which leases the ground to the club, “to verify that the use was compliant”.

The Memorial Ground, and adjacent community hall, was gifted to the town by Farnham United Breweries in 1947 in memory of its five employees who lost their lives during the First World War - and has been home to the town football club for over half a century.

However, the club attracted criticism last year after constructing new changing room facilities and extending its car park at the ground without the necessary planning consents.

The club states the “temporary” works, undertaken in partnership with its landlords Waverley Borough Council, are necessary to offset the loss of facilities during refurbishment of the adjacent Memorial Hall.

But some have questioned if the works are truly temporary, given Waverley’s well-publicised intentions to relocate the club’s changing facilities from the Memorial Hall permanently, and also whether they breach a restrictive covenant placed on the land by Farnham United Breweries.

The covenant prevents the construction of “any building or erection other than in connection with…organised outdoor games sports and physical training” at the ground, as well as forbidding the council from letting the ground “for any longer period than one day at a time”.

Potentially contravening this, the football club recently renewed its lease for exclusive use of the ground, and has confirmed its intention to privately rent out some of the new parking spaces when not in use by the club during the week.

Farnham Town Council has also objected to the club’s changing rooms application on the grounds that it contravenes local planning policies restricting development in the ‘Green Envelope’ around and within the Farnham Conservation Area.

And, although it raises no objection to the car park application, the town council has stressed this is subject to temporary permission being granted “for a maximum of two years”.

Rowledge architect Mark Westcott, who brought the two planning breaches to light last year, has also questioned the ‘temporary’ status of the works, pointing to the fact the club’s wooden pavilion was intended to be temporary some 50 years ago.

Mr Westcott, in his objection letter to Waverley, said: “The pavilion is proof of what can happen when a temporary building is allowed. As is often said ‘there’s nothing so permanent, as something temporary’.”

The two applications can be viewed online at www.waverley.gov.uk/planning by searching for references WA/2017/0016 and WA/2017/0017. The deadline for public comments is this Friday, February 17, with Waverley set to determine the applications soon after.