DEVELOPERS sitting on potential development sites in and around Farnham will be celebrating, after Waverley Council finally agreed its strategy to solve the current block on building new homes. The council, on Tuesday, adopted its interim miniplan, involving Farnham Park as a means of tackling the freeze on new planning consents for residential development. The stranglehold has arisen because of a European directive concerning the protection of endangered bird species such as the Dartford warbler in the Thames Basin Heath Special Protection Area (SPA) near Sandy Hill. The Habitats Regulations 1994 required that Waverley should grant no planning permissions that could affect the SPA by increasing the population likely to use the heathland for recreation. The moratorium on consents has hampered numerous developers, and posed a potential stumbling block to the East Street redevelopment - to the delight of the scheme's opposition. Some of the developers were in the public gallery of the Waverley Council chamber on Tuesday to see the matter tentatively resolved. Councillors and officers have wrestled for months over whether the proposed Farnham Park miniplan - encouraging more people to use the park to take pressure off the SPA - would provide adequate mitigation. Question marks hanging over the strategy have included whether the park would provide a comparable "wild" walking experience to the SPA, whether the council could find itself open to legal challenge and whether the plan would satisfy Natural England (formerly English Nature). And among those opposing the strategy have been the Friends of Farnham Park, who have challenged Waverley officers' assertion that the park is currently under-used. The Friends are currently supporting footpath improvements and the bio-diversity and restoration plans for the park and fear these will not survive the "change of use" projected by the miniplan "and the thousands of additional users who would almost all arrive by car". An officers' report to the full council on Tuesday stressed that Natural England is satisfied that the enhancement of Farnham Park as a suitable accessible natural green space (SANGS) will avoid impacts on the SPA through increased population associated with new residential planning permissions. The miniplan - now being known as "the interim avoidance strategy" will provide a solution for an estimated three years, depending on how many successful applications arise. The council agreed that every planning application will be looked at on a case-by- case basis and Natural England will be consulted on each one that could have a potential effect on the SPA. Developers will be obliged to make a financial contribution towards the restoration and improvement of Farnham Park and the council will be obligated to carry out the improvements. Carole Cockburn was among councillors who expressed concern over going ahead with the plan, asking whether the council was giving the Habitats Directive the respect it should. "Can we really protect the SPA by giving a small piece of avoidance land in Farnham Park?" she asked. And she added: "I find it hard to believe that developers are having a hard time. The whole of Farnham seems to be a building site from start to finish." But Conservative group leader Richard Gates, who led the charge in December to delay approving the strategy, said the assurances asked for had now been provided. "I cannot ignore the opinion of Natural England," he commented. Planning portfolio holder Patrick Haveron said that by consulting Natural England, the government advisory body, on every appplication, they were taking the most cautious approach possible. "We are not trying to encourage everybody who goes to the SPA to go to Farnham Park. We are talking about the net increase in population from new development in Farnham." Mr Haveron added that it would be about a year before the first house involved could be built, which would give time for monitoring visitor numbers to test the effect of the strategy.
