A DECISION not to buy two Haslemere homes overshadowed by a new sports pavilion, has been slammed by councillors and the public this week.

The homes at 23 and 24 Bartholomew Close have been blighted by the single-storey pavilion with its bright blue roof, built just 15 yards from their front doors.

The row has become a political football in the latest dispute between the ruling Lib Dems and minority Conservatives.

The saga came to a head when the Lib Dem decision-making body of the council turned down a recommendation by officers to buy the two semi-detached houses.

"It is disgraceful that what has happened has challenged our integrity as councillors and I am seriously disturbed by it," Tory David Harmer, told the full council meeting on Tuesday night.

Referring to the recommendation by Waverley officers to buy the properties, believed to be worth around £250,000 each, and rent them to key workers, which was turned down by the Lib Dems at a meeting behind closed doors, last month, Mr Harmer added: "Waverley officers acted entirely honourably, putting forward a proposed solution which was generally accepted by the executive. To our utter astonishment the Lib Dems turned it down at the council meeting.

He called it "undemocratic".

The building of the pavilion so close to the houses was, said Mr Harmer, "a classic case of how things can go wrong when the landowner is the planning authority".

Also angered by the outcome, Tory Dr Genny Lane said: "I am ashamed that this administration has taken this decision. It is one which will come back to haunt you.

"We have here two households who are seriously aggrieved and who have the right to be heard. It is morally wrong for a council with all its might and power to ride roughshod over them."

Declared Dr Lane: "I believe this administration is morally obliged to put things right".

James Mackie, (Cons) who has been associated with the £6.5 million regeneration scheme for the area since 1999, outlined the planning history, and a public exhibition in 1999 showing the siting of the pavilion, which was later changed three times, the last location opposite the homes.

He said that "although Waverley followed the letter of the planning procedure, the consolation process somehow failed".

He maintained that Waverley "did not carry out its declared intentions to consult fully with all the residents and neighbours and I think it has inadvertently caused a lot of hardship".

The Herald has learned that most of the nine-strong Lib Dem executive, which made the decision not to buy the homes, represent wards in and around Farnham.

Leader of the Lib Dems, Chris Slyfield, covers Godalming, Farncombe and Catteshall, another member comes from Cranleigh, one is responsible for Godalming Charterhouse and only one, new councillor John Robini, is ward member in Haslemere.

One member of the executive admitted to never having seen the pavilion, and three hadn't visited the site since May. Some councillors to whom The Herald spoke knew little about the scheme; one believing it cost £43.5m instead of £6.5m.

Others were reluctant to answer questions on whether they would like to see such a pavilion built as close to their homes, but one Farnham councillor thought the pavilion was "a useful addition" and said she would "be pleased to see it outside my house if I had teenage children - which I haven't".

Mr Robini told The Herald that the planning process was followed and plans lodged at the locality office where "people were entitled to see them".

He believed people living opposite a recreation ground should expect to see a pavilion built there and could not agree to council tax payers' money being spent on buying the homes.

"I think it is quite a nice purpose-built building."

Waverley councillor Luisa Hodgson who lives in the town admitted that she had not visited the site and had only seen photographs of the pavilion.

But Waverley borough councillor Mary Foryszewski told The Herald she sympathised with the houseowners.

"I think they have been forced into the most awful predicament and the whole re-generation scheme has been overshadowed by it. We owe them the right to sit and discuss it, we have to offer them a solution."

In a letter to The Herald, Joan Blay from Popes Mead said: "Waverley should be ashamed, for lack of consultation throughout the several stages needed for the building the pavilion."

Chris Slyfield said a democratic decision was taken "on good grounds and it was up to those concerned to take the remedies open to them. These people have to go through any process they feel is open to them."