REVAMPED plans to replace Farnham’s great unloved 1960s shopping precinct The Woolmead with a mix of 138 new homes above 11 shops and restaurants have been submitted to Waverley Borough Council.

Berkeley Homes’ detailed scheme is laid out in a 120-page design and access statement accompanying its full planning application, comprising a mix of 10 studio, 65 one-bed, 58 two-bed and five three-bedroom apartments - a 46 per cent increase on the 96 flats proposed by the building’s previous owner Friends Life Ltd.

These will be set above more than 4,000 square metres of commercial space (a slight decrease on Friends Life’s proposals) and an underground car park, with a markedly different form to the derelict building’s previous owners’ plans for the site.

Friends Life Ltd achieved outline planning consent to demolish The Woolmead and replace it with a more contemporary, four storey building in 2016. However, rather than build on these plans, Berkeley has decided to start from scratch, proposing a building “felt to be more in keeping with the existing townscape of Farnham” - paying greater consideration to its position adjacent to the Farnham conservation area.

This includes a more varied roof line along East Street, a more “positive frontage” to Woolmead Road including pitched instead of flat roofs, and perhaps most strikingly the change from a circular to a square turret on the Bear Lane corner, and from an octagonal turret to a curved corner at Dogflud Way - the latter accommodating the development’s prized “anchor” store.

A more contemporary style has also been adopted at the eastern end of the East Street and around the Woolmead Road frontage at the junction with Dogflud Way, with the new building again varying between three and four storeys.

Its underground car park and service yards will be accessed from Woolmead Road, which Berkeley says enables its development “to work with both the existing highways layout and future changes proposed as part of the adjacent Brightwells scheme”.

The application comes after Berkeley held a public exhibition of its proposals last November, as well as consulting The Farnham Society, Waverley Borough Council, Crest Nicholson and the Design South East independent review panel.

Waverley hopes to determine the application by mid-June. To view and comment on the application, visit www.waverley.gov.uk/planning and search for WA/2018/0458.