WAVERLEY Borough Council has admitted that “incorrect information” supplied by council officers was to blame for a second breach of planning rules in six months at the Farnham Memorial Ground in West Street.

The council, which leases the sports ground gifted to the town in 1946 in memory of the Farnham United Breweries staff killed in the First World War to Farnham Town FC, is currently helping the club undertake improvements at the ground to meet Football Association (FA) ground grading requirements.

However, Waverley admitted last week that recent engineering works to extend the ground’s car park where undertaken without the necessary planning permission - repeating the same mistake made just months earlier when installing a new changing rooms block.

Following an internal investigation into the latest breach, the council and football club has released the following joint statement: “Waverley and Farnham Town FC are working together to improve the facilities at the football club so that it remains a sustainable and popular community asset.

“In order to meet the FA’s ground grading requirements an extension to the existing car park for players and officials was carried out by the club based on incorrect information from the council’s leisure project team.

“The club has since been advised by the council’s planning enforcement team that planning permission is required. The club are now seeking to regularise the works by submitting a planning application in early 2017.”

In February, Waverley councillors also signed off £50,000 for a feasibility study into relocating Farnham Town FC to the former Weydon Lane landfill site and in turn redeveloping the Memorial Ground for housing.