TWO Haslemere borough councillors who spoke out at last week urging Waverley’s ‘rushed’ pre-submission document for Local Plan Part Two should be deferred, are celebrating victory.

As reported by The Herald, councillors Robert Knowles and Carole King protested at Waverley’s ‘watchdog’ overview and scrutiny committee on October 22 that the document was not ‘fit for purpose,’ because it made assumptions without evidence about housing sites in Haslemere that were not deliverable.

Committee members were asked to comment on the document, which contains site allocations for the 11,200 homes Waverley is required to build by 2032, with a view to putting it out to public consultation before Christmas – before officially submitting it for adoption.

Due to the serious concerns raised by Mr Knowles and Mrs King, and also by Witley councillor Nick Holder and Milford’s Denis Leigh, Waverley decided this week to defer any further consideration of the document until ‘further work on site allocations’ had been conducted.

Part two of the Local Plan was due to go to Waverley’s decision-making executive and full council at a special meeting, to be held last week, prior to approving the document for public consultation – but it was taken off the agenda.

Waverley announced last Monday the item had been deferred but no date has been given for when the document will be considered.

Waverley’s Tory leader Julia Potts, who represents Farnham, said: “This item is being deferred as councillors want the council to have more time to engage with the local community about some of the content of the draft LPPII before it is published, including further work on site allocations and gaining further feedback from key stakeholders such as Thames Water and local clinical commissioning groups.”

The pre-submission document contains some important changes to site allocations, following the last public consultation that triggered 990 responses borough-wide.

But councillors objected it needed more work by the overview committeee.

Urging ‘reckless’ site allocations should be deferred, Mr Knowles reminded members Haslemere had suffered days of water cuts and shortages in the summer, because Thames Water’s reservoir was too small.

Mr Knowles said: “It seems a report is being tabled, where members are being asked to take the risk, of no water, gas or electric, as there is no confirmation from the responsible bodies that services can be supplied or maintained.

“And make no mistake chairman, it will be members that take the blame when the lights go out for allowing this to proceed without the proper information.”

Mr Knowles also objected that building 50 houses on the High Street car park at Waitrose was not deliverable, because there would be nowhere for the 143 displaced motorists to park while building work took place.

Mrs King told the committee: “To be frank I am embarrassed by this report. It is sloppy and either ignores or puts aside major obstacles.

“As has been stated the National Grid, Southern Electric, Southern Gas and even the Guildford and Waverley Clinical Commissioning Group has not responded.”

“How on earth can a report be put forward to council for approval, when this vital information is missing?”

Mrs King also objected Waverley assumed it could remove Wey Hill Fairground car park’s common land status.