THE days of the unloved Woolmead shopping precinct in Farnham appear numbered after plans to replace the 1960s’ concrete monolith with a new mix of shops, restaurants and flats cleared the first planning hurdle this week.

Waverley Borough Council’s joint planning committee gave its unanimous approval on Tuesday night to an outline planning application by Woolmead owners F&C REIT to demolish the existing building and replace it with up to 96 homes, associated car parking and eight flexible commercial units - each suitable for use as either a shop, bank, restaurant or bar.

It wasn’t all plain sailing, however, as while consenting to the development’s proposed new access in Woolmead Road - the only item to be decided at the outline stage - councillors also slammed the scheme’s design and requested the developer return with a “higher quality” proposal at the detailed planning stage.

F&C REIT, which has already amended its plans following lengthy public consultation, will now consider the committee’s comments before returning with a detailed planning application later this year addressing the new Woolmead’s layout, scale, landscaping and appearance.

Cranleigh councillor Patricia Ellis led the calls to redesign the scheme, and her proposal to accompany the outline planning consent with an ‘informative’ instructing the developer that the final plans need to be “of a higher quality” was backed unanimously.

Mrs Ellis said: “Farnham is a very beautiful part of the borough with many elegant and lovely buildings. I don’t have an issue with the proposed access, but I am very concerned about the principle of accepting the indicative plans relating to the design of these buildings.

“In my personal view, we are almost replacing like for like. The existing building is hideous and much unloved, but looking at these plans I don’t see that its replacement would be much better.”

Andy MacLeod, ward councillor for the Woolmead site, added: “The Woolmead is not a popular building and it is very important that it is knocked down and replaced. However, there are some very mixed views on the design of the new building.

“I’m no expert on design but concur with other councillors that this is not greatest design in the world and I hope the developer will listen to this committee’s views and revisit the scheme ahead of submitting its detailed application.”

Mr MacLeod also expressed “strong reservations” about the cumulative effects of the new Woolmead development and the adjacent Brightwells regeneration scheme on Farnham’s road network and air quality, and asked officers to address this issue.

Hindhead councillor Christiaan Hesse also expressed disappointment at the removal of a condition of F&C’s outline planning consent requiring the developer to mitigate the new Woolmead’s impact on Farnham’s already-poor air quality should it deteriorate further as a result of the development.

Responding, case officer Gemma Paterson explained that in practice this condition would be “very difficult to enforce”, but added the proposal is not expected to generate as much traffic as the existing building.

Ms Paterson also addressed concerns that the new development’s provision of 186 car parking spaces is not enough to service both the flats and commercial units, commenting that the building is in a “very sustainable location”, close to public car parks and with good public transport links.

Earlier in the meeting, leader of Waverley’s opposition Farnham Residents group Jerry Hyman criticised the new Woolmead’s reliance on the Brightwells regeneration scheme “fraud” and in particular the pedestrianisation of East Street and remodelled Royal Deer junction.

“We all want to see the Woolmead improved, but it has to be done properly and this application relies on Crest’s falsified transport assessment,” he said. “Crest have never modelled The Royal Deer junction re-configuration, which is part of the pedestrianisation plans this planning application relies upon.”

Waverley’s head of planning Elizabeth Sims strongly refuted Mr Hyman’s suggestion that the granting of planning permission for Brightwells was “anything other than transparent”, but agreed to take up the issue with the council’s lawyers.

Addressing councillors ahead of the debate, F&C REIT’s development director Maurice Fitzgerald said his company has worked extensively over a long period of time to ensure an acceptable scheme was developed, including many redesigns and amendments to accommodate the views of residents and local authorities.

He added: “The Woolmead is a unique, unloved building with the majority of residents and stakeholders wishing to see redevelopment. This outline application provides a new chapter in the life of the Woolmead with potential to reinvigorate this area of Farnham.

Carole Cockburn, councillor for The Bourne, said: “The existing Woolmead building is universally hated across Farnham. There is clearly work to be done, but in terms of what we’re looking at tonight - this is a brownfield site, it’s delivering 96 homes and decent retail space, and a hideous, outdated building is being knocked down. What is there not to love about this?”