DEVELOPERS Crest Nicholson Sainsbury's (CNS) have announced that East Street development proposals, due to be considered yesterday (Thursday) by Waverley's corporate overview and scrutiny committee, no longer contain a new Sainsbury's store in South Street. Rumours that Sainsbury's was pulling out of the scheme have been rife, particularly since the supermarket company announced the refurbishment of the existing South Street Sainsbury's store, which is currently in progress. Crest Nicholson director Paul Calcutt told The Herald that Sainsbury's had decided its refurbishments were now going to be more thorough than originally planned, but nevertheless, Sainsbury's remains a development partner in the overall scheme. Acquisition of the land on which the existing store stands has reportedly been a delaying factor in the progress of the redevelopment scheme and Mr Calcutt said he believed the change in the proposals meant a compulsory purchase order would not be required. But he stressed this was not behind Sainsbury's change of heart, describing it as "primarily a trading decision", taken in the light of the former Safeway store being revamped by Waitrose and the need to make decisions amid uncertainty over the timescale of the East Street redevelopment. CNS now hopes to follow a programme that will see Waverley give its consent as landowner to the scheme being put forward at its meeting on May 17. The developers believe this will enable a planning application to be submitted in August, planning consent to be achieved in November and construction to begin next March. The new Sainsbury's store was to have been sited on its existing car park. The current proposal is that the car park will still go, with a 400-space underground car park, accessed from both Dogflud Way and South Street, being provided under a large part of the site. The ground-level car park in South Street would be replaced by a shopping mall linking, with cafes and restaurants, to the proposed town square. Mr Calcutt said this will mean a considerable improvement to the South Street elevation, where the offices and hotel have been removed from the scheme and there are no longer any four-storey buildings. The housing numbers - at 293, of which 88 would be "affordable homes" - are virtually the same as envisaged before, as is most of the scheme including the eight-screen cinema for which Vue has agreed terms, the large "anchor" store fronting East Street, the town square and the retention of Brightwell House and gardens and the bowling green. The plans carry no hope that the Redgrave Theatre could be saved from demolition. Neither is there any mention of the scheme endorsed by Farnham town councillor Peter Marriott, which envisaged the theatre retained with a cinema built on top, plus shops, offices and a nursery school within a "wrap-round" of the theatre building. "We just can't build our scheme and retain the Redgrave. The development brief recognised the fact that it needed to go," said Terry Prescott, who is handling the scheme for Crest Nicholson. "Waverley has consistently told us that they want to put all their support for the arts into the Maltings." Farnham's MP Jeremy Hunt commented: "Public campaigning has clearly made an impact with Sainsbury's now deciding to pull out. This must be a hammer blow to the original plans. This will be a relief to many people in Farnham who want a smaller development in line with Farnham's character. "I fear the new proposals still include plans for around 300 new dwellings right in the middle of Farnham. Many people fear this will make a terrible traffic situation even worse. "Why can't we have a development that makes a small step forward in clearing up the eyesore of East Street rather than a giant leap that risks getting it completely wrong?" A leaflet containing the updated proposals has been sent to all Waverley councillors and copies will be dropping on the doormats of 16,000 Farnham homes next week. In their report to Waverley's overview and scrutiny committee, council officers explained: "CNS have prepared a revised scheme which they believe delivers all the elements required under the development brief and will achieve the comprehensive regeneration of the East Street site." The report announced that Waverley has recently completed the purchase of the Brightwells Health Centre from the Primary Care Trust. Details of progress on other land acquisition, legal advice on compulsory purchase and on the financial implications for Waverley, were all included in private papers to the committee, which was being asked to put forward its comments for the critical meeting of the full council on May 17. "Obviously we need the councillors to endorse the revised master plan," said Mr Calcutt, stressing that the council's decision at this stage was not a planning one, but a decision as landowner that the proposals were in accord with the development agreement. With that agreement, the final consultative forum, which must be held before a planning application is submitted, would be fixed for June. Mr Calcutt referred to the current uproar in South Farnham over "garden grabbers" seeking to flood the area with small developments that do not cater for the need for affordable homes, and contrasted it to the CNS scheme. "If the government wants sustainability and vibrancy and mixed use in town centres, this is exactly the type of development we want. We will make it or break it by the architectural quality of what we put in and I believe we can do it, and it will be a nice place to live in."
