A SQUATTER has gained access to an outbuilding at The Waverley Arms pub in Waverley Lane, forcing the inn’s new owners to pursue an eviction order in the courts.

A member of the public reported the break-in to Perfect Start Children’s Day Nursery and Pre-School, which wishes to convert the pub into a children’s nursery, after spotting “people coming in and out at ridiculous times of the morning”.

The High Wycombe-based childcare provider has since filed for a “minor eviction order”, but confirmed the outbuilding is “completely separate” from the main pub building.

A planning application to change The Waverley Arms’ legal use from a public house (use class A4) to a children’s day nursery (use class D1) was submitted to Waverley Borough Council in June and is still awaiting the council’s determination.

The plans have courted controversy - not just for the loss of a pub, but for proposing a children’s nursery at one of Farnham’s worst pollution hotspots opposite the Farnham station level crossing.

Waverley’s head of environmental services, Richard Homewood, in his formal response to the application, acknowledged the site is “exposed to high levels of traffic related air pollution” - but also pointed to an “improving air quality situation in the area” and praised the applicant’s proposed mitigation measures, concluding the plans “will not be opposed on air quality grounds”.

This has attracted the ire of the South Farnham Residents Association, however, whose chairman Zofia Lovell has expressed concern that Waverley is still determining applications based on the potentially-erroneous data of its recently withdrawn Air Quality Report.

Mrs Lovell also criticised the applicant’s suggestion of a new “no idling zone” either side of the station level crossing, commenting that “lorries, buses and through traffic” pay no attention to existing signs requesting they turn off their engines in Station Hill.

To view and comment on Perfect Start’s amended plans for The Waverley Arms, visit the website www.waverley.gov.uk/planning and search for reference WA/2017/0823.