TOWN councillors have accused the borough council of putting cash before people after its recent decision to grant planning permission for 45 new homes in Haslemere.

The town council's planning committee has agreed to write to Waverley's chief executive, Christine Pointer, and to senior planner Steven Thwaites, to express its outrage at the decision and the way in which it was reached.

Some town councillors claimed that the borough council had shied away from refusing planning permission because of the financial consequences if the decision was overturned at appeal.

As previously reported by The Herald, Waverley Borough Council's development control committee approved the controversial plans for 45 homes to be built at Midhurst Road.

Although the scheme was recommended for approval by officers, who did not believe a refusal could be justified, the application was opposed by many in the community.

Haslemere Town Council, the borough council's southern area planning committee and a number of residents all opposed the scheme and had called for it to be rejected.

Eventually the development control committee sided with officers after a close vote and planning permission was granted.

This angered the town council as did the events which led up to the decision.

One major point was the fact that the borough council decided to hold the development control committee after a lengthy extraordinary meeting of another planning committee which had discussed a controversial planning application in Godalming.

This, Michael Foster told follow town councillors last Thursday, was inappropriate and meant that the application was not fully discussed. He claimed that a number of the councillors who agreed the application had never even visited the Haslemere site.

"Haslemere Town Council deplores the recent decision by the development control committee to go against the wishes of both the town council and Waverley southern area planning and agree to the proposed development on the Midhurst Road by a single vote," he said.

"In view of the contentious nature of the application it would seem unreasonable for the discussions to be started as late as 9 o'clock in the evening when members of the committee had already had two hours of deliberations with another controversial application.

"Again because of the serious effect the decision will have on the whole of Haslemere, all members should have attended a site meeting to see for themselves the exact nature of the site and the likely consequences to the town."

Mr Foster was particularly outraged that the borough councillors had been apparently swayed by comments from the developer and officers, into believeing that a refusal could not be justified and that the council would be unlikely to successfully argue its case at appeal, leaving Haslemere with both the new homes and a large bill.

"If that is the case, it is quite disgraceful that such considerations should take the place of sensible argument on the merits of the application," Mr Foster said.

"Some appeals will inevitably be lost but it seems that this decision by the narrowest of margins was made for monetary reasons."

His views were supported by other members of the town council, who also pointed out that only a small number of people on the development committee come from the Haslemere area.

The Herald contacted Waverley Borough Council but it declined to comment.