Annual Letters
Letter to Members 25th April 2023
Dear member of the Great Austins Area Preservation Group,
First I would like to thank all of you who managed to attend our AGM at St Thomas’s last week for making it such an enjoyable evening. For those who were unable to make it on the day, I have attached a copy of the minutes.
Among the items discussed at the meeting was an introduction to the new street history project that we have started to record the history of some of the houses in the area and their occupants over the years. I urge you to look at this new resource and consider doing some more research into the history of your own home: any new material shared with me will be added to the site at a later date. To record our rich history is a way of celebrating the area and will help to enhance the Group’s influence in local planning matters.
https://www.greataustinsareapreservationgroup.org/the-area
Letter to Members 9th July 2022
Dear member of the Great Austins Area Preservation Group,
I expect you have now seen that the Waverley Consultation on the Great Austins Conservation Area was concluded in June and I am glad to say that our arguments opposing the recommended changes to the footprint of the CA have been accepted in their entirety. This once again demonstrates the influence that our group (representing more than half the households in the CA) can have in protecting the character of our local area.
Now that a new Wates Planning Application for 146 houses in Waverley Lane has been resubmitted, I wanted to pass on a very telling analysis of the traffic implications of the proposal that has been made by one of our members (see attached). Although the proposed development is not within the GAAPG area and therefore would not naturally be something we would comment on as a group, I do commend you to look at the 120+ letters of opposition that have been already submitted and consider adding one of your own before the deadline of 15th July using the following link. As well as citing the issues with safety of the access road there are clearly concerns over additional pressure on the social infrastructure of schooling and GP services as well as additional congestion at the level crossing.
Best wishes
Tim O'Dell
Chair
Letter to Waverley Borough Council responding to completion of Great Austins Conservation Area Appraisal 26th May 2022
Dear Mr Robins
Your email alert about the completion of the Great Austins Conservation Area Appraisal has been passed onto me in my role as Chair of the Great Austins Area Preservation Group (although I note that, as of today, interested parties like me who signed up to the email alerts about this review have still not been informed directly).
I and my colleagues have read the final document and accompanying Consultation Statement with interest and, although there are still issues we disagree with, we are relieved that our reasoned arguments for retaining the existing boundary on the West end of Vicarage Hill as well as amending the alterations further down to use the existing boundary of April Cottage have both been accepted. We do note, however, that the cited appendices (B to D) in the Consultation Statement appear to have been omitted and would be grateful if they can be included in the published document as soon as possible.
One comment (repeated in two separate places in the Consultation Statement both in response to the Farnham Town Council comments and in the discussion of the case for removing this area from the Conservation Area in Section 4) does cause great concern to our group, because of the unwitting encouragement it might give to potential developers of sites in the CA. This is the reference to appeal (WA/2004/0531) citing a passing reference in that decision to the fact that “whilst the majority of roads in the area are set out on a rough grid, the south-western corner of the Conservation Area borders on Vicarage Hill, a winding road with a more semi-rural character”. The implication then drawn:
It is therefore possible that development, that may not (be) considered appropriate in the main area of the CA, could be considered appropriate in this area as already demonstrated by the appeal decision.
is quite erroneous. A careful reading of the whole Appeal Decision shows that the nature of the road in this corner of the Conservation Area was of no relevance to the reason for granting the appeal, which instead rested on the fact that the proposed new development replaced a 1950s or 1960s building that was “rather unsympathetic to the prevailing character of the area”. In our opinion it does the overall report a disservice to allow this reference to remain in the Consultation Statement.
That said, we are on the whole delighted that the CA has been sympathetically and constructively reviewed and look forward to a similarly thorough process for the upcoming review of the neighbouring Church lane Conservation Area.
Kind regards
Tim O’Dell
Chair
Submission to Great Austins Conservation Area Appraisal
Letter to Members 15th November 2021
Dear Member
First can I thank all of you who shared their thoughts and personal submissions to the Waverley Council review of the Great Austins Conservation Area; your inputs were both interesting and useful for our own submission which you can find attached for reference.
I am sure many of you attended the meeting at St Thomas’s on the 27th and, like me, were a little disappointed in the rationale advanced by the planning officers for the changes they propose to the CA. It was pleasing to see such a large turn-out (I counted around 40, which apparently was the most ever seen at one of these events) and the almost universal scepticism expressed about the need to reduce the footprint of the CA.
Following the meeting, we received many further offers of support from other interested parties in Farnham. In case you also had contact from neighbours who are not yet fully paid-up members, I have taken the liberty to also attach a membership form which I urge you to pass on.
We look forward to the result of the Appraisal.
Best wishes
Tim O’Dell
Chair 2022
Letter to Members 5th November 2020
Dear Member
It is a long time since you heard from the Group and that is because a new Committee has been getting established. You may remember our appeal for interested residents to join the Committee in 2018. As a result the new Committee is strong with reasonable representation from most of the roads in our Conservation Area. It would be good if someone from Middle Avenue could come forward to complete the set!
Some longstanding Committee members have either recently moved away or retired after contributing many hours and invaluable effort to the Group. They have wisely helped to steer a course through the planning issues that have presented themselves in order to uphold and maintain the values of the Group in preserving the character and integrity of the area. I am sure you would like to join me in thanking Stephen Warrington, Nick Hadley and Richard Hutchins, for their long service to us all.
I welcome Jane Elliott, Tim O’Dell, Tim Young, Louise Healey, Lindsay Williams, Mike Gibson, Brian Haworth, Chris Bennie and Debbie Young to the Committee to join Edward Emblem, Juan Montes, Sian Proudlock and myself in our stewardship of GAAPG.
Our mission remains the same; to encourage the protection and enhancement of the character and amenity of this distinctive and attractive area. The Group’s work in contrast to the wider agenda of resident’s associations has therefore largely concerned planning and development.
In the last couple of years it has been relatively quiet on the planning front in the area. We have commented on or submitted objections to some planning applications. We have sought to maintain sympathetic architectural styles and also to mitigate or avoid any adverse precedents gaining traction, in particular where changes to the housing density have been an issue. In spite of relatively little recent activity, we cannot become complacent. It is likely that future changes to local Planning policy will have an impact in our area and we need to remain vigilant.
Brian Haworth has been studying the recent white paper produced by the Government regarding changes to local planning policy and his very helpful digest and summary, specifically written for the GAAPG membership, is attached with this letter. Sincere thanks to Brian for such a clear summary of what is a complex set of proposals for the future of local planning. We endeavour to keep up to date with whatever the outcomes of this may be.
GAAPG remains acutely aware of the proposed Wates development on Waverley Lane and its likely impact on our area. We are agreed to closely monitor developments and you will be aware of earlier communications to you all to encourage you to lodge your votes on the subject. This committee seeks to work co-operatively with other, similarly concerned local organisations on this.
Several residents are expressing concern about the unkempt state of our roads. Whereas Surrey has, in past years, routinely undertaken to pollard trees and weed gutters, this service has not been happening this year. It is perhaps understandable in the current climate. However, your committee will be making representations to them about this. That said, residents are responsible for their own perimeters and we urge all to carefully check hedges and overhanging trees. Several of the complaints we have received relate to hedges overgrowing the footpath, brambles growing out of hedges into the path and overhanging tree branches at eye level. These all make the area look untidy and or pose a danger or considerable inconvenience to pedestrians. If we each look after our own section of gutter to remove the unsightly weeds until such time as the Council can get back to normal activities then the area would be considerably enhanced. It is little effort for a considerable gain.
It is very unfortunate that some of our road signs have been damaged and now stolen. We are making representation to local authorities for their replacements.
The Committee is set to meet via a Zoom call on 15th November. If you have any items that you would like to bring to the Committee’s attention, please let me know in writing in advance of this meeting using the contact information below.
The Committee joins me in hoping you all remain safe and well during this difficult period of lockdown we are entering.
Many thanks and sincerest good wishes
Mo Cuthbert
Chairperson 2020.