Dear villagers,

I have developed this update to my web page on 12th. November 2003 and I apologise for taking so long to refresh it. In future I will try and keep to a regular update schedule and I propose to update this page on 12th. January 2004.

I hope you enjoy the news and my views about planning.

Bottle Bank

I'm pleased to say that the owners of Applegarth Farm have very kindly agreed to assist the Council by providing a new site for the bottle bank o their farm. After an initial temporary site, I expect the new location to be just behind the shop buildings where it will be accessible by residents and also the lifting vehicles which will empty it from time to time.

I'm disappointed that the facility disappeared for a while, but I'm also very glad that it has returned after the misunderstandings were ironed out.

Parking

I'm very upset that we seem to have two lorries parked in the village that are causing an eyesore and one of them has been impinging on a disabled parking bay. Many residents ask me what is being done about these situations. The answer is a lot of effort but not much chance of success I'm afraid.

The red lorry in Crossways Road is an eyesore I know, but it is legally parked except when it overlaps the disabled bay. No furniture may be sold from the lorry as that would indeed be illegal, but as we have had no reports of this happening, no action can be taken on this count. In addition, our local police constable feels unable to prosecute the parking issue and so we have little choice but to rely on the owner's consideration.

The white lorry at Rockdale is parked on private property. It is a terrible blight on the approach to our pretty village but the owner will not move it and there is nothing we can do.

These issues remind me of my plea for neighbourliness in the latest "Parish Scene". In so many cases our lives and our environment are unprotected by law. We have to rely on people's goodwill and too often these days in Grayshott this goodwill ls lacking.

A3

The controversy is reaching an important stage and many developments are taking place.

Firstly, I am aware that since the exhibition in the village in October, many more people in the village have been alarmed at the likely impact of greatly increased traffic volumes caused by the location of the Hazel Grove Interchange at the end of Headley Road and Crossways Road. I have been fighting this cause ever since I saw the first layout plans back in 2001. Pat Lyons wrote a super article in the Haslemere Herald recently explaining that there were, indeed, options to this badly sited junction.

The STOAT organisation, that I support, is fighting the cause to keep the old A3, which in fact would enable the Highways Agency to move the junction further south. The connection between the two points is that the junction has been deliberately located as far north as possible in order to diminish the "inconvenience" argument for retaining the old A3. If the junction is moved south or removed altogether, the old A3 would have to stay open to handle local traffic. If the old A3 is closed, the junction will have to be kept where it is to take the local traffic that would have used the old A3.

In spite of this, many locals who want to close the old A3 do, nevertheless, agree that the Hazel Grove junction is located in the worst possible place for Grayshott as it will cause massive increases in traffic to flow through the village en route to this new, major interchange.

I believe we may need to develop an additional campaign, under the STOAT umbrella, that targets the location of the Hazel Grove Junction, specifically. This would demand that in the interests of keeping traffic volumes through Grayshott at reasonable levels, the Hazel Grove Junction must be moved south or removed altogether. The campaign would not be linked directly to the closure of the old A3, but would support it, as I have said. I will test the idea of such a campaign with Grayshott residents.

Pedestrian Crossing

I have been asked why we do not have a pedestrian crossing in Grayshott. The answer is that there is little support for the idea. The main objection is that it will "urbanise" the village which, in some people's view, already has too much "street furniture" with the traffic calming bollards. If you think that we should have a crossing in the village do let me know at my email address Fcowper@aol.com

Planning

I'm pleased to say that for the time being there are very few planning applications being considered by the Council that threaten our lovely village. We are lucky in that we suffer very few large scale developments, the most recent one being the development of Holmes Court in Boundary Road, replacing the historic and much needed Grayshott Nursing Home.

I found this development very helpful to my experience as a Councillor, because the developer, Premier Properties plc, has gone to great lengths to get round the planning conditions originally demanded by the Council. One neighbour's privacy which the Council set out to protect, has been shattered by the developer. A mature hedge designed to act as a screen to prevent overlooking has been dug up in direct contravention of the conditions laid down by the planning committee and this vast gap is clearly visible from the road. To add insult to this injury, the developer has inserted clear glass side opening windows on this overlooking wall, despite the Council's insistence that the windows should be top opening and obscured.

The matter of the windows is the subject of enforcement proceedings.

Can the Council Really Control Property Development in Grayshott?

I fear that local authorities such as East Hampshire District Council are rapidly losing the power to regulate local developments such as those mentioned above.

Smart and determined property developers just ignore planning conditions and challenge the Council to incur the costs of enforcement. The Council often does not have the wealth required and as a result the officers waive the conditions.

In some cases Councillors will not impose the proper conditions in the first place because they fear the Council cannot afford to enforce them.

Finally, even if the conditions are imposed and enforced, developers will appeal to the Government's Planning Inspectorate. Whilst superficially impartial, this body will almost always implement the Government's Planning Policy Guidelines, (PPGs) even if this causes overdevelopment in villages such as ours. Right now the national Government is committed to a huge housebuilding programme in the South East that many local authorities fear will destroy our villages. This programme is embodied in a special PPG and in Grayshott we have to accept more new houses per plot than we would like because we know that the Inspectorate will enforce the PPGs against the will of the elected Council. In effect these local planning issues are increasingly being determined by the Government.

Regardless of your politics, I believe we should all fight this attack on local democracy.

Any views? Drop me an email on Fcowper@aol.com or call me on 01428 609858

Very best wishes,
Cllr Ferris Cowper
EHDC Councillor for the Ward of Grayshott