We are the Haslemere South Residents Association (HSRA). You are welcome to join us for FREE and show your support. We formed the association in June 2018 as a community group when a developer and Waverley Borough Council first suggested building on the green meadows and woodland behind Scotland Lane. We now have hundreds of local members who are keen to save our beautiful countryside which is under threat from unsustainable mass development.
The issue:
Why has this land been suggested? Waverley has to build a certain number of houses and create ‘site allocations’ as part of their Local Plan. We understand this and welcome more affordable housing for families in the right place. There are sufficient alternative sites which are far more appropriate than building on green AONB or AGLV Candidate-AONB. Since Spring 2021 an excellent brownfiled site, albeit AONB has emerged at the Royal School site which is set to close and merge the pupils with their peers in original Royal School site in Farnham Lane.
Haslemere's rural character heritage and beautiful countryside are under threat from a proposed unsustainable development.
50 acres of wooded wildlife-rich green meadows which serve as the bio-diverse habitat for multiple protected species have been targeted as a potential site for development. This land formerly belonging to the Red Court estate on Scotlands Lane GU27 3AN, was designated under the Local Plan as DS15 (formally DS18). This is AGLV Candidate-AONB land, a designation intended to protect this grade of beautiful, wildlife-rich countryside from exploitation and development, which should be sacrosanct. However, a developer, some Haslemere councillors and Waverley, appear to believe that the land can be sacrificed for development. If this development is approved, it will rip 125 acres (including the coalescence effect) from Haslemere South, an irreplaceable loss. Beautiful green rural Haslemere will suddenly become a character-less, urban sprawl.
The development proposal for DS-15 has recently been reported as "unsuitable" by Surrey Hills, a Statutory Consultant under Natural England, so must be adhered to. Waverley should not be considering this green meadow for development when other urban brownfield sites exist. It should be removed altogether from their Local Plan.
This proposed development will cause:
For an unknown reason a fence was erected on December 11 2018 and hundreds of ill-placed saplings were planted along the boundary of Scotlands Close and intentionally over TPO tree-protected root areas. HSRA see these actions as an attempt to make a screen between the existing houses and the AONB meadows beyond. The fence and future saplings will do nothing but blight the view of all the neighbouring residents. A few saplings are hardly going to compensate for the proposed destruction of this AONB land. These actions demonstrate a deliberate low-level approach to downgrade the status of the diversity and ecology of the area before any planning application.
The special rural character of a community must be preserved - our community.
The issue:
Why has this land been suggested? Waverley has to build a certain number of houses and create ‘site allocations’ as part of their Local Plan. We understand this and welcome more affordable housing for families in the right place. There are sufficient alternative sites which are far more appropriate than building on green AONB or AGLV Candidate-AONB. Since Spring 2021 an excellent brownfiled site, albeit AONB has emerged at the Royal School site which is set to close and merge the pupils with their peers in original Royal School site in Farnham Lane.
Haslemere's rural character heritage and beautiful countryside are under threat from a proposed unsustainable development.
50 acres of wooded wildlife-rich green meadows which serve as the bio-diverse habitat for multiple protected species have been targeted as a potential site for development. This land formerly belonging to the Red Court estate on Scotlands Lane GU27 3AN, was designated under the Local Plan as DS15 (formally DS18). This is AGLV Candidate-AONB land, a designation intended to protect this grade of beautiful, wildlife-rich countryside from exploitation and development, which should be sacrosanct. However, a developer, some Haslemere councillors and Waverley, appear to believe that the land can be sacrificed for development. If this development is approved, it will rip 125 acres (including the coalescence effect) from Haslemere South, an irreplaceable loss. Beautiful green rural Haslemere will suddenly become a character-less, urban sprawl.
The development proposal for DS-15 has recently been reported as "unsuitable" by Surrey Hills, a Statutory Consultant under Natural England, so must be adhered to. Waverley should not be considering this green meadow for development when other urban brownfield sites exist. It should be removed altogether from their Local Plan.
This proposed development will cause:
- 600 potential cars, added into the existing mix, all exiting from The Lodge at the top of Scotlands Lane onto narrow rural streets (Scotlands Lane and Old Haslemere Road) with no expansion capabilities. Alternatively, permission may allow access near Dene Farm, which would cut right through AONB land, and obliterate the NPPF-required so-called “stepping-stone pathway” for biodiversity and wildlife.
- As local residents, know the current utilities fail regularly and this proposed development would make it worse. DS-15 is already defined as an amber flood risk area so concreting over half of it will cause the junction at Midhurst Road and Scotlands Lane to flood much more regularly.
- Habitat for protected birds and bats and recorded dormice will be lost or disrupted. The deer will be driven out as will the recorded badgers, slow worms and dormice - their fate is unknown.
For an unknown reason a fence was erected on December 11 2018 and hundreds of ill-placed saplings were planted along the boundary of Scotlands Close and intentionally over TPO tree-protected root areas. HSRA see these actions as an attempt to make a screen between the existing houses and the AONB meadows beyond. The fence and future saplings will do nothing but blight the view of all the neighbouring residents. A few saplings are hardly going to compensate for the proposed destruction of this AONB land. These actions demonstrate a deliberate low-level approach to downgrade the status of the diversity and ecology of the area before any planning application.
The special rural character of a community must be preserved - our community.