Mike Causey – Wrecclesham and Rowledge
Waverley Borough CouncillorPlanning Applications 25th November 2009
(Click here if you want to go the Waverley planning search page, and select ‘Ward’ from the left hand list of options)
WA/2009/1632: 10/11/2009
Construction of bay window to ground floor front elevation. 6 Cherry Tree Road, Farnham.
E: 482242 N:143213
Case Officer: Mrs L Smitheman
Applicant: J Mcguigan, 6 Cherry Tree Road, Rowledge, Farnham GU10 4AB
Agent: R Ball, Charter Design Associates, The Stable, Chamber Lane, Farnham, Surrey GU10 5ET
WA/2009/1633: 10/11/2009
Application for a Certificate of Lawfulness under Section 192 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 for the erection of single storey rear extension and detached garage and demolition of existing garage. 6 Cherry Tree Road, Farnham.
E: 482242 N:143213
Case Officer: Mrs L Smitheman
Applicant: J Mcguigan, 6 Cherry Tree Road, Rowledge, Farnham GU10 4AB
Agent: R Ball, Charter Design Associates, The Stable, Chamber Lane, Farnham, Surrey GU10 5ET
IAS or IFRS? SICS or IFRICS?
Perhaps the oil company I work for isn’t the biggest acronym culprit I know – perhaps it’s a combination of the government and the accountancy profession.
Last night I attended the Audit Committee at Waverley Borough Council. I’ve pretty much found the right area to serve I think – the committee’s responsibilities are a close match to both my day-to-day work and my competencies and, I do actually see it as incredibly important that such an oversight role is robustly and consistently performed.
Anyway, this meeting we had our external auditor along – the Audit Commission – answering questions and presenting information on the International Financial Accounting Standard, which will start applying to the UK public sector over the next couple of years onward.
Now, I’ve no intention to go into detail here – not least as I’m no expert. But, I did want to say that I’m delighted both with the quality of our Audit Commission manager and, with the project management at Waverley to make this transition happen. All evidence is that we’re now being well served in both these areas.
Thistledown Close
It almost sounds like a barn dance, but it’s actually the proposed name for the new close at the former site of 24 / 26 Pottery Lane. The development is coming along and so an application has been made for the new road name: Thistledown Close.
Apparently (and I’m learning this on the job) it’s our council policy not to object except “on the grounds of duplication, difficulty of pronouncing or spelling or if the name could cause offence”. Looks to me like none of that applies and overall, it sounds quite nice.
Please let me know if you have any objection, or ring the council direct and ask to speak to Lorraine Wilson.
Farnham Water Meadows
Received a short but informative email this evening from a local resident keenly involved in the recently initiated campaign to ’save’ the Farnham Water Meadows. The campaign was started by local solicitor Jo Aylwin, in response to the land being put up for sale by its present owners.
I say ’save’ in inverted commas, as it isn’t under any particular threat at the moment, and, as although it looks like a developer’s dream, it’s actually protected by a number of planning policies that comprise a perfect storm of protection from housing. Mind you, one thing it could work as is a SANG in order to allow house building elsewhere nearby (within 5km of the Thames Basin Heath SPA). So I suppose that speculatively one could say that the campaign aims to save the meadows for public use (which has become a defacto right under present ownership) and, potentially save Farnham from more housing development. That’s just my take on it mind you.
I fully support the campaign to take it into public ownership and would love to see it specifically available as common land for the people of Farnham. My comments above are simply to be clear about its present circumstances.
So, planning policies:
Flood Zone 2
Flood Zone 3
Conservation Area (No. 15 – FARNHAM)
Thames Basin Heath Special Protection Area 5km Buffer
Walden Heaths SPA 5km Buffer
Area subject to special advertisement control
Policy TC10 – Green Envelope
Policy C2 – Countryside Beyond the Green Belt
Policy C5 – Area of Strategic Visual Importance
Policy C10 – Site of Nature Conservation Importance
Two Things
About the Farnham Herald:
1. The front page article about Farnham Leisure Centre and its failure to reimburse members both for inconvenience and for non-availability of facilities: I agree that the leisure centre should be fair to its members. Stating that other leisure centres are available in towns nearby simply (a) show no sense of customer service and (b) ignores the difficulties and/or expense of travelling elsewhere in the borough – both the time and money either on public transport or private, could be prohibitive. If not reimburse, couldn’t the centre extend members subscription free for a couple of months? The example given is of this exact tactic: but only after some negotiation. A defence that there is a complaints procedure shows a mindset that does not give customer service a primary position, but simply adds on process to tackle it afterwards. A bad model.
I know not how (or not) my councillors colleagues involved in this have been able to influence the decision, but it’s not right. I’ll be writing to them to find out if I’m missing something.
2. Secondly though, I’m annoyed with the Farnham Herald in general. In an age when accessibility to information absolutely must include good online capability and, during economic circumstances that are hugely challenging to the continued existence of local news outlet, why is it that the Herald cannot produce a free online edition? Up to now, their website has given about two sentences of each story and then informed the reader to buy the paper. Now I notice that one can indeed access an online edition, but, have to pay for it! To me this doesn’t make sense, although I admit that not everyone (ahem… Rupert Murdoch) believes in free online news content.
First Time
The floods in my home town of Cockermouth have hit me hard. I’ve always had a conscious and emotional tie to the Lake District, where I used to regularly walk the mountain footpaths with my father and our border collie: that moment when as a family we return and we exit the motorway at Penrith and start heading West, my heart starts thumping a little faster, and my eyes look up to the hills.
But today was new. Today I felt, literally felt, the pull of my home town itself and sadness overwhelmed me that such a lovely and peaceful community should be swept through by a dirty and raging torrent of water. As I watched the BBC News coverage I felt small pangs of anxiety and sadness. Many of my friends have moved away now, and on facebook it was suddenly with friends checking on other friends families – a great sense of communal care actually: not something I’ve previously experienced on social media. Of course I’ve seen this on the news for other locations around the UK and indeed around the world, but suddenly it was my town, not someone else’s.
Today I’ve learned what it is to feel a loss of home and an enlarged sense of identity. I hope that my empathy for equally awful circumstances elsewhere in our country will be quickened.
Waverley Borough Councillor for Wrecclesham and Rowledge since May 2007.