Your Chance of to Influence Haslemere’s Future
Community wide consultations planned for June and September 2014

During the last year Haslemere Vision has been developing ideas for a Neighbourhood Plan which will influence how our town develops. We have consulted local residents on which issues they consider to be the most important facing our community over the next 15 – 20 years. Many of the issues that have been raised can be grouped into three broad areas of concern:
• the future mix and location of housing and other developments in the area
• the future of our roads and streets
• the future of our local economy

Haslemere Vision will shortly be seeking your views on important and difficult choices that face us as we address these concerns. For example:

• would we prefer future developments to be built within the existing settlement (meaning more intensive development, maybe more 3 or 4 storey buildings) or prefer new developments in areas of greenbelt or AONB such as is proposed for Sturt Farm?
• do we accept that growth in motorised traffic is inevitable and plan to accommodate it or should we seek to slow the growth and promote other alternative transport options?
• Haslemere has lost a lot of businesses in recent years. Is this a problem? Should we prioritise the development of new employment units (modern office/light industrial space) or are we happy to see all available land developed for more housing?

Community wide consultation on the transport and economic issues will start in June 2014. In early September 2014, after Waverley Borough Council has published revised housing allocations for inclusion in its new local plan, a second consultation will present the choices that we face over housing and development.

Your responses to these consultations will directly influence how we draft the Neighbourhood Plan policies, so look out for the first questionnaire that will be launched in Mid June and make your voice heard.

This is the first of a series of six weekly articles in which we will explore some of the choices that face our community in more detail, so look out for this space in next week’s Herald!

For more information keep a look out on our website and see us at the Charter Fair on May 5th 2014