Waverley have recently announced the start of the Regulation 16 Consultation for Haslemere’s Neighbourhood Plan. To find out more go to https://waverley.inconsult.uk/consult.ti/HaslemereNP/consultationHome.

Here you will find the latest version of the Neighbourhood Plan and details about how you can respond to the consultation. If you are interested to see how the policies compare to the previous policies that were consulted on last year, you can look at the Consultation Statement. Appendices 11 a – g have a selection of the responses to the consultation and Appendix 12 shows the policy wording before and after the Regulation 14 consultation.

The most significant changes that were made reflected the community’s wishes that land with designations such as Green Belt, AONB and AGLV should not be built on and that the natural environment and rich biodiversity of the Plan Area is protected and enhanced. Numerous comments were received about the density policy and there is now an explicit statement that the suggested densities are used “subject to achieving high quality design” and the development “being fit for the site’s setting and topography”.

Amendments were made to the Access and Transport policy (H9) but not all of the concerns raised about parking have been completely resolved because neighbourhood plan policy only applies where a planning application is made. The traffic, parking and non-car transport opportunities identified in the Plan will address many of the issues raised and the recently formed Active Travel Group, that includes representatives from the Town and County council as well as volunteers from Transition Haslemere, Haslemere Society and Haslemere Vision have already started working on tackling the issues.

The Trees and Hedgerows policy (H11) now provides additional information about how protection can be achieved. This includes requiring a full site survey by a qualified arboriculturalist or ecologist when a site’s development will affect the trees and hedgerows and the policy now references the relevant British Standards. There are more provisions around replacement planting, when trees are intentionally or accidently damaged, and requirements to ensure trees and hedgerows planted in communal areas within developments are appropriately managed and maintained.

Last April, the Haslemere Vision Biodiversity Team employed two ecologists to work on mapping the Haslemere wildlife corridors (now known as the Haslemere Ecological Network) that were referred to in the Biodiversity policy (H14). This project was funded by the Lobs Charity, Haslemere Society, CPRE Surrey and Haslemere Town Council and the work was completed in time to be incorporated into the latest version of the Neighbourhood Plan. In addition, policy H14 was enhanced by adding that a biodiversity net gain of 20% would be required for development sites. This reflects the fact that Surrey has experienced higher levels of biodiversity loss than the National average based on recent studies.

The economy policies were altered to reflect the new Use Classes that were introduced in September and the policy encouraging the conversion of residential property to hotel use was removed.

The consultation closes at 11.59pm on Friday 19^th March. The Plan will then be examined and finally a referendum of Haslemere residents, later this year, will determine whether the Plan is approved and can be adopted. Register to vote so that you’ll be able to participate.

Here is the response that Haslemere Vision recently submitted to Waverley’s Local Plan part 2 consultation:

Haslemere Vision LPP2 Consultation Response

The Haslemere Neighbourhood Plan was approved by the Town Council last Monday night for official submission to Waverley Borough Council on the next stage of its journey into planning law. The Working Party (comprising Haslemere Vision volunteers and Town Councillors) had worked long and hard to incorporate changes suggested by residents during the Regulation 14 consultation which concluded in May this year. Several Councillors spoke in favour of what was felt to be a much-strengthened document, testament to the power of community collaboration.

Particular mention should be made of Haslemere Vision’s Biodiversity team who worked tirelessly to strengthen the Environmental policies in response to residents’ concerns. Their work was helped enormously by the engagement of dedicated and professional ecologists who have identified and mapped important wildlife corridors in the area. The funding to make this happen was supplied by the Haslemere Society, Haslemere Town Council, the Lob’s Charity and CPRE Surrey, for whose support we are incredibly grateful.

We were also really pleased to see so many residents present at what we believe to be the very first online Extraordinary General Meeting of the Town Council, all tuning in to see the Plan being approved. Your support was really, really, welcome and it was fantastic for Councillors to see the level of interest the community have in shaping the future of our town and villages. Haslemere Mayor, Cllr. John Robini, who has championed the Plan throughout the Reg 14 consultation and resulting review, said that he’d like to thank “the residents of Haslemere, who through their participation in the various consultations, have shaped a landmark Plan for the town”.

Now of course, our attention turns to Waverley as they consult on our Plan. It coincides somewhat with WBC’s consultation on their Local Plan Part 2, which does contain sites exterior to the settlement boundaries set out in the Neighbourhood Plan. This consultation launched Friday 27th November and the community is invited to make their feelings, for or against, clear at www.waverley.gov.uk/LPP2 before it closes in January. Of course, the Local Plan Part 2 document contains more than site allocations and Haslemere Vision volunteers will be going through it with a fine tooth comb to assess its impacts. We will update you with that review in the next couple of weeks and we hope that you will find the insights gleaned useful if you wish to respond to their consultation individually.

The Steering Group are thrilled to announce that the Neighbourhood Plan is coming before the full town council at 7pm next Monday, 30th November, on the next step of its journey to becoming legislation. It will hopefully be approved by Councillors, who will then officially submit it to Waverley Borough Council. WBC will open up the Plan for wider public comment, before putting it forward for Planning Inspector review and bringing it to referendum.
As we’re sure you can imagine, this is an important moment for us. Whilst the Plan was handed over to HTC leadership in May last year, there has been much hard work since, working with the HTC Working Party to bring the Plan through its statutory consultation and to action amendments in response to feedback.
We will be watching the meeting with bated breath and hope other interested members of the public will join us online to witness this historic moment. The meeting agenda, together with details of how to join is available here: https://www.haslemeretc.org/uploads/1/1/5/9/115942197/2020-11-30_extraordinary_council_agenda.pdf and the amended Plan submitted for approval is available here: https://www.haslemeretc.org/uploads/1/1/5/9/115942197/appendix_1_-_2020-11-09_draft_haslemere_np_ver_2020.5_for_htc_egm.pdf
Particular mention must be made of Haslemere Vision’s Biodiversity team who have worked tirelessly to strengthen the Environmental policies in response to residents’ concerns – helped enormously by the engagement of dedicated and professional ecologists. The funding to make this happen was supplied by the Haslemere Society, Haslemere Town Council, the Lob’s Charity and CPRE Surrey, for whose support we are incredibly grateful.
Once the Neighbourhood Plan process settles down a bit, we will write with an update on all the initiatives and projects that the Vision team have been pursuing with our remaining vigour! In the meanwhile, we look forward to seeing some of you online on Monday 30th.

A general meeting for Haslemere Vision Limited will be held via Zoom (online meeting) on Thursday 15th October, 2020 at 7.30 pm. The agenda will be as follows:

1. Review and approve the minutes of the AGM held on 18th July 2019
2. Receive the Report and Accounts for the financial year ended 5th April 2020.
3. Results of the election of the six directors of the company including the Chairman,
   Vice-Chairman and Treasurer.
4. Results of the election of Steering Group members (Management Committee).
5. Any other business.
   

To accompany the AGM, please refer to the Directors Report for 2020.

Please rsvp to info@haslemerevision.org.uk to receive a link to the Zoom meeting.

Haslemere Vision do not usually respond to individual planning applications however, the above application included a number of inaccuracies pertaining to the Neighbourhood Plan. An official statement was therefore made to the Haslemere Planning and Highways Committee meeting on the 10^th September 2020, to correct several of the claims made by the applicant and to outline where development plans have disregarded the founding principles of the community’s Neighbourhood Plan. 

A submission has also been made to Waverley Borough Council in advance of their consideration of the proposal. This can be found at: 

http://planning360.waverley.gov.uk/civica/Resource/Civica/Handler.ashx/Doc/pagestream?cd=inline&pdf=true&docno=8003997