The planning application to build two houses at Copthorne Meadows Farm, Chobham Road has been refused
Planning application update
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Author Archives: webknaphill
Pentangle’s Big Charity Event
Local business and community supporter Pentangle Aquatics (34 High Street) are organising a charity day in support of Woking Hospice and Children in Need.
Hosted on the 16th November at their shop, the day will run from 10: 30am to 4pm and contain a variety of entertainment for children and adults alike. Fancy hooking a duck? You can do that! Who doesn’t enjoy ‘whack a rat’?! That’s there too… Also on the day you’ll find a tombola, a bag pipe player (yes!), a tattoo artist (temporary tattoos only so mum’s and dad’s can breathe easy) and a silent auction.
Nick will also be doing 15 minute sessions where you can learn to overcome your fears in a one-to-one environment. Those fears of spiders will be history!
More entertainment is planned including, hopefully, a big ole Pudsy bear, face painting and quite a variety of others.
Show your support folks!
Owner Nick Forrest and volunteer Danielle have put in a massive effort for the day so please do go along and show your support for them as well as local and national charities.
For those of you able, they also still would like donations for the silent auction and tombola [hint hint!]
You can contact Nick via his website www.PentangleAquatics.co.uk or pop in to 34 High Street, Knaphill.
Access to a GP
One issue raised at the recent Village Meeting was that residents are having problems in getting an appointment with their GP at a time convenient to them. The problem is only going to get worse especially when the houses on Brookwood Farm are complete and occupied. Jonathan Lord, our MP, has just sent me an answer to a written question he had submitted to the Department of Health. Below is an extract from this reply.
‘We understand that a recent survey by Healthwatch highlighted Woking is an area where there was a potential issue with booking and arranging appointments which are convenient to patients. Following this, we (Dept. for Health) are advised that Surrey & Sussex Area Team agree to meet with the Health and Adult Social Care Committee and Healthwatch to set up a working group to look at areas which could be improved with regards to access to GP services.’ Department for Health.
The KRA will continue to monitor the situation. We also plan to write to North West Surrey CCG. This is the body responsible for coordinating GP services in our area. We will raise the specific issues facing residents in Knaphill, Brookwood and Bisley.
Knaphill public toilets
I ran into Phil, Saj and Melanie today (KRA secretary and councillors for those that don;t know) and we got to talking about the public toilets in the High Street just outside Tesco.
Apparently the council would be willing to remove them after a public consultation process had been completed. It got me to wonder how the residents think about the toilets, afterall they’re not exactly the nicest of things this village has to offer but they do provide a service. Are they used, should they stay or should they go? Would their absence be missed and would their removal lead to any problems down the line?
Do look at the poll and maybe leave a comment below or discuss it in the forum area.
[yop_poll id=”16″]
Follow on from Village Meeting
At the beginning of October the KRA hosted a Village Meeting when residents were given the opportunity to question local Councillors, police and Council Officers. Although the number of residents who attended was disappointing small there was an interesting debate covering numerous subjects. Over the next few weeks we will enlarge on the issues raised by residents. Starting with schools.
First the good news, according to Surrey County Council all parents who submitted a 1st preference for a local first or junior school in our area got their first choice. All our local junior or first schools were undersubscribed with 1st preferences. Part of the proposed development on Brookwood Farm was a new school. This new school would have been part ofBrookwood School and the two buildings would be linked by a purpose built footpath. SCC has decided to defer submitting the final details on a new school and thus there will be no new school building being built in the near future. SCC plan to expand Bisley Church of England Primary School.
The above means that once the houses on Brookwood Farm start to be occupied the pressure for school places at junior and first level will fall on the current Knaphill schools. What is not clear is whether SCC will go ahead with a new footpath that would assist families living in the new houses accessing both Brookwood school but also the railway station.
Another Planning Application from Sainsbury’s
Sainsbury’s of Redding Way, Knaphill has submitted a planning application (PLAN/2014/1017 ) to build a single-storey, standalone, dry-cleaning pod to front (south-east) elevation of superstore.
This further extension if granted, would be operated by Timpson’s and would offer dry-cleaning, shoe repairs, watch repairs, key cutting, engraving and photo processing. There would also be illuminated signage which may be particularly relevant to the residents opposite the store that have already mentioned night time lighting.
Agents for Sainsbury’s in a statement attached to the planning application state that they do not see this new business having an impact on current businesses in Knaphill.
View and comment via WBC website – http://www.woking.gov.uk/planning/publicaccess
Should you choose to make a comment on the WBC planning portal, it is useful to back it up with reference to the Core Strategy document – http://www.woking2027.info/corestrategy/adoptedcorestrategy.pdf
Website update
The keen eyed among you will notice you can’t find anything where it used to be and things just look odd.
There’s a good reason for this – the website was in need of a refresh and a bit of a revamp. Lots of reasons but I won’t bore you with them.
I’ve tried to keep the change in visual impact quite small and so it remains a light theme and a similar layout. Hopefully it’s quite clear visually but if you can’t read something easily then do leave a comment. There’s a news ‘ticker’ at the top of the homepage, this ticks through the latest posts, and the main menu navigation is now simpler. You might also notice it looks different on mobile devices than it does on a desktop pc – it’s intentional I promise!
The front or home page has a changing slider at the top which picks out new posts to rotate through and the rest of the page is divided into sections – Knaphill Community – Planning – Meeting Minutes – Memory Lane – Policing. The order of these is likely to change.
It will evolve over time with a few additional changes and features that will ultimately provide a rich source of Knaphill information. One thing I should point out is that with the change to the front page, the ‘Quicklinks’ have moved. They now appear on EVERY page but at the bottom in the footer.
Of course we always want guest submissions so if you want to get posting just ask away or send something in.
I’d love to see more people using social media within the village (that goes for the businesses too!) so do make use of the sharing buttons you’ll see beneath each page or post (they’re the funny multi-coloured thingies down there). Together we can spread the good word – that Knaphill can be great!!
Planning Update – 04 October 2014
Summer is over and developers have been sharpening their pens with their desire to build yet more houses in Knaphill.
PLAN/2014/0938 128 High Street. Earlier this year a planning application to demolish 126/128 High Street and build four new houses and a block containing two flats was approved. This new application is to retain 126 and 128 and build 3 houses in the rear garden of No. 128. Access to the new houses would require the demolition of the extension to 128 and its garage.
It would appear that the developer has been unable to get the owners of 126 to sell and therefore this modified application has been submitted. We now have a planning application which is a pure garden grab and the proposed new houses will overlook the school’s open-air swimming pool.
PLAN/2014/0895 Waterers Rise Knaphill. This s a planning application from Woking Borough Council. They want to demolish 11 unused garages and build 3 affordable houses.
PLAN/2014/1026 60 Chobham Road. Installation of vehicular crossover/dropped kerb.
PLAN/2014/0980 114 Robin Hood Road. Proposed 2 storey side and part ground floor extension following demolition of existing garage.
PLAN/2014/1023 28 Swallow Rise. Build a single storey side extension.
A full planning report will be added next week.
A322 increased congestion already
I see complaints regarding the A322 are getting louder already! Even making allowances for the current resurfacing of the road (night closures, raised ironworks etc), people in nearby villages are complaining of re-phased lights (fancy talk for changing the timings for the lights to change) and tailbacks into Bisley and West End.
Suggestion was made that changes have been made to junction traffic lights to restrict flow onto the A322 from adjoining roads up the main A322 which seems daft until you consider that the Brookwood Farm development (in Knaphill) comes with a much-touted brand new (untested?) ‘traffic management system’ which will easily cope with over capacity on the artery road. Perhaps the numbers have been revisited and the only way to make that area work is to make adjustments all along the A322? Maybe this was all part of the masterplan? Who knows?!
I dug this report up from SCC – Congestion Programme report – from 2013. In it, (p63) the A322/A324 junction is identified as a main challenge:
The main challenges in the borough have been identified as:
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Congestion in Woking town centre, Maybury, Knaphill and St Johns, and on the A324/A322 at Brookwood crossroads
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Poor air quality in Knaphill
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The railway line acts as a barrier to north-south movement in Woking town centre and also separates Maybury and Sheerwater, making it difficult to access the town centre and employment areas in Maybury and Sheerwater.
Clear as day that – the junction is a big problem. The report goes on to announce their proposed approach to solving this problem, which is to develop the Victoria Arch in Woking town centre and to provide improvements to the train station in… Woking town centre!
NOTHING to alleviate the stress on the A322. Oh yes and the funding will come, at least partly, from the CIL or s106 payments from the Brookwood Farm development (in Knaphill).
So as the KRA and numerous others pointed out to WBC, SCC, Highways and pretty much anyone that might be involved, the A322 is over congested and causing back ups and this is before people have even moved in to Brookwood Farm (in Knaphill…) and numerous other developments up the A322 have been built.
What will be done to alleviate the burden on the main road between the A3 and the M3 & M4? A couple of bike tracks. Maybe.
Not for Knaphill though. Despite footing the bill (a stretch I admit but Brookwood Farm developer payments should be spent on Knaphill infrastructure in my opinion) for a major development in the area, having the A322 identified as a major problem AND poor air quality, Knaphill village gets not so much as a pat on the back or an apology for being crapped on so often. Don’t expect any long-term improvement in air quality either. Even if measures are taken immediately to address the order currently issued for the top of Anchor Hill, as soon as people start moving in to Brookwood Farm it’s going to get worse again. Why? Because the exit from Sparvell Road forces traffic through the village due to a no right turn onto the A322 and people won’t want to wait at that Redding Way exit due to back ups.
As you might have picked up on, I am really cross about how Knaphill is repeatedly ignored by councils. The people that live here actually know the area and don’t rely on projections or unproven ‘traffic management’ methods. It wouldn’t hurt to acknowledge this and listen from time to time. If there are reasons for the decisions made that go in the face of popular opinion it wouldn’t hurt to state what they are and be open and honest about it, but I guess that’s just community minded thinking and we couldn’t have that could we.
In short, all the officials appear to know there is a serious issue with congestion on the A322 amongst other. They’re just not going to do anything about it.
Queens Road – Resurfacing
The saga of Queens Road continues. The road was scheduled for full resurfacing during 2013/14 but the work was deferred due to Surrey County Council concentrating on the impact the floods had hit other parts of Woking. The resurfacing work is part of Operation Horizon and when SCC published their first work schedule for 2014/15 Queens Road was not listed. The KRA asked Cllr. Hussain to find out what was happening and we then received two different notices that the work was to be done.
At a meeting of SCC and WBC held on 24 September we were told that the earliest Queens Road could be resurfaced would be April 2015. The reason for this further delay, as explained by representatives of SCC, was that the tar that makes up the current road surface is contaminated. Both myself and Cllr. Hussain tried to find out more detail of what this meant but detail was hard to come by. The report from SCC included the following explanation:-
‘Coring of roads has identified seven roads have a high presence of Tar bound material. Since 1982 this material has been classified as a hazardous material and can only be disposed of at specialist landfill sites.
At current rates this would be over £150 per tonne adding nearly £300,000 to scheme costs.
However a new solution has been identified that will enable tar to be recycled and costs reduced to approximately £50 to £70 per tonne. The solution will not be available until April 2015 and therefore decision to defer these seven sites.
Surrey Highways have explored alternative solutions that could have been delivered this year however, although product was successful in removing tar cost, the overall construction methods were found to be invasive for residents and therefore an alternative solution has been identified.’
So they are the facts. When asked what will happen in the meantime Surrey Highways stated that they would maintain the road to the statutory level for road safety. Personally, I am not sure what that means.
Phil Stubbs
myKnaphill 