Sir, – Sir, – I have read with interest the exchange of correspondence about the Charter Walk steel barrier, the most recent being from councillor Robert Knowles in the Herald of November 13, in which he states that Malcolm Stathers' letter of the previous week contained "a number of inaccurate statements". Knowing Mr Stathers, I find that surprising.
Mr Knowles is however right to say that Compulsory Purchase Orders can only be authorised when the acquiring authority can demonstrate that there is a formal planning or development objective.
However, the fact is that when Charter Walk was being planned, the presence of the one-metre wide strip on the north side of the access route, which is owned by the Gibbs Trust, was clearly understood and it was at that time that action could, and should, have been taken.
It was a condition of the planning consent that the developers should use their 'best endeavours' to agree terms with the Gibbs Trust so as to allow materials to be brought to the site from the car park end (as opposed to the West Street end). Had that been made a binding condition and then enforced then we would not be faced with the situation which confronts us today.
Given that there is still much dereliction in the area (despite much of it being within the town centre Conservation Area) it should be possible to prepare a planning brief for the area which would provide that essential objective. Such a scheme need not include all of the Key Site – which includes the greater part of the car park but could be confined to the areas of appalling desuetude around the old slaughter house.
The Haslemere Society wrote to Waverley's chief executive almost exactly a year ago suggesting that as less staff time was (presumably) now being devoted to planning issues, should professional planning and legal staff time be given to addressing the problems which continues to blight this very prominent part of the town? The Strategic Director replied saying that a Special Interest Group had been formed and the points we made would be brought to their attention. Since then we have heard nothing.
Surely this is the time to demonstrate some real determination to tackle the problem which has persisted for far too long.
The scenes of dereliction on Lower Street and the properties behind would not look out of place in a Wild West ghost town. Perhaps the Special Interest Group could be encouraged to make a serious attempt to tackle this long-standing affront to the fair face of Haslemere. If I, or my colleagues on the committee of the society, can help then we should be delighted to do so.
Robert Serman, president, Haslemere Society,
Courts Mount Road, Haslemere