A £2 MILLION purpose-built community centre for Haslemere’s elderly is in the pipeline in support of the 1,500 new homes allocated for the town and surrounding villages.

Waverley Borough Council has given itself until 2032 to provide the centre, which will be funded by the cash contributions required from property developers building more than 9,000 homes across the borough to meet increased government housing targets.

Developers will also be asked to fund improvements to the town’s Wey Centre and help Surrey County Council plug a £700,000 shortfall in schemes to upgrade town bus stops with real-time passenger information and to integrate buses with train services.

The cash will also be used to improve outdoor play areas and upgrade toilets at The Herons and refurbish The Edge Leisure Centre. Specific improvements for the town are identified in Waverley’s infrastructure delivery plan (IDP) published in support of its draft Local Plan, which has been put out to public consultation until October 3.

Hopes that a £2 million centre could become the new home of the town’s Orchard Club when it quits Haslewey Community Centre next March, were dispelled by the borough council. A spokesman said it was “separate from the relationship between The Orchard Club and Hasleway”.

Explaining the inclusion of the centre – which is grant-aided by Waverley for its services to the elderly until 2018 – in the document, the spokesman told The Herald: “The IDP is part of the evidence base supporting the Local Plan and identifies infrastructure required to support development up until 2032.

“The increase in population over the local plan period is likely to require additional built community space. A purpose built community centre, providing services for older people in Haslemere, is one of the potential facilities we would like to provide in order to support our residents.”

A basic principle of the IDP is developers should pay to mitigate the additional demand for infrastructure that large-scale housing developments trigger.

The IDP states: “It is essential developers demonstrate adequate water supply and sewerage capacity exists both on and off the site to serve the development, and that it would not lead to problems for existing users.

Potential sites in Haslemere and surrounding villages for around 1,500 of the 9,861 new houses that need to be built by 2032 are identified in Waverley’s land availability assessment updated up until this month, which has also been published as part of the evidence base in support of the draft Local Plan.

The document identifies potential sites rather than allocates sites to be developed, and the borough council will decide where to allocate housing and economic development sites through the Local Plan.

It reveals 100 new homes have been built in Haslemere since April 2013, with a further 260 granted planning consent which has not yet been implemented.

The document considers there is a “reasonable prospect” 50 houses could be built in six to 10 years time on Haslemere Key Site, which comprises the High Street car park behind Waitrose and extends to Haslemere fire station and Tanners Lane car park.

The ‘Youth Campus’ in Wey Hill, home to Haslemere Scouting groups and St John Ambulance among others, could yield 31 houses within five years with the proviso “any future development would need to ensure any commercial and community uses are protected”.

A new mixed residential and retail development including 30 homes could be built on and around the Barons BMW showroom in Hindhead within five years, with 50 houses just down the road at Andrews garden machinery business, and potentially 30 more within the grounds of Brownscombe care home off Hindhead Road – all within the same time period.

A strip of land owned by Thames Water on the A287 next to Sturt Farm could yield 20 houses within five years, and 20 more houses could potentially be built down the road on a field next to Haslemere Saw Mills.

Outside Haslemere, it anticipates Witley parish could deliver 427 new homes by 2032.

Of these, part of Milford Golf Club near Busdens Way, could deliver a settlement of 180 new homes in six to 10 years’ time, with a potential 90 houses within the same timescale between Manor Fields and the A3.

There are also two possible developments of 60 new homes within the same period – one to be built on a paddock south west of Old Elstead Road, and another at Gorse Hill, off Petworth Road, in Wormley.

Undeveloped land near the junction of Portsmouth Road, Lower Moushill Lane and Old Elstead Road in Milford, could also deliver 30 houses in six to 10 years, with 20 in the same timescale on land at Mousehill Mead, Milford, and another potential 20 at Wheeler Street Nurseries, in Witley.

The documents considers Chiddingfold could deliver 92 new homes by 2032, with a development of 50 possible in six to 10 years time, on agricultural land behind Queen’s Mead, and 36 houses within the same timescale on a former paddock next to Crofts Close.

• Full details at www.waverley.gov.uk