WAVERLEY Borough Council came under renewed fire from objectors over its bid to deregister Wey Hill Fairground as common land and introduce pay-and-display car parking, last week.

Waverley’s response to more than 50 representations received by the Planning Inspectorate, including a protest petition signed by just over 1,000 people, was published last week and dismissed as “muddled and flawed”, and failing to answer their most pressing concerns.

Countering objections that the replacement site required due to loss of common land was smaller and not fit for purpose, Waverley stated it was not obliged to provide “like-for-like” land in its Sun Brow proposal.

Waverley stated: “The council acknowledges part of the replacement land is densely vegetated and has some steep slopes.

“However common land comes in all shapes and sizes and it was never the intention of the council to provide a like-for-like exchange.”

It also denied deregistration would give the town less say in the future use of the site and dismissed concerns raised about the loss of free parking as ‘irrelevant’ to the application.

Objector Aine Hall, who launched the protest petition, said: “Waverley Borough Council’s response to the Planning Inspectorate is muddled and flawed.

“It is disingenuous of Waverley Borough Council to claim it has been transparent when you still cannot find anything about this application on the Waverley website.

“The council asserts the application is in the public interest but its reasons to support this assertion are flimsy.

“Indeed, its response has quite simply not addressed many serious concerns expressed by residents and local organisations.”

Haslemere Chamber president Craig McGowan said: “The response from Waverley is esoteric and full of obfuscation.

“It is clear they wish to deregister the land so they can run it as a pay-and-display car park.

“Thanks to Waverley’s pricing policy for car parks, Wey Hill in particular, is already at a clear competitive disadvantage against towns in neighbouring counties.

“The Fairground land is our only weapon in the car park wars that help the businesses of Wey Hill compete and attract business.

“End that and the businesses will suffer and, consequently, so will Waverley.

“Anything that even slightly increases the costs for shoppers and makes the area less attractive could be the tipping point for some our traders there.”

Haslemere Vision chairman Stewart Brown, which supports plans for a mixed-use development on the site, said: “The key point here is the Wey Hill Fairground car park occupies a site of unique public value at a key location.

“The community has long aspired to link Wey Hill and High Street more conveniently.

“We have welcomed the proposal by Waverley Borough Council to allocate the site for development in part two of their Local Plan.

“Haslemere Vision has always recognised that, for such a development to proceed, deregistration of the site will be necessary but we challenge the need to deregister now.

“Despite the good intentions of councillors and officials, it is clear the present application is driven primarily by financial pressure and Waverley’s understandable need to generate income from car parking.

“Our sincere concern is that, once the site is deregistered, there will be no deterrent to a future administration succumbing to further financial pressures and simply selling this uniquely valuable site to the highest bidder sacrificing the interests of Haslemere residents.”

Interested parties now have until Monday, October 8, to comment on Waverley’s response.

It was also announced that a pulic inquiry will not be held and the appointed inspector will determine the application on the basis of all the written evidence and his observations at a site visit to be carried out on January 9.