LAND AT COMMUNITY PLANNING WEEKEND

REPORT BACK PRESENTATION

18 October 2016 • St George’s Church, Badshot Lea

INTRODUCTION

COMMUNITY PLANNING WEEKEND

KEY THEMES

ANALYSIS

VISION

NEXT STEPS The Site The Site Planning Policies Town Council Walkabout Event flyer Press Informal conversations Walking/cycling routes

Community Animation Community Animation Informal Conversations

Informal conversations with 40 local people at or along: Badshot Lea Road Road leading to Preymead Farm The Cricketers The Pond & the Park The Green St George’s Road Runfold St George Lower Weybourne Lane Swiftshore Cadets building William Cobbett Primary School Upper Hale Road Squire’s Garden Centre, and Café Starbucks, at Sainsbury’s The Kiln (Leapfrogs staff member) Cycle route from Shepherd & Flock roundabout

Community Animation Squire’s

• ‘We need houses’ • ‘We’d prefer it to stay as fields’ • ‘This doesn’t affect us’ • ‘We’re not bothered’ • ‘Develop Farnham’ • ‘It’s a commuter town’ • ‘I don’t think you can really change how it is, the older generation usually dominate the conversation, it’s always been like that’ • ‘You have to consider what the community needs, otherwise it’ll become a dormitory town’.

Community Animation Squire’s

Young Families: • ‘We need places for kids at weekends’ • ‘We don’t knock on our neighbours doors anymore and say ‘do you want to come and play’. Weekends are parents and kids times rather than leaving your kids to go off and play’ • ‘Anywhere for [the kids] to let off some steam is a good thing.’

Young Adults: • ‘We need new housing, especially affordable housing for first time buyers’ • ‘We found it really hard to find a place to live, really hard!’ • ‘We’re moving in a few weeks, it’s too expensive here.’ • ‘There’s not much for them to do around here.’

Community Animation INTRODUCTION

COMMUNITY PLANNING WEEKEND

KEY THEMES

ANALYSIS

VISION

NEXT STEPS Team Tour Start/end point Bus routes Walking routes

Team Tour A31

Badshot Lea Village Infant School Team Briefing Exhibition Problems-Dreams-Solutions Workshop

Problems – Dreams - Solutions Workshop Problems-Dreams-Solutions Workshop

Issues

• Attitude to proposal: Total opposition by many residents, especially members of Badshot Lea CA; resignation or indifference by others, and support by some if it provides facilities and affordable housing for young adults and families.

"We don't want all these houses!"

"We’re not bothered!"

"I believe the area is crying out for new housing, and a large development with the focus on green space and ecologically friendly building can only be a good thing."

Issues & Actions Issues

• Planning issues: Site not in Waverley Local Plan or Farnham Neighbourhood Plan - lots of effort has been put in by Badshot Lea residents

"A lot of people have put themselves out to make the village what it is.”

• Local politics: cynicism, “dodgy” developers, section 106 money goes elsewhere

"People round here feel badly let down – S106 money hasn't been spent round here."

Issues & Actions Issues

• Identity of village: village feels “besieged” by development; change is difficult but inevitable

"Change and adaption is a natural process in life. Without it this village will be left in the past, and the “community” will continue to dwindle."

Issues & Actions Issues

• Community spirit: no consensus on whether it exists or not / generation divide

"Badshot Lea’s community spirit is exemplary in the Farnham context."

"Maybe it’s a community of some people, but it’s not a community of all of us."

Issues & Actions Issues

• Impact on infrastructure: sewage capacity, drainage; stress on local health care; schools already oversubscribed

"We need improvements to the sewage."

"My granddaughter has to go to , she couldn't get into school here."

Issues & Actions Issues

• Getting around: major traffic issue already: congestion / parking / poor cycling and walking links

"The traffic situation makes my blood boil."

"You've got to get people out of their cars."

Issues & Actions Actions

• Need to provide integrated development – a holistic approach

• Less focus by Waverley BC on Badshot Lea as a focus for housing development

• Respect “green wedges” between Badshot Lea, Weybourne / Farnham /

• Crucial to “sort out” the traffic; development must not make it worse

• Provide walking / cycling link to Farnham station (and elsewhere)

• Need for a whole range of really well designed and affordable homes

Issues & Actions Actions

• Support for self build and custom build opportunities

• Village amenities: corner shop (safe for children to walk to), good facilities for teenagers; playing fields; grazing fields, stables; informal places to meet and socialize; family friendly pub / restaurant

• Masterplan design: to include lots of green, trees, pond, allotments, orchard; area for community events – so people can have much more ‘togetherness’

• Additional school provision

Issues & Actions Lunchtime Talk on Custom and Self Build Homes Custom Build & Self-Build Homes

Custom build • Working with a specialist developer to help deliver home

Self-build • Directly organising the design and construction of home including: o traditional 'DIY self build' home o arranging architect/contractor to build home for them o kit homes where the self builder finds the plot, arranges for the slab to be installed o community-led projects with community organising and doing construction work

Lunchtime Talk on Custom and Self Build Homes

Community Land Trust

• Local organisations set up and run by ordinary people to develop and manage homes • Can also include other assets like community enterprises, community spaces, food growing or workspaces. • Homes should be genuinely affordable, based on what people actually earn in their area, not just for now but for every future occupier.

Lunchtime Talk on Custom and Self Build Homes

Hands-On Planning Hands-On Planning: Badshot Garden Village Hands-On Planning: Badshot Garden Village Badshot Garden Village – Red Site

•1 Development of 2 4 appropriately scaled farmyard clusters

2• North south and east 2 west pedestrian and cycle linkages – greened links 2 1 3 •3 Creation of a central 2 greened space as a focus to the links

4• Important to maintain the setting of the listed buildings

Hands-On Planning: Badshot Garden Village Badshot Garden Village – Blue Site

•1 Promote sports and leisure on the “blue site”

2• Create a bridge link across the A31,recreating the old PROW and 2 providing a new, direct 1 link to the SANG

Hands-On Planning: Badshot Garden Village Badshot Garden 1 Village - SANG

•1 Simple car park

2 •2 More organised activities also encouraged

• Essential items: interpretation boards, way markers, dog bins, footpath surfacing where needed (5-10%)

• Green infrastructure should include; structural planting buffers to sensitive edges, central copse planting, and boundary planting of mixed native hedges.

Hands-On Planning: Badshot Garden Village Hands-On Planning: Connect Badshot Lea

Hands-On Planning: Connect Badshot Lea

Connect Badshot Lea 3 •1 Currently problems at Shepherd and Flock roundabout 4

2• Identified arm of the roundabout that causes / contributes to this issue

•3 Think about links and 2 connectivity to services e.g. schools, Sainsburys, 1 community centres

4• Improve footpath provision into Badshot Lea along Badshot Lea Road

Hands-On Planning: Connect Badshot Lea Connect Badshot Lea

2 •1 Existing bus routes – important however recognition of a reduced service recently

1 2• Importance of pedestrian and cycle routes to the 3 school

1 •3 Dangerous junction on 4 A31 slip road / St George’s road

4• The maintenance of pedestrian and cycle routes is important – current routes are overgrown

Hands-On Planning: Connect Badshot Lea Hands-On Planning: Anti-Belmopan

Hands-On Planning: Anti-Belmopan

Anti – Belmopan

• Communities needed to grow naturally –can be nurtured but not created

• Belmopan in Belize was cited as an unsuccessful example of a ‘planned community’

• Providing spaces for local community events is important

• Providing homes for a range of income groups is an important aspect of nurturing communities.

• Upgrade the sewage works is vital

Hands-On Planning: Connect Badshot Lea Hands-On Planning: Mixed Use Diversity Garden Village

Hands-On Planning: Mixed Use Diversity Garden Village

Mixed Use Diversity Garden Village •1 New access from north- 1 west 7 2• Primary school 3• Courtyard housing – mixed tenure and price 6 4• Community focus at 2 cross roads •5 Employment buffer 4 3 8 5 9 •6 Drainage pond at lowest point of site •7 Custom/self-build plots •8 Hotel •9 Re-engineered access from south-east

Hands-On Planning: Mixed Use Diversity Garden Village Hands-On Planning: Badshot Lea

Hands-On Planning: Badshot Lea

Badshot Lea • 1 Green “fingers” running west-east used to define and scale areas of development

2• North south and east 3 west pedestrian and cycle 1 linkages – greened links

2 •3 Creation of copse 2 woodland to the west in association with allotments in the areas 4 beneath the power lines.

4• Realign bridleway to avoid A31

Hands-On Planning: Badshot Lea Badshot Lea 1 • 1 Improvements to the cycle route to Farnham station, linking the existing footpath off Badshot Lea Road through the site, across 1 the A31 via the new bridge to a safer route 2 into Farnham 1 2• Exciting play space

Hands-On Planning: Badshot Lea Hands-On Planning: Renew

Hands-On Planning: Renew

Renew

• Younger members of community felt there was little in the village for them

• They wanted a new meeting place: a café with Wifi and exhibition space, or a family friendly pub

• Good infant school is the reason families choose to live in Badshot Lea

• Housing is too expensive – new homes need to be genuinely affordable and offer more choice

Saturday: Hands-On Planning Renew

• Homes designed around communal spaces, amenities would encourage community spirit

• Young people felt left out of the Neighbourhood Plan consultation and were not opposed to the village expanding if it offered them the things they wanted

• Social media better to engage young people rather than events

Saturday: Hands-On Planning Team Working INTRODUCTION

COMMUNITY PLANNING WEEKEND

KEY THEMES

ANALYSIS

VISION

NEXT STEPS Principle of Development

Badshot Lea owes its origins to farming and market gardens. Since the 1950s it has accommodated residential growth and now, due to the pressing need to provide more new homes in the area, it is faced with further expansion. Residents have put in time and energy participating in the Local Plan process and helping to produce the draft Farnham Neighbourhood Plan, which identifies a number of sites for residential development around Badshot Lea. The land south of Badshot Lea, the focus of the CPW, is being promoted by a consortium of landowners through the Local Plan process. Because it is not currently identified in the emerging plans some members of the community do not support the principle of development. Others however see many advantages in developing the site for housing, mixed uses and the community benefits it could deliver. For the young adults particularly, the housing crisis is very real with no current prospect of owning their own home in the area where they grew up. Their priority is to secure truly affordable and decent housing to meet their needs.

Key Themes

Principle of Development “

Do we, as a community, want to take on

more houses? We don't!

“ “ I was disappointed to see people claiming to be representing the wider community in Badshot Lea voicing their strong opposals, these people do not “ speak for me, or any other of the residents in the local area that I know of.

Key Themes New Neighbourhood Based on Garden Village Principles

If the proposals do go forward, participants were keen to see a sociable and green neighbourhood built on garden village principles. This would include a range of housing for a balanced, supportive and enterprising community, including custom and self build, a network of greenways and green spaces and a mix of community amenities and employment opportunities. Active travel would be designed in to encourage walking and cycling throughout the neighbourhood and linked to the wider network, including Farnham station.

Key Themes

New Neighbourhood Based on Garden Village Principles

I believe the area is crying out for new housing, and a “

large development with the focus on green space and

ecologically friendly building can only be a good thing

“ - certainly the sort of estate I'd like to raise my young family in.

“ There needs to be a holistic vision, not bits and pieces of development. I wonder what will the “ place look like on Google maps in ten years time?!

Key Themes Having a Voice

The Community Planning process enabled local people of all ages to have their say. The proposal to develop more homes got a mixed reception with strong

opposition from the Badshot Lea Community Association. However, the younger generation spoke up passionately in favour of developing the site to meet their

need for genuinely affordable homes. This is a microcosm of the situation evident “ across the south east due to the housing shortage that often makes it impossible for younger people to rent or buy decent homes.

The Community Association has voiced their “ disapproval.

“ No-one young thinks they have a voice to make things change.

Key“ Themes Character and Community

Discussions on village character and community spirit emphasised the challenge of how to retain Badshot Lea’s historic distinctiveness as a separate village with its own identity, while providing the amenities and quality of life needed by people living in the 21st century. Participants differed as to whether there was a strong community spirit in Badshot Lea with some passionately asserting that there is a very active and strong community whilst others felt that the community spirit had declined markedly over recent years and the village didn't provide sufficient facilities and amenities for them and their families.

Key Themes

Character and Community “

Badshot Lea has the most enviable community spirit.

I don't want to hear anyone denounce that.

After spending a large majority of my childhood

“ “ growing up in the area I feel confident in saying

there was not a sense of community. However this development could refresh that feeling and bring a

“ “ new lease of life to Badshot Lea and the surrounding areas.

The community is in Sainsburys!.

Key“ Themes Affordable Housing Provision

For the young adults the housing crisis is very real and with no current prospect of owning their own home in the area their focus was on providing truly affordable housing to meet their needs – to rent or to buy. There was support for the introduction of housing types that would enable people on lower incomes to become owners. Self build and custom build houses would be welcomed, by those already in the building trade, and by those who could see this would provide a way to afford a home of their own. Discussion on the benefits of setting up a Community Land Trust underlined the need to future-proof affordable accommodation in the village.

Key Themes

Affordable Housing Provision “

The older generation don't want the housing but

there is nothing in the village for under 30s that is

affordable.

“ “ Where are my children and grandchildren going to live? They want to stay and live here – but there’s nothing for them. If more houses are built they “ might be able to.

Key Themes Community and Services Infrastructure

Participants pointed to the need for improved infrastructure to support more homes. There is pressure on school places and medical provision with both being

a high priority for both the existing community and new arrivals. The Hale sewage treatment works already has inadequate capacity and enhanced provision is

needed for both waste and surface water drainage. It is important that the new “ neighbourhood brings a range of new community amenities and contributes funds to improve services in the local area.

Everything is at breaking point. Everyone can see the “ infrastructure is inadequate. “ There is a shortage of school places right across . The development should support the existing “ local schools to expand. Key Themes Getting Around

There is already a huge pressure on the local road network and more development in the local area will add to the demands. Congestion at peak times including at the crossroads in the village and at the St George’s Road / Guildford Road junction is a key concern for local people. Although traffic congestion was cited as one reason for restricting the number of homes, new development could fund improvements to road infrastructure, bus services and cycle routes making it easier for everyone to get around. In addition, workshop participants were supportive of investing in active transport within and through the new neighbourhood i.e. walking and cycling, especially the idea of improved connectivity by bicycle to Farnham station. The construction of a bridleway bridge over the A31 would provide a key benefit to the Badshot Lea community.

Key Themes

Getting Around “

It’s choc-a-block during the rush hour. You can’t get

out of Farnham….Some people spend four hours

every day stuck in a traffic jam!

“ “

If we can create nice footpaths and ways for people to cycle; if we can get to Farnham station “ by bicycle, that will reduce the number of cars.

Key Themes Village Amenities

Whilst some believed the village had sufficient meeting places to sustain a good community, others, particularly the younger adults, complained that the existing pubs and amenities did not appeal to them and wanted a local shop, café and a different type of space to meet friends. A more child-friendly pub with a play area was suggested. There was a desire to retain the rural features of Badshot Lea and

keep some stabling, grazing fields and riding routes. In addition, the SANG and Forest School proposals could provide major recreational and educational assets for the area.

We want to create community spaces that allow “ people in the village to walk into community spaces in the new neighbourhood site – walkabout “ footpaths.

Key Themes Benefit of SANG and Access to It

Part of the proposal is for a new recreational area SANG) south of Guildford

Road. The development of an area for informal, but managed, open space was welcomed. This would best serve village dog walkers if it was accompanied by a pedestrian link from the village over the A31. There is a real opportunity for schools to use the proposed Forest School area proposed adjacent to the SANG “ for den building and other educational activities.

Anywhere for the kids to let off some steam “ is a good thing.

Key Themes Collaborative Planning Process

Some Weekend participants, especially those opposed to development, were sceptical of the community planning process. Nevertheless, it was an opportunity for the team to listen to and record people’s concerns. People who took part in the hands-on planning groups were able to contribute suggestions for the appropriate layout of the neighbourhood, the location of potential community uses and the relationship with the existing village. The creation of a Community

Land Trust can help foster community spirit and activities and community participation will be a key element in delivering the new neighbourhood on garden village principles. “

You can’t create a community artificially, it has to be done by the people who live there. It comes “ from within.

Key Themes