Bank Holiday news roundup

A slow news week this week, perhaps not surprisingly as it is in the thick of the holiday season.  Certainly Nikki Barton’s website haslemerefirst.com has nothing new to report since she last updated on 14 August.

The wasp-yellow website haslemereparkingdotcom has twice covered the “story” of penalty charge notices going up in the short-stay car park at Weyhill Fairground.  Apparently this penalty, for parking more than four hours in the western area on the other side of the barriers from the all-day commuter section, has been in force for several years so it doesn’t seem unreasonable that it should be properly advertised - as indeed my moles tell it has, as the signs have in fact been there for several years as well.

HAG also reports that a petition is being got up against the penalties, and can be signed in various local shops, including Woodie & Morris – a couple of paces only from Weyhill (eh??).  I will not be signing – I can’t imagine why anyone would need to be there for four hours to go shopping, and permitting such long stays denies spaces to customers who actually want to buy stuff in the Weyhill shops.  Shorter limits increase turnover of spaces and so total numbers of drive-in visitors, which is good for business.

The main feature on the front page of the Haslemere Herald is the proposal to develop “up to a maximum” of 150 homes on the site of Sturt Farm, a 33 acre undeveloped site immediately to the south of the Herons’ leisure centre.  Details can be seen on their website here.

 

Outline of development site, with Herons in top left corner

 

Apparently a previous developer was refused permission to build twice that number of homes, and the average of about 5 per acre is low density by modern standards.  No doubt it will upset some of the immediate neighbours, such as the lady in Sun Brow who bought her house five years ago because (?) it had a view over fields.  However, Waverley has a critical shortage of housing, and the borough council has not exactly done much to resolve that so far.  WBC are however right that thousand-plus housing developments on beige-field sites in the sticks like Dunsfold Park are not the way to go – a guaranteed anti-sustainable development which would inevitably greatly increase car-dependency, and young first-time buyers these days face the choice – if they can afford a home at all – of either a car, or a home, not both.  At least residents here could easily walk down to the station and town centre via the footpath to Longdene Road.

 

Also on the front page, news that the Poachers Pocket restaurant in Petworth Road is to close down.  Apparently its owners no longer consider it viable to maintain the premises on the level of business they have been able to attract in recent times. 

It is sad news, as we come to rely more and more on chain restaurants – Pizza Express, ASK and occasional rumours of Nando’s or Wagamama – but surely the Herald has got itself in a muddle if they think, as indeed they say, that  it is the only independent restaurant in the town?  What about Shahanaz, Curry Nights, Kritsana Thai, Good Earth?  Are they not restaurants?  Or is the Herald simply displaying its east-sider prejudice against Weyhill?

According to the Herald, the owners had this to say about their location:

 

So, we are back to the old pre-occupation, nay obsession, of the Herald – car parking.  Taking such a relentlessly negative view on the relationship of parking to commercial health of town centre businesses must surely be a self-fulfilling prophecy.  And in any case, who says that parking is not easily accessible?   The Waitrose (High Street) car park, which is free of charge after 7pm, is a mere 300 yards walk away, as the map below shows.

 

 



 

 

Finally, trust the Herald to be truly up to the minute with the news as always, with this report headlined:

This story has been reported at least once before – twice, I think – in the Herald.  Have they forgotten they have already covered it?  Or is it just a laudable effort at recycling?

Note how, just caught on the image, Julianne Evans manages to get her ha’porth in.  Prefaced by “Haslemere Chamber of Trade called on the borough...” etc, they quote from the former president of the Chamber.

Yes, former president, although it is not clear that she knows it yet.