The additional meeting of Hambledon Parish Council, called to consider the proposal by the new owners of Feathercombe Farm to erect a stable block with additional facilities in the protected landscape of the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, will take place at 8pm on Tuesday (June 27th) at the Village Hall.
The application by the Trinity Partnership to erect a 47-metre-long building in the field between the church and Hydon’s Ball has been widely opposed by residents and many have registered their objections with Waverley Borough Council, which will determine the application.
On Tuesday evening the parish council has its first opportunity to consider its formal response to the proposal. Having already expressed its concern and made the wider-village aware of the application, it is expected to unanimously object to the scheme.
In plans submitted to Waverley, the new building is described as for agricultural purposes, and the applicants are therefore seeking approval without going through the full planning process. However, the new build, which has stable units, an office, a vet room, feed room and storage space, appears to be entirely for equine purposes in support of the new owner’s polo business.
The proposed new stable block would be located in the far middle distance in this photograph taken from footpath 181 and would be seen from a wide area, including the Greensand Way long-distance path. This area is Green Belt and an AONB and currently there is no road or services in this area.
For more details on the proposal, please read the earlier news item on this website here: http://www.hambledonsurrey.co.uk/?p=17855
If you wish to view and comment on the proposal, you can do so here:
In advance of its meeting, the Parish Council has been in contact with the Surrey Hills AONB board, and its planning advisor has registered its objection on the Waverley planning website. It has also contacted local MP and village resident Jeremy Hunt, who knows the location well and has not only spoken out in defence of protecting the AONB but has suggested it could become a National Park.
The meeting on Tuesday evening is a formal meeting of the parish council, and not an open discussion forum. However, members of the public can attend and 15 minutes are allocated at the start of the meeting for any member of the public to briefly address the council. Councillors have already been informed as to the scale of opposition from the comments posted on the Waverley planning website, linked above.
If you wish to attend and speak, please advise our parish clerk so that seating arrangements can be made. The outcome of the meeting will be reported on this website.
The agenda and contact details can be found on this website: http://www.hambledonsurrey.co.uk/?page_id=26
This plan as well as the plan submitted to ‘develop’ the field SW of Hydestile Crossroads has all been applied for under the Agricultural planning laws. As we have clearly seen re the Hydon Farm Equine development, once permission is acquired the result is far from ‘Agricultural!’. Waverley Planning needs to review the laws surrounding Agricultural developments that are not providing food or livestock grazing . The loss of farming land to individual land owners seeking to enhance their financial status via the agricultural planning laws is depriving the nation as a whole of crops that feed us!