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The Parish Council is an elected body responsible for maintenance and other matters in the Parish of
Dunsfold. In particular it works in conjunction with The Friends of Dunsfold Common (a Registered Charity)
as a Commons Committee to arrange the maintenance of the Common and to report problems to the appropriate
local authority. The Council has a right to comment on planning applications submitted for approval to
Waverley Borough Council relating to properties within the Parish. It meets six times a year in the Nugent Room at the Winn Hall
and meetings are usually on a Monday starting at 7.30pm. The May meeting in the Winn Hall is the Annual Parish Assembly
and AGM at which the officers for the year are elected. The Council schedules a planning meeting in between the
bi-monthly meetings in case consideration is required on planning matters during the two month gap. The Council
is also Trustee owner of King George V Playing Field which is administered on its behalf by the KGV Management
Committee.
Notices of meetings are placed on the Parish Notice Board outside the hall, and members of the public are
welcome to attend. Time is set aside at each meeting to receive questions from the General Public, generally
at about 8.30pm.
The Council is funded by a Precept received from Waverley Borough Council as part of the Council Tax. It
provides support to Parish projects of common interest to the community.
The Clerk to the Council is Lynne Enticknap, who has day to day responsibility for the administration of
its affairs. Letters and queries should be addressed to her at Sethern, Rams Lane, Dunsfold, GU8 4NR; telephone 01483 200532.
The Council members are elected for a four year period (last elected in May 2007) in accordance with Local
Government procedures. The current members are:
LISTING OF SCHOOL BUILDING
English Heritage has informed the Parish Council that its application for listing of the Dunsfold School Building has
been accepted by the Secretary of State (for Culture, Media and Sport). The listing of the building at Grade II has therefore already taken effect.
The summary of reasons given by English Heritage in a detailed report is:-
"Dunsfold School is an 1839 Tudor Style, brick National School built at the expense of a local benefactress. It is symmetrical in composition with
central two storey and attic schoolmaster's house flanked by single storey classrooms for boys and girls. The exterior is substantially intact and
there is a good survival of interior features, especially to the school house. Despite the addition of an early C20 wing of lesser interest to the
rear, this is a substantially intact and unusually elaborate example of a pre-1840 National School, and is therefore of sufficient interest, in a national context, to merit listing".
It is to be hoped that this listing will help this important but neglected village building to be restored to its former glory in its setting in the
common Conservation Area and also restored to a village community use.
We are grateful to Stephen Hayward for his excellent photo-shoot of the building which greatly helped the application.
The Secretary of State for Education's decision on the application of the Diocese, opposed by the Parish Council and 75 villagers, for an order which
will enable it to sell the School part of the building free of its trust educational use, is still awaited.
DUNSFOLD PARK PLANNING MATTERS
Permission has been refused by Waverley for the five duplicate planning applications by which Dunsfold Park sought permission for a wide range of
temporary uses of the site up to 2018. The uses sought had included motoring events, filming by road vehicles and aircraft, concerts, including 'pop' concerts, festivals, markets, and
outdoor storage up to a height of 5 metres on the southern runways. The Parish Council had objected to the applications on the grounds that individually and in aggregate
the activities were excessive in frequency, duration (mostly without limit up to 11pm each day) and length of the temporary period sought.
POST OFFICE CLOSURE AREA PLAN FOR SURREY
Following the Government's Consultation exercise on this subject at the beginning of this year, to which the Parish Council and Tony Bowden made submissions, the Area Plan
for Surrey will be published in January 2008 followed by a six week consultation on the proposed post office closures for this area. That publication will follow a period
of review and analysis this autumn. We shall be attending a meeting of the Town and Parish Councils at Waverley on September 12th at which a further update on this matter will be provided.
BRITISH LEGION SITE DEVELOPMENT
Permission was granted to English Rural Housing Association by Waverley on 8th August for the demolition of the Royal British Legion Club building and the erection
of 4 private dwellings and 7 affordable dwellings with associated access and car parking . It is accepted that on completion the existing jointly used car park will
be transferred to the Winn Hall Trustees for the sole use of Winn Hall users.
The report noted the genuine need for affordable housing in Dunsfold as shown by the Housing Needs Survey carried out by ERHA in partnership with the Parish Council
and the number with Dunsfold connection on Waverley's Housing Needs Register
NEXT PARISH COUNCIL MEETING: Monday 17th September at 7.30 pm in the Nugent Room. All welcome.
Alan Ground
15th August 2007
Note of principal points - not minutes
PRESENT: Parish Councillors: Mr Alan Ground (Chairman), Mr Barrie Pople (Vice Chairman), Mrs Joanna Burt, Mr Roy Enticknap, Professor Chris Marks,
Mrs Lynne Enticknap (Clerk to the Council).
COMMONS COMMITTEE
Dunsfold Bonfire - 5th November
Village Car Park
Horses on footpath
Pond maintenance - Wrotham Hill and Gratton Corner ponds
PARISH COUNCIL
South East England Plan (SEP) - Inspectors' Report
Dunsfold Aerodrome: The Wings & Wheels event August 26th
Post Office Closure Area Plan for Surrey
Boundary Commission changes for Parliamentary Constituencies
NEXT PARISH COUNCIL MEETING: Monday 12th November at 7.30 pm in the Nugent Room. All welcome.
This note is being written on 13th December to meet the printing deadline for the January Magazine. The Parish Council has met
three times over the past few weeks and has attended meetings in the Waverley Council Chamber on the Dunsfold Park Development Control
Forum (November 7th), the meeting of Waverley Parish and Town Councils (3rd December), and a meeting at Dunsfold Park on 8th November where
a presentation was made to us and the chairman of Alfold Parish Council on Dunsfold Park's new settlement proposals. The following is a summary
of the principal matters additional to the routine business.
DUNSFOLD PARK
Dunsfold Park have stated that they intend before Christmas to put in a planning application for a new
settlement of 2,600 dwellings, and an increase in the business park whose numbers will grow from the
current 700 persons to 2,000. Their presentation to the Waverley Development Control Forum was essentially
the same as that made about the proposals to the September 2006 Forum. The only significant addition was that
in October 2007 they had submitted an Eco-Town bid for the proposed new settlement to the Government.
The following points about this are uncontroversial:-
1. The proposal will eventually be decided by a Public Inquiry. Since it is contrary to Local and other Planning policies it will not be
approved without being "called in" for Public Inquiry by the Government. If it is refused by Waverley Dunsfold Park have said
they will appeal, which will be decided at a Public Inquiry.
2. Dunsfold Park's Eco-Town bid does not satisfy the Government's Prospectus requirements for such
a bid. Amongst other things those require a settlement of at least 5,000 dwellings. Dunsfold Park said
it would oppose a settlement of that size.
3. Even if they did not, a new settlement proposal of 2,600 or more dwellings on this site would face
great difficulty under the applicable planning criteria at local, county, regional and national level. An indication
of the problems was contained in the conclusion of the Government appointed Inspectors considering the draft
South East Plan. They had been asked by Dunsfold Park to consider the contribution Dunsfold Aerodrome could make to
the housing requirements in this area. Their Report concluded that Dunsfold Park's proposal for a new settlement on
the Aerodrome would be unsustainable due to its location and inaccessibility. They said:
If and when a planning application is submitted the Parish Council will consider it in public.
POST OFFICE CLOSURE PROGRAMME
The Post Office is required by the Government to close 2,500 post offices throughout the country under regulations
which ultimately derive from European Union deregulation and State Aid policies, although you don't hear much about
this origin from the Government. The Post Office is rolling out area plans for the 50 or so national areas indicating
which Post Offices will be closed. The Plan for this Area is due to be published on January 29th 2008, following which
there will be a six week public consultation period.
Waverley are providing general support and advice and have information
and a questionnaire on their website which they would like residents to complete. However it is invidious and impossible for
Waverley to get involved in supporting individual offices. The Parish Council have been discussing the position with
Tony and Sue Bowden and will be in touch with those producing the Area Plan. Our Post Office is important for the village
and the local area including Hascombe, and important to the viability of the shop. The village commitment to the shop and
Post Office is a plus factor and is demonstrated by the Tripartite Agreement between Tony and Sue, the Parish Council and
Waverley Borough Council which provides for the transfer of the retail premises to or to the order of the Parish Council
in the event of a change of ownership. The Parish Council will be further in touch with the village about this subject in the new year.
SCHOOL BUILDING
The scandalous position about this buildings continues. Villagers will recall that at the request of the
Diocese made last October, the Secretary of State for Education published in April a draft Order for consultation
which would release the Diocese from the educational trust obligation imposed when they were given the
building, and allow them to sell the building on the open market.
The Parish Council and some seventy five
villagers submitted objections to the proposed Order in April on the grounds that it would be against the
village interest in the property which should be retained for community, including educational and child
based, use. The SOS office confirmed that all representations would be taken into account, sent to the Diocese
and any comments relayed to villagers and the Parish Council.
In the ensuing seven months nothing further has
been heard notwithstanding our subsequent contact. The Secretary of State has been informed of the listing of
the building in August on the application of the Parish Council. At our request our MP has reiterated his
request to the SOS of the need for a decision. Without it the status of the building is uncertain, the Charity
Commission can do nothing until the SOS declines jurisdiction, and the building remains empty and at risk.
It was reported to the November Parish Council meeting, which was also attended by Canon Jenkins, that the
Chairman and Vice Chairman had been told on 10th October about an approach the PCC had made to the Diocese in
July. This was to put forward some PCC ideas for the building to become a Parish Centre, an approach reported
by Canon Jenkins in the November Parish Magazine. The Diocesan response to the PCC, stated to be subject to
obtaining the consent of the SOS through the Section 554 process, was to suggest to the PCC a 25 year full
repairing and insuring lease at a premium of £112,500 with the renovation costs to be borne by the PCC, together
with any amount Surrey County Council would require for the School House. Whilst welcoming the PCC wish, shared by
the Parish Council, for a community use of the building, the Parish Council expressed the view that:
COMMONS MATTERS - PONDS
Further work has been carried out to the ponds including particularly the Grattons Corner pond, where trees and vegetation have been
cut back behind the pond opening up the view to Hascombe Hill. The area from the pond and along Shoppe Hill, where grass mowings and
garden rubbish had been dumped in front of the row of dead elm trees, has been cleared , the dead elms removed, and the ditch cleared out. The need
for further work will be discussed including new planting and tidying up.
NEXT PARISH COUNCIL MEETING: Monday 14th January 2008 at 7.30 pm in the Nugent Room. All welcome.
Alan Ground
The Parish Council has been contacted by the promoters of this Project and asked to bring
it to the attention of villagers. The area covered by the Project (one-third of the total 240 km2 at the
western end of the Low Weald being on the Surrey side of the county boundary) includes virtually the whole of the area of this village.
The Project is a partnership of government organisations, local authorities and voluntary bodies
based at the Sussex Wildlife Trust, with funding also from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Chichester
District Council. It seeks to promote the integrated management of a viable and enhanced landscape in
the West Weald for people and nature, seeks to support local people to take action to conserve, enhance
and enjoy their remarkable environment, and invites us all to work with them to achieve this goal.
The Project promoters say:-
Alan Ground,
Link to Godalming Town
Council's website
Link to Guildford Borough
Council's website
Link to Surrey County
Council's website
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