Month: June 2018

Last night at the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Cllr Ashall and I raised the subject of Brookwood Railway station with representatives of Network Rail and South Western Railway. We raised the following issues that have caused resident’s problems:

• Disabled access
• Access for people with pushchairs
• Flooding
• Motorcycle bays

Of the five railway stations in the Borough, only Woking is mobility friendly. Certainly with Brookwood, the advice is that travellers who need to travel from the inaccessible platform two is to travel to Woking, use the lift and return or when coming back from the London direction, travel to Farnborough, use the lift and return. Obviously this makes a journey significantly longer and we think totally unacceptable in this day and age.

I have the Regional Development Manager’s contact details and I expect to meet up with him in the near future to discuss the problems.

Nothing obvious has progressed on Brookwood Lye housing other than to try and secure the site further. To state the obvious, I’m not currently happy about the gradual spread of the Travellers and I have made representations to enforcement.

I have spoken with the project manager responsible for the housing and he’s given me an update on progress. Planning officers gave a comprehensive reply to the original planning application early on this year and we held a roadshow at the start of the year where residents gave their views. All have been put into the mix.

Areas that have been looked at in more detail include a more detailed Flood Risk Assessment, the improvements to Brookwood Crossroads have now been directly linked to the development, a slight redesign to the brutal flatted buildings to make them blend in better with the surrounding properties, some minor tweaks here and there and finally additional reports as requested. I believe this has resulted in a small reduction in the number of dwellings.

The changes will be resubmitted soon and once validated as an acceptable application, the clock will start ticking again and the statutory consultation will begin.

Essentially, the process is working as it should although it is frustrating that it can be so slow.

Cheers.

Kevin

I’ve reported the incidence of fly-tipping down Heath House Road this morning. As part of it is in the road, hopefully it will be gone either today or tomorrow.

A while ago I did report the incidence of fly-tipping down Connaught Crescent by the garages, but I’m not aware of what has happened recently with it. I’ll wander down there and check if it is still there.

Cheers.

Kevin