OBJECTORS to Waverley Borough Council’s application to deregister Wey Hill Fairground as common land to introduce pay-and-display parking, seized the opportunity to make their views known to Haslemere Town Council last week.

A ‘Save our Fairground’ protest petition on Change.Org urges residents to respond to the Planning Inspectorate’s public consultation, which closes on Monday, July 16, and has attracted 1,000 signatures.

The town council held Monday’s public meeting in Haslemere Hall to get feedback from residents, before agreeing its response to the consultation at its full council meeting.

The hall was booked in case the 1,000 people who had signed the petition turned up, but in the event less than 100 residents showed.

Residents objected that resurfacing the car park and formalising the layout of the site, which has been used as a free car park for decades, could lose 60 spaces, and introducing charging would mean more cars parked on neighbouring roads.

Responding to a complaint it was commuters who used the site, because charges at Haslemere station were higher than those in Waverley-owned car parks, town council clerk Lisa O’Sullivan said a working party had been formed to look at making charges more equal.

Haslemere Society vice-president John Greer was applauded when he said: “We don’t want pay and display, we want it to be left as it is until we have agreed a development scheme.

“Once Waverley gets in with pay and display it will be a heck of a job dislodging them. We want the site developed for the benefit of residents of Haslemere not a ‘cash cow’ for Waverley.”

Asking for feedback on whether deregistration was desirable or necessary, Mrs O’Sullivan said councillor Nikki Barton had informed the town council in March it was not a legal requirement, as stated in the Planning Inspectorate decision which permitted car parking back in 1994.

Mrs O’Sullivan added the town council had also taken legal advice and been told deregistration was not necessary, and she understood Waverley had made the application because it would deliver another area that could be used as common land for the benefit of residents.

Waverley is proposing to swap a site it owns near Sun Brow in order to authorise the loss of common land in Wey Hill.

Objectors reminded the town council of the anger voiced by residents at its annual meeting earlier in the year, who protested the town was giving valuable land away without knowing if there was anything in it for the community. Aine Hall was also applauded, when she said: “I’m pretty furious.

“Waverley’s application has cost £4,900 of our money. I do think Haslemere Town Council should have done more to hold Waverley to account.

“The land swap begins beyond the garages and the height of the slope from Kings Road to Sun Brow is a joke.

“Our evidence shows the Wey Hill site is bigger than the land swop.

“It’s really important when people write to the Planning Inspectorate they make the point that the swap is not bigger than the fairground. Waverley has used a much larger area for the fairground in its Local Plan consultation, which says the site can provide room for 50 houses.”

There was laughter, when former Haslemere Society president Robert Serman told the meeting: “I couldn’t see a flat area of land in the swap.

“It is a 20m drop, the sort of precipice you couldn’t contemplate being used as common land. You could use it if you’ve got mountain goats or if you are in the SAS.

Concluding the meeting, Mayor David Round said: “I stress the town council is listening to you.

“Some very good points have been raised. I think the swap site is a joke and I’ve said it before.”

•To find out how to respond to the Planning Inspectorate consultation go to www.haslemeretc.org