Protecting Valued Community Assets Throughout Waverley

Ever since the rushed, reckless and costly plans of Conservative-led Surrey County Council to merge the 11 boroughs and districts and the county into two new Unitary Councils (East and West Surrey) were approved by the Labour Government, residents across Waverley have rightfully raised concerns about our financially stable borough council area being exposed to the extreme debts of Woking, Spelthorne, Runnymede and Surrey County Council itself - debts that were also run up by the Conservatives when they were running those areas. 

These debts, amounting to billions of pounds for the new West Surrey authority, could expose valuable community assets (such as community halls and venues, playing fields, green spaces, memorials and public toilets) here to forced sale in the future. 

Despite numerous requests, the government has been unwilling to ring-fence or otherwise protect such community assets from future sale. 

This is unacceptable. 

As a response to this, Liberal Democrat-led Waverley Borough Council has stepped up a planned community asset transfer programme to work with our Towns and Parishes, many of them also Lib Dem-led, to transfer those assets outright to those councils to take them out of the future unitary control and protect them for community use. 

This week (Tuesday 9th December), we started this process off by transferring the first tranche of Waverley land and property to Godalming Town Council, Farnham Town Council and Haslemere Town Council:

1) Canon Bowring Recreation Ground, Farncombe, Godalming

2) Lammas Lands (adjacent to Bridge Gate House), Godalming

3) Lammas Lands at Charterhouse Green, Godalming

4) Morley Road Recreation Ground, Farnham

5) War Memorial Recreation Ground, Haslemere 

There are over 30 additional community assets being processed over the next few months, with the next batch coming in February.

Cllr Paul Follows (Leader of Waverley Borough Council and Godalming Town Council) said, "Working together with our Towns and Parishes, we are hoping to ensure that whatever happens in the new West Surrey Unitary, valued community buildings and local amenities are protected from the massive debts racked up by the Conservatives in the rest of Surrey."

Cllr Mark Merryweather (Portfolio Holder for Finance and Assets at Waverley Borough Council) said, "When you overlay Surrey’s own financial forecasts onto the fragile combined balance sheets of the West Surrey unitary authority the prospects are no better and maybe even worse for the new unitary. It will be under pressure to sell assets and may look to sell property outside of those areas that are the most stressed and of course it will be the most valuable real estate that gets the most attention. Surrey’s forecasting has always been over-optimistic, so while we’re calling for an independent review of their Unitary numbers we’re supporting our communities who are preparing for the worst and bidding to adopt the assets they most value”.