I should say from the outset, that I'm not against the proposal for 11 units on this site. In fact I would welcome it. The issue I have is the proposed design's vehicular entrance is halfway up the access road to Merstham Football Club and Age Concern.
Merstham Football Club is a Step 4 football club in the non-league pyramid structure. It is village football club that punches above its weight. Merstham FC competes against big towns and cities, such as Ramsgate – with a population of 40,000 and Chichester with a population over 30,000. Hundreds of home and away supporters attend games. Merstham FC has found itself trending on social media many times as one of the clubs with the highest attendances for a Step 4 team.
The access road is essential for car parking and for deliveries to the clubhouse. The access road needs to stay as it is.
The club has around 17 teams of all age groups. With so many teams, one needs to consider what happens when away teams come to Merstham on a Saturday morning. The area gets very congested. Parking is already at a premium. The access road provides vital car parking.
Today I visited Age Concern – the community centre at the front end of the access road . While there I saw volunteers driving into car park at the back but unable to find parking spaces. I also observed a continuous stream of elderly visitors to centre. The Chief Officer explained to me that having a shared access road will affect elderly people being dropped off at the day centre. Thankfully, the current access road allows elderly people to be dropped off directly outside the centre stress-free. I am not at all convinced that this will continue to be the case if the access road is shared with this new development.
It is clear that Merstham FC and Age Concern are vital components to the local community. A local community that has taken some significant hits in the last few months, with the loss of the Mix Cafe at The Hub on Portland Drive and a whole parade of shops on Nutfield Rd. If the Council approves this application in it's current form it will be another kick in the teeth for Merstham.
The current levels of hardstanding, hard infrastructure and hard landscaping within this application give scope for the development to be redesigned with access coming directly from Weldon Way. It may be a case of changing the orientation of the units. It might even mean that the number of units drops to 10. If it drops to 10, we're not talking about start-up developer having to fold because of the loss of one unit, we're talking about Raven Housing. I took a look at their accounts and saw millions of pounds of surplus last year.
It is not beyond the realms of possibility for this development to be redesigned with the access coming directly from Weldon Way, leaving the current access road to Age Concern and the football club untouched.
I urge you not to approve to application in its current form.
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