SAVE Britain's Heritage

I would like to thank SAVE for their recent help with advertising our campaign on their website.
www.savebritainsheritage.org

The Los Angeles Times

The Trust received a phonecall via Save Britain's Heritage and via the e-mail section of our website from the London based Los Angeles Times to inform us that a correspondent from their newspaper would like to interview us. John and I are meeting with them sometime next week. John is also meeting with the clerk to his barrister for a telephone conference as the barrister taking the Judicial Review is currently out of the country. We shall know more as to whether we have a strong case to proceed.

The Times Newspaper

As a matter of interest a must for today is the Times Newspaper. Page 10 gives a splendid outline of our campaign and a letter in the Editors letter section of the paper is a must see! (page 23). I am amazed at the amount of high profiled names that appear on the list of signatories - I have also been included for which I am so honoured to be listed amongst the greats.

Article in Guardian

John's article was featured in the Guardian of yesterday 20th July. You can view this at the following link http://gu.com/p/2tfv4/tw Talking of newspapers we received an e-mail from a correspondent of the German daily broadsheet Frankfurter Allgemeine wanting to speak with John regarding the proposed legal action to reverse the planning permission.

John Gibson visits QC to present his case

John has worked very hard over the weekend to prepare his case for a Judicial Review against Waverley Borough Council regarding their decision to approve the development plans of Undershaw.

Waverley Borough Council in theory has made this house, by granting planning permission, too rich for any person looking to restore this property as a single dwelling house. The sale price of this property may now reach 1.5 million.

He is meeting with the Clerk to a top QC in London today to ascertain as to whether this case has any chances of success. His case will be put forward to the Queen's Council and may take up to 3 weeks before we hear whether it would be worth proceeding.

He has also given a story to one of the top national newspapers and is currently preparing a story for a second. Several TV programmes have been alerted of this decision by Waverley and we await their response.

Why consideration should be given to application WA/2010/0830

You may ask why support the application on the Waverley Borough Council website reference number WA/2010/0830 in respect of change of use from hotel/restaurant to single dwelling house. The following, albeit in brief, forms Mr Norris's application and gives us an idea of what Undershaw needs and what his proposals are:

"The property has been vacant since 2004. In this time the property has been left to degrade and has been subject to vandalism. It is critical that the building receives remedial work before the extent of damage makes repairs unviable. It has been noted that the council has taken steps to protect the building from the elements by means of scaffold and roof coverings.

Whilst it has been suggested in a previous application that "...there is no market interest in the property as a single dwelling house ..." the application we have now submitted would highlight a view to the contrary. The 1930's extension to the original house notwithstanding, the property has always retained its single dwelling house character. It is in the interest of preserving this heritage asset that we have put this proposal forward to return the building to its original use as a single domestic dwelling.

All materials will be appropriate to preserving the period style of the building and resue it from its current dilapidated state. There will be negligible impact to the main South and West facades to the building. All the work considers the character of the building being upheld and reversing the damage that has been subsequent to the closure of the hotel. All measures which were applied to bring the building up to relevant standards for hotel use such as fire doors on the first floor landing and second floor emergency escape will be sensitively reversed keeping in mind the Edwardian aesthetic and detailing.

I hope after you have read this you will support Mr Norris's application to return Undershaw to a single dwelling house - PPG15 advises that: "The best use will very often be the line for which the building was originally designed, and the continuation or reinstatment of that use should certainly be the first options when the future of a building is considered". Why on earth did Waverley Borough Council not follow the advise of the PPG15?