The headquarters will be built on stilts above the car park and will be two storeys high. This will be much the tallest building on the Horsell side of the canal, more than 2 meteres higher than the Kingswood Court flats and 5 metres higher than the neighbouring houses. It will be the first "commercial" development to cross the canal barrier from the town centre.
Car parking will be retained under the building but the number of parking spaces will be reduced to 165, a loss of 42 spaces. The number of disabled spaces available to the public will be reduced by 2 spaces.
As a local councillor who lives in close proximity to the site I am judged to have a "prejudicial interest" and so was not allowed to address, or even attend theplanning meeting. I was permitted to listen to the proceedings in a separate room.
Listening to my fellow councillors I was rather disappointed in the lack of discussion and debate in which the committee engaged. The proposal represented a departure from the Local Plan, raised issues of accessibility across the site and gave nothing back to Horsell or Woking save for the intangible economic benefit and kudos of having an international charity based in the town.
However I was very impressed by my colleague Cllr Lyons, Mount Hermon West councillor, who raised a wide range of issues and asked a number of pertinent questions, several of which I had asked him to raise.
As it became obvious to me that there was little chance of preventing this development on the car park and Woking's Conservative Executive were set on giving the site away I focused on what both Horsell and the rest of Woking might get back from this development.
On reviewing council executive papers from September 2008, when the WWF proposal was first made, and January 2009 when the results of public consultation were reported to the executive I saw how much emphasis had been put on the development bringing improvements to the canal, as required in the Local Plan. This had been totally removed, without mention, by the term the final terms of the deal with WWF came to the executive in November 2010. When I read that WWF would make no contribution to the canal I contacted the planning officer to confirm my understanding. WWF were making no contribution to the canal side. Woking has lost its greatest chance to improve the canal side and integrate the canal and the town centre. This was a requirement of the Local Plan. It has been a requirement on all of the number of applications for the site. Now it had been brushed aside and was not mentioned by the planning committee save for Cllr Lyons valiant efforts.
The canal and the town are so separate. It is a green space so close to the town centre that so much could be made of to make it a more pleasant environment for all. Canal users would love to bring their boats into the town. If there were facilities visiting boats would come to the town, creating some life and energy on the canal.
As I have reported before Woking Council is giving this site to WWF, charging no rent for 20 years and then a peppercorn rent of just £1,000 per year. Meanwhile Woking Council will pay for a replacement bridge across the canal to connect WWF to the town centre. The Council has already been allowed to spend up to £25,000 to enable WWF to move to the site.
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