Waverley backed buying 20.87 acres by Farnham Park after the park's greenspace capacity for new housing ran out. West Surrey must now consent to the deal.
Waverley Borough Council’s Executive agreed on 1 September to buy two fields off Hale Road, next to Farnham Park, for £2,055,712. It cannot act on that yet. What it actually resolved was to ask permission from a council that does not run anything until April 2027. (Record of decisions, 1 September 2026)
Full Council votes on the money on Tuesday 8 September.
The reason the council wants the land is in its own report, and it is blunt. Farnham Park’s capacity to offset new housing has run out.
Why the park being “full” stops houses
The land is 20.87 acres, or 8.45 hectares, in two parcels off Hale Road next to the park, which the council already owns. It would become Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace, or SANG.
SANG exists because of the Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area. That is 8,275 hectares of heathland across Hampshire, the former county of Berkshire and Surrey, supporting breeding Dartford warblers, nightjars and woodlarks. Only about 80 hectares of it sits inside Waverley, north of Farnham.
The constraint is not the heath itself but the ring around it.
- A zone of influence runs from 400 metres to 5 km from the SPA boundary.
- That zone “covers most of the built-up area of Farnham”.
- New housing inside it must offset the extra visitor pressure, under the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017.
- In practice that means paying for alternative greenspace, so new residents walk their dogs somewhere other than the heath.
- Contributions are secured through section 106 agreements and must fund the land in perpetuity, under a management plan the report says often runs for 125 years.
Waverley adopted its Thames Basin Heath Avoidance Strategy in 2009 and revised it in July 2016. Farnham Park has been the council’s SANG ever since.
Here is the problem, in the report’s words: the remaining capacity at Farnham Park “has now been committed for developments within the area”. And if there is not enough:
unless applicants can provide or secure alternative SANG in accordance with the Avoidance Strategy, planning permission will be refused.
Developers in Farnham are currently relying on privately owned SANGs, and on SANG owned by Guildford Borough Council, to get permission at all. (Executive report, Acquisition of land off Hale Road)
The new land would support in the region of 439 to 532 new dwellings, on an assumption of 2.2 people per property. The rule of thumb the council uses is that 8 hectares of SANG supports 1,000 residents. It would also add some car parking for St John’s Church and for Farnham Park itself, and the council says it can count towards biodiversity net gain.
When the report was first published in August, the capacity was framed as around 485 homes. The decision record now gives the range.
What the Executive actually resolved
The published record puts the first resolution plainly. The Executive resolved that it:
request consent from West Surrey Shadow Authority to enter into a Conditional Purchase Agreement for the acquisition of two parcels of land at Hale Road, Farnham.
Everything after that is conditional on the answer. Subject to that approval, it also agreed:
- delegated authority to enter the Conditional Purchase Agreement, to the Director of Assets and Property in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Assets and Property
- delegated authority to set a SANG charging schedule for the land, to the Director of Planning
- delegated authority for setting up and running the site, to the Director of Greenspaces
- delegated authority for the Director of Greenspaces to apply for planning permission to change the land’s use
Also subject to that approval, the Executive recommended that full Council approve a supplementary estimate of £2,055,712 to cover the purchase and set up, funded from reserves. That is item 11 on the Council agenda for 8 September. (Council agenda, 8 September 2026)
The price is not the council’s own number. The report says an independent valuation was prepared by a qualified RICS valuer and supports the figure. The valuation itself, the heads of terms and the financial appraisal are all exempt from publication.
Why a shadow authority has a veto
This is not the council being cautious. It is a legal direction, and it is new.
On 7 July 2026 the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government issued a direction under section 24 of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007. From 8 July 2026, every council in Surrey due to be dissolved on 1 April 2027 needs written consent before certain transactions. (Section 24 direction, 7 July 2026)
The thresholds are specific:
| Transaction | Threshold |
|---|---|
| Disposing of land | Consideration over £100,000 |
| Entering a capital contract | Consideration over £1,000,000, or any contract whose price can be varied |
| Entering a non-capital contract | Over £100,000, where the contract runs, or could be extended, beyond 1 April 2027 |
For Waverley the consenting body is the West Surrey Shadow Authority, with the power exercised by its executive. Waverley is one of six councils being folded into West Surrey Council, alongside Guildford, Runnymede, Spelthorne, Surrey Heath and Woking. Surrey County Council and all eleven districts and boroughs are dissolved on 1 April 2027 under the Surrey (Structural Changes) Order 2026. (Surrey local government reorganisation, GOV.UK)
A £2.06m purchase clears the capital contract threshold twice over, which is why the resolution reads as a request rather than an instruction.
It is not the only one
The same meeting shows how wide the direction reaches. On the same night the Executive also:
- approved an 8-year extension to the borough’s waste collection and street cleansing contract from 1 November 2027, and £9.0m to buy a fleet of bin lorries, but ruled that none of it may be implemented until full Council adds the £9.0m to the capital programme and West Surrey Council consents under the section 24 direction
- approved a communal block cleaning contract with Cleanscapes Limited worth £255,650 over two years, with an option of a third
- approved starting the procurements in its pipeline over £200,000, with awards “subject to first obtaining any necessary consent from the Shadow West Surrey Council”
The waste report needed a correction three days before the meeting. An addendum dated 26 August removed the report’s references to a break clause in the recently awarded joint waste services contract, after officers clarified that the contract has no break clause with a fixed timeline, only an option for the contracting authorities to terminate for convenience. The addendum also cut Elmbridge from a list of councils said to be procuring similar arrangements.
What it means for you
Nothing changes on the ground yet, and nobody should expect to walk on the Hale Road fields soon. Three things still have to happen: the shadow authority has to consent, full Council has to release the £2,055,712, and the Director of Greenspaces has to win planning permission to change the land’s use.
The practical stake for Farnham is planning permission. With Farnham Park’s SANG capacity committed, a housing application inside the 5 km zone now has to buy offset space from a private landowner or from Guildford, or be refused. That is why a decision about two fields off Hale Road is also a decision about several hundred homes elsewhere in the borough, and about what developers pay to build them.
If you want to follow it, the money vote is item 11 at full Council on Tuesday 8 September, in the Council Chamber at The Burys, Godalming. The deadline for public questions to that meeting was 5pm on Wednesday 2 September, so the route now is to attend or watch rather than to ask.
Related
- Farnham planning news, for what is in for decision.
- Farnham bin collection days, the service the waste contract covers.
- Farnham roadworks and travel.
Sources
- Waverley Borough Council, record of decisions, Executive, 1 September 2026 for all resolutions quoted, the £2,055,712 supplementary estimate, the 439 to 532 dwellings, the car parking and biodiversity reasons, the waste contract extension and £9.0m fleet, the Cleanscapes contract and the procurement pipeline wording.
- Waverley Borough Council, Acquisition of land off Hale Road, Adjacent to Farnham Park, Farnham, the Executive report, for the site area, the Thames Basin Heaths SPA figures, the 400 metre to 5 km zone of influence, the Avoidance Strategy dates, the committed capacity at Farnham Park, the refusal wording, the reliance on private and Guildford-owned SANG, the 125 year management term, the 8 hectares per 1,000 residents rule and the RICS valuation.
- Waverley Borough Council, Council agenda, 8 September 2026 for items 11 and 13, the venue and the public question deadline.
- MHCLG, section 24 direction to Surrey councils relating to financial transactions, 7 July 2026 for the three thresholds, the consenting bodies and the 8 July 2026 effective date.
- GOV.UK, Surrey local government reorganisation for the Surrey (Structural Changes) Order 2026 and the 1 April 2027 vesting date.
All sources checked on 5 September 2026. Our earlier report on this purchase, published on 25 August, gave the capacity as around 485 homes, the figure in the committee report at that time.
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