Fire Update: At c 2pm The Head of Surrey Fire has advised that the fire is under control but yet not extinguished. There is still a real risk of wind change which makes this a very unpredictiable situation. The common will be closed for at least two days if not longer as there is a threat of flares ups. Under the Fire and Rescue Services Act of 2004, chapter 21, it is a criminal offence for anyone to go to the site of an active emergency situation so please keep well clear of the common. Thursley PC and Elstead PC will issue a joint statement advising residents when the common has been reopened but until such time please be advised that the common is closed and should not be visited under any circumstance. Thank you for your co-operation.

The fire is largely under control but it is expected that it will take at least another day before it is extinguished. However with warm weather and breezes this could change. Roads are still currently closed and in addition there is no access to Thursley so please avoid this area if in a car. The main message remains as before - please stay off the common for the foreseeable future …. do not go anywhere near the nature reserve/boardwalks or the area where the fire spread. Following many comments on the village Facebook page the Parish Council is looking into a fundraising option which it hopes to be able to update residents on soon. Elstead PC and Thursley PC will be working closely together to ensure that there is a co-ordinated approach in managing all offers of help as well as ensuring that the emergency services are thanked for their incredible work over the weekend in such challenging circumstances.

Update from Elstead Parish Council re the fire. The Parish Council is continuing to liaise with fire crews, police and local councils (WBC and SCC). The police have advised that more houses will need to be evacuated today and The Pavilion has been reopened to house these evacuees at the request of the police. The PC will be on hand at The Pavilion to provide support and refreshments for anyone asked to leave their home. The PC has been in regular contact with the emergency services since the fire broke out. We have offered to provide fire and police crews with refreshments (and were set up to do this last night) but we have been told that they provide their own refreshment facilities.Last night 14 houses were evacuated and the PC, David and Jenny Else and Jo Mukabaa supported one household until they were able to be rehoused last evening. We will try and update you on the status of the fire as and when we can but we ask all residents and visitors linked to this facebook page...... Please do not go on to the common to see the fire - please kindly stay away. This is a highly volatile situation and we need to let the emergency crews do their work without having to worry for human safety. Thank you. And finally please remember that the road running along past the moat is completely closed and there is NO access. Anyone wishing to go to Thursley, Churt and beyond and who would usually use that route please pick the A3 up from Milford junction. Thank you. 

BONFIRE HILL DRAINAGE ISSUES – PLANNING APPLICATION WA/2020/0363 (BONFIRE HILL) 1 I refer to your correspondence with Waverley Borough Council (WBC) in connection with the above planning application. I should explain that I am Chairman of Elstead Parish Council, which has serious concerns about the adverse impact of this proposed development on flood management in the village. 2 In your latest letter you say SCC as the Lead Local Flood Authority has no objection to the application, provided an acceptable SUDS scheme is put in place. I am not sure how familiar you are with the Bonfire Hill site, but I should explain that it is an area of elevated land which dominates the centre of the village of Elstead. It contains numerous springs and many of the names of the surrounding roads (Springfield, Springhill, Springhaven) reflect this characteristic of the land. In wet weather, the springs flow mainly to the north, north-west, and north-east towards the lower lying centre of the village, depositing large amounts of surface water into the quite inadequate ordinary water courses adjacent to the highways. 3 During recent flood events (notably this winter, in 2013/4 and in 2001) the amounts of water coming off Bonfire Hill have led to serious flooding of gardens, roads and on occasion dwellings in the village, in spite of action taken by residents to dispose of the excess. Your colleagues in SCC in highways and in flood control (Steve Lindsey Clark and Ian Fowler) will be very familiar with the issue. One neighbour has reported that in February this year he had to deploy pumps to remove floodwater at the rate of at least 5.6 litres/sec coming from just one of the many springs on Bonfire Hill, over a period of several days. 4 The proposed development would involve the construction of 30 dwellings around the lower slopes to the north, north-west and north-east of the site (ie cutting across the direction of flow of most of the springs). The drainage survey commissioned by the developer has determined that the surface water arising from the land cannot be disposed of using infiltration techniques, so the proposal is that this water (which will inevitably increase as a result of the construction of impermeable surfaces arising from the development) should be released into the foul drainage at a rate not exceeding 4 litres/sec. This is the maximum flow which Thames Water, the foul drainage authority, has agreed to accept. 5 It seems from the documents submitted by the developer and your own comments that no surveys have been carried out of the specific hydrology of the site. The calculations provided by the developer suggest that the amount of surface water to be disposed of is based simply on the area of land on the development site. In fact, the topography of the site and the adjacent land suggests that much of the water coming off the hill arises from the even more elevated land to the south, where the land continues to…

Residents might already be aware of the planning application for Bonfire Hill that is currently live on the Waverley Borough Council planning website.  Residents are welcome to submit their comments on this application - please copy and paste the following link where you will find the application http://planning360.waverley.gov.uk/planning/search-applications#VIEW?RefType=GFPlanning&KeyNo=422598&KeyText=Subject.  A copy of the Parish Council’s response may be found listed in the documents part of the application, and below.  A letter from Elstead Parish Council to Surrey County Council regarding drainage issues can be found here - https://elsteadvillage.co.uk/parish-council/letter-from-elstead-parish-council-re-bonfire-hill-drainage-issues/ Anyone wishing to submit their comments is reminded to ensure that they do it before 17th April 2020. BONFIRE HILL – PC RESPONSE TO PLANNING APPLICATION WA/2020/0363 1 Elstead parish Council strongly objects to this application for 30 dwellings on land at Bonfire Hill, Elstead. 2 The application site is an area of elevated land dominating the centre of Elstead village. It is outside the Settlement Area, within the Metropolitan Green Belt and within the Surrey Hills AONB. 3 The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) makes it clear that housing development within the Green Belt is generally inappropriate, except in very special circumstances. 4 The WBC Local Plan Part 1 (LPP1) requirement for the Elstead and Weyburn Neighbourhood Plan (NHP) area is to provide land for a minimum of 160 new dwellings over the LPP1 period (2013-32). This particular site was put forward as one of those to be considered in the process of determining which sites within the NHP area would be most appropriate for housing development. In all, 9 sites were assessed by the NHP team’s professional advisers, Aecom. The Bonfire Hill site was the only one of the 9 sites which was deemed to be in the ‘red’ category (ie entirely unsuitable for development), principally on account of its adverse landscape impact. Aecom stated that the site was: ‘Highly visible from surrounding properties the north, east and west and would be highly visible from the wider AONB/AGLV due to its location on a plateau’. 5 The latest draft of the Elstead and Weyburn NHP was published for consultation on 11 March 2020 (this draft supersedes the earlier draft published in 2018, prior to the release of the latest version of the NPPF). The new draft NHP identifies 3 sites within the NHP area which would more than meet the outstanding requirement for new dwellings (63 in all, taking account of dwellings already built and outstanding planning consents). These do not include this application site. 6 The NHP draft (para 5.18) also states: ‘Bonfire Hill is a locally important green space in terms of landscape character, historical value and recreational value. Any development on Bonfire Hill will not be supported’. This provision was included to reflect the views of local residents on their response to the NHP ‘Big Survey’ of 2015, which indicated that large numbers of parishioners wanted to see Bonfire Hill protected and definitely not developed. 7 Further, Bonfire Hill, in its entirety, is designated in the NHP draft as Local…

Following a recent post, the Parish Council kindly asks that residents do not place any unwanted childrens' items (or other) in the telephone box at the end of Beacon View Road (or Milford Road). Whilst this idea comes from a good place and is well intentioned unfortunately this will only encourage fly tipping. The telephone box must be left for its purposes that of enabling emergency phone calls. If a resident would like to turn the phone box into a community project the Parish Council will be very pleased to hear from you. Please contact the Parish Council via the clerk: elsteadpc.clerk@gmail.com with your idea and details on how it will be managed. Phone boxes can be adopted for £1. Please can anyone who has placed any items in the phone box kindly remove them by the end of the day - we thank you for your understanding.