A traffic crisis of severe proportions is forecast for Haslemere and Wey Hill if an extension to the Royal School in Farnham Lane is approved by Waverley Borough Council.

This was the unanimous opinion of local residents who met recently to consider and discuss the issues involved – albeit one fiercely denied by United Learning, the charity which owns and operates the Royal School sites in Haslemere and Hindhead.

Residents of the area, organised as the Farnham Bunch Lane Triangle Group, attended the public meeting at St Christopher’s Church in Wey Hill.

One worried resident shouted to Triangle committee members: “We need a plan of action!”

The proposal being considered by the council was put forward by United Learning (UL), which wants to eliminate the existing limit of 200 day pupils at the Royal School in Haslemere so that it can transfer about 100 additional students and faculty from Hindhead to Haslemere, greatly enlarging attendance at the facility.

UL is trying to sell the Hindhead land to a property developer.

It was claimed at the meeting that increasing the number of students at the Royal School in Haslemere will seriously disrupt vehicle traffic on Farnham Lane.

The school is located at the top of the single, narrow, two-mile long lane. For many years weekday traffic has been clogged during mornings and afternoons when students are taken to and from the school. Pedestrians, it was pointed out by some residents, are in real danger of being hit and injured.

Additional traffic by parents taking their young children to school would cause greater congestion on the A287, which runs through Haslemere and Wey Hill and is routinely jammed with cars and trucks as it is.

United Learning has said it would require all older students at the school to take buses up and down Farnham Lane (as many as 20), while younger students would travel by car.

The chair of the Triangle group, Chris Harrison, declared: “The key point is that UL are seeking to overturn the 1997 Section 106 agreement which limited pupil numbers to 350, of whom no more than 200 can be day pupils, with a new agreement based on capping vehicle movements and managing traffic.

“The current proposals, if approved, suggest at least a doubling of current traffic movements on Farnham Lane in peak times, worst case probably more.

“This would inevitably impact the areas around Bunch Lane, Wey Hill and the general wider Haslemere area.”

However, United Learning has responded to the criticism of its plans, saying it "fundamentally disagrees with a number of the points being made by some local residents".

A UL spokesperson added: "It is entirely wrong to suggest that traffic will double on Farnham Lane during peak time. The proposal would in fact limit traffic on the road.

"If the school on its current site reaches its current permitted maximum size – or gets close to that point, as it will in September, due to the sale of the Hindhead site – there is likely to be substantially more traffic on the lane without the limit we have proposed."

The UL spokesman also accused residents of hypocrisy, saying traffic had increased in Farnham Lane because of development "for their own profit".

They said: "The residents admit that the only growth in traffic over the last 20 years arises from the 30 per cent growth in homes on the lane, which is due to residents selling large gardens for ‘infill’ housing. When it is for their own profit, increased traffic seems acceptable. Where it is to ensure the continued viability and success of a school, however, any change is suddenly impossible."

United Learning also mentioned that they had been in discussions with the residents' committee to find solutions, but these talks ended when the residents' AGM mandated the committee to stop talking to them.

Despite this setback, UL hopes that their application will be successful, stating, "We have provided the highways officer with all the information we have been required to supply and very much hope that we are successful with our application.”

More than 300 letters of objection to UL’s plans were submitted to Waverley Borough Council before the February 17 deadline for comments.

The borough’s target date for determining the plans also expired earlier this month, but Waverley is yet to set a committee date. View the plans online at www.waverley.gov.uk/planning under reference WA/2021/03150.

This article was written jointly by John Laurence, a long-time Haslemere resident and distinguished retired journalist who led the campaign that led to construction of the Hindhead Tunnel, and Herald head of content Daniel Gee