At a recent meeting the MOD announced that they would be starting to use Hankley Common for driver training on Mastiff armoured patrol vehicles. There might be four of these on  the Common at any one time. 

It is likely that they will access the Common along Bridleway 101 on the lane leading from Truxford to the Drop Zone. They may come through Elstead from the A3 or they may use the Military Road across  Royal and Elstead Commons from Milford Road to Thursley Road. They could also use the Pitch Place or Rushmoor entrances to the Common.

Mastiff Armoured Vehicle Specification [LINK] 

MOD Policies on Hankley Common. [LINK] A report published in ELSTEAD  ONLINE on a presentation by the MOD at the Annual Parish Council Meeting in April 2014 gives a clear indication of their general policies on Hankley Common.

Parish Councillor John Mathisen, Godalming Cycling Club representative David Moxon and British Horse Society representative Sandra Smith are members of the Hankley User Group. other members represent the MOD.

 THE WAVERLEY LOCAL PLAN - HOUSING PROPOSALS FOR ELSTEAD [LINK]

 This report compares proposals for Green Belt housing sites and numbers of new homes in the new Waverley Local Plan in the 2014 and 2016 Consultations, as they affect Elstead and Weyburn. 

The Local Plan is due to be completed in Summer 2017, before the Elstead & Weyburn Neighbourhood Plan is likely to be accepted

Elstead's allocation is 150 new homes to be built between 2013 and 2032. 22 have already been built or have permission, leaving 128 to be built in the next 16 years, some in the village, others on Green Belt land.

Weyburn, The Croft and another Hookley Lane site provide enough space for building most of the allocation in the Green Belt but other sites could be considered.

Natural expansion within the village needs to be taken into account when deciding the numbers to be built in the Green Belt.

More information about the Local Plan is here [LINK].

More about the Neighbourhood Plan here [LINK].

Note:  This is not an official report from the EWNP Team. 

Waverley Local Plan Housing Targets have been published in the Surrey Advertiser. Elstead's share is likely to be 150 new homes on allocated sites over the next 16 years - 9 to 10 per year, mainly on Green Belt land round the village.

According to this report Waverley also expects roughly another 30 homes on unpredicted "windfall" sites within Elstead, taking the total to 180, about 11 per year.

Elstead village will be taken out of the Green Belt, making building extensions and conversions easier.

The village boundary might also be adjusted to take other land out of the Green Belt but there are no details about this yet.

This will be discussed at the Neighbourhood Plan Public Meeting on Wednesday July 6th.