Class Post 1: Future of Bishop's Meadow remains largely unknown

According to an article by the Wey River Freelance community, Bishop’s Meadow was to have been designated as a SANGS (Special Accessible Natural Green Space). Liberal Democrat MP Candidate for South-West Surrey Mike Simpson later expressed disapproval of this move on his website saying that it would only lead to crippling over-development in other areas:

Bishop’s Meadow, Farnham’s famous water meadows has been the subject of much controversy over the past year. The water meadows have been the source of irrigation canal leading to houses on West Street during Tudor times. During the Civil War, the meadows were used as a defence rampart. According to the Farnham Society, the land has been used to host county fairs, ice skating rinks, and travelling circus events. The land, owned by a local family for 80 years, was put up for sale in 2009.

“We urge the local authorities to firmly resist pressure to develop Bishop's Meadow for housing or commercial use. We further urge them not to use it as a SANGS site permitting damaging development elsewhere in Farnham.”

For a time, there was speculation that a Land Bank (a bank issuing long term loans on real estate in exchange for mortgages) had almost come close to the bidding price, causing much panic for the Bishop’s Meadow Trustees.

Their fears were later laid to rest when 32 of the 34 acres of land were bought by Sir Ray Tindle, media industrialist and owner of Farnham’s local newspaper and radio station.














Mr. Simpson later wrote in his blog:

“Don’t panic everyone – the sale of most of the Water Meadows has gone through today – but it has not gone to a developer. Instead the land has been sold to Sir Ray Tindle, the owner of the Farnham Herald (and many other newspapers).

“He will now sell on the land to the recently formed Bishop’s Meadow Trust as and when the Trust raises the funds. And Sir Ray will sell the land at the same price that he has paid for it today.”

The Trust continues to appeal for more donations in order to raise the exact amount of money needed to buy the land from Sir Tindle. Once the land is bought, the question remains with what the community plans to do with the land.

Finn Jackson, head of Transition Town Farnham, proposed that the water meadows could be the site of a community farm in a blog post:

“To me, it makes sense not to build on the land because it is on a flood plain,” he later said in an interview. “It would be more useful to have the land to produce something than to have it as a park.

“Producing something useful means that it could be a farm. The problem is that it does flood periodically.”