Letter: Why Is No One Applying to Waverley Council’s CIL Review Scheme?

Published on: 10 Aug, 2025
Updated on: 10 Aug, 2025

From Helen Grant

In response to: Dragon Interview – Cllr Townsend on Waverley’s CIL Issue

Last week, on Tuesday night (August 5) homeowner victims of Waverley’s Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) attended the Executive meeting seeking clarification on the discretionary review scheme Waverley Council has implemented.

See webcast of WBC Executive meeting here.

With contradictory statements made by members of the Executive and gruff responses to questions, they left no wiser.

In recent weeks, Council Leader Paul Follows [Lib Dem, Godalming Central & Ockford] has insisted in meetings and on social media that errors made by householders and/or their agents will now be in scope for review.

He claimed he “could not have been clearer” but the fact remains that the wording in the review is ambiguous and it is obviously the wording in the review that matters, not what is said. The promised updating of the wording has yet to happen.

The Waverley Executive have always been adamant that they can only refund as a result of council error so if they are now including homeowner and agent error they need to clarify whether they will classify those as “council error” and, if so, on what grounds.

If they are being treated differently then we need to know what the different remedies will be.

In the case of agent error the CIL review still requires the homeowner to have tried, and to provide proof of having tried, to claim against the agent. This is unacceptable – even if it was possible, and we are told it is not, the process of trying would be long and costly.

With regard to any refunds that will result from a successful review decision we have not heard how they propose to do so and from which funds. In previous meetings where this issue was discussed there was confusion as to what was allowed.

The fact that Mr & Mrs Dally, at the time of writing, still haven’t received their refund five weeks after it was promised implies that that remains unresolved.

There is no detail of what would be refunded bearing in mind homeowners have been charged not just the CIL but penalties and interest.

Until these issues are addressed and stated in the documentation no-one is going to apply because the consequences, bearing in mind that the decision will be final, are too extreme for many of those already impacted – for some it involves losing their home.

We are being encouraged to apply on an almost “trust us” basis but trust was lost long ago. The fact that the council is employing someone to go back over previous planning applications and issuing further demands, even on those who would be part of this review, hardly reassures us that the draconian attitude has changed.

We are rightly wary that without this clarification we could find ourselves being “listened to” but declined so that we will go away. We are not prepared to roll the dice.

This CIL review needs to set out clear and fair terms that represent both parties and not just Waverley Borough Council.

We would like to thank the Waverley Councillors who are standing up for us, sometimes coming under intense criticism for it, their support is hugely appreciated.