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To approve the sale of the land and/or
buildings at War Memorial Recreation Ground, Haslemere] in line
with the following terms and conditions:
Transfer of Freehold to Haslemere Town Council for £0
consideration under the terms of the Community Asset Transfer
policy. Transfer to contain restrictive covenants for the property
to continue as Public Open Space as a Recreation Ground accessible
to the community.
In accordance with the Council’s General Disposal Consent
powers, this transaction provides the ‘best consideration
reasonably obtainable’.
The purchaser has confirmed they will be paying all the
Council’s costs in relation to the sale.

Reasons for the decision

Reason(s) for the decision:
- To meet the aims and objectives set out in the Council’s
Community Asset Transfer Policy, which is in line with the
Council’s strategic priorities detailed in the Corporate
Strategy 2024-2028.
- The transfer would enable community empowerment to generate
social, economic and environmental benefit for local residents
which would in turn improve the health and wellbeing of
residents.
- Haslemere Town Council (HTC) have stated it can run and maintain
the Recreation Ground for the benefit of the local community.
Further information is provided in Appendices 7 and 8.
- The impact of this individual transfer of an Asset from the
Council has been assessed and it will have some negative impacts on
the operations of the Grounds Maintenance service. The loss of this
site from the grounds maintenance service is effectively the cost
of one grounds maintenance operative. The cumulative impacts of a
series of asset transfers to Town and Parish councils, and other
VCO’s within the Borough will likely have an increased
negative impact on the Parks & Countryside and Grounds
Maintenance services. With a cumulative reduction in the number of
Greenspaces’ Assets under Council freehold management there
will be impacts on the staffing and resourcing challenges within
the service. The Key Risk section 10.3 and 10.4 in this report
provides more detail on this. This impact, along with the impact of
all other applications, will be assessed and considered alongside
all other applications. This will be presented alongside all other
applications in February 2026.
- The recommendation to transfer the freehold interest rather than
the granting of a long lease has been reviewed and is considered
beneficial to both parties. It removes the need to establish a
Landlord & Tenant relationship between the parties which would
add an additional layer of work and costs to both parties and
restrict the HTC in its ability to fulfil its aims and obligations
for the site.

Alternative options considered

- The recommended option is to transfer the
freehold interest of the site to HTC based on the proposed terms
set out in Appendix 1. This option would enable the Council to meet
its core corporate strategy objectives, whilst allowing the site to
benefit from localised management. Furthermore, the terms include
provision for first refusal should HTC wish to off load the
freehold interest in the future. This would allow the Council to
protect its interest, without undue financial and additional
resource demands, whilst removing future liabilities of the site
from the Council.
- An alternative option considered would be to grant the HTC a
leasehold interest in the application site. Whilst this would allow
for the benefits of localised management, the introduction of a
Landlord and Tenant relationship between the Council and HTC would
add an additional layer of administrative burden for both parties.
This would allow the Council to retain more control of the site,
but the resources required to properly fulfil the Landlord
obligations would not be in line with any potential rental income
that could reasonably be derived from the site. Therefore, the
Council would be responsible for the site in a financially negative
situation. Further, as a freeholder and landlord the Council would
still assume liabilities for a site.
- A final option considered would be for the Council to continue to
own and manage the application site. However, with wider borough
priorities the full potential of the site for the benefit of
residents would be unlikely to be met and the future financial
demands of the site to meet its full potential are likely to be
unsustainable. The Council would therefore face the potential of
high resource demands and continued potential freehold
liabilities.