Conctroversy Hits Ashtead

Legless boys' mammas? Not in Ashtead By Vicki Woods

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/07/28/do2804.xml

A fortnight ago the MoD opened a new, 30-bed annexe at Headley Court, the national Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre (DMRC).
Veterans' minister Derek Twigg went down to open it. The extra beds were needed to cope with the increasing number of casualties coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, as Mr Twigg conceded in his remarks.
"Clearly there is some hard fighting taking place out there - with a great deal of courage and sacrifice - and we have to contend with more injured."

He says "injured", I say "wounded", but there we are.
Headley Court, a handsome Jacobean mansion set in 84 acres of well-kept parkland in Epsom, Surrey, is where the most gravely wounded servicemen and women go for rehabilitation, after Selly Oak has finished the surgical work: operations, skin-grafting, stitching-up.
Rehabilitation means learning to cope with amputations (sometimes multiple), brain injuries, loss of sight and hearing and psychological damage.
Many stay for months, some for years. There is only one DMRC in Britain, so family members have to get to Surrey from all over the kingdom to visit their wounded.
These are families who themselves are grieving: having waved goodbye to a fit young serviceperson, they must come to terms with daddy in a wheelchair, a son or daughter with grievous brain injury. The whole family must cope with a very different, and difficult, future.
The Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association (SSAFA) is the leading British charity that helps the services and their families.
Daily Telegraph readers don't need to be told: you're rather fond of SSAFA (and vice-versa). This newspaper's Christmas appeal, which closed in January, raised just under £400,000 for SSAFA. (Thanks again.)
Recently, SSAFA, after careful search, found a house that it deemed perfect for families visiting Headley Court to use as a home-from-home for a few nights at a time. It's a no-brainer that we should have such a facility.
America (which hates its wars, but loves its troops) has a long-standing charity called The Fisher House, which provides similar accommodation for their legless boys' mammas to stay in. Britain has no such.
SSAFA chose a fairly modern house in Gray's Lane, Ashtead, because, according to spokesman Athol Hendry: "It's in a good state of repair. It's in a nice, quiet area. We don't have to do anything much to it, apart from putting a wheelchair ramp at the front access." On average, he would expect eight people to stay, and the limit is 12.
SSAFA applied for planning permission for a sui generis change of use (plus the wheelchair ramp), from Mole Valley District Council's planning department. I think they were surprised when permission was rejected.
Various near-neighbours, in Gray's Lane and three nearby streets, whanged in 83 crossly worded letters of objection to what they called a short-term, multiple-occupancy hostel. Some cited "increased traffic noise", others "additional pollution", one was worried about the increased risk of becoming "a soft target" from "these awful terrorists".
Mole Valley Planning Committee refused the application on grounds of "adversely affecting the character of this quiet residential lane".
"No Heroes in My Back Yard, say Ashtead Nimbys" became first a hot local story, then a national story, and - in the past fortnight - global.
One of my favourite websites, the Army Rumour Service (ARRSE), started boiling with rage over the Ashtead nimbys 10 days ago. It's a site for thousands of serving and ex-military and widely read by what you might call "friendly forces" (ie me, and most newspapers' defence correspondents).
Some of its members were so apoplectic they made wild calls for tanks down Gray's Lane - see how the nimbys like that, eh? But they were restrained at once, and told to keep tight military discipline. What we need, lads, is a campaign.
Remember the ARRSE campaign to bring Gurkha Pun VC to Britain? Let's do another: the appeal against the refusal is next Wednesday.
So ARRSErs and others from their sister sites (PPruNe, E-Goat, Rum Ration - I know, wacky names, wacky guys) e-petitioned the PM (over 21,500 signatures; go on, reader - sign up); built a lobbying website called www.36grayslane.co.uk; wrote, emailed and posted letters to counter the objections (Countess Mountbatten of Burma has sent one, so has Liam Fox); auctioned "The self-respect of Ashtead" on eBay (bids climbed a quid at a time to £48 before eBay's management removed it); and leafleted Ashtead's residents in a hearts-and-minds campaign.
This last is being done by Blue Team, all suited and booted and wearing campaign medals in the pouring rain (so as not to look like Jehovah's Witnesses).
They post up SITREPs on the website if they meet Red Team (Ashtead nimbys).
Last time I looked, Tigs2 reported CONTACT with OPFOR (Red Team), who asked if the chaps in medals were from that "scurrilous website". Tigs2 was very polite. "Red: I agree there is a need for such a facility but... Tigs2: Not in your backyard? Red: Yes, not in my backyard."
One very new member of ARRSE signs on as Wondermum. They've made her very welcome. She is wife to Captain Peter Norton GC, who is indeed a hero. He is pictured on www.36grayslane.co.uk in a wheelchair. One of his arms is prosthetic and the picture doesn't show his legs (one missing, the other badly damaged).
He has been at Headley Court since 2005. These are long wars we're in. He has a place at Cranfield University to study for an MSc in Explosive Ordinance Engineering and will take it up when he is fit. He'll be speaking for Blue Team next Wednesday at the appeal. Fingers crossed, eh?