GVG: Saving Our Town – The Next Stage
For the past twelve years Guildford Vision Group (GVG) and its founder, John Rigg, has argued for a town masterplan that would plan and deliver better town centre development. The benefits would include:
- Wider pedestrianisation
- A revitalised, accessible riverside
- Sustainable town centre housing
- Better planned development
GVG Lobbying Continues
In pursuit of these goals GVG has lobbied successive council administrations, encompassing all the major local political parties, and also produced its own 110-page masterplan. It has held very well attended public meetings, spoken out at major planning enquiries including that for the inadequate 2019 Local Plan and formed a new residents’ political party in an endeavour to positively influence the local planning process.
For four years John Rigg, now back as chairman of GVG, held the regeneration brief at GBC. As a career Chartered Surveyor he had initiated and delivered a blueprint for Guildford‘s future until the work was halted by the last local election.
There is a real risk that this work will be lost.
Now is the time, in the light of the 2023 local election results, for GVG to review its priorities and programme, including seeking a professional planning vision for Guildford, so often in place elsewhere in the UK.
Still A Need For Better Planning
John Rigg insists that there is still a need for better planning in the town centre – the home to the majority of borough residents and its key economic driver. “Sadly,” says John, “we have to begin by logging a significant number of council failures.
We must recognise these failures if we are to take on the challenge of making Guildford better in terms of local planning and to reverse the indicators of decline and deterioration. We need to become much more aspirational, especially in these testing times. As a former councillor, who focussed on remedying our inadequate local planning, I believe we must pursue change if we are to rescue our town. And we need to stop disasters like Solum happening again.”
The Local Planning System Is Failing Us
GVG sees the failures as:
- An obvious lack of aspirational leadership
- The continued resistance to a planning masterplan, a plan which can also counter opportunistic development
- Councillors understandably too dependent on officer advice when addressing strategic planning
- A deteriorating High Street and retail offer
- A lack of ambitious plans to reinvigorate and open up the riverside to deliver more green spaces
- The absence of a flood alleviation scheme that would deliver up to 30 new brownfield sites in the town and 90 across the borough
- Bureaucratic failings that hamper change, frustrate scrutiny and evade oversight. The council does not have to deliver desirable development, just the planning policies that allow it
Updating The Local Plan To Address Failings
The recent decision by the council to update the 2019 Local Plan presents an opportunity to address these failings and to establish a better plan for the town centre.
THE glaring omission is an updated flood alleviation scheme (FAS). Flooding threatens our town.
Yet the previous council administration had still successfully launched ‘Shaping Guildford’s Future’ (SGF) – see www.shapingguildford.co.uk, where at last the framework of an integrated FAS was included. This work is key to our town’s future and, as John entreats, must not be wasted.
We Need A FAS
An updated FAS has been embraced by the environment agency who are the source of funding for its delivery. See https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guildford-flood-alleviation-scheme/guildford-flood-alleviation-scheme
With £2.5m spent on SGF and its FAS, the present council are seemingly prepared to throw away one of its major achievements.
The FAS must be driven forward and find its way into the local plan update. Delay and obfuscation must not hinder its adoption.
The Undeniable Benefits Of The FAS
The benefits of the FAS cannot be overstated. The scheme will enable a reassessment to be made of the vulnerable areas of our town, such that up to ninety additional brownfield sites can be identified for flood-free development. This would be a major ‘win’ and help alleviate pressure on greenbelt and greenfield development – something that surrounding villages must surely welcome.
The Crucial Lessons Of Solum
The updated Local Plan must also include effective policies on height, massing and density for the centre. It is the lack of such policies that has led to the disaster-to-be that is Solum at the railway station – a far more injurious development than Debenhams and North Street combined (both also impacted by the same absent policies). Incidentally Solum is not a redevelopment of the station, it is a redevelopment around the station. All the station gets out of it is a slightly larger booking all. No escalators, no platform improvements and no better access from east to west.
Solum was approved because proper local policies were not in place. The Inspector could only decide on what he found. So we will end up with the Great Wall of Guildford that runs for nearly 1000 feet, much of it at ten storeys high – just look at the current site works now for a guide to the height.
Local Strategic Planning Must Improve
It is the councillors that attract the public blame for such situations. Yet the strategic planning regime in Guildford is at the heart of this failing. What has become clear recently is that the process of executive oversight and performance review has been inadequate and ineffective. The process of scrutiny of officers has hitherto been unclear and clearly insufficient.
The Way To A Better Guildford
Thus, if we are to see a better Guildford emerge, the Local Plan update must also include:
- Adoption of the FAS to facilitate an open, accessible riverside
- Options for improved infrastructure delivery
- Adoption of the SGF evidence and regeneration plans, thereby updating the Plan’s outdated evidence base
- An up-to-date High Street study
- A development brief for the west side of the railway station to deliver the SGF masterplan
We Are In The Last Chance Saloon
Guildford is in the last chance saloon. GVG is determined to press for change and improvement. We must come together to pursue the goals that will deliver a much-improved town and town centre. Write to your councillor with your hopes for the Local Plan update, especially re the Flood Alleviation Scheme. The update has to include that.
Please Support Us
Please also support us by responding with your views and preferences for the development of our town. Email us at info@guildfordvisiongroup.com
