What We Cover In This Issue:
- The Flood Alleviation Scheme – Is it being watered down?
- Shaping Guildford’s Future – Does the masterplan have a future?
- The Friary Quarter (North Street) – Developing bit by bit
- St Mary’s Wharf – Delivering the footpath
- The Law School – Elysian fields?
- Gosden Hill Farm – Traffic infrastructure remains at a standstill
- Council fraud? – No solace in sight
- Solum – No solace in site
The Flood Alleviation Scheme – Is It Being Watered Down?
GVG chairman John Rigg laid a number of questions at the council’s door at the full council meeting on 9 October. He particularly referenced the Flood Alleviation Scheme (FAS) currently underway at the Environment Agency (EA). The work is well supported by Surrey County Council (SCC). The support of Guildford Borough Council (GBC) is less certain.
The FAS is an integral part of the council’s masterplan ‘Shaping Guildford’s Future’ (SGF), where again we judge GBC’s enthusiasm is muted, despite it delivering a 30-year template for the town.
Unless GBC shows more positivity regarding SGF, the FAS will underachieve. But re-calibrating our town’s flood defences will allow significant development sites in the town centre to become viable – up to 30 are currently affected by flooding blight. A new FAS will, of course, offer improved protection to existing sites and their occupiers. SGF, on which the previous administration spent £2.5mill, is a comprehensive template for the regeneration of our town centre. It is puzzling why the project appears to have no champion within the current LibDem council, considering it was involved in the previous power-sharing administration.
Why waste the £2.5mill SGF investment? What is the point of soft-pedalling on progress? If there’s no GBC ambition then the EA will choose just the bare minimum, a watered-down scheme, probably to include some unsightly barriers in the town centre which, in a more comprehensive scheme, would be neatly incorporated in the sites thrown up for development. This can be seen in the development images included in SGF.
Shaping Guildford’s Future – Does The Masterplan Have A Future?
The previous administration spent £2.5mill on a comprehensive town masterplan that delivered a regeneration template, including brownfield town centre sites for housing. The masterplan can be found here.
But since the LibDems won the council leadership there’s been something of a hush over the future of the masterplanning process. LATE BREAKING NEWS Someone must have been reading this over my shoulder as I was composing it. This week GBC has sought approval for Stage 3 of SGF and the further engagement of the original consultants. That’s terrific news. Hopefully their work will feed into both the FAS project and the update of the Local Plan. GVG will continue to press for action in these areas. There might not be a lot to see but behind the scenes we’ve been lobbying hard with key participants to make sure SGF progress so far isn’t wasted.
Letting the SGF plan drift would be short sighted. The Local Plan is up for review and revision (another project somewhat slow to get underway) and SGF provides much material that could usefully be transported in to the revised Plan. Not least a much-improved Flood Alleviation scheme. The SGF masterplan could also provide useful planning guidance.
All the council has to do is to adopt the masterplan as planning ‘direction of travel’ that developers would have to take due note of. This would help forestall opportunistic development of the sort we have seen, for example, all the way down Walnut Tree Close – an area in desperate need of coordinated flood alleviation, with planning and infrastructure wins.
Interestingly Mole Valley have just adopted a masterplan, tapping into funds apparently provide for by the Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund – which expires at the end of March 2025. Maybe Guildford should investigate that source for the next stage of SGF and the regeneration of Guildford.
The Friary Quarter (North Street) – Developing Bit By Bit
GVG had a very useful presentation by the St Edward (Berkeley Group) team on the next steps of the Friary Quarter development. Demolition and groundworks are now underway. There has been delay caused by infrastructure issues, ie moving existing established pipes and cables etc to allow for construction. Some road closures are in place.
Marketing of the first new homes is planned for Q2 2026, with completion of the development in Q2 2030.
Construction will generally be block by block. It is probably one of their most complicated developments for Berkeley, especially when it comes to minimizing disruption to established businesses in North Street, including the market stalls – something they’re very conscious of. There are also traffic issues as they refurbish the bus station and reorganise Leapale Road to be a two-way thoroughfare. There’s a lot to look forward to!
St Mary’s Wharf – Finding A Way For The Footpath
Demolition continues at the old Debenhams site, with initial focus on asbestos clearance. GVG’s main focus regarding this development is on the potential of the footpath alongside the river and the installation of a footbridge linking to the Yvonne Arnaud theatre. The longer-term goal would be to see the footpath reach along to The Weyside pub and on to the path to Godalming. The path would give much better pedestrian access to the Chantries and further open up the riverside for public enjoyment. For an up-to-date report on the issue, see an excerpt from the recent GBC Overview & Scrutiny committee meeting (10min 23sec in)
The Law School – Elysian Fields?
While the Law School site is a little outside the purview of GVG, it will nonetheless have an impact on the town centre as the occupants will wish to access it from time to time. The proposed development is targeted at the older market, with a range of useful facilities onsite including a restaurant that will also be open to the public. There are obviously concerns about the scale and style of the residential development in what many see as a sensitive area topographically. But we need homes for the downsizers, don’t we, if it frees up family accommodation elsewhere?
Gosden Hill Farm Plans To Grow
Martin Grant Homes has started cultivating local opinion as it digs itself in for the lengthy process to gain planning for homes on Gosden Hill Farm – a project that has a gestation period of over 40 years. (I spoke at their first planning appeal! – Ed)
The big questions are whether the local infrastructure can cope, and how will it connect to the A3? The first presentation this time around only shows a south exit off and on. It’s the Clay Lane slip if you want to head north. We believe the development should have two points of access. Another potentially valuable addition is a rail halt at Merrow. Concerns will also centre on sewage, drainage and other utility capacity. Will the scheme blossom? Watch this space.
Other Matters
We still await the next stage in the Solace report on the council, in the light of the missing millions and concerns over the work and finances of the Housing Department.
At the mainline station, the Solum development continues to dismay. So far, it’s tall and ugly. It will start to bulk up and out alongside the tracks, either side of the towering carpark. We can’t see it being a triumph of British architecture. But it’s certainly a fine example of the consequences of inadequate local planning policies, if not lack of influence by the GBC planning department.
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