More details about train station redevelopment

Solum Regeneration, the company behind the planning application to redevelop Guildford train station, held two public exhibitions in January to let people find out more about their plans and to give their views. For those who missed the exhibitions, more details have now been published on their website.

The scheme is planned to cost £150 million and will involve redeveloping the station concourse and building 445 homes and a multi-storey car park.

If you want to give your views on the proposed redevelopment then you can give Solum your views here and you can find the planning application on the council website and officially comment on it here.

Personally speaking, while I’m in favour in principle of improving the railway station (particularly creating more space for bicycles) and building more homes in the town centre, I’m still quite dubious about the wisdom of putting so many new cars on the road right next to the already clogged gyratory and I do think they should be doing a lot more to link up with the bus network. So for me this is a wait and see what the final proposal looks like situation.

Artists wanted for Woodbridge Meadows

Guildford council is looking for artists to create a new public artwork in Woodbridge Meadows. Artists or groups of artists are asked to send in initial expressions of interest by 5pm on Friday 13th February.

The planned new artwork has to cost no more than £67,000 in total, including installation, and will be located at the Ladymead end of Woodbridge Meadows.

Artists are being asked to send in their CVs, a sketch and a maquette for their idea. Five artists will be chosen to proceed to a second stage where a final decision will be made by the Council’s Arts Officer (no, I didn’t know they had one either).

So if you know any artists, why not let them know about this?

Lib Dems call for Introduction of speed cameras on the A3

Please sign the petition for the introduction of speed cameras to help stop accidents happening along the urban stretch of the A3. Speeding makes such accidents more likely and each time the delays brings traffic in the whole area to a standstill.

That’s why we at Guildford Lib Dems have started the petition calling for speed cameras.

There’s a 50mph speed limit on that part of the road which is frequently ignored. There are also a number of junctions, some of them with no slip roads, which make the A3 road even more dangerous.

There are plans to do work on the road, but those plans aren’t due to happen for some years.

Road users and people who live in Guildford cannot wait that long.

It is important that safety work is carried out without delay, and this must include speed cameras to uphold the speed restrictions.

So we are calling on the Highways Agency to install speed cameras and  safety signs in the Guildford urban section of the A3 as a matter of urgency.

Click here and sign our petition today.

New £15 million roof repair scheme for places of worship

All places of worship serving Guildford, including churches, mosques, temples, gurdwaras and synagogues, can now apply for a new £15 million fund available for the repair of roofs and guttering.

The coalition government announced the Listed Places of Worship Roof Repair Fund in the Autumn Statement and grants between £10,000 and £100,000 will be available to listed places of worship of all faiths and denominations across the UK, where roof repairs are deemed to be urgent and necessary.

Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Kelly-Marie Blundell said: “Places of worship play a huge part in many people’s lives in Guildford and this fund will help ensure some of our most significant buildings remain open as safe and sustainable places in our communities.

“I hope that some of them will be able to take advantage of the extra money available.”

Surrey students go litter picking

On the 13th of December a group of students from the University of Surrey went out in Guildford Park Avenue as part of a volunteer litter picking session aimed at making a contribution to the local community. The student volunteers ended up collecting five bin bags worth of rubbish during the session and are planning to make this a monthly exercise.

Student volunteers at the end of the session.

Student volunteers at the end of the session.

When I first set about organising this session I was incredibly encouraged by the large number of students who emailed me wanting to take part – although only a small number were able to go out this close to Christmas there are many more who are hoping to join in the January session.

When organising the session I was also lucky enough to receive help and advice from the university’s students union as well as the Do More and the People & Planet societies at the university who both promoted the session to their members and encouraged them to take part.

Of course, the ultimate goal will be for the organisation of these sessions to be taken over by the student union or a university society so that they become a regular occurrence.

But in the meantime I’m looking for suggestions of which area the next suggestion should focus on – anyone with ideas or suggestions should contact me (George Potter) using the details elsewhere on this website.

22,870 apprentices in Surrey help hit 2 million goal

It’s been confirmed that the number of apprenticeships created in the UK since 2010 has hit the 2 million mark with 22,870 apprenticeships in Surrey contributing to that goal. The largest ever expansion of apprenticeships is a signature policy of the Liberal Democrats who’ve backed it as a way for young people who don’t want to go to university to gain qualifications at the same time as earning.

This also follows news of Vince Cable announcing a £1 an hour increase in the minimum wage for apprentices.

Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate for Guildford, Kelly-Marie Blundell commented:

“Apprenticeships are a vital part of building a stronger economy and a fairer society. By ensuring young people are able to earn and learn, we give them the opportunity to get on it life.

“That is why I am delighted young people in Guildford, and across Surrey, have benefited from fantastic training and employment opportunities that apprenticeships offer.

“After finishing one, the majority of apprentices (85%) will stay in work, with two-thirds staying with the same employer.

“I’ve seen for myself in businesses across Guildford the benefit apprenticeships can give to young people and I’m delighted that over two million young people across England have been able to take advantage.”

If you’re interested in being an apprentice or if you know any young people who might be interested in one then visit the national apprenticeship website here.

167 years to repair Surrey’s footways

Figures revealed recently have shown that one third of all footways in Surrey are “functionally or structurally impaired” yet, at the Conservative-run county council’s rate of progress, it will take 167 years to repair them all.

The revelation came following a question from Lib Dem county councillor Stephen Cooksey whose written question received an answer admitting that Surrey County Council plans to repair just 10.4 km (or 0.6%) of footways this financial year out of the 4,933 km of footways that it’s responsible for.

A 0.6% repair rate would of cause work out as taking 167 years to repair all the footways in the county (by which time many would obviously need repairing again).

I’m all for making sure that we spend enough on roads and cycle paths but it would be nice if pedestrians were kept in mind by Surrey county too – many footpaths in Guildford are becoming actively dangerous for those who are infirm and near impassable to those in wheelchairs or with pushchairs.

Onslow needs a neighbourhood plan

Under the Localism Act 2011 it’s now possible for local communities to develop and implement a neighbourhood plan introducing planning guidelines and requirements for their communities. After speaking to local residents it seems clear that getting a neighbourhood plan for Onslow would be the best way of dealing with multiple problems which currently slip through the cracks.

For example, in Ashenden and other estates it’s clear that there’s a problem with family homes being bought up and converted into houses of multiple occupancy with families being slowly priced out of the area, damaging the local community. Yet in other parts of the country where they’d had this problem neighbourhood plans have introduced policies to ensure balanced communities, such as Exeter.

Neighbourhood plans can also cover things like protecting green and community spaces, identifying ways in which the local area can be improved and which kind of developments should go where.

It’s not possible for a neighbourhood plan to contradict the council’s own Local Plan but it does provide a way for a community to decide what the local planning priorities are in detail.

The first step on the road to a Neighbourhood Plan is the creation of a representative Neighbourhood Forum and the last step is a binding local referendum on the proposed Neighbourhood Plan with lots of consultation, participation and drafting in between.

Unfortunately, with Guildford council’s decision to delay the finalisation of the Local Plan until after the general election it seems unlikely that any Neighbourhood Plan could be drawn up until the Local Plan’s been published. But that’s no reason that work on the preliminary step of setting up a Neighbourhood Forum couldn’t start before then.

So, if I’m elected next May I’ll do all I can to make sure that we get a Neighbourhood Plan for Onslow Ward. And between now and then I’ll be speaking to local residents about the idea to find people interested in forming a Neighbourhood Forum as a starting point. After all, something like this really needs to be led by members of the community and not just by politicians.

Improvements to be made to A3 at Hogs Back… by 2021

Some good news in the run up to Christmas is that the A3 around Guildford, especially the Hogs Back junction, is to be included in the government’s £15 billion road improvements scheme. The bad news is that construction isn’t planned to start until 2021.

The construction is planned to include widening the A3 to reduce congestion and improving junctions including the Hog’s Back junction with the A31.

Obviously is good news but we really need improvements now and not in six years time and all of us in Guildford Liberal Democrats will be lobbying the government to make the improvements as soon as possible. What we also need are improvements to buses and cycle routes so that less people are forced to use their cars in the first place.

Personally, I’d go so far as to say that the power to make improvements to A roads should be devolved from central government to Surrey so that we can make these decisions ourselves rather than waiting on the national Department of Transport to decide whether to make improvements or not.

This, incidentally, is why we have the ludicrous situation of the Onslow Park and Ride scheme which is under-used thanks to the council building the car park but the Department of Transport refusing to build an access to it from the A3.

£26.8 million boost for disadvantaged Surrey pupils

Lib Dems in government have announced disadvantaged primary school pupils in Surrey are going to receive £26.8 million to boost attainment.

This is an increase in pupil premium funding for 2015/16 which will help teachers support those children at most risk of falling behind their classmates.

So every primary school in Surrey, like Queen Eleanor’s in Onslow, will receive £1,320 for every pupil who has registered for free school meals at any time in the last six years.

This was a key Lib Dem policy in our 2010 general election manifesto and the evidence shows raising the attainment of pupils by the end of primary schools has a direct impact on future exam results.

As Kelly-Marie Blundell, our Lib Dem parliamentary campaigner for Guildford, says:

“Every child should be able to reach their full potential, whatever their background.

“The pupil premium will get extra money to schools in Surrey, targeted at the children who need it most.  The whole class benefits when fewer children are struggling.

“Teachers in Surrey do a great job, and I can’t wait to see how they use this additional funding to help all our children and young people succeed.”

Local businesses missing out on rates cut

Hundreds of local small and medium size businesses are missing out on business rate discounts which they’re entitled to.

The cost of the discounts is paid entirely by national government but unfortunately Conservative-run Guildford council have been useless when it comes to letting local businesses know that they’re eligible for these discounts.

For example, any retail business with a rateable value (e.g. the official estimate market rent) of less than £50,000 a year can get a £1,000 discount on the business rates they have to pay. There are over 900 businesses in the borough eligible for these discounts but only a fraction of them have applied for them.

Another scheme is that small businesses with a rateable value of up to £12,000 can get up to a 100% discount on rates until March 2015 but again, many small businesses don’t know that they can claim this discount.

There are also discounts for empty new build business premises and for businesses moving into premises which have previously been empty.

But since the council hasn’t written to businesses to let them know if they’re eligible for these schemes it will only be a minority of businesses which have applied for them. So a useful government scheme which could be helping small companies in Guildford, particularly on our high street, and creating jobs isn’t working anywhere near as well as it could be because of Guildford council failing to give people information about it.

This, in many ways, is typical of the council – all too quick to chase after you if they think you owe them money but utterly silent when it comes to letting you know how you can get back money you’re entitled to.

Now, as a Liberal Democrat I believe in standing up for small and medium size businesses, not just big business. Because of that I’ll be going round as many local businesses as I can in Onslow to let them know about these schemes.

But it really shouldn’t be me doing this – it should be the council. I think it’s such a shame that the Conservatives aren’t doing more to help local businesses claim the support they’re entitled to.

For more information about any of these schemes and how to apply then please click here.

Local Plan Fiasco

Guildford Borough Council’s Conservative administration have been forced to take the Local Plan back to the drawing board.

Following widespread public objections, the draft local plan for Guildford, which proposes building 2,500 homes on Blackwell Farm in the greenbelt north of the Hog’s Back, will be consulted on for a third time following May’s local elections. The first consultation took place over the summer and resulted in 18,000 comments from 6,500 individuals.

The news comes following a Lib Dem freedom of information request which revealed that the bungled plan to build 13,040 has already cost the taxpayer £250,000.

Guildford Liberal Democrats previously voted against the draft plan going out to the original consultation on the grounds that it was flawed and premature.

Onslow Lib Dem councillor Tony Phillips commented “Guildford Lib Dems voted against the draft Plan going out for consultation, it just wasn’t ready. We thought the consultation was premature and sadly we have been proved right. It cost a lot of money to run this consultation, and local taxpayers are going to have to foot the bill again next year.”

We’re now calling for two key changes to the Council’s approach to the Local Plan, to make sure that the Council gets it right this time:

  • The proposed housing target needs to be evaluated. It would lead to massive traffic congestion, environmental degradation and unnecessary loss of precious Green Belt countryside.
  • The Local Plan should be produced bottom-up: the Borough Council must consult and involve all Borough Councillors and the communities they represent in the preparation of the next draft.

Landlord accreditation for Guildford

There’s good news for local residents as a new accreditation scheme for rented properties comes a step closer.

As reported by the Guildford Dragon, an outline proposal for the scheme to raise housing standards and improve property management was agreed at Guildford Borough’s Council’s latest Executive meeting.

Actions to improve areas of concern will be taken in the meantime – covering waste recycling, maintenance of gardens and parking.

This is largely thanks to Cllr Caroline Reeves who’s the leader of the Lib Dem group on the council.  As Chair of the Task and Finish group, Caroline led the investigation that produced the proposal for the new scheme.

As I know full well, it’s impossible to speak to local residents without realising the on-going problems relating to houses of multiple occupancy in many parts of the town.

But an accreditation scheme will fix this problem in the long term by making landlords and letting agents take better care of their properties and take more responsibility for their tenants. At the same time it’s likely to improve community relations between tenants and neighbours by ending the kind of problems which cause conflicts.

Once the scheme is implemented then, the more landlords that sign up to it, the more tenants who will be living in better quality accommodation and the fewer neighbours who’ll have to deal with the impact of houses which aren’t properly maintained where rubbish is left on the streets or in gardens.

All in all it’s a great step forward and I’m proud of the part of Liberal Democrats in pressuring the council to make it happen.

Autumn Residents Survey

Do you have any views on local or national issues? What do you think should be priorities in Onslow? Are there any problems you’d like to let us know about? How do you think we do at representing you?

These are all questions we’re asking you in our latest residents survey.

We want to make our area a better place for all of us to live in and to do that we want to know what you think. So please respond to our survey to give us your views.

Fill in the survey here

Onslow Community Safety Wardens

Recently I found myself trying to contact the Community Safety Wardens for Onslow in order to try and solve a problem facing some local people. Unluckily, however, I soon found out that there was nowhere online giving details of who our wardens are.

After a trip to the council offices this afternoon I was able to find out who the wardens were and hot to contact them. While I’ve been promised that the lack of online contact details for them will be looked into, there details are also below just in case.

And, if you don’t know what the Community Safety Wardens do, they’re part of the Safer Guildford Partnership which is a scheme to make Guildford a safer place to live by tackling issues like crime and anti-social behaviour.

If you need to contact the wardens, here are their details:

Tracy James

Call: 07767 457 822 Email: tracy.james@guildford.gov.uk

Richard Musgrove

Call: 07876 578 431 Email: richard.musgrove@guildford.gov.uk