Give your views on new levy on developers

Guildford Borough Council is asking for feedback on its proposals for how much developers will have to pay towards the cost of local infrastructure in the future.

The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) is a new charge system which lets councils fund, provide, replace or maintain infrastructure (such as transport, schools, GPs surgeries and playgrounds) with funds raised from new developments with the council deciding how much has to be paid per square metre of development.

The consultation runs until 1 March 2015 so if you want to make your views heard then you can respond to the online survey here.

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?

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.”

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