Town masterplan revealed

Guildford Borough Council has published its draft masterplan for the town centre and six weeks of public consultation on it will start in October.

A key focus of the masterplan is reconnecting the town centre with the riverside area and tackling traffic problems and an overview of some of its key features has been described in a Guilford Dragon Article. Key features include two preferred options to close the gyratory system, pedestrianising North Street and potentially making the town centre a car free zone. Above all the masterplan will be used at the heart of the 20 year local plan and is meant to create more housing, office space and shopping areas while making the overall urban environment more open and attractive.

Artists impression of how the riverside could look when looking across to where the car park in front of the George Abbott pub currently is

For those interested the full draft masterplan can be seen here (warning: large file).

Commenting on it Lib Dem Councillor Caroline Reeves, leader of the opposition on Guildford Borough Council said:

Leader of the opposition at Guildford Borough Council, Cllr Caroline Reeves (Lib Dem, Friary & St Nicolas) said: “I am very pleased that this is now moving forward, we need to have a clear direction for the town so that we can stamp the identity we want on future development.

“The importance of our heritage and the countryside around us has been acknowledged, as well as the need to enhance the river and improve life for pedestrians and cyclists.

“Improvements to our traffic management are key to the future success for the town and we need to ensure that when the final Town Centre Masterplan is agreed, we hold our nerve and create a town for future generations to enjoy, and where business can continue to flourish.

“I look forward to talking with residents during the course of the consultation, we need everyone to really engage with this important document for the future of our town.”

Onslow bus service safe under Surrey proposals

The number 18 Onslow circular bus service is safe under proposals published by Surrey county council following a review intended to save £2 million across Surrey. This follows a consultation where Onslow residents wrote in to make the case for the importance of the number 18 bus service to our community.

The proposals produced by Surrey county council will now go out to a second consultation but no changes are proposed to bus services affecting Onslow directly. You can read the proposals here and you can find out how to respond to them here.

Commenting on the news, local Onslow Liberal Democrat campaigner George Potter said:

“This is very welcome news. Since the number 18 bus is subsidised by the county council there was a real worry it could have been hit by the planned £2 million of cuts to the transport budget but under these proposals it’s safe for at least the next financial year.

“It is disappointing that there are no improvements proposed to the number 18 route – such as more buses at times of day when people might need to use it to get to work or a Sunday service – but these are things we can try and lobby for in the future.

“For now everyone in Onslow who responded to the consultation deserves a big thank you for helping to keep our bus service – especially Onslow Village Residents Association who did a lot of work to encourage people to respond to the consultation.”

 

Landlord accreditation scheme launches

A new accreditation scheme for landlords in Guildford has been launched following work by a Liberal Democrat councillor. Under the new voluntary scheme landlords and agents have to meet certain standards of property maintenance and tackling anti-social behaviour and in return institutions like the University of Surrey promote these landlords to people looking for accommodation.

The scheme came from a council group led by Lib Dem Councillor Caroline Reeves and aims to raise standards in private rented accommodation both for tenants and for neighbours. The scheme is funded by Guildford Borough Council and the University of Surrey in partnership.

The new scheme is especially good news for Onslow neighbourhoods like Ashended, Dennisville and Guildford Park where the number of houses of multiple occupancy have increased dramatically in recent years.

Talking about the scheme, Cllr Caroline Reeves said:

“I have lived in the same house for 27 years, very close to the town centre, and have seen the changes in the community now that so many homes are let to families or tenants sharing.

“Houses of Multiple Occupancy or ‘HMOs’ are the only way that many can live in the town, and increasingly it’s young professionals not students who have to share. As a ward councillor, I receive complaints from both tenants and the neighbours of rented properties, and it seemed to me that there must be a way of ensuring that as an authority we can help all concerned.

“We worked together with the University of Surrey and Surrey Students’ Union and obtained input from all our further education bodies plus a number of agents and landlords, to design a scheme which will provide improved quality assurance for all landlords, letting agents, tenants and their neighbours.”

Thank you!

The results of the local elections are in and Onslow has elected Tony Phillips and David Goodwin as Liberal Democrat councillors for our area (along with Adrian Chandler for the Conservatives).

We all just want to say a big thank you to everyone who voted for us in the local elections. Your support and trust means the world to us – and to those who didn’t vote for us this time we’re determined to try and win your trust by the time of the next election.

The next priority for all of us in the Onslow Lib Dem team is to keep on working hard for local people, particularly over the local plan, and to do our best to help local people with any issues they’re facing.

The national result was very disappointing for the Liberal Democrats but here in Guildford we managed to retain 9 seats on Guildford Borough Council meaning we stay as the official opposition. And we’re determined to hold the Conservative administration to account on behalf of the people of Guildford over the next four years and to fight for the policies of our local manifesto which you voted for.

Finally, with the new Conservative government already announcing attacks on support for the disabled, human rights and massive new assaults on civil liberties it’s more important than ever that there is a strong liberal voice in Britain to fight for what’s right.

That’s why it’s been absolutely incredible to see that over 11,000 new members have joined the Liberal Democrats nationally since the election with our membership in Guildford increasing by 20%. So if you believe in our values and that Britain needs a strong liberal voice now more than ever the why not join us?

Students out litter picking again

Last Wednesday (the 25th of February) myself and other students from the University of Surrey were once again out picking up litter in residential areas. Five bags of rubbish were collected by volunteers in Guildford Park Avenue.

What’s more, the University of Surrey Students Union (USSU) is making plans to organise a litter picking session of their own in the area between the main entrance to the university and the Tesco roundabout. Anyone who’s walked through the area will know that there is a serious ongoing problem with litter so it’s great that the USSU is taking the initiative to do something about it.

And for anyone who wants to organise their own litter picking session it’s surprisingly easy. The council can provide loans of equipment (including bags, gloves, litter pickers and hi-vis jackets) and collect the rubbish afterwards if you contact them (01483 50 50 50) so all you really need to do is find volunteers and set a date. And if you do decide to organise one, don’t forget to invite us – we’ll happily come along to help if we can!

OVRA Annual General Meeting on 10th March

Onslow Village Residents Association (OVRA) will be having their annual general meeting on Tuesday 10th of March at Onslow Village Hall with people being asked to arrive at 7.15pm for a 7.45pm start.

Entry is free to members of the residents association or £3 for non members.

The meeting will be followed by a talk by Jenny Seagrove from the Mane Chance Sanctuary in Compton which rescues abandoned, neglected and abused horses and rehabilitates them.

For more details of OVRA you can visit their website.

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.

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.

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.