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.”

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.”

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