Letter: The Council Needs to Plan on a More Human Scale

Published on: 4 Oct, 2022
Updated on: 4 Oct, 2022

From: Sue Hackman

Member of the Guildford Labour Party

In response to: The Biggest Changes For Our Town in Two Centuries Need Popular Support

People don’t like ugly buildings; they don’t like high-rise and they don’t like to have the age-old culture of their neighbourhood or village trashed. They do want their children and other citizens to have homes to live in that are something better than human shoeboxes. And these people are not Nimbys: they expect the council to find sympathetic ways of developing existing communities so new residential areas are integrated and well-serviced.

The council keeps throwing ugly great schemes at the countryside and then at the town centre to see who will give way first.

It’s time to think about what we wish to keep as well as all we wish to add or change. I know people love the green belt (my own political party invented it) but we need sunlight and greenery in the towns too, and space for the people to live. We need to share the resources we have so our children can live here too, and be kinder to people who can’t afford to buy right now, and we need those council houses that the Lib Dems, who now lead GBC, promised but didn’t deliver.

The council needs to plan on a more human scale rather than profit-intensive projects that are convenient for property developers. There are schemes where communities can drive new neighbourhood development for their own benefit and not some corporate pocket.

Generally, local builders do a good job on this because they have to live with their reputations afterwards. I think the council needs to get out more and find out how other councils do this well.