Government’s £600k Grant To Kick Start Slyfield Area Regeneration Project

Published on: 8 Jan, 2016
Updated on: 8 Jan, 2016

Guildford Borough Council has been awarded a £600,000 government grant to kick start its Slyfield Area Regeneration Project (SARP).

Plans for the brownfield site are for 1,000 homes, and for the relocation of the Thames Water sewage works, the council’s depot and Surrey County Council’s recycling and waste depot.

Land near the stage works, some of it is where Guildford's rubbish was dumped in years gone by.

Part of the Slyfield area earmarked for regeneration to include 1,000 homes.

Last year the council pledged £390,00 to get the plan moving. Click here for our previous story outlining the plans for the site.

The Slyfield project grant is among one of the largest of the 20 housing zones chosen by the government across the UK, which totals £6.3 million.

An image on Guildford Borough Council’s website on what the development may look like. http://www2.guildford.gov.uk/councilmeetings/documents/s1332/Item%2006%202%20SARP%20-%20App%202%20-%20Indicative%20Plan%20of%20SARP%20layout%20on%20completion%20of%20development.pdf Click on image to enlarge in a new window.

Housing minister, Brandon Lewis, said: “Housing zones offer enormous potential to use brownfield land for new homes, which is why this government is determined to get them built out as soon as possible. This funding will play an important part in getting work under way which will lead to new homes and more security for aspiring homeowners.”

The borough council is also proposing a link road from Clay Lane into the Slyfield site. Plans for it are already coming under fire from locals who are concerned about volumes of traffic through Jacobs Well and flooding issues.

Looking back along the lane from the sewage works towards the recycling depot at the end of Moorfield Road.

A good deal of work and agreement needs to be done to smooth the way before any thoughts of building can be started. This includes the actual re-siting of the sewage works, and borough and county council depots.

One factor that does not seem to have been noted in any of the plans so far is that part of the redevelopment will be on what was Guildford’s late Victorian and Edwardian household rubbish dump.

Refuse was tippped here from barges from the late 1890s until 1910 when the council built a dust destructor (now known as waste incinerator) on what is now its Woking Road depot.

Today, in most cases when the site of an old rubbish dump is built on, there are strict regulations that lead to the compulsory removal of what is often classed as “contaminated waste”, to a “safe site” elsewhere.

From an historical point of view, what still lies buried at Slyfield are thousands of artefacts used by our forebears and then thrown away. These include glass and stoneware bottles and pots and other non-biodegradable items. Once retrieved, these give a fascinating glimpse into the way Guildfordians in the past lived, and will include items from long-gone traders such as chemists, brewers and mineral water makers.

Local historians who collect these items and use them to record and tell others about our social and business history will certainly be keeping a watchful eye when the site is cleared.

Responses to Government’s £600k Grant To Kick Start Slyfield Area Regeneration Project

Sue Doughty Reply

January 8, 2016 at 9:21 am

This is excellent news for local people.

But it will be really important that the council does all in its power to provide as many affordable homes and council / housing association houses as possible if we are to see a substantial improvement to our housing problems.
George Potter Reply

January 8, 2016 at 9:23 am

Very welcome news. A thousand new homes on brownfield land in Guildford and much needed regeneration for an area that’s too often been neglected by the council.
Jim Allen Reply

January 8, 2016 at 9:47 am

This plan is, how shall we say, lacking in honesty and openness, with a fair lack of common sense thrown in.

Cost wise, it is the most expensive option on all levels. The big bucks with big ideas does not equate with bright ideas and sensible plans.

No mention of compulsory purchase orders to gain access to the site from the A320.

There is no road to cope with the additional 1,000 homes in this area in front of the land, so logically some house will need to be demolished.

No mention of any signed and dated agreement with Thames Water to move the sewage works, and the irrationality of moving the most important piece of infrastructure from a place which ticks all the boxes to somewhere which doesn’t seems unexplained in rational terms.

No mention that it is in / on the flood plain – remove the rubbish (decontaminated) and it will lower the current ground level back to flood plain level.

No mention that the link road starts right on top of the sewage settlement pits, drying flats behind the current waste transfer station and attenuation ponds in the middle of the flood plain. Where is the water going to attenuate to?

Far better this site is cleaned to an industrial level, as opposed to human habitation level. Then all Guildford’s industrial units can be move to this location and the 1,000 plus houses scattered around clean uncontaminated sites, already fitted with all the infrastructure needed for domestic homes.

But then this juggernaut seems to be driven by external forces inflicted on the community by people hiding behind the guise of ‘GBC’. Like Enterprise M3, who elected them? And other unknown and un-disclosed groups and bodies flying down the path of irrational expenditure.

Noting the local plan proposes some 13,000 homes and anticipates the generation of 8,000 jobs in the same period (jobs doing what I await to be told) where the remainder will work is anyone guess.
sahbib_igoen Reply

January 8, 2016 at 9:48 am

A story for the children of Golden Ford.

On the edge of a watery meadow near Mah_prub lived a jealous man who was slain by Idla that vexed MijNella, the God of rain; who poured down many a time on the hamlets of Mah_narf and Not_la, that flooded the valley below.

But lo it made it rich for harvesting vegetables on the soil of clay allotted to mortals of Mah_prub.

The tribe from the next village of Bo_caj waged a war against the tribe of Mah_prub for they wanted their hunting ground to be easily reached by a track over the watery meadows on to the other side.

Village elders were sad and dismayed for they so wanted to end this long struggle for the track from the new combe of d’lei_fyls to join the mighty track towards the citadel but now at last have been cheered by the golden nuggets the King has offered so that they could delve into this matter thoroughly and establish a common goal using common sense.