Councillors Reject Expert Help for North Street Regeneration Project

Published on: 31 Jul, 2023
Updated on: 3 Aug, 2023

CGI of how the proposed Friary Quarter in North Street would look. Image developer, St Edward.

By Emily Coady-Stemp

local democracy reporter

Guildford councillors have rejected calls to bring in experts to comment on plans to redevelop North Street amid claims the suggestion amount to “jobs for boys”.

A new planning application for the largely derelict area in Surrey’s county town will be submitted to the council with the highest building two storeys lower than in the previous scheme, rejected by councillors in January.

As well as submitting the revised application the developer, St Edward, has appealed the borough council’s rejection of its original 400-home scheme but denies trying to blackmail the council.

A model of the original North Street development proposal exhibited by the developers and refused by GBC’s Planning Committee. It is now subject to an appeal.

Cllr Matt Furniss

A council meeting on Tuesday (July 25) voted against a motion put forward by Conservative Cllr Matt Furniss (Pilgrims) to appoint the firm Create Streets to act as a “critical friend” on the North Street plans.

From the Create Street’s website

The not-for-profit organisation, which Cllr Furniss said was set up as a community-led organisation to improve developers’ designs, has worked with Surrey County Council to develop a Healthy Streets policy.

Cllr Furniss called on Guildford councillors to work with the organisation in order to bring in a “strong understanding of what needs communities have” that would be backed up by evidence.

He said the debate around the rejected North Street plans, now being appealed by developers, had been around the height of the proposed buildings, the number of affordable homes and the road layouts.

While he said the plans to regenerate the area had support across all political parties, he added that several council administrations had tried to get a redevelopment scheme over the line for the area.

Work with Create Streets would champion “gentle density”, Cllr Furniss told the meeting.

He added: “We’re not talking blocks, we’re not talking towers.

“We’re talking good, gentle design. Five, six storeys and so on, with developments that do not cause people to have a bit of shock about the proposals.”

A view of how the North Street frontage of the Friary Quarter would look.

He said that the county council’s Healthy Streets policy, which the borough council’s Executive was asked to endorse as part of the motion, was based on the principles of active travel, reducing air pollution and “effectively reclaiming our streets from the motor car”.

But councillors questioned the need to appoint Create Streets, saying it came too late in the process, and that new reasons couldn’t be added to the current application under appeal.

Cllr George Potter

Cllr George Potter (Lib Dem, Burpham), the authority’s lead councillor for planning, environment and climate change, called Create Streets “quite an unusual organisation”, in that they weren’t an established consultancy.

He also pointed to their founder, Nicholas Boys Smith, being a former Conservative candidate in a parliamentary election, having written a book called True Blue, and articles on the Conservative Home website.

According to the Create Streets website, Mr Boys Smith is also chair of the advisory board for the government’s office for place, and an academician of the Academy of Urbanism.

Cllr Potter said the organisation seemed to have a “political leaning”, and that appointing it as a critical friend would either mean asking the firm to comment on planning applications, which it could already do, or “potentially paying them taxpayer’s money” to do so.

He told the meeting: “We are in a difficult economy and I suppose it is positive to see that the county council are running a jobs creation programme, even if that jobs creation programme is just ‘jobs for boys’ in the case of this piece of guidance.”

Cllr Fiona White, chair of GBC’s Planning Committee

Along with Cllr Fiona White (Lib Dem, Ash Wharf), he raised concerns about the borough council endorsing county council policy which could be in conflict in parts with Guildford’s own Local Plan policies.

Cllr White said of the new North Street application: “It’s important that that application comes to the Planning Committee in the autumn and anything which delays that I think would be very bad for the council and for the developers and, I venture to suggest, for Guildford as a whole.

“The Planning Committee, when it does come, will make its own decisions based on planning policy but I think to delay it would be a retrograde step.”

She said she was concerned that despite the positive contribution that Healthy Streets could make to the planning process, supporting the motion could “create more problems that it solves”.

Cllr Joss Bigmore

Former Guildford leader, Cllr Joss Bigmore (R4GV, Merrow), said it was “unfair” to portray the organisation as “some off-shoot of the Conservative Party” and that the council had worked with it before on the Weyside Urban Village plans, winning an award for good design.

He added: “Create Streets have a lot to offer in the future and it’s unfair to say they are a politically motivated group.”

But he added: “It is too late for these applications for them to be involved.”

When the motion was lost, Cllr Furniss said he found it “disappointing but unsurprising.”

He said that rather than slowing anything down, the aim was for more dialogue with residents and businesses to “get their voices heard on applications”.

Cllr Furniss said: “You often get a very adversarial developer, council versus residents in planning applications and [Create Streets] can create good community links, to make sure everyone’s views are heard and able to be included.”

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