The Dragon Says: The Solum Plan Must Be Fought With A New Style of Leadership

Published on: 28 Jan, 2018
Updated on: 28 Jan, 2018

“Shocked!” That’s how Guildford Borough Council Leader Paul Spooner described the reaction to an inspector’s decision to signal a green light to the “Solum Express” and its plan to redevelop Guildford railway station beyond any recognition.

He was right. “Shocked!” “Alarmed!” “Saddened”. All these words apply. As Alderman Gordon Bridger has said: “This is the most disastrous planning decision in Guildford’s long history.”

Let’s put to one side the flawed system that allows one man, a planning inspector, who can’t know Guildford that well, to make such a major decision about our town, overturning a unanimous decision by our elected councillors. That should be examined and debated but not right now.

We are where we are. Planning permission has been given.

Does that mean the game is up and we should all retreat with our tails between our legs for a round of finger-pointing between ourselves over who is to blame? No.

Whatever questions we might have about how we have arrived at this pass, and there are plenty, we must, for the moment, put them to one side, and come together to do whatever is possible to stop this disastrous development.

Perhaps the only good thing to emerge from the approval of “the Great Wall of Guildford” is the unifying effect it has had among most of those in Guildford who understand what is going on.

The inspector said the proposal had “polarised” opinion, but there seem very few in favour. Even the developer’s only claim to have several hundred supporters in a borough of 150,000.

Cllr Spooner was probably accurate when he said it appeared 95% of those who had expressed a view were against.

He must now use that support but in a way he and his recent predecessors have never managed to before.

All egos, personal ambitions and party politics must be thrown out of the window. All the potential within the from different political parties and considerable talents and experience of groups such as The Guildford Society the Guildford Vision Group, the Guildford Residents’ Association and others must be embraced by the council, not shunned has had shamefully happened in recent years.

This is no time for egos, arrogance or the “not invented here” syndrome. The future of our town is at stake; this development, hateful enough on its own, could have a bar-raising effect on building height which developers, only concerned with profit, will be keen to exploit.

The new development will be up to ten-storeys high, twice the height of the four-storey Ranger House.

Our MP Anne Milton must be fully engaged too. She has already approached the Secretary of State for Transport. That’s good. The plan, as is, will seriously compromise future transport potential for Guildford despite what the inspector said.

Sadly, there is no further appeal stage for this decision but the large lady has not sung her final song. Plans, even those with permission, do not need to be built out and this plan is still, it seems, dependent on land sales that may not be agreed.

We can only hope that our political leaders will now, at last, have the sense and the ability to properly engage with the community and do whatever is possible, even at this late hour, to secure a better plan, a better railway station and a better future for our town.

We were told that the Conservatives would protect the green belt. We have been told that the sacrifices proposed in the Local Plan were necessary if worse was not to happen. Neither of these things seem to be true.

So our leaders had better shape up and quickly. Both the leaders and the backbenchers must find a backbone and stand up to central government pressure. Appeasement has not worked.

The voters in this borough will not be able to forgive them if they oversee the vandalisation of our town and the despoiling of our countryside.

We will be watching but we must all play our part, all across the borough from Ash to Ockham, across the political spectrum and across a range of organisations, however they might have been ignored and mistreated in the past.

It’s later than we think and it is no time to stay quiet.

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