A former senior Conservative councillor says his offer of advice on town-centre planning has been rebuffed by the new Lib Dem leadership at Guildford Borough Council (GBC).

Geoff Davis

Geoff Davis, in a letter to The Guildford Dragon NEWS, refers to the Dragon interview with Jan Harwood, the new lead councillor for planning, and his own work in the previous administration, liaising with developers on the regeneration of North Street. Mr Davis said he fears the work will not be “furthered properly”.

The former councillor, a chartered surveyor with decades of experience of Guildford property-dealing, lost his Holy Trinity seat in the May council election. Shortly before, he was interviewed about North Street regeneration along with Caroline Reeves (Lib Dem, Friary & St Nicolas) and John Rigg, now a Residents for Guildford and Villages (R4GV) councillor with responsibility for town-centre master-planning.

Cllr Caroline Reeves

Cllr Reeves, the new GBC leader, said she had thanked him for his offer of help.

Geoff Davis letter in full:

I have read the letter from David Carter and agree with much of what is being said.

Dragon editor Martin Giles’s interview with Cllr Jan Harwood was illuminating and well-timed, on such an important subject for our borough. I have not yet met Cllr Harwood, but he came across as a decent, intelligent person, coming up to speed quickly.

Cllr Jan Harwood

The point on him seeking support from the many property professionals in our community without charge made me smile. After the election, I did offer handover property support to the new leader, Cllr Reeves, but she refused.

I had been working hard as lead councillor on North Street particularly, and was worried that the good work would not be furthered properly after the election. When a councillor, I had jostled successfully to get North Street resurfaced, demolitions completed on the M&G land, and held detailed discussions with the Berkeley company.

There had been stagnation for some 20 years, and I wanted to get that conundrum finally unlocked (see the North Street interview before the election by The Dragon, with Cllr Reeves, John Rigg and myself).

John Rigg, Caroline Reeves and Geoff Davis were interviewed by Hugh Coakley (right) in April (2019) about North Street redevelopment.

I knew Cllr Reeves well; we had spent many years together on several council committees, including the Property Review Group, the Local Plan panel, and many others. I offered my professional expertise and experience as a chartered surveyor (FRICS) with 55 years in practice, 45 in Guildford, also with a Masters degree in Planning and Development.

Cllr Reeves declined, which I found out of character, and she said she would leave my offer of a proper handover “on file”. It cannot be in the interests of proper management of the town, for there to be no handover to consolidate the achievements and continue the progress made.

This worries me. It suggests a drift back into further stagnation under the Lib Dem approach, leaving the centre of the town in continuing limbo.

The good news, of course, is that Mr Rigg, now a councillor, has full council support for a redrafted town-centre master-plan.

No doubt the new GVG road across the railway will figure large in that, despite the massive costs, as well as large areas of blight, particularly around Guildford Park Road.

I have much professional regard for Cllr Rigg as a fellow chartered surveyor. He had a very successful West End international career. I am hoping Cllr Reeves will avail herself of his property expertise if my offer is to be left in the filing cabinet.

Mr Carter also recommends that Cllr Harwood should avail himself of advice from another well-respected chartered surveyor, Julian Lyon. He may not realise that Mr Lyon would be conflicted as a Savills director, especially during Local Plan JR challenges, Savills being agents for the site promoter at Wisley.

He then addresses the interview content on the astonishing Lib Dems manifesto undertaking to create a significant supply of council housing in a relatively short period. Editor Giles let him off lightly, and I suggest a follow-up interview on that subject specifically, because it was so fundamental.

Developers are not charities, and Cllr Harwood sadly seemed naive; maybe he hasn’t met many housebuilders?

The only way the Lib Dem commitment can be honoured would be on council-owned land, and subsidised by significant sums of money (potentially hundreds of millions of pounds) at ratepayers’ expense.

Do the Guildford ratepayers agree with such an approach?

Council leader Reeves responded:

Geoff Davis did indeed offer his words of wisdom, for which I thanked him. I have spent much time talking to officers at Millmead, re-reading various documents such as the Allies & Morrison master-plan and talking to numerous people who are also keen to share their ideas and visions.

We agreed at the last full council meeting to revisit the town-centre master-plan. We are very lucky that the previous schemes were not built out; we would be faced with even more retail challenges if they had. We will come forward with proposals viable for the much-changed town-centre scene we now have.

This administration will produce a plan for the town-centre that will work alongside our adopted Local Plan. It will start with a key consultation with all the stakeholders, campaign groups, formal residents’ groups, businesses and, indeed, the people for whom the town is essential to their way of life.

A plan won’t happen overnight but it will happen. There’s no stagnation, the shutters are not down, it’s not business as usual, it’s business in a constructive way to move things forward. The bottom line is we all want what is best for the town, and there are many different ways of achieving that.