Guildford Council to Call on Experts to Develop Town Centre Masterplan

Published on: 27 Jul, 2019
Updated on: 26 Jul, 2019

A vision of Guildford according to GVG’s masterplan

By Martin Giles

A masterplan for Guildford’s town centre is to be developed by GBC, aided by an external master-planning consultancy.

The motion, passed at Tuesday’s (July 22) full council meeting, recognised that town-centre master-planning had not been part of the Local Plan process “because that could have compromised the Local Plan itself”. It directed “immediate commencement in creating a suitable planning document within the next four years”.

In another show of cross-party co-operation at the borough council, the motion was proposed by R4GV’s John Rigg (Holy Trinity) and seconded by Lib Dem Tom Hunt (Friary & St Nicolas), representing Guildford most central wards.

Cllr John Rigg

Cllr Rigg, the former chairman of Guildford Vision Group, said: “Other towns across the UK and, in fact, across Europe are doing great things and we can too. I have no doubt it can be achieved especially with the new co-operative approach visible today in the council.

“We must seek to avoid just more failed plans. We’ve got to make a difference this time and we owe it our voters to support the motion.”

He added: “To achieve something special requires best-in-class specialists and a can-do attitude.”

The motion also carried the support of former Conservative council leader, Paul Spooner (Con, Ash South & Tongham).

Appearing initially a little defensive, he said there had been plenty of work already done by the council on master-planning, adding: “What I particularly like about this resolution was the keyword ‘sustainable’.

“As Cllr Rigg will very well know… the idea behind the Local Plan was to minimise or cut out from a piece of a puzzle the centre of the town and then work through a town regeneration strategy…”

Pointing out the similarity of the previous plans drawn up by the council and GVG he continued: “I don’t think we need to go back to the beginning here. I do think it is well worth a review of the documents that are out there already and use those as a framework to move things forward.

“We were caught out to a degree in terms of the [Planning] Inspector’s viewpoints with the S3 document, that I do agree was put together with a fairly short and disappointing, shall we say, timescale because the inspector wasn’t happy with the level of detail.”

Cllr Paul Spooner

Cllr Spooner concluded with a plea that those involved concentrated on achievability and that he welcomed the motion.

Then, in what might have been a first, Cllr Susan Parker (GGG, Send) said that she was in broad agreement with Cllr Spooner, a statement which caused a stunned Cllr Manning to make a show of mopping his brow.

In a press release issued by Residents 4 Guildford & Villages, Cllr Chris Barrass (Clandon & Horsley) said: “If the town centre is to remain an attractive centre for the borough and surrounding area it needs to be revitalised.”

The process to create a masterplan was approved and work will be started immediately on a “sustainable Development Plan Document”, and the Council’s Director of Planning and Regeneration is authorised to engage a specialist consultancy to help.

Bill Stokoe, Guildford Vision Group

Bill Stokoe, chair of Guildford Vision Group, said: “This is a momentous event. For the past eight years, GVG, under the tenacious leadership of John Rigg, has lobbied strongly for a master-plan for the town centre. The support for the motion was overwhelming.

“Allied to other successful motions passed on climate change and single-use plastics, there is now a real chance that the town centre, as well as other areas of the borough, can look forward to a much more sustainable future.”

GVG will seek to be involved in the drafting of the brief for the master-planning consultancy involvement and also approved the motion.

Mr Stokoe had reiterated GVG’s objectives at the council meeting.

The plan, he said, should be people-centric and deliver much wider pedestrianisation, exciting new public space, including a market square and a reinvigorated riverside, redirection of traffic away from the centre, reducing pollution and improving safety, an integrated transport hub around the rail station, more town-centre housing, including affordable and social, and a new crossing, for a better east-west link.

The motion was carried unanimously.

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