Letter: High Density Housing In The Town Centre Is Not The Answer

Published on: 24 May, 2016
Updated on: 24 May, 2016

From David Smith

In response to Andrew Procter’s letter: The Council Must Get On With The Station and Other Brownfield Developments.

I am not sure we should be providing housing in such a density with no parking and with no real infrastructure to support it. People in the town are sick of all of these homes being built which are causing grid-lock and cramped conditions.

I am not even sure it’s flats that families need. The Barratt affordable flats in Walnut Tree Close, where 20 one bedroom apartments were provided, have taken an age to fill.

I have spoken to someone who has taken one who said the council were struggling to fill them and they were very keen for her to take one. I was surprised by this, but then thought, what family on the housing list wants a flat with no parking?

We need houses with gardens and new schools and whilst it is preferable to develop brownfield first this cannot solve all our problems and I think anyone would be deluded to think Guildford Station offers, “Guildford’s most important brownfield site”.

The young generation of today should surely be able to aspire to having a house and a garden, let’s face it, we will be working longer before retirement, have to pay higher property prices and this is being compounded because people who live in the green belt don’t want to sacrifice their own living standards.

No one is saying build in Shere or Shamley Green we are talking about building in areas of low landscape value like Gosden Hill and Surrey University, the latter of which, by the way, is not the Hog’s Back.

On a side note, are the Guildford Society actually expecting people to come forward and chip in to buy what must surely be a multi-million pound site if planning is achieved? I’d sooner we raised the money to buy Michel Harper’s club, the benefits of which should be obvious.