Letter: Conservative Green Belt Promise Lies in Tatters

Published on: 29 May, 2016
Updated on: 29 May, 2016

From Roland McKinney

It is ironic that Cllr Spooner seeks to diminish Guildford Greenbelt Group (GGG), given that Guildford Conservatives headlined their election publicity material with a promise to protect the green belt.

It is a promise that now lies in tatters.

Perhaps Cllr Spooner is trying to deflect attention away from broken promises by attacking the legitimacy of GGG?

Despite a plethora of statistics, oddly enough, he does not mention that in the most recent local by-election the Conservatives lost the seat they held in Stoke.

At least GGG have been consistent in their arguments – what their voters have got has been exactly what was promised.

Given his broken promise, perhaps Cllr Spooner should do the honourable thing and resign his seat, and ask his fellow Conservative councillors do the same. Then run for re-election, but this time tell voters the truth.

Tell them that if re-elected that the Local Plan the Conservative party will submit will:

•   remove 6% of land currently designated as green belt from that designation
•   put 70% plus of planned housing in the green belt
•   not solve housing needs in Guildford town, or meet social housing needs in the town, and in fact will add to pressures on social housing stock
•   increase Guildford’s population by more than four times the average increase during 2001 to 2011
•   over the life of the plan, increase Guildford’s population by about 33,500 people
•   add about 25,000 cars to the roads in the borough
•   be unable to meet the infrastructure needs of the borough

If he is so confident that he speaks for the majority of people in the borough, let him prove it. If he chooses not to, then we can all draw our own conclusions.

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