Letter: The Council Ignores The Facts and The Electorate At Its Peril

Published on: 12 Dec, 2017
Updated on: 12 Dec, 2017

From Tony Edwards

Wisley Action Group campaigner

Aldous Huxley might have been thinking about Guildford council when he declared that facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

The painfully obvious fact, which hovers over Guildford like a gathering storm, is that the people of the borough have repeatedly presented a persuasive case for preserving the green belt throughout two protracted Local Plan consultations only to be ungraciously ignored as if their opinions counted for nothing.

We’ve witnessed a blatant disregard for the views of Guildford residents in favour of blinkered ambitions for the borough from its leader, blindly supported by Tory councillors who seem incapable of engaging in even the most basic independent thought process.

Local politicians of conscience and conviction seem to be thin on the ground at the Millmead vote counts – substituted, instead, for yes-men and yes-women who are prepared to toe a somewhat shaky party line, regardless of public opinion and negative consequences to the areas they have been elected to represent.  And these are the politicians who happily endorse a Local Plan which is little more than a death warrant for Guildford’s irreplaceable green fields.

But as far more influential politicians than them can testify, Guildford decision-makers ignore the facts and the people who elected them at their peril.

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