Letter: Council Leadership Has Shown No Loyalty To National Planning Policy

Published on: 24 May, 2018
Updated on: 24 May, 2018

From Ben Paton

Martin Giles’ opinion piece: This Unhappy Few is No Band of Brothers (and Sisters) is a fair assessment. But I would not go so far as to state that, “Spooner and Furniss have chosen loyalty to government planning policy”.

Far from it. They have shown no loyalty to the NPPF [National Planning Policy Framework]. The Local Plan they inherited and promoted does not follow elementary planning principles or the NPPF.

The writing is on the wall. Once their Local Plan is weighed in the balance it will be found wanting. Once it becomes obvious that they have led the Conservative Group into another expensive waste of taxpayers money odds are they’ll go the way of their predecessors.

Responses to Letter: Council Leadership Has Shown No Loyalty To National Planning Policy

Wayne Smith Reply

May 24, 2018 at 10:41 pm

And while we await the outcome of their Local Plan review, they continue to throw taxpayers money around like confetti! It’s reported elsewhere that the cost of the replacement Walnut Bridge has risen from £2.75m to £3.34m, which Cllr. Furniss maintains is “on budget”. In fact, that’s a 21% increase. The Village budget was wildly inaccurate and now this. Time for the GBC Scrutiny Committee to do their job and start asking some searching questions.
Chris Ogle Reply

May 30, 2018 at 4:24 pm

The last scrutiny meeting was cancelled at very short notice, as I recall, when the topic for the meeting was modal shift. There has been no modal shift and this policy is a complete misnomer.

It should be called ‘let’s just let the congestion and pollution get worse’. Perhaps when you can no longer move in Guildford people will simply stay away. Maybe that’s the plan. Meanwhile, there has been no word when this meeting (cancelled at 24 hours notice) will now sit.