Letter: Council’s Unwillingness to Take Informed Advice Left Us With a Very Poor Local Plan

Published on: 29 Mar, 2024
Updated on: 28 Mar, 2024

From: Jim Allen

In response to: I Hope Proper Scrutiny of the Ransom Strip Deal Will Still Be Undertaken

It is a great shame that Guildford Vision Group did not take the opportunity to write a Neighbourhood Plan for the town centre. It could have been in place by 2016 and influenced the Local Plan.

It is also an even bigger shame that the council leadership in 2016 thought they knew planning law more than one of their fellow councillors who pointed out the plan’s flaws because it was his full-time job.

For example, trying to create new green belt while destroying it in the very same Local Plan or permitting the delay of a new sewage treatment plant until 2027 in the full knowledge it would be over capacity in 2017.

In short, the knowledge, background, planning law and statistics were all available to those at GBC, including planning officers, who claimed competence to make decisions.

The unwillingness to read, understand, take informed advice and pay proper heed to residents’ views, as expressed in formal consultations, has been proven to be a huge error of judgement which left Guildford with a very poor plan, the consequences of which are still being suffered.

Responses to Letter: Council’s Unwillingness to Take Informed Advice Left Us With a Very Poor Local Plan

Ben Paton Reply

March 29, 2024 at 10:03 am

And the councillors elected in 2019 with a mandate to do something about all this have done absolutely nothing, zero, zilch.

And they are still doing almost nothing.

What is more important: passing a resolution about a “climate emergency” or changing a defective and corrupt Local Plan?

Who do they represent? A clique of activists and “development experts” or the people who actually live in the unsustainable built environment the borough council has literally planned.