Letter: GBC Prefers Fantasy Politics

Published on: 25 Sep, 2022
Updated on: 25 Sep, 2022

From: Ben Paton

In response to: Recommendation for Guildford to Consider Congestion Charging

Guildford Borough Council has a real and direct responsibility for planning. Why is it that the council postpones the immediate real problems like the Local Plan into the indefinite future?

The borough council does not have any real or direct responsibility for road transport. That job belongs to Surrey County Council Highways Department and to National Highways.

Why is GBC wasting taxpayers’ money on a problem that belongs to SCC?

GBC prefers to indulge in fantasy policies like solving the “climate emergency” and changing the entire structure of transport than to serve its residents on the one thing that is unequivocally its problem – planning.

The council’s foray into congestion charge zones is just a gravy train for some consultants. It’s a policy talking shop in which councillors can talk big about something they have little or no power to solve.

Politics in England today seems to be led by impractical people who are more interested in shoehorning the rest of us into their own untried and untested theory of how they believe the world should work. Long on theory and devoid of common sense.

Responses to Letter: GBC Prefers Fantasy Politics

Valerie Thompson Reply

September 25, 2022 at 3:02 pm

It will be just the last nail in the coffin for Guildford’s shops and restaurants. The town is already dying. What with the increases in parking charges, including £1.30 an hour for Millmead (only six cars were parked there last Monday evening) and the reduction in Park and Ride bus services, people will go anywhere but Guildford for shopping and entertainment.

What about the drivers who are obliged to traverse Guildford to get to somewhere else? Are they to be charged as well? If so, the small country roads surrounding the area will be clogged with cars avoiding Guildford town centre.
Keith Reeves Reply

September 25, 2022 at 11:26 pm

At times I pity our local council. In the eyes of some they can never do anything right.

Do correspondents expect everything the council does to please everyone, all of the time?

Notwithstanding the detail of the letter and related article, of course the county council hold the purse strings for most transport related matters.

However, they don’t work in isolation, but in partnership with the borough councils. To imply that a borough council should have no interest in local transport issues strikes me as a little strange.
Sara Tokunaga Reply

September 26, 2022 at 9:05 am

Thank you Mr Paton for hitting the nail on the head.