Letter: Implying I Am Not Motivated to Serve the Community Is a New Low

Published on: 30 Mar, 2019
Updated on: 30 Mar, 2019

From Paul Spooner

leader of Guildford Borough Council and Conservative ward councillor for Ash South & Tongham

In response to a comment on: I Will Judge Candidates on Their Personal and Professional Qualities

Cllr Cross implying that I am not motivated to serve the community is reaching a new low.

The difference between us is that as well as a local ward view I also take a borough-wide view. When you are working in a national framework you cannot just keep saying “no”, you have to balance local and borough needs for the benefit of the whole community.

I am getting tired of reading his constant attacks in public whilst smiling and explaining in the council that it is all in the name of politics and not really meant. Perhaps it’s time for him to start thinking as a borough councillor?

Responses to Letter: Implying I Am Not Motivated to Serve the Community Is a New Low

Ben Paton Reply

March 30, 2019 at 4:24 pm

Perhaps Mr Spooner could explain this?

How was taking responsibility for the Local Plan, as lead councillor for planning, as well as running the council as council leader in the interests of the borough?

The Office for National Statistics projects growth in the number of households between 2016 and 2041 of 7,538 households. When pro rated over the Local Plan period that gives a demographic housing need of 5,729 houses in the plan period. Mr Spooner has proposed a housing target of just under 11,000 houses. That is over 100% higher than the demographic housing need. How is that in the interests of the borough?

Isn’t the chosen housing target an effort to execute, at local level, a flawed strategy in order to curry favour with central government? Doesn’t this imply that Mr Spooner has shown greater loyalty to central government than to the residents of this borough? The degree by which the housing target exceeds rational assessments of the housing need, as appraised by the Guildford Residents’ Association, for example, strongly suggests that Mr Spooner is dancing to a tune devised in Whitehall. Is he is undertaking a housing growth experiment in which the residents of this borough are the guinea pigs?

How is building new housing in remote unsustainable green field sites in the interests of the borough?

How is putting the vast majority of the new housing on green field sites in the interests of the borough?

How is putting the vast majority of the new housing in ribbon developments off the A3 in the interests of the borough?

How was failing to take proactive steps to protect the railway station from overdevelopment acting in the interests of the borough?
- Paul Spooner Reply
  
  March 31, 2019 at 8:44 am
  
  As Mr Paton lives right on the doorstep of a strategic site, I can understand his concerns and his campaign strategy of trying to damage the plan makers and the decision makers who have created that issue for him. But the best place to start in answering his questions is to refer him to the independent [planning] inspector’s report published this week.
  
  The inspector has carefully and independently investigated the plan making process, reviewed the sites, and challenged the numbers, continuously questioning whether the numbers are too low and the council has obtained what we firmly believe is the best-balanced position for the community over the next 15-20 years. If things change then we will have regular reviews anyway.
  
  Paul Spooner is the Conservative leader of Guildford Borough Council.
  - Ben Paton Reply
    
    March 31, 2019 at 5:54 pm
    
    Mr Spooner dodges all of the questions.
    
    He has also consistently failed to explain why the housing number has never been scrutinised by the council. Why didn’t the Conservative-led council and the Lib Dem chaired Scrutiny Committee scrutinise the Strategic Housing Market Assessment?
    
    The inspector himself stated that it was not his job to comment on whether the plan was optimal, only on whether it satisfied his minimal requirements. Since it is government policy to build as many houses as possible, the inspector was never likely to criticise Mr Spooner’s plan, even if it builds too many houses and in unsustainable locations.
- Jules Cranwell Reply
  
  March 31, 2019 at 10:50 am
  
  Council Leader Paul Spooner is patently not serving our community, as he failed to heed the large majority of the tens of thousands of comments of objection to his ruinous Local Plan. He and his tight-knit Executive, do not represent the views of the majority of residents. They appear contemptuous of members of the public and councillors who dare to challenge their most disastrous decisions.
  
  Their constant currying of favour from central government in the hope of advancement are entirely self-serving.
Valerie Thompson Reply

March 30, 2019 at 7:45 pm

Why is he allowing the university, or indeed encouraging the university, to commandeer large areas of Guildford, desperately needed for social and affordable housing, for student flats? Is this in the community’s interests?
- Paul Spooner Reply
  
  March 31, 2019 at 8:58 am
  
  The statement from Valerie Thompson is, as others from her have been, factually incorrect in every way. I have not allowed or encouraged anything, anywhere to be commandeered by anyone, the university or any other body, corporate or singular, anywhere in the borough.
  
  Paul Spooner is the Conservative leader of Guildford Borough Council.
Lisa Wright Reply

March 30, 2019 at 11:01 pm

Is it in the community interest to hold the deciding meeting on the Local Plan on April 25, one week before the borough elections?

I assume that date has been engineered to avoid any political changes that may occur on May 2nd, ensuring the Conservative Party retains it’s goal to build everywhere?

Lastly, I would remind Mr Paton that the Local Plan proposes over 14,000 new homes, 40% more than is needed to meet the GBC housing targets as set by the Planning Inspector.
Valerie Thompson Reply

March 31, 2019 at 5:06 pm

But proposals to build student accommodation on land by the sports fields and in Walnut Tree Close should not be encouraged. The university needs to make provision for its own students on university land.

I haven’t heard Cllr Spooner objecting to these areas not being used for social and affordable housing.

I still say that allowing these developments is not in the community’s interest.
- George Potter Reply
  
  April 1, 2019 at 11:32 am
  
  On the point of student accommodation, I have to disagree with Valerie Thompson.
  
  The University of Surrey is, in fact, building more student accommodation on land it owns. The same applies to Guildford College. The other further/ higher education institutions in Guildford which are a major source of students are the University of Law and the ACM, neither of which is in possession of land to build student accommodation on.
  
  It is also simply a fallacy that student accommodation takes up land that could otherwise be used for affordable or social housing. It’s just common sense that every bedroom in purpose-built student accommodation is one less bedroom in a family house that is being occupied by a student.
  
  The vast majority of second-year Surrey students, for instance, currently live in private rented accommodation. You only need to go to Guildford Park Avenue to see how buy-to-let landlords have bought up family houses to rent to students with the result that families often struggle to find places to rent.
  
  But if the students living in those properties had the option to move to purpose-built student accommodation (which, let’s not forget, has a higher room density than residential accommodation) then those houses would be freed up for families again.
  
  I find it utterly perverse how some people seem to loathe the idea of students living in new, purpose-built accommodation; it’s especially perverse when the same people who complain about that are also the ones who tend to complain about students taking up houses in residential areas.
  
  The only objection I have to the new purpose-built student accommodation is that it is invariably built and priced for students from wealthy backgrounds, meaning that poorer students still face limited accommodation options.
  
  But anyone who thinks students moving into purpose-built accommodation rather than residential homes taken over by buy-to-let landlords is somehow not in the community’s interest then they clearly haven’t been paying attention.
Julian Lyon Reply

March 31, 2019 at 6:41 pm

I have some sympathy with Paul Spooner. It would be wrong to say that he is not motivated to serve the community.

It would be correct to say, however, that for someone so dedicated, he has many thousands of people disagreeing with his approach, his methodology, his judgement and the outcomes.

This is not personal (despite his personal attacks on me) this is politics, and he and his party followers will surely be judged on 2nd May.

Cllr Spooner spends many hours (supposedly) on our behalf. What a pity he takes so little notice of what ‘unelected’ residents think and say.