Letter: Local Plan ‘Smacks Of Soviet Union’ Approach

Published on: 11 Oct, 2021
Updated on: 11 Oct, 2021

From Colin Cross

R4GV borough (Lovelace) and county councillor (The Horsleys)

In response to a comment by Cllr Paul Spooner to Letter: The Education Of Ripley Children Is Being Compromised

How enlightening it ls to be lectured by Guildford’s leading expert on villages needing young families and balanced communities to survive and prosper.

A couple of prime examples of his recent efforts are on record in his masterwork on this topic, the 2019 Guildford Local Plan.

We will find the hamlet of Ockham, with its 150 or so homes, being “supported and balanced” by the addition of 2000-plus more homes in its midst. Or there is another nearby example of the sleepy hamlets of Send Marsh and Burnt Common, with their 250 or so local homes, now having a 550-home estate at Garlicks Arch being shoehorned in between them.

So this is the former Tory leader’s meaning of providing “balanced communities”?

Personally, l think it smacks more of the Soviet Union in its darkest hours and displays a callous disregard for centuries of generic village growth in Surrey.

Guildford will pay a very high price for this travesty of local planning and blind adherence to Tory dogma.

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