Letter: May I Make a Helpful Suggestion to Mr Harper?

Published on: 10 Sep, 2019
Updated on: 10 Sep, 2019

From Gordon Bridger

hon alderman and former Mayor of Guildford

In response to: Michel Harper Backs Out Of Casino Site Planning Appeal and Intends Fresh Approach

Thank you for the coverage by The Guildford Dragon NEWS of what must surely be the prize-winner for the ugliest development proposal of the year.

I note that Michel Harper is now going to consult more carefully about any new proposal.

May I make a helpful suggestion? Instead of resuscitating his current tower-block plan, he should dig deep into his files and come up with a much earlier “urban village” proposal, put forward several years ago. In my view, it was excellent, related to the town centre and kept the area in scale and, through its design, congruent with our town centre.

It was drawn up by John Nightingale who had been Guildford’s chief planning officer for many years. He was one of the best planners we had and his period in office, together with John Davy our conservation officer, was a golden period of good planning.

Much to everyone’s surprise, Mr Harper commissioned him when he resigned to come up with this “urban village” project; it successfully retained the character of our town centre. But Michel Harper was very unpopular with our Establishment as he had just been successful in challenging the tendering process for a new Civic Hall, so his proposal unfairly got short shrift, in my view, and never went to the Planning Committee.

I appreciate that this urban village scheme cannot be as profitable as the high-rise, for which unfortunately he got permission, but I would urge him to consider whether he would prefer the legacy of an out-of-scale and out-of-character tower-block on this site or that of a “Harper urban village”?

Can he be persuaded to dig out these nearly forgotten proposals and give our new council, or at least the Guildford Society or the Guildford Vision Group, sight of them and see whether they would not be a better solution for this area?