Letter: People Power Can Drive the Vision for the Borough

Published on: 1 Aug, 2017
Updated on: 1 Aug, 2017

From James Walsh

Labour borough councillor for Stoke ward

In response to: It’s A Bit Rich For Labour to Criticise the Local Plan Now

I broadly support the Local Plan and I don’t view Brian Creese’s opinion piece [Local Plan – Not Enough Ambition, Not Enough Vision] as being overly-critical of it either.

Having been a councillor for just over a year, I have seen how difficult the process has been in developing the right plan for Guildford and that party politics has largely been kept out of it. And rightly so, because I feel that we all need to work together to get the right mix of housing, retail and infrastructure to help Guildford thrive during the next few post-Brexit decades.

Where Labour may differ is over the vision for the borough although, with the proposed North Street regeneration, bus and railway station and riverside developments on the cards, there is scope for all of us to have an input into how this shapes up. Nothing is yet cast in stone.

I’ve been really pleased with the amount of engagement the public given to the plan so far and hope that this will continue once the individual projects come online – “people power” can really drive the vision and outcomes that we all want to see in the borough.

Regarding affordable housing, I agree with Ben Paton that radical options need to be looked at, and not just left at varying the affordable element of any given development.

Twelve brand-new council-owned houses were recently built and unveiled in my ward (Stoke) and I am pleased that these will provide high-standard and spacious homes for a dozen families.

The balance we have to strike nationally is getting the right mix of high-quality housing for everyone – affordable housing, council housing and private housing. What we’ve recently seen in Stoke is a step in the right direction, but more certainly needs to be done.

Responses to Letter: People Power Can Drive the Vision for the Borough

Ben Paton Reply

August 2, 2017 at 9:06 pm

If councillors are going to take credit for the borough council building twelve new council houses, they ought also take responsibility for telling us how many council houses they sold in the same period – and how great the difference was between the sales price and the cost of replacing them.

That net deficit is part of the cost we all have to pay. We also bear the cost of building so-called ‘affordable’ homes (which are completely unaffordable to anyone on the council housing waiting list) in inappropriate locations.

Harping on about the new council houses just distracts from the reality – there are over ten per cent fewer council houses owned by the council now than some years ago and the stock continues to be eroded.
Jim Allen Reply

August 3, 2017 at 2:11 pm

There has been plenty of engagement with the local plan over 40,000 ‘engagements’ it is a great shame that the Executive has prioritised commercial confidentiality ‘consultation and openness’. They need to actually take notice of the public’s engagement.