Letter: Our Planning Processes Need Urgent Attention

Published on: 4 Feb, 2018
Updated on: 4 Feb, 2018

From Julian Lyon

chairman of the Guildford Society

In response to: What Is the Point of the Borough Council Planning Committee?

There absolutely is a point in having a planning committee – but we need more discussion and debate at a community level and we need the committee to recognise such community events as a valid representation (in the absence of any realistic discussion time for the public at a planning meeting.

We also need much more robust reasons for refusal – this may need a separate group from the officers where they have recommended approval – and there needs to be much more collaboration between the council and communities in preparing for an appeal.

The Guildford Society will be holding a meeting at the Millmead Baptist Church on 21st February to examine height along the river in Guildford with particular reference to a planning application for tall buildings along Walnut Tree Close.

We held a similar pair of meetings about Solum which, if the planning committee had paid attention at the time, would probably have given the council a better hand in generating reasons for refusal and for contesting the appeal.

Both the Solum and the Ash inspectors have recognised that locals feel strongly about development proposals but takes the view that if the council and appellant have agreed most or all of the contested points, it must be reasonable to grant consent – whatever the community says.

Localism needs more teeth for locals than this or we all need to get on and set up Neighbourhood Forums with associates Neighbourhood Plans so that we are also recognised as having a valid voice in the process.

For Solum, the inspector suggested that we were too passionate in our opposition to the development proposals – maybe we were but that was entirely reflective of the majority of those who expressed a view.

We do need a design panel that includes local representation. We also need some protection for sensitive areas of the town which are missing from the submission draft version of the Local Plan but may come forward in the next couple of years – once our townscape has been adversely transformed beyond recognition – in the Development Management Development Plan Document which will follow adoption of this Local Plan.

All in all, we are vulnerable to bad development and we are not helped by our planning processes. This needs urgent attention.