Letter: Solum Plan – The True Blame Lies With the Process and Attitudes

Published on: 26 Jan, 2018
Updated on: 26 Jan, 2018

From Stephen Mansbridge

former leader of Guildford Borough Council

In response to: Solum Wins Planning Appeal for Controversial Railway Station Re-development

Commentary on this issue is both disappointing and bizarre. The Solum project has been kicked around the council since 2011. It is an urban regeneration scheme on a brownfield site; good news to those who would prefer to see the concentration of development in the urban rather than the rural areas, one would think.

It has nothing to do with development in rural areas and villages, immigration or Brexit and the connections are ludicrous. The redevelopment was part of the now distant Town Centre Plan and only a timely new Local Plan would have arrested its progress. Whether it is a good or a bad development, it’s success on appeal is symptomatic of the problems of development in Guildford.

The council has had extensive involvement, from the early days under Cllr Jenny Wicks through to now, so hardly a shock or a surprise. The scale has been significant all the way through, although the make-up has changed.

The fundamental problem is the negativity of councillors and some members of the community. The appeal process removes any planning gain and the town is now stuck with a project that some or many people don’t like. There have been seven years to get this right and Solum have tried hard during that time to play ball, but clearly ran out of patience.

This is why we do not have a John Lewis in the town and why Bridge Street remains a slum. Tunsgate will be a great success and the main reason, I would suggest, is that the council has had minimal involvement.

You can blame Solum, the planning inspector and anyone else, but the true blame lies with the process and the attitudes that have accompanied this planning application.

The tax payer has already lost £1.5 million in the failed Village project and now will see more money wasted on an investigation into another failure, where the reasons are only too apparent to anyone with a reasonable knowledge of council business.

This horse is long bolted and I suggest that people wake up to what else lies unresolved in the stables.