Letter: Soon Guildford, Ash and Aldershot Will Be One Huge Town

Published on: 9 Jun, 2021
Updated on: 9 Jun, 2021

From: Kelly Green

In response to: The Ash and Tongham Housing Boom – Enough is Enough

I agree, enough is enough but I am not sure what we can do about it apart from move out of the area as no one seems to be able to stop the developer appeals against planning application refusals from going through.

They won’t stop until they have removed every green and open space around us. Soon Guildford, Ash and Aldershot will just be one huge town with no strategic gaps in between.

I already know a few people who have left to move north having felt that the area is becoming much too overpopulated, less green. Even green belt land is no longer safe, and traffic is a nightmare.

We should look at revamping towns in other areas that are less populated to start with and put in some investment to attract people to those areas.

Responses to Letter: Soon Guildford, Ash and Aldershot Will Be One Huge Town

Jan Messinger Reply

June 9, 2021 at 11:37 am

I think we all feel the same as Kelly Green. But it’s not much better anywhere else, when you look at the increase of house building throughout the country.

Most development goes on with no better infrastructure, hospitals, GP provision or schools. Then there are leisure facilities.

Who’s it all for? Most people talk about how expensive the new houses are. If you look at a new build house prices vary by up to £150,000, depending on where in the country it is.

Then we read of an area in West Country that only has one resident, all others are second homes or holiday lets. Who is this housing actually for that is being built, not only in our borough but throughout the UK?
Ben Paton Reply

June 9, 2021 at 11:49 am

Twenty-five years ago traffic circulated around Guildford freely. Now everywhere it is a logjam.

Take the slip road off the A3 down onto the A320/Stoke Road roundabout. Every morning the traffic backs up onto the A3. This is after they have spent millions adding an extra lane and changing the phasing of the traffic lights.

What will it be like one they put a new town – the Weyside Urban Village – on the site of sewage works off the A320?

Claims that local infrastructure can cope with building 20% more houses are just dishonest.