Letter: The Credibility of Our Planning Department Has Been Severely Damaged

Published on: 12 Oct, 2019
Updated on: 12 Oct, 2019

Cllr Hodge’s letter in support of GBC’s Wisley garden village proposal

From Gordon Bridger

hon alderman and former Mayor of Guildford

The reactions to the report: ‘Naive Oversight’ Kept Property Agent’s Role in Drafting GBC Report and Letter Hidden are very understandable. What has been produced on a “voluntary basis” makes no mention of Cllrs Spooner and Furniss.

Were they spoken to? Was it confirmed that they were not aware that the submission for funds for the Wisley Development had actually been provided by Wisley Enterprise Ltd as claimed? If so, they should be annoyed at not being cleared.

Neither does what has been published state whether such action was legal. It’s not a good summary.

Since the proposed former Wisley Airfield development is one of the largest and most controversial we have had for decades, and was actually rejected at an appeal, not to have made the origin of the report and SCC support letter quite clear was more than a mere “oversight”.

What seems clear is that it has been extremely badly managed. Senior councillors should have been warned of the dangers of working so closely with developers and management should have been open about the origin. The claim that council planners will be “objective” once it comes up for permission shows little respect for the public.

This is not the investigation which is required by GBC guidelines nor the one the public had the right to expect.

Being announced on the very evening that the council agreed unanimously, including the Tory Group, that we needed more openness at GBC I do not think that councillors could possibly accept such an inadequate report and must insist that it should go to Corporate Governance and an Independent Person, chosen by the chair of that committee (on advice from officers), for further consideration.

What concerns me is the inadequate management of our Planning Department. The council has approved a travesty of a Local Plan which ignores the town centre, and which, despite protests from myself and others over four years, included an 40% expansion of Guildford’s retail sector.

This, in turn, caused a huge increase in housing on the green belt which, according to a recent application approved for Send, could arbitrarily be increased by 25%. Members at the relevant Planning Committee meeting were treated quite disgracefully being wrongly told that the council would be charged “massive fines” if it was turned down and allowed on appeal.

There are several other cases I can quote about misleading advice to councillors and the tens of millions of pounds being collected to protect birds from residents (the birds were almost all wiped out in a cold spell ten years ago) but are now being used to justify new housing on the green belt. What a mess.

In the May elections, for the first time in history, the Conservative councillors have been reduced to a tiny rump and we now have an excellent, exceptionally good and highly skilled professional councillors. They will be tested and judged by how they deal with this report.

This case has severely damaged the credibility of our Planning Department with the public. This is a very serious situation and it must be rectified asap.

I would recommend a management review of the Planning Department as the former council leader Cllr Mansbridge oversaw did some years ago.