Letter: The Weyside Scheme Is Not Going To Be GBC’s Woking

Published on: 10 Jul, 2025
Updated on: 10 Jul, 2025

Illustrative view of new homes in Weyside Urban Village project. Guildford Borough Council

From John Redpath

former R4GV councillor

In response to: Councillors Hear How the Weyside Urban Village Project Became a Multi-million Risk

Weyside Urban Village (WUV) is certainly not GBC’s Woking. The amounts are much smaller, and the council are not supporting the success of private developers through loan guarantees etc. The risks are millions rather than billions.

The most likely scenario will be the sale of the easily accessible WUV land for early development by third party developers. This could be the allotment land which can be released early once services have been run through it. The money raised from such a sale will help the council along the tough financial path ahead.

The GBC Executive will almost certainly have been discussing the requirement of 40 per cent affordable housing on the new estate. A good local hack would challenge the deputy council leader on whether 40 per cent affordable is still definitely viable for the entire WUV site.

One of the benefits that has not been mentioned is how Guildford residents will notice improved air quality long before the development is complete. The new modern sewage treatment works will make life much more pleasant for local residents and those working and visiting the Bellfields Area. This will then leave just the occasional foul smells from the abattoir to deal with. One can only hope!

Editor’s response: During the press briefing on WUV, I did ask the question of how the council could guarantee 40 per cent of the housing units would be “affordable”. Deputy GBC Leader Tom Hunt explained that, in this development scheme, GBC were the landowners and will make the affordable percentage a condition of any sale. However, to maintain project viability the land sale value might, as a consequence, have to be lowered and this is part of the council’s financial risk.