Letter: Those in Wisley Hoping for New Infrastructure Should Not Hold Their Breath

Published on: 28 Jul, 2022
Updated on: 28 Jul, 2022

Wisley Airfield plans

From: Sue Wyeth-Price

I admire the optimism of Keith Francis as expressed in his comment on the article: Campaigners Condemn Wisley Airfield Plan for New Homes as ‘A Recipe for Disaster’ but it’s tinged with naivety.

Perhaps he would like to come to Ash and try and find the “new” health centre we were promised? It’s never materialised and now, if anything, it will most likely be a private facility which may not be available to local residents, assuming it appears at all.

Hardly any of the promised road improvements have been started, let alone finished. The fabled Ash Road bridge also hasn’t been delivered and the footbridge over the railway line (the only element required for safety by Network Rail) isn’t even included in the latest public statements from Guildford Borough Council. Oh, and the price has risen from the original £15 million to more than double that now.

Parts of our ward have only three buses – a week! And there are no plans to improve that either.

If he hopes for some kind of education enhancement, he will be waiting a long time. The councils have taken over £3 million for just one primary school in Ash, and we have not had a single additional school place created to accommodate residents from 2,000 new houses and there are no plans in place to do so.

We can ask over and over again for the infrastructure, the developers will hand over the “contributions” and the councils will take the money. Unless they can learn how to manage the money, the projects and then the timely delivery of infrastructure, the residents of Wisley and its surrounds will find themselves in the same state we are in: thousands of extra residents with overstretched infrastructure and no benefits.

Just because you asked for something, and it’s included in the plans, doesn’t mean you are ever going to get it!