Letter: Veil Of Anonymity Over Wisley Site Could Be Lifted, But Council Refuses

Published on: 9 Apr, 2015
Updated on: 11 Apr, 2015

From Tony Edwards of Ockham

The veil of anonymity covering the people behind the proposal for a ‘new town’ at Three Farms Meadows, the former Wisley airfield site, could be lifted by Guildford Borough Council – but they refuse to do so.

The Wisley Action Group (WAG) advised Guildford planners last month that it had the legal right to request further details of the applicant under Section 62 of the 1990 Town & Country Planning Act. And Barry Fagg, interim head of planning, was asked if the council had:

A) Confirmed that the applicant has sufficient funds to meet all the obligations in the planning application?

B) Confirmed the source of the funds?

C) Established the identities of the directors and shareholders of the applicant company?

But while it was accepted that the council had the right, under the 1990 Act, to ask these questions in dealing with the planning application, Mr Fagg said that he wasn’t obliged to and was “not prepared to do further due diligence of the application”.

Guildford planners, therefore, have no legal obligation to scrutinise the applicant company, but they clearly have the legal right to do so. And bearing in mind the enormity of the proposal for 2,100 homes as part of the ‘new town’, and the implications for local infrastructure in towns and villages throughout the borough – and neighbouring boroughs – it seems highly dilatory of Mr Fagg and his team not to carry out some basic checks on this off-shore, tax haven company.

The potential for “affordable housing” in this proposal is also in considerable doubt. Mr Fagg admits that the applicant would be entitled to sell all or part of the site after receiving planning consent and that “there is no guarantee that this company will actually undertake the proposed development”.

So the applicant could (and probably would) simply sell the land with the benefit of the new permissions, creaming-off a massive profit without laying a brick, and leaving future house builders with substantially tighter margins and little scope to build low-cost housing. Budget restraints would mean that affordable housing would be highly unlikely to be on the agenda.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that this application is about turning a quick profit and nothing to do with housing need in general and affordable housing in particular. In the circumstances, I believe Guildford Borough Council has a duty under the 1990 Act to at least find out to whom they are entrusting the future of a massive slice of Guildford’s green belt.

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