Letter: We Need a Flight From Party Politics for Guildford to Achieve

Published on: 24 Feb, 2019
Updated on: 24 Feb, 2019

From: Julian Lyon

In response to: Only Labour Can Provide Real Change in Guildford

I see myself as an Independent. I see independence as a forum for putting forward and discussing ideas. Some will be good, some will be bad; some will come from independent councillors, some will come from elsewhere.

I am definitely not likely to support a Labour government – not because they don’t have some good ideas, but because the overall effect tends to be quite devastating for our economy, and, in the end, counterproductive.

That said, I recognise community land trusts as a potentially viable solution. Indeed, one of the last things I did before leaving General Motors in 2015 was to establish a community land trust on a development I initiated on surplus car parking land in South Bedfordshire (in the green belt!).

This was a settlement of 325 homes (Redrow, the developer, have called this Caddington Woods) where we determined, firstly, that we would provide the full allocation of affordable homes as required by the Local Plan; a major community consultation charette revealed the nature of the problems faced by local villages in their every day lives – which also bore out the findings in the Indices of Multiple Deprivation.

The upshot was that I insisted that we put 50% of the affordable homes into a community trust (the Case Community Trust) set up for the purposes, and that we use the revenues from the trust to fund seven-day transport connections between the villages (serving commuters, day time and evening trips) making shops, pubs and restaurants viable again and also enabling young people to access the various sports and leisure facilities across the area.

The revenues also go to maintaining and operating the multi-use games areas, the 33-acres of woodlands and a community centre, which we insisted would be built to use and harness renewable energy to reduce or eliminate net operating costs.

This trust can decide to offer its homes at lower cost – it is also established as a charity so that it can raise money to help it achieve these goals.

This was a market-enabled concept, not a top-down central government initiative. It is precisely the sort of process Guildford could enable through the legal planning agreements it routinely enters into.

The local communities, having been sceptical at first, embraced the development and the benefits it brings, dealing as it does with local issues, and, due to good consultation, being substantially community-led (albeit it benefited General Motors too).

The big problem in Guildford Borough is that the council, as it is currently politically configured, stifles creativity, stamps on community-led ideas, throws out inconvenient opportunities and kills off any worthwhile social enterprise, leaving it for the communities to achieve these things by themselves.

Look at the Spike as a shining example of what communities can do. Look at Burchatt’s Farm or the Chilworth Gunpowder Mill Cottage as beacons for the failure of the council to make good community use of community buildings.

Even when we build a cycle path across sports fields, we contrive to do so to the minimum permissible standards (3m wide shared surface for bi-directional pedestrian and cycle use).

We need a change of attitude, a changing of the guard, and a flight from national party politics to achieve these things in Guildford – but we should also not turn our backs on ideas from the main parties, we should properly, openly and objectively debate them, whether they come from left, right or centre.

Sadly, this is what I would have wanted to promote had my day job not been turned into a toxic political football by the council leader, who shows day-in, day-out that his council has little room for big-hearted politics.

This is why I strongly and persistently advocate good Independent candidates for our council. This would be the start of the change, and, unpopular though it is to the three established parties, this is increasingly recognised as the way forward.