Letter: Who Is Responsible for This Mess?

Published on: 12 Sep, 2023
Updated on: 12 Sep, 2023

From: Mark Stamp

In response to: How Could We Ignore the Congestion Charge As An Issue?

I’d like to remind Cllr Richard Mills that the borough council has a legal duty to reduce air pollution in the town centre.

Let’s examine why the Lib Dem/R4GV coalition had to raise parking charges. There has been a massive cut in local authority funding from central government over the last 13 years. Can Cllr Mills remind us which party has been in power for that time?

Also, let’s talk about why most residents have to rely on their cars to get into the town centre rather than having a reliable, simple public transport system and safe active travel routes? Those are the responsibility of Surrey County Council. Perhaps Cllr Mills also knows who has been in power there.

Finally, let’s discuss how much more traffic there will be after houses are built on green fields far away from the town such as at the former Wisley Airfield site. Who on earth could have written a Local Plan designating those sites as suitable?

Responses to Letter: Who Is Responsible for This Mess?

Barry Williams Reply

September 12, 2023 at 10:28 am

Congestion charging, Low Emission Zones, Electronic Road Pricing – seems that all local political parties want to say not invented here – but look deeper.

To quote the GBC website directly:

We have launched a public consultation on the Draft Air Quality Action Plan. The consultation will run from Friday 1 July 4pm to Wednesday 3 August 2022 12am.

The plan aims to:

reduce air pollutants in Guildford
improve air quality in the Guildford Town Centre Air Quality Management Area (AQMA)
The plan is part of our statutory duty. It is required by the Local Air Quality Management framework.

The plan will outline:

the actions the Council aims to deliver between 2022-27
how we plan to reduce the levels of NO2 in the Town Centre AQMA
how the plan will improve air quality in the wider Guildford area
how we will reduce other pollutants in the ambient air

Page 42 and page 43 of the draft plan refer to CAZ Clean Air Zones and to LEZ Low Emission Zones – with a reference to the potential need for zonal charging and other means of restricting through traffic such as HGV’s and at peak periods.

Did the councillors and parties presently pointing fingers at each other not know about this document ?

Face facts, some form of ERP Electronic Road Pricing will happen. UK Government has to find alternative funding to fuel duty with the growth of electric cars and will expect local authorities and councils to implement their own plans

Meantime, when will GBC publish the results of their draft consultation ( its one year already past the end date ) and move beyond a draft consultation to implementation , someone has to bite the bullet.

And as a separate topic – when will we get a new bridge over Tumbling Bay Weir- it will soon be 4 years since collapse !
jim Allen Reply

September 12, 2023 at 4:19 pm

The answer to the last sentence is ‘known’ and ‘on record’ they are the same ones who think a road junction deemed need in 1984 (A3 north of Guildford)is no longer required to handle a traffic increase of 50%.

Who believe if houses are built the Infrastructure ‘wizard’ will magic up water electricity doctors teachers but road space requirements will remain static in fact as demonstrated on the London Road “adventure” travel route (you will get what we decide, we do not consult – informatives only)

Road space will be reduced for the majority of users they actually hate cars. Sections deemed necessary to cope with the traffic just 5 years ago can now be totally ignored for ‘new’ ideas of less capacity. People will walk the 15 plus mile to work!

As for travelling in safety – Burpham is not in a Ukrainian mine field, London Road has one of the lowest accident rates in Guildford. SO stop with this ‘we need safe travel nonsense! People are NOT IN DANGER on London Road. No one has died through Burpham London Road, They have on the A25 Merrow, the A281 Bramley, the Portsmouth road A3100 the otherside of Guildford, the A323 Aldershot rd, and Multiple in the town Centre. yet None in Burpham! time they sorted the other roads out an Let Burpham Alone we are ‘safe’!