Letter: Will GBC’s New Planning Document on Building Heights Be Effective?

Published on: 5 Jul, 2025
Updated on: 5 Jul, 2025

From John Redpath

former R4GV borough councillor

In response to: GBC Asks Residents for Views on Its Draft Building Height Guidance

There was an outcry by many when the North Street Development was passed. The only tool to use against its height was the “Views” Supplementary Planning Document (SPD), but such planning guidance does not carry as much weight as other planning documents such as the Local Plan Strategy and Sites (LPSS).

Sadly, the LPSS was a poor document for the town centre. It had no policies to protect our town centre. Thankfully, Shaping Guildford Future (aka the Town Centre Master Plan) will do much to structure the town sensibly, but it’s unlikely to protect it from inappropriate building height and design.

I was a councillor at the time that the current North Street Development was first submitted for approval by the GBC Planning Committee. The feedback from the public which I received was 50/50 on whether the proposals would be a benefit to Guildford and so outweigh any harm it might cause.

The economic boost to the town centre alone by the sustainable development we are seeing, is surely a benefit to all the businesses finding it so hard to survive here due to the dwindling numbers of visitors and customers. Guildford needs “life support” and these developments will do that; the old model of a town centre has to change if the town centre is to be more than restaurants and coffee shops (and estate agents).

It would be an interesting exercise to see whether a Planning Committee would now be able to refuse the development for North Street. My initial thoughts are that this SPD is not a powerful enough tool to use against the plans submitted. In which case, what will it have achieved?

The North Street development has stepped storeys; it has areas between the buildings that break up the mass. It’s not over bulky and down the hill from the Heritage Core of the town.

I’m told that other towns and cities have imposed fixed height limits, I’ve also been told by strategic planning officers, that having a fixed height policy would not hold water with the Government’s Planning Inspector.

So here we go again with this SPD, it’ll be down to the Planning Committee members to weigh up the harm and other factors and to be put in the firing line by those residents who take an opposite view.

I would agree entirely to a zonal fixed height policy for Guildford as part of this SPD, if other towns have them, then why can’t Guildford?