Long Battle of Wisley Airfield Rumbles On As GBC Refuses Ockham FOI Request

Published on: 2 Dec, 2019
Updated on: 3 Dec, 2019

Aerial photograph of the Wisley Airfield site.

Guildford Borough Council has refused a Freedom of Information request to disclose information on any contact the council has had with Wisley Property Investments Ltd [WPIL], its agents or representatives, claiming public interest.

The request was made by Ockham Parish Council [OPC]. A written decision, from Sarah-Jane Grant of GBC, said the council had the information but proposed to withhold it, citing various exceptions to the “duty of disclosure of environmental information”.

WPIL is the Cayman Island developer which owns the green belt land at Three Farms Meadows, the former Wisley airfield, where a planning application for 2,000 houses has been rejected and a subsequent appeal upheld that.

Dr Mary Claire Travers, chair of OPC, said: “It has required two FOI applications to reach a point where GBC has finally confirmed they will not release the requested information.

“The reasons appear to relate to concerns that disclosure of the documents might discourage other landowners and potential developers from engaging in so-called frank discussions with GBC.”

The GBC letter confirms; “We have concluded that the balance of public interest lies in withholding the other information relevant to your request.”

Dr Travers added: “The interests of openness and clarity seem unlikely to be best served by withholding details of planning communications between the council and property developers, especially when the council is actively promoting exactly similar proposals in the Local Plan, now the subject of a judicial review.”

OPC is now considering an appeal to the Information Commissioner.

Responses to Long Battle of Wisley Airfield Rumbles On As GBC Refuses Ockham FOI Request

Colin Cross Reply

December 2, 2019 at 10:55 pm

GBC has recently voted to sign up to an ethos of openness and transparency and I think it was unanimous? But a few weeks later, here we are again, refusing to act transparently and seemingly covering up previously murky deals.

When are we to change this negativity and opposition to openness?

The entire Wisley Airfield site application has been beyond any normal comprehension.

Nothing about this whole affair makes any logical sense at any level, so is it not reasonable for OPC to be seeking some clarity in all this obfuscation?

The residents of Ockham deserve the truth as to why their village is to be destroyed.

Only by GBC making the FoI requested documents available will we begin to explain how we got to this impasse and who is calling the tune. Rest assured it’s not Guildford residents.

The road to redemption looks like being a very long journey indeed, for GBC at least.

Colin Cross is the R4GV borough councillor for Lovelace (Ripley, Wisley and Ockham).
John Perkins Reply

December 3, 2019 at 10:38 am

The political colour of the Council might have changed, but clearly the attitude of its servants has not. It’s not immediately obvious if this is an example of blackwhite, doublespeak or duckspeak.

Certainly, those same people are also servants of residents and should have no right to withhold anything from them.
Julian Cranwell Reply

December 3, 2019 at 1:03 pm

Developers do not need to engage with GBC. They know from past performance that the Lib Dem leadership will allow any and all development in the borough, just as did the Tories.

We deserve to be told why, and what they have to hide.

We already know that officers and councillors colluded with the Wisley developer, via Savills, to cook up a letter from SCC supporting the creation of a “garden village” at Wisley, yet they refuse to tell us who knew what, and when.
S Callanan Reply

December 3, 2019 at 7:09 pm

Dr Travers says (of the council’s refusal to supply the information requested) that: “The reasons appear to relate to concerns that disclosure of the documents might discourage other landowners and potential developers from engaging in so-called frank discussions with GBC.”

But as we found out only the other day, landowners and developers don’t bother to engage with GBC any more. They just bang in a preliminary application as Savills have done for the North Street site.

So if that particular consideration was what persuaded GBC to turn down the request, there’s no longer a problem and the information can be handed over.
David Scotland Reply

December 3, 2019 at 7:12 pm

Just what secrets lie in GBC’s closet and on whose behalf are they actually working?