Opinion: The Shocking £20m+ Cost of Cancelling the Guildford Park Road Development

Published on: 4 Feb, 2026
Updated on: 5 Feb, 2026

Cllr Philip Brooker

By Philip Brooker

Conservative leader of the opposition at Guildford Borough Council

Last weekend’s excellent article in the Guildford Dragon by Alistair Smith of the Guildford Society, Guildford Deserves Better in Guildford Park Road, prompts further questions over the competence of the Liberal Democrat administration at the borough council and its ability to deliver value for money.

Whereas the chair of the Guildford Society concentrates on the valid issues of good design for this development, in my capacity as leader of the Conservative opposition at Guildford Borough Council, it is my job to hold this administration to public account.

The Lib Dem-led Guildford Borough Council was seriously and rightly criticised in the Independent Solace report as having a lack of governance, a lack of financial control, a lack of strategy and of making major decisions without carrying out a cost-benefit analysis.

See archived articles relating to the Solace report here.

In the case of the Guildford Park Road cancellation, featured in Mr Smith’s article, only a cursory attempt was made at identifying costs, and these were limited to current costs, with the significant greater costs of delaying the project appearing to be ignored.

The Conservatives, when last in office, progressed re-development of this site into a 500-space multi-storey car park (to replace the existing 500-car surface provision) and then developing the rest of the site for 160 housing units, 64 of them affordable. Planning permission had been obtained, contracts were placed and construction was underway.

See 2016 article: Proposal to Develop Guildford Park Road Car Park Site Approved

Planning permission already granted for the housing element for the original housing scheme was allowed by the Lib Dem-led coalition to lapse in January 2020. In May 2020 they reviewed a parking study including the car park at Guildford Park Road, under-construction at the time, and decided to cancel it.

Guildford Park Road car park development with multi-storey car park, proposed in 2016.

The decision to cancel the car park appears to have been based on three main considerations:

1. To assist in the council’s climate emergency goal of achieving net zero by 2030.
2. To encourage alternative forms of travel into the town centre particularly park-and-ride.
3. A desire to save on the £11.5 million cost of providing the car park.

But it is unclear from the report how, by cancellation, any of these goals would be achieved.

On net-zero, the report makes several references to the trend towards electric vehicles and particularly it indicates that within a few years the problem will largely have gone away, therefore rendering the issue irrelevant.

On encouraging other forms of travel, the survey states that 50 per cent of drivers would not consider alternatives and from the results of various further surveys the other 50 per cent would need some persuading, and would require considerable investment to make it happen. On that basis, it would seem highly unlikely to attract the desired behavioural change being sought.

Finally, on the actual cost of the car park, the report states that each car parking space generates a net revenue of £1,380 per annum. It does not take a genius to work out that the car park would have covered its own costs in 17 years and then have a further life span of at least 60 years of pure profit.

Looking at other comments in the report, planning consent for the new scheme is not guaranteed and there could be further delays.

• Parking provision is forecast to increase, thus additional parking will be required in the future (why cancel in 2020, something that the report states will be explicitly required within a few years – by today?);
• Every £1 of parking revenue equals £18 spend to local businesses (so why discourage footfall which will further depress the town centre economy and reduce business rates income for our Borough?);
• Guildford is the largest shopping centre in Surrey and lack of car park provision could tip people to other centres such as Kingston.

All in all, it seems to me that there are only negatives rather than positives and the main casualties are town centre businesses and Guildford’s council taxpayers.

As anyone who has experience in major projects knows, it is the cost of delays that always significantly increases costs and the Conservative group has recently carried out its own estimate of these costs and has valued them, at between £15 million and £20million.

This estimate is based on a six-year delay from when the original scheme would have been completed and when the new scheme comes to fruition (if it ever does).

Costs considered include the £4.5 million published costs incurred before the project was cancelled, the loss of income from 64 affordable homes, the loss of council tax from 160 homes, the loss of car park revenue, the loss of business rates and rentals, construction cost inflation and losses in capital appreciation. All this, on top of the loss of 160 very much needed houses to Guildford residents for six years.

It is public record that since taking office in 2019, the Lib Dem led council has misspent approximately £30 million. In 2024 to balance the books and avoid issuing a S114 bankruptcy notice, the intended sale of £50 million worth of resident owned assets had to be included in the published budget.

The question now is can the residents of Guildford afford more Lib Dem financial mismanagement?

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