Opinion: This Local Plan is an Opportunity We Must Not Waste

Published on: 5 Sep, 2026
Updated on: 5 Sep, 2026

John Rigg

By John Rigg

former R4GV councillor and chair of the Guildford Vision Group

The borough council is right to encourage residents, businesses and community groups to respond to the new Local Plan consultation. I would strongly encourage everyone who cares about Guildford and its surrounding villages to do so.

But this consultation should be about more than simply asking how we accommodate the Government’s housing requirements. It is an opportunity to decide what sort of place Guildford should become by 2045.

There is understandable anxiety about the scale of development and, particularly, about the future of the green belt. That concern should not be dismissed. The last Local Plan consultation generated enormous opposition, much of it because residents feared, correctly, that development would destroy the character of some of our villages and countryside.

The answer, however, cannot simply be to resist all development. Guildford has a very substantial housing requirement and we need to find the most sustainable locations for new homes while protecting the things that make the borough special — the North Downs, our villages, the countryside, our heritage and the River Wey.

That requires a positive spatial strategy, not simply a collection of homogeneous planning policies.

The council has already invested some £2.5 million in Shaping Guildford’s Future, a town-centre masterplan produced by highly regarded urban designers. It identified brownfield opportunities to regenerate land for homes, open up the riverside, improve walking and cycling, tackle the gyratory and create a more attractive and sustainable town centre.

Yet that vision has never been properly incorporated into the council’s planning strategy.

This new Local Plan provides the opportunity to change that.

If we can concentrate a significant proportion of new development in sustainable brownfield locations around the town — including opportunities such as Woodbridge Meadows, Bedford Wharf Millbrook and Portsmouth Road car park all along the riverside — we can potentially accommodate substantial growth while reducing pressure on the green belt and our villages.

The Local Plan should therefore answer three fundamental questions:

What should Guildford become? Where should development go? And how can we protect and enhance the countryside, villages and heritage that surround it?

I hope residents will respond to the consultation not simply by saying what they do not want, but by asking the council to produce a clear, ambitious and deliverable vision for the borough.

In particular, I would encourage people responding to ask for:

a clear vision for Guildford in 2045, rather than simply a list of policies;
a genuine spatial strategy identifying where development should and should not take place;
maximum use of sustainable brownfield and previously developed land before valuable countryside is released;
proper protection of the North Downs, villages, landscape and heritage;
a strategy for regenerating Guildford town centre and its riverside;
and a clear explanation of how the required housing can be delivered without unnecessarily sacrificing the character of the borough.

The council says this is an opportunity to help shape Guildford’s future “from the outset.” I hope, for the first time, it means exactly that.

The consultation runs until October 14. It is worth taking the time to respond. If enough residents simply leave the future of Guildford to the planning process, we should not be surprised if the resulting plan reflects Government housing pressures more strongly than aspirations of the people who live here.

This is our opportunity to tell the council not just how much development we can tolerate, but what we want Guildford to become.

If you do respond to the Local Plan? Here are some points you might wish to incorporate:

I support the preparation of a new Local Plan, but I want it to do more than simply accommodate Government housing requirements.
I would like the council to establish a clear vision for what Guildford and its villages should look like in 2045 and a spatial strategy showing where development should take place.
In particular, I believe the council should:

1. Prioritise brownfield and previously developed land and make the fullest possible use of sustainable sites before releasing Green Belt land.
2. Protect the North Downs, countryside, villages, landscape and heritage which give Guildford its distinctive character.
3. Regenerate Guildford town centre and the riverside, making the town a more attractive and sustainable place to live, work and visit.
4. Explain how the borough’s housing requirement can be met in a way that minimises unnecessary damage to the Green Belt and villages.
5. Build on the work already undertaken through Shaping Guildford’s Future, rather than starting again without a clear strategic vision.
6. Make the Local Plan genuinely ambitious, positive and deliverable, rather than simply a response to development pressures imposed from outside the borough.

Of course, these are just suggestions; you should use your own words and add your own local concerns and ideas. The more residents who respond thoughtfully, the stronger the community’s voice will be in shaping the plan.