Unanswered Questions Remain Over Chinese New Year Event at The Village

Published on: 22 Feb, 2018
Updated on: 24 Feb, 2018

A flyer for the Chinese New Year event.

The unsuccessful “Village” venue, by Guildford bus station, is to be used for a Chinese New Year celebration this Saturday (February 24, 2018).

The event is being organised by the Guildford based “UK-China culture and education exchange centre” and promoted by Visit Guildford, a council-backed team that stimulates and encourages tourism in Guildford. But some questions about the organisation of the event remain unanswered.

GBC has, so far, failed to respond but Guildford’s Tourist Information Centre said that, as far as it was aware, the council and the culture centre were the organisers.

The UK-China culture and education exchange centre, a limited company formed in 2014, has its registered office on Cathedral Hill, Guildford. It does not appear to have its own website but the BETA (British Educational Travel Association) website states the “UK-China Culture & Education Exchange Centre is an experienced tour operator and ground handler specialising in student tours and cultural exchange-related products. We also offer all kinds of land services for leisure groups, students and delegations, including tailor-made packages.”

It is understood that the University of Surrey was not involved in the organisation of the event but the Chinese Students and Scholars Association, which has a presence at the university in common with many other places of education, is understood to be helping with promotion and by providing volunteers to help run the event.

The webpage for the event on the Visit Surrey website (click on image to link).

The Village project was controversial from the outset in December 2016. It has cost the council £1.2 million. Last December (2017) the GBC Executive had to accept a majority council view that further financial support should not be given.

It was hoped that an independent operator might come forward and observations were made that the site had been more successful as an event venue than a full-time retail park.

The Guildford Dragon NEWS has asked GBC:

What is the GBC role in the event?

Are other events at The Village planned?

How is the site being maintained by GBC? How much does maintenance of the site cost?

What are the ongoing plans for The Village?

Responses to Unanswered Questions Remain Over Chinese New Year Event at The Village

Dave Middleton Reply

February 22, 2018 at 3:43 pm

Regrettably “The Village” did not succeed in either of its incarnations.

The council should now clear the site, sell off the shipping container shop units (I’d have one as a deluxe garden shed!) and extend the Commercial Road car park into the space.

At least then the site would generate some income for the council and provide some more town centre parking for shoppers.
Jim Allen Reply

February 22, 2018 at 5:15 pm

The council does not own the site but have it on a short-term lease. Perhaps the owners have another idea, like low-cost housing?
Valerie Thompson Reply

February 23, 2018 at 9:43 am

Build flats on it and stop green belt destruction.
George Dokimakis Reply

February 23, 2018 at 11:40 am

Talk about flogging a dead horse.

Celebrating Chinese New Year is a great idea to provide something different for Guildford’s residents. Using the Village space though ensures its failure.

How difficult is it for our GBC leadership to accept they failed in The Village? They are wasting council tax money trying to make a success out of a fundamentally flawed project.
Martin Elliott Reply

February 23, 2018 at 1:58 pm

Such an event should be where all such events use to be – The High Street, not used to prop up the failed vanity project called The Village.

In the short-term, The Village ground lease should be re-negotiated to allow what it should obviously have been in the first place, another much needed, and profit making, car park.

That is until the GBC finally gets everybody together and develop the much-delayed “North Street Redevelopment”.
Andrew Whitby-Collins Reply

February 23, 2018 at 10:16 pm

It seems to me that this is a sensible one-off use of a space that is otherwise not being used. It is ridiculous to suggest that just because The Village wasn’t a success any use of the area is bound to fail. Until a more permanent solution is found for the land why shouldn’t it be used for events that might be of interest to, or fun for, local residents?

Instead of moaning, how about some of the people who have seen fit to opine on this go along and help make the event a success.
Paul Spooner Reply

February 25, 2018 at 10:30 am

Paul Spooner is the leader of Guildford Borough Council

Chinese New Year celebrations at The Village yesterday, by all accounts, were a great success. Great to see our community out in great numbers. Congratulations to the organisers and particularly the many volunteers from the university.

Noted that the The Guildford Dragon NEWS did not cover this celebration in Guildford at all yesterday. I suppose it was not editorially acceptable – a positive news story with a colourful and smiling Chinese dragon or two.

We apologise to our readers for not covering this event. We did hope to but our resources, sadly, cannot stretch to cover all events in Guildford. The lack of coverage had nothing to do with editorial acceptability. If any readers have images of the event they would like to share please send them to: guildford.dragon@gmail.com Ed
Bernard Parke Reply

February 25, 2018 at 2:54 pm

I for one feel saddened by such constant critical comments by the leader of our council.

Indeed, I have also been the subject of such criticism by merely expressing an opinion.

Nevertheless, I bear him no ill will.
Martin Elliott Reply

March 1, 2018 at 9:41 pm

Despite Paul Spooner’s unfair snipe at The Guildford Dragon, I don’t remember any pre-event publicity. Indeed, Get Surrey’s articles on where to celebrate Chinese New Year in Surrey only mentioned Woking. Strange as Get Surrey is usually very supportive of GBC associated events.

Also like Guildford Dragon, they seem not to have attended but relied on readers photos. I was going to review the attendance and enjoyment, but strangely the url doesn’t work.