A group campaigning for a new and inspiring vision for the future of Guildford is asking fellow residents to make their views known.
The Guildford Vision Group’s website is up and running with an easy-to-complete questionnaire that only takes a few minutes.
The group states that its campaign “has been stimulated by Guildford Borough Council’s recent consultation on its proposed Town Centre Masterplan which seemed likely, once again, to miss the opportunity to address the serious and long-standing problems that afflict the town and which have gone unaddressed for many years”.
Members of the group have a strongly shared belief that Guildford could become a much finer town than it is today, more prosperous, more attractive and offering a higher quality of life to all.
The group states: “Our campaign is very simple. We wish to see a new process put in place in which the views and creativity of everyone who lives and works in Guildford can play a part in creating a new vision that looks out 20 or more years into the future.
“This would be achieved through a framework of engagement supported and informed by the best external facilitators and expert advisors.
“Ideally such a process would be led by the borough council and we very much hope they will take up this challenge, particularly in the light of changes to their planning responsibilities resulting from the new National Planning Policy Framework and recent Localism legislation. If they do not however, we will seek an alternative way forward.”
The website has been well thought out and its design is very interactive. One of the headings is called In The News. There are links to stories that The Guildford Dragon has published on the Town Centre Masterplan and also our report on the recent Guildford Waitrose Exhibition.
The website contains a good deal of photographs. The group states that some of the locations pictured may look reasonably attractive, but each of them represents current issues, future threats or potential opportunities.
GUILDFORD DRAGON May 2012