BELOW is a selection of feedback from the first ninety Questionnaires:
How well do Guildford’s town centre facilities and environment meets your needs?
“Guildford makes very poor use of one of its major assets – the river frontage. The town centre is disconnected from it. The industrial sites in Woodbridge Meadows and Walnut Tree Close turn their backs on it.”
“I am a parent with teenage children and I am concerned about how life will be for them. This was not all that impressive when I was growing up but it is so much worse now – and I pity any parents of students at the University who see what an awful area they have to walk through just to get into town and back!”
“The area around the main bus station and North Street is a disjointed mess, and a bottleneck most of the time., and the intiate mix of pedestrains and vehicles around the ‘Casino’ nightclub area at peak times day and night is scary to say the least.”
“Only really attractive open space is Castle Grounds (well done GBC gardeners) but the open space by Odeon cinema is a disgrace and could be greatly improved. If you leave it looking like a wilderness no one, young or old, will take care of or be respectful or proud of it.”
“The incorporation of affordable and middle income housing in the town centre is required to minimise incoming traffic.”
“I am very concerned by the apparent utter lack of consideration for young and elderly people, with almost no facilities where they can meet, interact and develop new skills. Guildford is a relatively affluent city, yet we don’t have any kind of ‘meeting place’ for different social groups. Just as important to me is the visual appearance of our lovely city, which is being systematically destroyed. I recently visited Rye in East Sussex, and was struck by what a terrific job their town planners are doing of maintaining the historical character of their beautiful town, as well as enabling new businesses to develop (in refurbished, repurposed old buildings).”
“Regret the passing of the vibrant mixed use area that used to house Slyfield market, auction rooms dead stock market, car auction etc. Buses are insufficiently reliable to be used as a regular means of transport eg to work. Experience of the number of lectures missed and freezing wet hours spent waiting for non arrivals by a family member trying to travel between Burpham and the University. She was forced to buy a car and add to the traffic congestion.”
“Hospital/university area becoming congested and that turn off is always the scene of accidents and delays because the slip road on to the A3 going south is too short and angled so is dangerous.”
“Preference have be given to University traffic rather than the needs of Guildfordians.”
“Rail & bus station link is very poor & confusing to new visitors. No real defined meeting places in town centre.”
“It is not easy to get from one end of the town to the other by road, either N-S or E-W and particularly, from Epsom Rd to Shalford Road.”
“I think our retail is starting to fall behind other shopping centres. Why does a town like Guildford not have a John Lewis for instance? Cambridge with many more restrictions in terms of ancient street pattern and listed buildings has revamped their shopping very successfully.”
“I am a pensioner and do not run a car so I have to do all my shopping in the town. I think it is appalling that there is no butcher, fishmonger or baker, where one can get FRESH produce, except twice a week in the market. The one supermarket is limited in its stock (at least one spends less!). Frequently I have to go to many shops to find something more exotic, or just do without it altogether. There are far too many boutiques in the High Street. We really don’t need any more!”
“I would say that affordable or middle income housing (to buy) is non existent in Guildford.”
“Range of social activities available is extremely poor. Housing is limited and not affordable, even to those who work in the town – a shame because its a lovely town for families, unless you want a flat you cannot really buy a “house” as there are few affordable ones ever on the market – no new builds.”
“Better links across or under the A3 from the west and north of the town”
“Many excellent facilities (the arts better served than many larger towns) but I’m afraid the river is the problem rather than an opportunity owing to its propensity over the years to disastrous flooding.”
“Guildford is a very much more pleasant town than most others in this area which is why so many of us choose to live here. It is possible to find unattractive parts of all towns and cities, as you have done for the photos above, if you look for them.”
“No facilities for older people in the town centre – they have been virtually excluded since the towns day centres closed down – smacks of age discrimination”
“I think the top floor of the Army and Navy building is unsightly.”
“Hmm found these questions a bit constraining. The building developments I would most criticise are those of the 60s and 70s. I am not sure how anyone can control the mix of retailers under current legislation, unfortunately. The question of affordable housing should have been separated out. There is a very poor mix of housing but little of it affordable for first time buyers.”
“RSCH and Science park cut off from town with poor public transport links and limited parking Tragic that river is not central to the town but cut off by the busy 281”
“I walk everywhere or go on a bus. The provision of safe cycle lanes is terrible. They end in places where it is dangerous. Provision for the elderly is also terrible. The centre by the river has been closed, and the one near the Bellerby theatre. We need the shuttle bus back,, to allow people to get to the top of the High Street. Buses running a bit latger in the evenings would help, and some at weekends”
“The quality of links on foot could be improved. For short distances in town – bus station, rail station, cathedral, university, etc – it is not necessary to use a car. That is our problem and residents are making it worse by using cars for even short trips. Residents must accept they can be part of the solution.”
“A plus is the many countryside areas that push into the town,eg Stoke Park, Merrow Downs (including the golf course) , the castle grounds, parts of the Wey valley, Shalford Meadows, Pewley Downs, and others. These need to be protected in any vision. Another plus is the Park and Ride service. Yet another is the garden suburbs, always under threat of development.”
“Parking, especially near the centre. I’m not disabled (heaven help them) but find walking painful, especially up or down the hills. An easy access small bus circling the main shopping and business areas during working hours would be a boon.”
“I have marked much of this as good because Guildford has many strengths in terms of facilities: 3 excellent theatres; a cinema (though no arts cinema); the Guildford Institute; the Castle Gardens; delightful coffee bars , restaurants & pubs, many with outdoor seating; a pedestrianised high street (though for too short a time); good schools; a major hospital; Spectrum & the Lido; Stoke Park & other public gardens etc. We are very blessed. However, I am concerned that too much (& inappropriate) development could cause Guildford to lose its distinctiveness. We need to look at other historic towns for inspiration, not to Woking or Croydon or even Kingston. And we should not be greedy for commercial development: Guildford is typographically constrained and its setting in the Surrey Hills is a significant part of its charm.”
“Number of late night clubs/pubs around gyratory makes it a hostile environment and dangerous with drunk youths and fast traffic. The whole area there could have been made into the Town Square you refer to, it is flat, near the river,hany for pedestrians, could have had bijou shops in the old warehousing and sitting out areas. It would have been a balance for the car dominated area and an opening for the river aspect beauty.”
“We need to make the town centre a living community rather than a no go zone at night”
“No real facilities for young people particularly those aged under 18 to meet safely after 6pm in the town centre. Facilities for elderly people have been axed so there is little or no provision in the town centre apart from th the odd monthly lunch clubs supported by local churches.”
“Guildford is of course a lovely town but makes poor use of its natural setting and getting around is often disastrous.”
“1) The core centre has been blighted by the stop / start / stop situation with the Friary and we do not need a bigger friary and more of the identikit shops that these places attract. 2) GBC seems to do nothing to encourage local business SURREY entrepreneurs, start up businesses, artists, craftsmen and artisans by offering short term / low rental for its own unused properties in this blighted area – it would be good to see Guildford being known for its creative buzz – I believe i am correct in saying that we have a vibrant computing community – website developers, games programming companies who should be encouraged”
“The new buildings we have are ‘me too’ buildings not special for Guildford – too much more of those and we will start to be any other town. Of course a lot of urban architecture and quality of life is about context and Guildford’s context is getting poorer with run down areas off North Street, a hostile traffic system and places of work divorced from the town centre without easy links to the heart of the town.”
“Guildford exemplifies the wasted opportunity that arises from a long term lack of joined-up, visionary thinking. It could be one of the most attractive and properous cities in the South East. Instead it is a hotch-potch of half baked developments which do not integrate in any way, of disparate elements which can hadly connect with each other, of missed opportunities to capitalise on the river, on outstanding architecture, on its beautiful valley setting. A piecemeal and short-sighted approach to development over past decades has drained the quality out of Guildford, drained its character in favour of quick wins and short-term returns.”
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