Consultation Documents
This page aims to provide links to current Guildford Borough Council and other consultations.
If you know of any live consultations that are not included on this page please email our Campaign Manager, Yvonka Wilkinson, at action@guildfordvisiongroup.com
INTERIM TOWN CENTRE FRAMEWORK
Click here for Guildford Borough Council Interim Town CentreFramework Document . This document, published on 20th August 2012 on the Council’s website, is described as a ‘living’ document and is due for adoption at the Council’s Executive Committee on 6th September. Much of the evidence base for this document has not yet been assembled – leading to an obvious question: Why now? It seems the official answer to this is ‘better a document based on a few facts than none at all’. We say, better get it right because this document exposes our fragile infrastructure to huge risk without the means to ensure its protection or improvement.
NORTH STREET DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT BRIEF
Click here for the Guildford North Street Development Brief which is also due for adoption at the Council’s Executive Committee on 6th September. This document was consulted on over the Summer holidays (ending 12th August) and was published little more than a week later – needless to say, many of the representations from Residents’ Associations and the Guildford Society do not appear to have been incorporated. The North Street Development Brief will have SPD (Supplementary Planning Document Status) and, as such, will be a major consideration in determining any planning application.
WAITROSE PLANNING APPLICATION (YORK ROAD)
The Waitrose planning application (12/P/01020) continues to receive representations from both supporters and from opponents. Supporters mostly are keen to see Waitrose in the town centre although several supporters have commented that traffic IS likely to be a problem or that the car parking should be under ground. Many supporters have also called for the subway to be retained.
Opponents have variously cited issues of prematurity (the application should not be approved at least until proper transport assessments have been carried out across the town centre), traffic impact on York Road, loss of the York Road subway, impact on the North Street Development Brief area and town centre generally, and the design of the building.
The Waitrose Application can be viewed (along with representations) here.
PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT OF GUILDFORD STATION
A planning application for the proposed development of the Mainline Railway Station and its surroundings to provide a 35,000 sqft supermarket, two hotels, 350 apartments and student or sheltered housing is expected imminently.
If this echoes the consultation, it will remove any ability for a new crossing over the railway in Guildford, leaving us with an 1850′s bridge that was constructed before cars, buses and trucks were even thought of as our only significant crossing point from east to west. What is more, the proposal is that all station traffic except taxis (ie., kiss and drop, pick-up and parking) will access the station at the west side, forcing even more traffic across the Farnham Road Bridge.