Tag: Guildford

Boris’s new babe!

Getting up close and matey certainly worked for Boris’s new babe Angela Richardson.

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Having schlepped around the country from Canterbury to Totnes – Ewhurst resident, Angela Richardson whose most important achievement to date has been to campaign to keep Cranleigh public lavatories open all hours is now flushed with her latest success.

Last night Thursday the New Zealander was endorsed by the Guildford & villages branch of the Conservative Party as the chosen-one to oppose her erstwhile colleague and former MP Anne Milton. Ms Milton announced this week she will stand as Independent.

You may read why here:

Its #Annes Still Standing.

The Tory activist who worked tirelessly clambering up the greasy pole, but slipped down a couple of rungs when she was rejected by Cranleigh villagers in the May Waverley borough council election, could soon achieve her long-held ambition to fill the Guildford & Villages seat at Westminster.

Boris’s new Best Buddy was voted in at the Harbour Hotel in Guildford?

Waverley Web Wonders who will fill her parish council stilettoes now? Or, was it as everyone believed, that Cranleigh Parish Council merely a stepping-stone onto bigger things.  With the Conservative vote now splitting in all directions – could Guildford find itself in Lib-Dem territory again. Because Zoe Franklin has been out and about long-since campaigning to turn Guildford a brighter shade of yellow. Could she now follow in the footsteps of the highly respected former Guildford MP Lib Dem Sue Doughty?

Didn’t Boris say recently that the price of party loyalty may be to loose Guildford?

And is this the woman who could snatch victory from the two warring Tory women?

Screen Shot 2019-11-07 at 23.08.35.pngZoe, a former borough councillor and Guildford resident for nearly 20 years, won an impressive 24% of the vote for the Liberal Democrats in the 2017 snap General Election.

Ciaran Doran, chair of Guildford Liberal Democrats, said: “I am delighted that Zoe will continue as our parliamentary candidate. As well as being well-liked and respected by our members and residents, she is very hardworking and deeply committed to Guildford, Cranleigh and the Villages. She has real vision for the future of Guildford and villages and she is determined that our community deserves better than the present Conservative leadership we have at every local level.”

Zoe said: “I am committed to fighting for real and positive change in five key areas locally and nationally,” and summarised her campaign:

  • I want the people of the UK to have the final say on Brexit through a People’s Vote;
  • I am determined to help us build a future where everyone can fulfil their potential, regardless of background;
  • I want a future where our NHS and social care services get the funding they need to properly meet the needs of local people;
  • I want a future where we build the right homes in the right places with the right infrastructure while vigorously tackling the social housing crisis; and
  • Finally, I want a future for us that is environmentally friendly, with greener energy and transport methods, while waging war on plastic waste and pushing for urgent action to reduce local air pollution.”

Zoe is supported by her colleague Paul Follows, Deputy Leader of Waverley Borough Council, Leader of Godalming Town Council, and the Lib Dem  Parliamentary Candidate for the SW Surrey seat – which includes parts of Waverley – formerly held by Jeremy Hunt.

Zoe said: “We have been let down again and again by our Conservative MP and Conservative-run councils and we deserve better. I believe we Liberal Democrats, working with and for the people of Guildford, Cranleigh and the Villages, can build a better, brighter and fairer future for everyone in our communities.”

Will Anne Milton stand in what could be – a close run for the Guildford & Villages seat in the General Election?

OR COULD SHE BE OUSTED BY A BORIS BABE WHO HAS RECENTLY UP-DATED HER PROFILE PICTURE ON FACEBOOK?

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PM BORIS JOHNSON WITH EWHURST RESIDENT AND CRANLEIGH PARISH COUNCILLOR ANGELA RICHARDSON.

 

Who wants to be Canterbury’s new Belle?

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Guildford Conservative Association and all the branch’s of the Tory tree will be gearing up over the coming weekend to choose the candidate for the ‘once-safe’ Guildford and eastern villages seat.

While some wannabe Tory candidates are getting up close to Boris, MP Anne Milton is fighting in Parliament to ensure all those extant planning permissions for housing on her patch are built-out.

She asked Secretary of State for Housing Minister Esther McVay to “do something” to force developers to build much-needed homes, instead of surrounding sites with hoardings. She says while there is a requirement on developers to begin building within a set period from the granting of planning permission, there is no equivalent requirement to finish what they start, let alone a deadline to do so.  This leads to building land left abandoned and unused, housing completions lagging behind housing need, and leaving people without homes.

It was business as usual for one of the finest, hardworking and most respected constituency MP’s Guildford, Ewhurst and Cranleigh have ever had.  She told a Westminster Hall debate this week that:

“Local authorities simply do not possess enough tools to force the hand of [property] developers,” Ms Milton had requested the debate on Building Out Extant Planning Permissions to express her frustration that slow progress by developers meant many sites with planning permission were left undeveloped while people suffered from housing shortages”.

“We need houses that people can afford in areas such as Guildford and Cranleigh, where prices are eye-wateringly high (the average house price in Guildford is more than £550,000), and get the socially rented homes we also need.

“But it sometimes feels as if successive governments are simply unwilling to do anything that will upset the developers’ apple cart.”

 

Ms McVey said: “When we talk about the number of homes coming forward, we all agree there have been many decades of not building enough. Demand has outstripped supply for many years. In the past year, more than 220,000 homes have been built, more than in all but one of the past 31 years.

“We need to do more, and more is being done, but a significant amount has been done already. We are going in the right direction. The government are putting another £44 billion into home-building.

“What we are doing is bringing forward an accelerated planning Green Paper. There will be not just a single solution that ensures that developers build-out there will be an array of solutions, using both carrot and stick approaches. Those methods will be set out in our new Green Paper, which is coming

 

 

Will Godalming​ get the traffic​ chaos and Guildford get the bunce?

 

Last night Guildford Borough Council decided to forge ahead with its plans to join Guildford with Godalming putting almost 500 homes on the boroughs’ borders at Aaron’s Hill.

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You can read the complete report that was considered by Guildford BC’s Executive when it agreed to waive the call-in procedure and agree to the inclusion in the Local Plan to allow Ashill to build 200+ homes adjacent to the 263+ planned by ‘Your Waverley’ on the green belt boundary between the towns “immediately.’

But new Liberal Democrat Councillor Paul Follows questioned the Guildford Executive’s decision asking how the extra burden of traffic and services on Godalming would be dealt with? It’s the same field – but half the residents would not get ANY services from Godalming!!!! Guildford will provide!

WW wonders why the Conservative councillors, supposedly serving their electors in Godalming are silent on the subject? Surely such an important strategic green belt site in the countryside that is now ‘an urban extension to Godalming’, must be of some concern to them too?

WW has heard that other than Councillor Follows and residents of his ward NOBODY, yes, NOBODY from Waverley attended. Not attending another boroughs executive when it’s this important? 

Also, Cllr Tony Rooth, IND (former Tory, Pilgrims Ward) had a crack at suggesting that the Aaron’s Hill bit be shelved but he was immediately trodden on from a great height by Guildford BC’s chairperson and his successor as leader. But full marks to him for having a go.

 The ‘masterplanning’ bit was obviously a total nonsense. Clearly, a full site plan exists.

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Let’s read that second answer from Guildford again: “We do not envisage that these homes will rely on services provided by Waverley Borough Council, which Guildford Borough Council would normally provide” And presumably not rely on any services from Godalming Town Council either?
• Will they be banned from the Wilfrid Noyce?
• Will they be excluded from the Godalming cemetery next door?
• Will they be uninvited to Godalming Farmers markets?!
• Will all the residents be shopping and parking in Shackleford (whose Parish they are now in)?!

It’s not as easy as Guildford Councillors are suggesting! What’s more, they know it, Waverley planners know it, and WE KNOW KNOW IT DON”T WE? Because more and more people are reading the Waverley Web!

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Godalming residents show Waverley residents how objecting to development in the green belt should be done.

GBC Questions: Supplementary Information Sheet

Guildford allocates 42 homes a year for Woking.

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Guildford Borough Council has allocated an extra 42 houses per annum to its revised Local Plan to help meet Woking’s unmet need. It has agreed to the Planning Inspector’s recommendations, just as Waverley has, which lead to the current Judicial Review. Guildford will now have to build 672 homes a year, up from the previous 654 planned last year.

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The report (here)  and annexe here goes to the Guildford Executive on 4th September for the recommendation, with a 6-week consultation to follow. The report explains that:

Woking’s unmet housing need is 225 homes a year
Waverley was directed to take 83 homes a year by the Inspector
Guildford will take an extra 42 houses a year

Screen Shot 2018-08-29 at 11.40.37Waverley Web asks? – Does this undermine the current action from CPRE and PoW? Guildford says it is more constrained than Waverley in taking this housing. Does such precedence now pull the rug from under this appeal?

Perhaps the best outcome is a reduction in Waverley’s numbers between 42 and 83? Will that justify the apparent extra £300,000 set aside by Waverley to fight this JR?
What if the judge says Waverley is MUCH LESS constrained than Guildford – might Waverley’s numbers actually GO UP? (Not again!!)