WBDRA GUIDANCE FOR SUPPORTERS

Dear Supporters & Neighbours

Finally we have the opportunity of seeing off the Councils' plan to allow housing development on the Allotment Site - WE NEED YOUR HELP PLEASE!

The Council (GBC) have moved their position since we started campaigning from saying we will build houses & that development will start to now saying that they now think it "is no longer likely that we will provide new homes on this site" - the full text is on our website.

IF this turns out to be so - and we'll have to wait until 2015 to find out -  what a relief for all of us who like Open Spaces & Trees etc where we live and what a relief for Broad Street & Broadacres/Oakfields residents as the threat of a new road & dozens more cars running through the estate will have disappeared too. Good news also for people who've wanted a local allotment plot instead of having to wait years to get one or having to trek over to Bellfields.

BUT the fight is not over yet - not until we have all e-mailed GBC and had our say.

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO

The easy way is to e-mail GBC Planning directly. The address is: localplan@guildford.gov.uk and in the subject/message line, put "Allotments, 9.87 Page 83, Question 36".

Your message needs to say something like this: "I support the use of this land to help meet our future allotment needs and I agree with your Appendix D suggestion that a Good Use of this site is to provide additional allotments on a site that is already well used for this purpose."

You can also add (if you wish) something like: "I support the use of land @ Jacobs Well for Allotments & agree that Allotments should be provided as part of any new large-scale housing development"

The slightly harder way (and to participate in the whole Borough-wide Consultation) is to visit the following link to access the full Consultation Document (260 pages) and complete the Online Questionnaire (18 pages). The Allotment Question is on P10 shown as Question 36. The link is: www.guildfordlocalplan.info

Question 36 & Appendix D will be available on the WBDRA website.

Please be aware that GBC persist in referring to the Aldershot Road site as "Westborough Allotments" or "Woodside Road Allotments" - it is all the same place!!

WHAT THEN?

This is an individual consultation  for everyone living in or near to Guildford Borough. So if there are 3 people in your house with 3 individual e-mail addresses, then that's 3 responses. Also WBDRA does not have all local residents e-mail addresses and we're looking for a good response (or better) than we had in 2008. So please do forward this on to friends & neighbours.

It would help us to know how many people have responded so perhaps you'd be kind enough to let WBDRA know when you've e-mailed GBC.

If you have any questions/concerns, then please e-mail us @ WBDRA

Many many thanks for your continued support 

David Bird
Chairman - WBDRA
Westborough, Broadacres & District Residents Association

QUESTION 36 - WHAT DOES IT SAY?

Q36 is on Page 83 of the Issues & Options Consultation document in Section 9 (9.87)

It says:

“Do you support the use of this land to help meet our future allotment needs or is there other land we should be considering?”

Please bear in mind that although everyone knows the Allotment site as the Aldershot Road Allotment Site, GBC continue to refer to it as “Westborough Allotments, Woodside Road”

This is what it says in Section 9.87:

“Possible options to help us provide more allotments are:

Land at Westborough allotments, Guildford (Woodside Road):

There is land next to the current allotments that is identified for affordable housing and open space (by the Local Plan 2003). It is no longer likely that we will provide new homes on this site and we think it would be better used for additional allotment land”

It then goes on to say:

“Land near Jacobs Well village hall – the land is being considered for allotment use by the land owner and the local parish council
Large Scale Developments: We can ask for new allotments to be provided on land that is identified for large-scale future development”

It also refers the reader to 2 Information Sheets – both are Google-Earth type aerial pictures in Appendix D – one is Info Sheet 66 Aldershot Road Allotments, the other is Info Sheet 67 which shows Jacobs Well.

Appendix D Page D133 refers to the Allotment Site – shown as Item 66 (Aerial photo) on Page D132.

There are two statements to note on Page D132: 

re Use as Housing: “... housing is not feasible on this site. It is therefore not proposed to continue this site allocation in the Local Plan"

re Use as Allotments: “The site could be used to provide additional allotments on a site that is already well used for this use”

TIME LINE FOR THE CONSULTATION

The time frame for this is October 1st 2013 to 29th November 2013.

BUT as ever, best to get cracking NOW rather than put if off ( & forget!!).  

Procrastination is not only the thief of time, it could be the thief of our Allotment site!

CONSULTATION 2013 - IT'S HERE

Over the summer, GBC have rolled out a whole variety of documents on their website - some of which have been issued to interest groups such as WBDRA. These documents (all on the GBC website) are their "Evidence Base" for the new Local Plan.

The most important one of these so far (Aug 2013) is called the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (aka SHLAA). If you want to read it, it's easily accessible/readable on the GBC website (& it's over 320 pages!!) but the important thing to note is our Allotment site doesn't get a mention.

GBC say this is because they don't think (at this stage) that houses can be built there in the next 15 years.

Good news? Maybe but equally maybe not. Many other Guildford groups have protested loudly about building on Green Belt & Open Spaces near them so it's possible GBC may eventually be compelled to allow building on land it owns which has already had a housing marker put on it e.g. Aldershot Road Allotments

Also published recently is a Draft version of the Local Plan Consultation Document which comes live 1st October. It's 90+ pages long but you can access it via the links below:

(1) You can find a link to it on the GRA website (http://www.guildfordresidents.co.uk/) or
(2) go directly to the GBC website (http://www.guildford.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=15230&p=0)

In this Draft , Page 72 mentions GBC's revised intentions for the Allotment Site i.e. Allotments & Open Space.

But to ensure we make the strongest case for keeping the site from Development, we must all cast our votes when the Consultation goes live next month.

Once the Consultation period is closed, it will be well into 2015 before the final Local Plan is approved & published - it's a very long interval and anything could happen e.g. change of Government, new National Housing Plans/targets etc etc.

WBDRA will be in touch with everyone once we know what the actual Consultation response form looks like.

Many thanks for your continued support

August 2013