Surrey police have announced that the police station in Woodbridge road will close and the majority of activities will transfer to the revamped Mount Browne site to the south of the town. A counter service will remain in the Town Centre. See details of Mount Brown Proposals.
The proposals raise several questions and impact on the proposals for Mount Browne, the Town Centre, and the future of the existing Woodbridge road site.
Question 1 – Counter Service. Where is a counter Service likely to be located, and what will the opening hours be.
Question 2 – Mount Browne will obviously have accommodation for the police staff involved and as the planning application states 197 extra police vehicles. The Traffic assessment calculates an extra 147 two-way trips during the network AM peak hour and 181 during the PM peak hour, due to the extra vehicles. A proportion of these will be ‘Blue light’ response activity accessing locations to the north of the town and/or A3. This could pose issues for the Portsmouth Road and potentially the road through Compton.
No details of wider traffic impacts, as yet, has been provided.
Question 3 – The future of the vacated Building. The building once vacated is likely to be a prime candidate for re-development. The owners of the site are believed to be central government. The ‘Shaping Guildford Future Project’ has developed ideas for the site which ios part of the proposed Bedford Wharf area. GBC need to make a major effort to plan this area of the town, before developers propose inappropriate schemes. We would recommend production of a Planning Brief and/or a Supplementary Planning Document to manage this important area of the town.
Question 4 – There has been no mention of the Police facility for vehicles between Shalford and Bramley. We assume this is unaffected by the proposed changes.
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