Guildford Masterplan

19 September 2022

Next Stages approved by Council Executive and all material published

The Council Executive at its meeting on the 20^th September 2022 approved the next stage to create a full Town Centre Masterplan (Shaping Guildford's Future). The webcast of the meeting and the supporting papers is available on the GBC Website as papers and a webcast.

The Shaping Guildfords Future Website has also been updated with the documentation as separate topic documents.

The revised Masterplan (This is available as a link at foot of page) developed by leonard design architects for GBC.

A quick review of the Masterplan shows the following intering points.

A positive proposal on how to develop flood defences in the Town Centre ((Sect 2.2 of the Report)
Transport (Section 2.3) proposes the revision of the Gyratory to be a ‘Y’ shaped network - accompanied by major traffic management measures. One effect of this change is that all traffic south of the Town Centre would use Portsmouth Road with A281 traffic cossing back over the the river in the Peasmarsh area.
Development Areas would be created for four areas of the Town along the Wey Corridor (See Two Maps Below).
1. Millbrook car park, Millmead house and car park
2. Town Wharf East and West
3. Bedford Wharf
4. Woodbridge Meadows
Thought has been given as to how the plan can be delivered. This includes bring forward a Area Action Plan for the proposed areas of development.

2006 Area Action Plan

It is interesting to see how the Area Action Plan 2006, which was issued as a Prefered Options Document, has been evolved over the identified 11 sites. Document attached blow for background information.

SITE in AAP 2006 Plan	Situation in 2022	Proposed Development Zones 2022
1. Guildford Railway Station	2019 Local Plan: A7: Approved under construction
2 Guildford Park Road car park	2019 Local Plan: A10: Planning Application: awaited
3. The Friary Extension	2019 Local Plan: A5.: Planning Application: submitted
4 Civic Hall	Built: GLive
5 Bedford Road surface level car park		Covered in proposed Zone 3. Bedford Wharf
6 Mary Road car park		Covered in proposed Zone 3. Bedford Wharf
7 Adjoining Electric Theatre		Covered in proposed Zone 2. Town Wharf Area
8 Former Farnham Rd Bus Station		Covered in proposed Zone 2. Town Wharf Area
9. Guildford Plaza	2019 Local Plan: A1: Approved under construction.
10 North Place Day Centre/Bellerby Theatre	Built: Waitrose
11 Bright Hill car park	2019 Local Plan: A11: No Progress
		1. Millbrook and Millmead.
		2. Town Wharf Area
		3. Bedford Wharf
		4. Woodbridge Meadows

Competitive Position

The Council papers include a interesting report on the competitive position of Guildford. This report is labelled as for Internal Council Use only but is published on the GBC Website - so must be in the public domain?.

Stakeholder Engagment

The Council have included 200plus pages showing the results from the various Stakeholde engagments they have conducted and which have been used to shape the proposed plan.

Scale and Mass

The Masterplan identifies Richmond on Thames as a example of good regeneration and public spaces. There are several illustrations as to how sites will be developed in the Town. It is notable that all the sites show a height of roughly 6 Stories considerably less than the developments such as St Marry’s and North Street that are being considered at present.

It is unclear what the council are seeking to achieve!!!