Residents reject moving Civic to University site

11.59.59am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 10th Jul 2006

Guildford Borough Council has been told that residents overwhelmingly don't want the Civic to move to the University site.

At last Thursday's meeting of the full Council, Cllr Vivienne Johnson (Lib Dem, Christchurch) said that a survey of residents carried out by the Liberal Democrats across the town showed that 97% think the Civic should stay at its London Road site.

Cllr Johnson said "It's clear from our survey that people really want to be able to wine, dine or whatever while they are in the town for entertainment at their Civic Hall. THEIR Civic Hall - not part of the University, but part of the community. People living near the University have serious concerns about parking problems on site - not to mention the traffic congestion around the Uni, which clogs up twice a day such that activities in the early evening would be a nightmare."

At the Council meeting, Conservative Council Leader Andrew Hodges proposed amending the Executive's original proposal, so that the decision on whether or not to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the University is deferred until after the Conservative Executive meets on 13 July. The Executive will consider three options at London Road (the original plan for a new-build costing £25 million, a smaller new-build costing £18 million and a high-specification refurbishment for £18 million) and the University option, with uncertain capital cost. Liberal Democrat councillors protested against prolonging the uncertainty, and called for the decision on whether or not to consider the University option to be made by full Council.

Cllr Johnson told the Council "I actually think it is a disgrace to string the Uni along like this. It is totally unfair to everyone involved. How dare the Conservatives talk about 'managing carefully the expectations' in relation to this. Whose expectations? The Uni's? it seems to me they have already been led up the garden path. The anonymous partners? How much have all these organizations already spent on such a half-baked suggestion? Put everyone out of their misery and abandon this tonight."

Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Fiona White said "There is a serious democratic deficit here. The facts about the University option crept out and were not made fully available to the public or to councillors. Now the full Council should be given the chance to decide on the location of the new Civic, not the single-party Executive. We've already been told that members of the Planning Committee cannot even be present when the Civic is discussed at the Executive meeting on Thursday. Many millions of pounds of tax-payers' money is involved, yet this important decision will be made by a tiny group of Conservative councillors."

Cllr Johnson is also concerned about the costs attached to the options being considered by the Executive. 70% of those responding to the Lib Dem residents' survey preferred a cheaper basic refurbishment with an estimated cost of £8 - £15 million rather than the original new-build proposal which would have cost £25 million.

Cllr Johnson says "These options change with bewildering speed. Three months ago we were assured that a basic refurbishment would cost up to £15 million. Now we are presented with the option of a high-specification refurbishment for £18 million, with a comment that a more basic refurbishment 'is not workable'. We've also just received yet another option, for a smaller new-build with 1000 seats instead of 1200 in the original plan. Amazingly, this will cost £18 million - the same as the high-specification refurbishment. Why is a cheaper refurbishment 'not workable'? How come a 1000 seat Civic is now acceptable when originally we were assured that 1200 seats was necessary? With so much money at stake, I will be seeking answers to these questions at the Executive meeting on behalf of Guildford's council-tax payers."