Guildford Borough Council adopted its Draft Local Plan in April 2019. The adopted Plan sets out the Council’s vision for meeting the need for new homes and infrastructure in the borough and identifies locations for development up to 2034. The former Wisley Airfield was one of five strategic sites and covers land now owned by Taylor Wimpey and the land represented by Hallam Land Management and CBRE. The adoption of the Plan resulted in the entirety of the site being removed from the Green Belt.
In the Local Plan Guildford Borough Council laid out a series of allocation criteria that any application for the site would need to meet (you can read Policy A35 here.). To help provide a background for our plans for the site we have set out the criteria below. These act as the building blocks for any masterplan for the site and we used this as a starting point to understand what could be provided on ahead of the first round of community engagement that we held in July 2020.
The criteria for the whole of the allocation include:
- Approximately 2,000 homes including some specialist housing and self-build plots,
- Approximately 100 sheltered/Extra Care homes,
- Eight Gypsy and Traveller pitches,
- 4,300 sq m of employment space,
- 1,100 sq m of retail space,
- 1,050 sq m of combined services and community uses in a new Local Centre,
- A new primary and secondary school,
- Land for Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace
- Primary access to the site via the A3 Ockham Interchange,
- A through link between A3 Ockham interchange and Old Lane,
- Off-site highways works to mitigate the impacts of the development.
Since purchasing the site in March 2020 we have embarked on a wide ranging consultation programme to understand how we can deliver the allocation in a way which meets the aspiration of the community and in line with the (Policy D1). We have now concluded the first chapter of this engagement, which included two online community consultation events, a rolling programme of meetings with local parish councils and stakeholder groups, a Design Review Panel meeting and hosting two meetings of the former Wisley Airfield Community Liaison Group. The second chapter has already started and we are looking forward to continuing our engagement over the coming months and years.
