In this issue of Bellfields & Slyfield Pages we include the third of our bi-monthly updates from local councillors Amanda Creese and James Walsh. Their goal is to keep the Bellfields & Slyfield community informed about their actions as representatives of the Bellfields & Slyfield ward and how the Guildford Borough Council is supporting our local area.

Hello! I hope you enjoyed the summer, even if the good weather did start a little late for my liking this year!

August is always a relatively quiet time on the council, with meetings limited to a very few urgent ones and families taking the opportunity of the school break to go on holiday for a week or two.

But life does go on and the work of a ward councillor is never done as long as people need housing and bins need emptying. Indeed, housing is probably the biggest issue for us both locally and nationally at the moment – with hundreds of people waiting for homes on Guildford’s housing list and with many more houses needing to be built, Amanda and I anticipate this being one of the big issues for Bellfields and Slyfield over the coming months.

We recently took the opportunity to have a tour around the building site around the water works in Slyfield recently and it was good to see that, after many, many years, the plans for new homes and new community facilities in the ward are finally taking shape.

We received a few complaints about the smell from the works during the hot spell in June and July and we look forward to the new modern plant reducing those aromas to almost nothing in the years ahead.

We are really looking forward to seeing the new homes being built though, and have worked on your behalf over the last few years to ensure that the new estate is developed in a way that means it is part of the existing Slyfield estate and not separate to it; it will be a place with new homes for everyone – for your children as well as for people looking to make a home in Guildford for the first time – and that the new facilities, community centre and access to the canal are as much for you as for your new neighbours. We want it to be an extension of the great community that already exists here and something that can add a whole lot more.

Amanda and I strongly believe that Guildford needs new, high-quality and truly affordable housing. We want it to be well-built, attractive housing that first-time buyers and renters can afford without breaking the bank, and we are calling for the council to keep to its commitment to provide 40% affordable housing for new developments. There are arguments about what “affordable” means and we have been quite specific about there needing to be more council-owned housing with below-market affordable rents as part of the mix.

In the meantime, there’s still much to do regarding housing in Bellfields and Slyfield. We are pushing for homes that remain empty for a long time to be made available to people on the housing list as quickly as possible. We are also dealing with casework from those of you whose homes have been blighted by mould and damp, or which need adaptations to make their lives easier. This work is of the utmost importance to us and we ask that you get in touch if you have any housing problems that either haven’t been addressed or need reporting. You can contact me at jameslwalsh@guildford.gov.uk and Amanda at amandacreese@guildford.gov.uk and we will do our best to help you.

James

Cllr James Walsh
E: james.walsh@guildford.gov.uk
T: 07533 767227

Facebook: @guildfordlabourcouncillors