Which outcome has the better odds?

Last week I asked if the proposed £100m spending plan to revive the town centre would truly be a "New Dawn" for Leatherhead or more of the same "the councils know best" blunders of the past 30 years. I was, therefore, not surprised to read on page 9 of yesterday's Leatherhead Advertiser that the proposals have "met with hopeful sceptism." Of course, we must hope that there will be positive results this time, but the experience of planning blunder after blunder by our two councils over the past 30 years cannot but make us sceptical.

It is, therefore, no surprise that the three local people quoted in the article all show varying degrees of scepticism. Two specifically make the point that the problems facing the town are not new. Indeed, they are not. As one interviewee replied: "What we really need is revolution; no more tinkering." To which I give a resounding "AMEN!"

But in view of the track record of Surrey County Council and Mole Valley District Council regarding our town, its parking and traffic problems, the gyratory system, the persistent tinkering to the High Street, with usually poor results, and so on, can we trust them to mend their ways and deliver this time?

We are told that the Councils will be consulting us, the ordinary people. We are told that MVDC will be engaging a consultant to examine the problems and advice them. This time it will be different.

But will it? The majority of people in Leatherhead expressed opposition to the construction of a water feature at the west end of the High Street. But the council knew best and went ahead - though in the end we got the "waterless feature"! More recently when Longshot applied to MVDC for the construction of a golf-course with a luxury hotel and spa on the North Downs at Cherkley, two thirds of the hundreds of letters sent to the council opposed this. Were the ordinary people listened to? The clear recommendation of the council officers to reject planning permission, and robust opposition from CPRE Surrey, The National Trust, the Surrey Hills AONB Board, and the Surrey Botanical Society, amongst many others, were ignored by the majority of councillors. So why should we believe ordinary people will be listened to this time? Why should we believe the council will do more than pay lip service to any consultant?Why should we believe it will not be yet more of "the council knows best"?

I would love to be proved wrong. I would like to think that at the end of the 25 years there will have been a revolution and the town will be vibrant, flourishing and a place that people from around want to come to. If I'm spared another 25 years, I'll be a centenarian. I wonder for which outcome the bookies would give the better odds.

A New Dawn for the Town centre?

Last Wednesday, October 15th, a joint meeting of the Leatherhead & District Form and of Leatherhead Area Partnership (LAP) took place in Park House in Leatherhead. The main business was, as you may guess, the "Masterplan" for revitalizing Leatherhead's town centre.

It was decided that the two bodies would not attempt amalgamation at this moment but retain their separate identities while holding meetings in common. This, in my opinion, is a very sensible approach; I have felt for a long while that the merger of the Leatherhead Society with the Leatherhead Residents' Association was too precipitate - but I digress.

There was, as you may imagine, much discussion about the various problems the town faces and, indeed, has been facing for more than thirty years - ever since 1980 when Surrey County Council (SCC) pedestrianized the High Street and started its re-routing policies.

It is surely no co-incidence that the troubles this town has suffered, leading to its High Street being voted one of the worst in Britain in a BBC poll in 2002, did not begin until after the abolition of the old Leatherhead Urban District Council in 1974, and we became part of a two-tier local government set up with SCC and Mole Valley District Council (MVDC). Since then "planners" in both authorities have thought they knew best about Leatherhead with continuing disastrous results.

Part of the problem, of course, is that responsibilities are bizarrely shared between the two authorities. For example, SCC is responsible for on-street parking and MVDC for off-street parking. This has effectively prevented any attempt to achieve a coherent parking policy (something which I have called for in previous postings on the LRA Blog). In my opinion the sooner England follows Scotland and Wales in abolishing its two-tier authorities in favour of unitary authorities, the better.

Now, according to yesterday's Leatherhead Advertiser, "[c]ouncil officers estimate £100 million will eventually need to be spent... fore the masterplan to be fully realised." It is estimated that the new plan will not be completed for another 25 years; by that time I shall probably not be around to see its results. Meanwhile I see the results of 34 years of poor planning decisions.

I ask two questions:

• In forming the masterplan, will the councillors in both SCC and MVDC not only listen to the people of Leatherhead and district but actually take their concerns and wishes on board?
• When the masterplan is formed, will it really be implemented in full?

I ask those two questions because the experience of the past three decades does not make me optimistic, as you can see from this page on the recent history of Leatherhead archived on the old Leatherhead AHEAD website. It makes grim reading. Will this now truly be a "New Dawn for Leatherhead" as the Advertiser proclaims, or will it be more of the councils know best as in the past 30 years?

LAP and the Leatherhead & District Forum are acting together in talking to the two councils. The Forum has representatives from the residents' associations of Ashtead, Leatherhead, Fetcham and Bookham, from the Leatherhead & District Chamber of Commerce and from the Leatherhead Community Association inter alia. Its meetings are open to all. Get behind your relevant associations and/or groups and make sure your voice is heard!