Following the announcement of Waverley Borough Council’s plans to ‘regenerate’ our town, Godalming & District Chamber of Commerce sent out a questionnaire on the proposals to all businesses on its database – current, past and potential members which numbers 246 organisations in total. We received 239 responses to the questionnaire and the results are below:
Q1: Do you agree with the Chamber that we need additional parking in Godalming for shoppers, visitors and workers? Current plans allow for no increase in parking in Godalming.
Yes 54%
No 46%
Q2: WBC want to build a new multi storey car park further from the town centre and opposite the library in place of the existing, centrally located Crown Court car park. Do you support this?
No 75%
Yes 25%
Q3: WBC want to build houses on the town’s main, centrally located car park at Crown Court. Do you support building houses here and removing most of the parking?
No 79%
Yes 21%
Q4: WBC says that a new car park built further away from the centre of town will “attract more people to the town centre & the high street”. Do you agree?
No 85%
Yes 15%
Q5: Do you support housing on the council’s Wharf Street car park or would you like to see additional car parking there?
Both housing and additional car parking 48%
Parking 32%
Housing 20%
Q6: Would you support housing on the council’s own site at The Burys alongside office accommodation for the council?
Yes 51%
No 49%
Q7: Do you agree that any new development of The Burys should offer pop-up retail sites for new businesses?
Yes 65%
No 35%
Q8: Do you agree that any new development of The Burys site should offer office accommodation for small businesses and for those currently working from home?
Yes 65%
No 35%
Following the publication of the questionnaire, Godalming & District Chamber of Commerce was invited to meet with Waverley Borough Council officers and leaders to discuss the proposals and we were able to present them with these results. Our formal response following that meeting included the following points.
The Chamber’s principle objection is the relocation of the town’s main car park further away from the High Street and the centre of the town. At present, it is sited at the centre of our shopping area, which principally includes Bridge Street, High Street, Upper High Street and Church Street. We know from past experience that the re-siting of anchor tenants such as Waitrose from the High Street and the Post Office from the Upper High Street caused footfall to reduce, and we had to work with the Town Council to encourage people through marketing, signage and the siting of stalls at the various town markets towards the Upper High Street and Church Street area of the town.
If the main car park is moved further away, even a few hundred metres, we feel that this will discourage people from visiting these areas and have a detrimental effect on retailers and other businesses located furthest from the proposed new car park.
The Chamber has no objections to, and indeed would encourage Waverley moving all the residential elements of the scheme to the Wharf Street car park site and the Meadrow car park site. The former would offer housing in the centre of town and the latter is a little used car park and would make more sense as residential.
If the car park at Crown Court were to be retained as we would hope, the redevelopment of The Burys site could allow for some increased parking for key workers and those working in town who find it too difficult or expensive to park currently. This would be a big help for our local businesses.
John Taylor, President of Godalming & District Chamber of Commerce, said: “It is our fundamental belief that moving the main car park away from the centre of the town and replacing it with a less accessible, multi storey car park will not benefit our retail and commercial sector, and 85% of those questioned agree. There are two other little used car parks that would offer a much more viable alternative for housing which would allow the town’s main car park to remain centrally located and provide easy access to all of the town’s retail areas, to the benefit of all shoppers including disabled and elderly drivers. We want our town to thrive and made it very clear to Waverley that we are willing to work with them on a better scheme that will enable this to happen.
“We also asked for additional, subsidised parking for key workers and those workers who cannot afford to park in the town and suggested looking into the creation of pop-up retail units which we feel would be a real benefit, and I was pleased that Waverley reacted positively to these suggestions.”
