November/December 2005 No 95
| Guildford on show at Blackpool. |
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Some of the shared equity houses |
Andrew Hodges took to the stage at the Conservative Party Conference in October. He had been invited to present a video on affordable housing in Guildford as part of a series of presentations on good practice by local councils. In Guildford we work with a number of different registered social landlords to provide housing which is either equity sharing or for rent. Our contribution to generating the much-needed affordable housing has been varied and included provision of sites, agreement to permit building to "exception" sites in rural areas, support for underwriting of grant applications to the Housing Corporation . In addition, we have a low cost home ownership scheme accessible from our website or at the kiosk in the Housing Advice Centre. And some of the rented homes, almost ready for occupation.
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London
Road speed check
After concerns expressed by residents, the speed check was used in London Road during September. It showed how justified the concerns were. Even with the warning, cars were still travelling over the 30mph speed limit as seen in the photograph. |
Improving customer access
We are continuing our programme of improving customer access. The Online planning applications scheme has been a great success - but rather than reduce the number of callers at the council offices at Millmead, it has increased them, as a growing number of residents, having seen plans on the web, come in to see the files and letters of representation.
Your council has now embarked on a scheme to make access to planning and other services more readily available to visitors to Millmead. It is a building of the 1970s and has had little done to it since, and money needs to be spent on it following years of neglect. So we have consulted and plans have been drawn up to make the public areas at Millmead more accessible and appropriate to the 21st century. The opportunity has been taken to improve the working environment for the staff. This is a significant investment of £1m and it is being funded from capital receipts and will have no affect on your council tax.
