Guildford's homeless shelter would grow from 16 to 22 places under plans decided Wednesday 26 August, alongside filling a WWII bunker under a town playground.
Plans to expand Guildford’s town centre homeless shelter from 16 to 22 places go before the borough’s Planning Committee at 7pm this Wednesday, 26 August. On the same night, councillors will decide whether to permanently fill the abandoned Second World War air raid shelter that sits under Foxenden Quarry playground, further along the same road.
Seven applications are on the agenda, and council officers recommend approving every one. Two of them arrive with substantial opposition on file: 22 letters against a restaurant extraction system at 9 North Street, and 71 letters against new plant and parcel lockers at Anchor House in Shalford.
The York Road shelter: 16 places now, 22 proposed
Numbers 3 and 5 York Road have operated as homeless accommodation since a permission granted in January 2000 allowed a hostel for 12 to 16 people plus two staff. The current permitted occupancy is 16.
The council’s own application, 26/P/00492, would join those buildings with the neighbouring 1 York Road, currently three one-bedroom flats the officer’s report describes as vacant and in a state of disrepair, to form a single homeless accommodation centre with an ancillary healthcare office. The combined centre would sleep:
- up to 13 people in 3 and 5 York Road, down from the 16 permitted there now
- up to 9 people in 1 York Road
- 22 people in total, fixed as a maximum by a planning condition
The works add three bedrooms overall, plus en-suite bathrooms, two new loft rooms, improved communal and staff space, an air source heat pump and a wheelchair ramp at the entrance.
The report also sets out how the shelter runs. It operates 24 hours a day, all year, for single people and couples aged over 18 who are rough sleeping or at imminent risk of homelessness and have a local connection to Guildford. Stays are typically up to six weeks. A full-time manager works weekdays with a team of nine support staff; at least two staff are on duty at all times, including two waking night workers. Entry is through the front door of number 3 only, controlled by staff, with CCTV inside and out.
Nobody wrote to object: the report records no third-party comments, and neither the county highway authority nor the council’s environmental health team raised an objection. The application is only at committee because the applicant is the council itself. Officers accept the scheme loses three homes from the housing stock, but conclude the extra shelter bedspaces deserve “substantial weight”.
The bunker under Foxenden Quarry playground
Application 26/P/00662 deals with a piece of wartime Guildford most residents never see. A shallow air raid shelter sits under the west side of Foxenden Quarry playground, off York Road. It is a separate structure from the much larger Foxenden deep shelter tunnels to the south, and the report suggests it was probably used as a store once the deeper shelter opened.
The bunker has fallen into disrepair, and the council says it now presents a health and safety risk to park users; the area above it is cordoned off. The fix is blunt: fill the void with recycled stone aggregate, compressed in layers, chosen so that water passes through it like the surrounding ground. The bunker is not a listed building, the disturbed surfaces would be reinstated, and officers found no harm to the conservation area. No resident commented on this one either.
The rest of Wednesday’s agenda
- 9 North Street (two applications, including listed building consent): a mechanical extraction system and flue for a restaurant kitchen. 22 letters of representation objected, citing noise, odour and harm to the conservation area. Officers point out the building has had permission for restaurant use since 2014, and that switching between a shop and a restaurant no longer needs planning permission at all; the only question is the extraction kit, which they judge acceptable.
- Anchor House, Station Row, Shalford: new plant equipment, fencing, parcel lockers and access alterations. 71 letters objected, with much of the concern centred on the convenience store expected to occupy the unit. Officers’ answer is that the store itself is not what is being decided: using the building as a convenience store does not require planning permission.
- 98 Yew Tree Drive: a vehicular hardstanding with a dropped kerb and an outbuilding conversion, at committee only because it involves council-owned housing.
- 13 Harvey Road: a three-storey rear extension with juliet balconies and solar panels. 17 letters of objection arrived at first notification and a further 21 after the plans were amended.
What it means for you
The committee meets at 7pm on Wednesday 26 August in the Council Chamber at Millmead House, and the meeting is webcast live through the council’s committee pages, where every officer report is published in full. An officer recommendation is not a decision: councillors can and sometimes do go the other way, which is exactly why the two applications with heavy objection counts are worth watching.
Every current application in the borough, and how to comment on one, is covered in our guide to Guildford planning applications. The wider forces shaping these decisions, from the North Street regeneration to the new Local Plan, are tracked on our Guildford planning news page.
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