The Guildford Forum, which provides an opportunity for everyone interested in the future of the town and its surrounding villages to have their say on what that future should look like, will meet again on Thursday, 27 January in Guildford.
As well as discussing the future, the Forum gives an opportunity to identify the infrastructure, technology and resources needed to make it happen and it met for the first time earlier this year with Peter Gordon in the chair.
The chair and venue rotates around different parts of the town and in January, the Guildford Forum is delighted to be able to meet at the Tunsgate Centre in Guildford with Claire Suggitt, the Centre Manager, in the chair. This meeting will have a focus – although not exclusively – on the retail sector in Guildford.
Guildford Forum is hosted apolitically by Guildford MP Angela Richardson, who made support for the local economy and businesses a key plank of her election campaign in 2019. Anyone can attend and the first meeting was joined by a broad cross-section of residents, councillors and businesspeople of all backgrounds.
“The focus of these meetings is Guildford,” said Angela. “Guildford is the economic powerhouse of Surrey; one of the key economic hubs for the South East Region. The jobs and prosperity its retail and service sectors create is key to positive outcomes in many other socio-economic indicators.
“I’m really delighted that Claire has agreed to chair the second meeting,” said Angela. “Everyone has watched the emergence of the new Tunsgate Centre and it has become a symbol of how regenerations and the new can successfully mix with the established in our town.
“Since the first meeting, there has been a lot of follow-up work done on the points raised first time around. I’m keen to share these with participants so that we can see progress is being made and the Forum is having an impact.”
Claire Suggitt added: “Things in Guildford, in common with everywhere else, haven’t been easy over the past two years. We have a tremendous variety of retail in the town and I am looking forward to discussing what we can do to help the sector thrive in the future.
“The Guildford Forum is an opportunity to bring people together to talk about these things in a broad and constructive way, as well as to take actions away so that we can make a practical difference. I’m really looking forward to the Forum visit Tunsgate in January.”