I am delighted that Andy Caulfield from the South Woking Action Group – aka SWAG – will be running to be a Lib Dem Councillor for Hoe Valley in May’s local elections.

I really hope that Andy, who was elected Chair of SWAG shortly after its formation by residents in the summer of 2019, will become one of my ward colleagues on Woking Borough Council after the next elections.

After plans were launched to build a 10,000 seater stadium and over 1,000 flats around Woking Football Club’s Ground, as well as relocating David Lloyd to Egley Road in Mayford, local people set up SWAG to oppose the plans.

These plans were widely seen as completely inappropriate for the Kingfield and Westfield area.  The development would have resulted in 5 blocks of flats, up to 11 storeys high, being built around the football ground.  However, after a strong campaign by SWAG, the plans were overwhelmingly rejected by the public, the Borough Council’s Planning Committee and more recently by the Government Planning Inspector and Secretary of State.

The effectiveness of SWAG lay in our Hoe Valley community coming together to fight the ridiculous Goldev plans initially supported by the Council and the Club.  However, Andy and SWAG’s relentless factual campaigning caused many to understand the fallacies of the PR spin by the developers, the misleading of fans and the Club and the shambolic pursuit of this project by the failed ex-Council leadership.