FARNHAM MP Jeremy Hunt has joined councillors in hitting out at the “disgraceful” decision by a Surrey County Council committee to delay a promised consultation on a new road scheme in Farnham town centre. He has long proposed a pedestrianisation scheme to tackle Farnham’s traffic and air pollution problems, and after a successful referendum in 2014 pledged in the build-up to June’s general election to hold a consultation on his advanced proposals this autumn.
However, at the last meeting of Surrey County Council’s Waverley Local Committee, councillors “tossed aside” the scheme – much to the disgust of Farnham members – and this week Mr Hunt also took aim at that decision.
The town MP said: “This is a disgraceful move by Surrey’s local committee, completely ignoring the clear wishes of the majority of people in Farnham and their own responsibility to deal with the town’s traffic and pollution issues.”
A consultation on the Farnham scheme, which proposes re-modelling much of the town centre incorporating Mr Hunt’s part-pedestrianisation scheme in Downing Street and The Borough, has formed part of the local committee’s forward programme for over a year. Surrey’s highways team has worked alongside Farnham councillors and Mr Hunt to develop the proposals, and £25,000 had been allocated – generated by on-street parking fines in Farnham – for the consultation to go ahead later this year.
However, citing a 90 per cent cut to the council’s highways budget, the local committee – now led by Waverley Eastern Villagers councillor Victoria Young – agreed that this funding should be shared more evenly across the borough. This decision was also slammed at last Thursday’s Farnham Town Council meeting by town council leader, and a member of the Waverley Local Committee, Carole Cockburn.
Mrs Cockburn said: “We were led to believe at previous local committees that there would be a consultation this autumn on the scheme to ease the traffic pollution and congestion in Farnham, and it was really just tossed aside by the chairman who said it wouldn’t be happening. Town councillors unanimously agreed with Mrs Cockburn’s recommendation to write to Mrs Young, who only took over as committee chairman in June after her predecessor Mrs Frost lost her county seat at the May 4 local elections.
Defending the decision to delay the consultation, committee chairman Mrs Young told The Herald: “I salute the enthusiasm of veteran Farnham town councillors Frost and Cockburn in their wish to shut the roads in central Farnham and turn them over to pedestrians.
“However, before spending Surrey taxpayers’ money consulting the people of Farnham on these ideas, I want to make sure there are sufficient funds to implement these proposals should Farnham residents wish to see these go ahead.
“I do not believe that it would be a prudent use of public money to consult on a scheme until we know that the funds will be available to implement it and this is what I wish to investigate with my colleagues during the autumn.
“I do not believe it would be fair to raise the hopes of the people of Farnham about any highways schemes in the town without being clear that the necessary funds are available to deliver on what may be proposed. We are living in a time of unparalleled public austerity during which the council’s slender resources have rightly to be focused on providing services for the elderly and vulnerable in our society, as well as much needed school places for our children.”
A spokesman for Waverley Borough Council, which has placed Surrey’s scheme at the centre of its plans to tackle Farnham’s air pollution, said: “Waverley Borough Council has not been made aware of the delay, however Surrey County Council representatives are attending the Air Quality Steering Group later this week which will explore ways of improving the air quality in the borough, including Farnham.”
Article produced using material from Farnham Herald
