Guildford Dragon NEWS

Published on: 24 Oct, 2024
Updated on: 24 Oct, 2024

By Martin Giles

Proposed changes to the layout of London Road in Burpham are expected to be approved by Surrey County Council according to a local campaign group the London Road Action Group (LRAG).

The stretch of road affected is New Inn Lane to Boxgrove Road and Boxgrove Roundabout (aka the AA Roundabout).

The packed public meeting in January 2023. Not all those wishing to attend could fit into the hall at George Abbot School. A large majority of those present appeared to be against the scheme, as proposed at that time.

The scheme has been controversial from the outset, provoking many articles and Dragon Reader letters and comments. Initial proposals which involved a five month partial closure of the A road provoked the largest public meeting held locally for years in January 2023.

SCC Council Leader addressing the public meeting

At the time, the leader of SCC, Tim Oliver, said it would be “madness” to go ahead with the original scheme in the face of the widespread opposition displayed at the meeting.

Subsequently the long period of partial closure element has been watered down to be less disruptive but concerns remain about proposal to mix cyclists and pedestrians and about the width constraints of the road after alterations.

SCC commissioned Arup to conduct an independent review of the proposals. The decision on the proposal is expected to be taken at the SCC Cabinet meting on October 29.

LRAG chairman Terry Newman, who is a member of the stakeholders’ group consulted on the proposals, said: “All concerns have been batted away, based on the assertion from the independent Arup report that the design is safe and adequate for the anticipated level of usage, although their brief was narrow and only addressed one single point of highway constraint.” He also questioned the independent status of Arup.

Mr Newman continued: “The assertion has received further support from Active Travel England (ATE), as it is reported that recent discussions with SCC concluded that it is better to proceed than not, despite acknowledging: ‘The width of the short section of reduced shared space is below the stated minimum … of 3 metres… the rest of the route is of high quality and should attract a lot of new users …’. But Active Travel England (ATE) is reported to have concluded that it is better to proceed than not.

Cllr George Potter

But local SCC and GBC councillor George Potter, Lib Dem, Guildford East and Burpham respectively) is quoted in the meeting papers saying: “While a minority remain opposed to the scheme, the majority of residents are happy that the main initial cause of concern (the roadworks) have been fully addressed, and the only concerns still being raised by opponents of the scheme are either simply a belief that money shouldn’t be spent on cyclists (which would mean a complete waste of the funding already secured and the money already invested in the scheme) or a refusal to believe that the multiple engineers and independent safety assessors involved have done their jobs properly.”

Cllr Fiona Davidson

Another local county councillor, Fiona Davidson, (R4GV, Guildford South East) had a different view. She told the Dragon: “I support LRAG’s response to the Arup report. A desktop exercise is not adequate to address the serious safety concerns of residents.

“A large amount of highly technical and theoretic argument has been deployed to justify why minimum – or less than minimum – standards are acceptable on London Road. However, residents live in the real world, not a theoretical one.

“Can we be confident that in the real world HGV drivers will always sit exactly in the middle of their lane and won’t veer into the 9.8 inches separating them from an oncoming HGV? Is 45 per cent of the footway – sometimes narrower than the minimum standard – to be shared by cyclists and pedestrians an improvement?”

Howard Smith is a regular eBike user.

But borough councillor Howard Smith (Lab, Westborough) who has lifelong connections with Burpham and has regularly cycled on the route said: “I am keen to see infrastructure improvements and hopeful that section one of the scheme does get the green light next week.

“Overwhelmingly popular with residents it would be a step change in active travel in Guildford and a compliment to the recent ebike hire scheme. We do need to reduce traffic, congestion and pollution on our roads and this would, if it goes ahead, benefit both drivers and cyclists.”

Zoe Franklin MP in the House of Commons

Guildford’s MP Zoe Franklin also went on the record to support the scheme. She hoped the SCC cabinet would: “…decide to implement the Burpham section of the scheme in full, for the sake of the safety of residents and for the many residents in Burpham who would like to walk or cycle to their local schools or shops but currently feel it is too dangerous to do so.”

The headteacher of George Abbot school, located near London Road, wrote to SCC: “…I wanted to write to reiterate the full support of George Abbot School for the full implementation of the A3100 active travel scheme…”

The stretch of the London Road involved in the scheme. Image SCC

“This stretch of road serves one of the biggest schools in the country – we are in the top 10 per cent of school sizes. It must be a priority to facilitate safe cycle ways for 2000 children in this area of our town. It is also a priority to facilitate greener travel approaches for a generation who are poised to make the seismic change necessary, to begin to reverse the environmental damage that we currently witness, worldwide.”

But the LRAG chair remains sceptical, saying: “The impression that remains is that this scheme is politically, rather than technically driven, and one wonders how bad a ‘critical issue’ has to be to rescind funding.”

He urged objectors to “email every Cabinet member to ask them to reflect your view when voting.”