A lot of different threads came together at the Local Committee on Monday - I’ll try to pull out some of those of particular interest to Knaphill and Goldsworth West, along with a few bits that affect everyone in Woking. I’ve missed out very local uncontroversial stuff about eg exactly where yellow lines are going, and picked out just a few phrases that struck me particularly forcefully on some of the other items.
EDF and the Knaphill Crossings
The story so far: By Monday the Broadway Crossing was open and the trees obscuring the beacon had been cut back, I understand thanks to one of Surrey’s Transport Officers literally taking the job into his own hands. The Redding Way crossing was not ready. The history of how the long delay had come about was obscure - various people at various times had attributed the problems to Surrey, Ringway, and EDF. We got three goes at the issue in this Local Committee meeting:
i) In the half hour of informal public question-and-answer a determined resident who I won’t name (unless he tells me he would prefer me to credit him) told Paul Fishwick, the Local Highways Manager, that the whole thing had been a ‘farce’, and asked for an explanation of how the delay had gone on so long. Paul acknowledged that the scheme had taken ‘considerably longer than anticipated’. He said that following monthly meetings looking at how Ringway (the Contractor) was doing he had ’alerted Ringway to where their failures were … Ringway could have placed the orders [with EDF] much, much sooner … the whole of the process was delayed way beyond what we wanted.’ There was further reassurance that EDF was now on the case, and the Redding Way crossing will be working ‘later this week or early next week’. On costs, Paul explained that Surrey paid on a ‘cost plus’ basis, which meant he wouldn’t know how much the crossings had been until they were finished.
ii) My written question, submitted last week. In it I asked what the obstacles were to bringing the crossings into full use; about the placing of the beacons at the Broadway; and about keeping the greenery back from them. This was the answer:
“a. Redding Way is awaiting a new electric power supply from EDF. EDF are the regional electricity board and they are the only company that is authorised to work on their apparatus. Broadway has now been completed and the crossing is in use.
”b. The obstruction to the beacon will be removed in the near future. The poles are set at the back of the footway to improve footway clearance and placed on an arm to improve the sight line.
“c. Once the trees have been cut back, there will be an annual maintenance system in place. “ Supplementary questions brought out that the land the trees stand on is privately-owned. Surrey is doing a land registry search to find out who it belongs to, since the owner can be required to maintain it, or be presented with the bill.
iii Later in the meeting, looking at what had remained in Woking’s very constrained Local Transport Plan road schemes, two of the items that have had to stay in place for this year are £3,000 each as ‘outstanding work from 2007/8′ for the Redding Way and Broadway crossings.
When I asked Paul Fishwick he said yes, this is for electrical work, and goes to EDF. It is not extra to the planned costs. It is a pity that this £6,000 did not get into last year’s budget, to be part of Woking’s written-off overspend.
But congratulations to Paul and his team on bringing forward a number of schemes that were ready to go, including Knaphill’s new crossings, to 2007 /8. If they’d been left to compete with everything else on the very cut-back programme for this year, we’d almost certainly be looking at a long wait.
Community Safety Report
As John Doran (Liberal Democrat County Councillor for Horsell) pointed out, Surrey has to be one of the safest places on this planet to live, and this year’s figures reflect that. Unfortunately ‘The 2007 Community Survey found that just over one quarter of respondents stated that fear of crime affected their lifestyle in some way.’ Where there are problems, they are often fuelled by alcohol. There’s a survey at www.surreybigdrinkdebate.nhs.uk which will report back in the autumn. Some of the questions made me ponder a bit, for instance: ”Do you think that information on the number of calories contained in an alcoholic drink would influence the amount you drink?”
Annual report on the Fire and Rescue Service
“It’s twenty times more likely you’ll be cut out from a car than rescued from a fire … ”
”I would like to raise the fear of anybody behind the wheel of a motor vehicle.”
“Our challenge for fire remains the very hard to reach.” - eg people who often combine several risk factors such as smoking, drinking, being elderly, or mentally impaired.
LTS Lite (This Year’s Local Transport Programme )
We heard formally that the Local Transport Plan budget for road schemes in the Borough has been cut from the expected budget of £450,000, which was the basis for planning at last February’s meeting, to only £160,000.
£50,000 of that is needed to put right the almost new pedestrian crossing at the junction of White Rose Lane and Heathside Crescent, following petitions to the Committee about the dangers to pedestrians last February, which were confirmed by a ’stage 4′ safety audit’.
This means some of the top schemes that otherwise would have had the go-ahead for this year will go on hold waiting for funding once the design stage is finished. This includes the crossing of Westfield Road by the Cricketers, which had reached the top of the list for priority last year. Derek McCrum, Liberal Democrat Borough Councillor for Kingsfield and Westfield, said: ‘I do not understand why you are putting parents lives and childrens lives at risk,’ when the revisions to the White Rose Lane crossing were the result of ‘A cock-up on the part of Surrey County Council.’
It’s not just this crossing being knocked back. Unfortunately two other schemes in Goldsworth Park, which also involve pedestrian safety, won’t go ahead this year. Instead they’ll sit as completed designs until money can be found.
One of these is some remodelling of the kerbs at the roundabout with Amstel Way and Lockfield Drive, where I’ve been hoping for the last four years to make it safer for children from Goldsworth Park to cross and walk up to the Winston Churchill School.
The second is the Denton Way Pedestrian Crossing near Waitrose. This is a particularly sore spot for me, since some good news yesterday was that Surrey County Council have managed to get Waitrose’s agreement to transfer the £10,000 ‘planning gain’ money to this, instead of using it to take away the bus lay-by on Bampton Way, near Waitrose. (This was threatened some time ago and opposed by all your local Councillors on Goldsworth Park as a costly ‘dis-improvement’)
I’m also unhappy that the Beechwood Road Speed Reduction design, fought for so determinedly by residents last year, has been put on hold, as has the preparatory work for a lot of other much-wanted work across the Borough.
But having seen where children and parents cross Westfield Road, and the speed of traffic there, I had to agree that if any scheme could get special treatment this year it had to be that one.
‘I would love to do the Westfield Road crossing,’ Paul Fishwick said, but then put it to us that we must chose between Westfield Road and the ‘remedial’ work at Heathside Crescent.
John Doran, who described himself as ‘almost as angry as Mr. McCrum’, recommended that the committee refuse to approve the programme of work for 2008/9, and ask the Executive at County Hall to look for additional funding for the remedial work from one of Surrey County Council’s ‘contingency funds’. The Committee turned this proposal down, instead deciding to ask the Executive for extra money for the priority Westfield Road crossing.
Member Allocations
- went through very fast, the arguing over whether proposals met the criteria having been thrashed out beforehand. I was happy to sponsor a contribution towards the ‘Jigsaw’ group for parents of young children on very low income, operating from the YPOD in Woking; and a new kitchen at the Surrey Care Trust’s Alternative Education Centre at Weyside in Goldsworth Park.
Farnborough Airport Pre-Consultation
By the time we got to this, it was a long time past supper and no-one wanted to talk more than necessary. My motion, seconded by John Doran, was passed nem. con.. It read:
‘The Woking Local Committee considers that proposals for the increas of traffic at Farnborough Airport will be harmful for the people of Knaphill, Brookwood, Goldsworth Park and Horsell living under the flight path, and that the economic advantages do not outweigh the environmental disadvantages. It asks the Surrey County Council to reflect this opinion in its response to the current pre-consultation.’
Surrey was already likely to take this stance based on existing policy. Woking Local Committee’s view will add a bit more weight to their objection to any increase in traffic beyond what is presently allowed, so I feel this was well worth saying.
And then, since it was only two days past the longest day, I couldn’t resist returning by bicycle along the canal in the twilight, enjoying the new width and looking forward to an even better surface than the present rather skid-provoking chips when the upgrade is completed …