Month: April 2018

Pothole Update

Residents often come to me complaining of potholes in the road, not realising that I can do no more than they can which is report it to SCC. SCC are responsible for highways, not WBC. I’m only an elected WBC Member, and have no aspirations to run for SCC.

In fact, reporting a pothole to me increases the time it takes to get it fixed because it then relies on me reporting it which I won’t do until I’ve seen it myself which usually takes me a while to get round to. Far better to report it yourself using the SCC online web pages.

What I also do occasionally, is make general representations to the Cabinet Member for Highways at SCC who is Cllr Colin Kemp. Cllr Kemp happens to be a WBC Councillor as well, and so I periodically bump in to him in the chamber. He writes a blog and is also active on Facebook and Twitter. He’s been writing recently regarding the problems that come about as we leave the winter period on the roads. Please read some of his posts for an insight into dealing with the road network.

Cheers.

Kevin

 

 

 

Brookwood/Pirbright Tunnel Petition

A Pirbright resident has submitted a petition to SCC regarding the tunnel at the western end of the village. His points are valid and I have signed the petition.

The problem at this junction is that on the Pirbright side, there are two feeder roads with traffic lights, and on the Brookwood side, there are two feeder roads but crucially with one set of lights. This does cause a lot of frustration because the well meaning drivers leaving Brookwood via Connaught Road, will pause to allow drivers from Bisley Camp Road / Brunswick Road to go, and the sensors decide that there is no traffic. This in turn means the lights go to red prematurely and the traffic builds up to intolerable levels. It can take 20 minutes sometimes to get out of Brookwood.

The obvious solution has been to add an additional set of lights on the Brookwood side, and I have had conversations about this with WBC officers in the past. The challenge is effectively two fold; a) who pays for the changes, and b) the junction sits in Guildford Borough.

There are no development opportunities that can be used to extract funds from to pay for the improvements. This is a major problem, because finding the evidence to justify the improvements should be reasonably easy, but SCC will simply claim there isn’t the money in the highways budget to do anything.

From my perspective, the junction sitting in Guildford causes further issues. Assuming the petition reaches the minimum numbers required, it will go before the Guildford Local Committee, the next meeting being 13 June. I suspect that convincing the Guildford Local Committee to use their sparse funds to pay towards improvements that are going to have a bigger benefit for Brookwood residents will prove challenging. I will endeavour to keep an eye on the agenda for that meeting and try and attend, although I do have a prior engagement that night already.

The petition may be signed here and I encourage as many people as possible to do so.

Cheers.

Kevin