Agenda item

To receive any petitions in accordance with Standing Order 65 or letters of representation in accordance with the Local Protocol. An officer response will be provided to each petition / letter of representation.

Two petitions have been received.

The first has been signed by 334 people and states: “Following yet another serious car crash at the intersection between the A25 Shere Road and A248 Albury Road, we the residents of Shere, Albury and the surrounding villages ask that the council put this junction under immediate review and put in place some sort of solution to this treacherous piece of road. As residents of the area, we are all too familiar with the sight of an air ambulance parked on the road, air lifting someone to the nearest trauma hospital. Today, we witnessed yet another accident which has resulted in 3 people being seriously injured, one of which life threatening. It is time to put a halt to these unnecessary and deadly accidents. The junction needs to be reconfigured and with speed calming measurements to ensure the safety of all motorists and cyclist alike.”

The petition will be presented by Mrs Gillian Akroyd

The second has received 96 signatures and states: “We petition Guildford Local Committee to insist that Surrey County Council must reinstate Byrefield Road as part of ‘Project Horizon’ to replace the crumbling concrete sub-layer and resurface the whole road. Originally scheduled under this project, the road was suddenly dropped from the list despite its appalling condition.  Currently used by approximately 70 buses a day, together with considerable through traffic, we contend the road’s current state is causing long term damage to houses, vehicles and other traffic, together with issues over safety. We urge SCC to reinstate Byrefield Road, Stoughton Ward on the Project Horizon list as a matter if urgency.”

The petition will be presented by Simon Slater.

There were two petitions presented to the Committee.

The first petition was presented by Mrs Candace Brooks:

Following yet another serious car crash at the intersection between the A25 Shere Road and A248 Albury Road, we the residents of Shere, Albury and the surrounding villages ask that the council put this junction under immediate review and put in place some sort of solution to this treacherous piece of road. As residents of the area, we are all too familiar with the sight of an air ambulance parked on the road, air lifting someone to the nearest trauma hospital. Today, we witnessed yet another accident which has resulted in 3 people being seriously injured, one of which life threatening. It is time to put a halt to these unnecessary and deadly accidents. The junction needs to be reconfigured and with speed calming measurements to ensure the safety of all motorists and cyclist alike.”

The following written response was provided:

Whilst we recognise that there have been collisions occurring at the junction, it is hoped that the reduction of 20mph on the approaching speed limit will have a beneficial influence and reduce the occurrences of these collisions. The scheme has only recently been completed and whilst it generally takes about 6 months for these changes to settle down and take effect, we will continue to monitor the location. If it is deemed that further works are required then this will be investigated further by the Casualty Reduction Working Group, and an integrated Transport Plan scheme may be the solution.

It was noted that at their meeting in June 2016 the Committee agreed to introduce a 40 mph speed limit on the A25 Shere Road between Clandon Crossroads and a point approximately 50 metres to the east of Sherbourne Road. This new speed limit had recently been implemented.

The new limit leaves Sherbourne Road unrestricted (subject to the 60 mph national speed limit) between the A25 and the existing 30 mph limit on the approach to the village.  The proposal under agenda Item 10 was to introduce a 40 mph limit in the interest of consistency and road safety. This measure is supported by the police and Albury Parish Council.

It was noted that detailed statistics of accidents on the road needed to be brought to the Committee when being further considered.

In the second, Mr Simon Slater presented a petition to insist that Surrey County Council must reinstate Byrefield Road as part of ‘Project Horizon’ to replace the crumbling concrete sub-layer and resurface the whole road. Originally scheduled under this project, the road was suddenly dropped from the list despite its appalling condition. Currently used by approximately 70 buses a day, together with considerable through traffic, we contend the road’s current state is causing long term damage to houses, vehicles and other traffic, together with issues over safety. We urge SCC to reinstate Byrefield Road, Stoughton Ward on the Project Horizon list as a matter of urgency.

Mr Slater also passed the Chairman a letter from Aviva supporting resurfacing due to the negative impact that the current road surface had on their vehicles.

The following written response was given to Mr Slater:

We are currently in year 4 of Operation Horizon, our innovative 5 year road resurfacing programme. To date the programme has achieved a 30% reduction in the length of roads that are in a poor condition, a 15% reduction in cost, and improved quality, with 95% of schemes having a 10-year warranty.

However, we have more schemes on the list than we can afford to do in the five years. We are also facing further challenges from reduced budgets and increased pressure from other roads that have deteriorated since the original Horizon lists was published.

Over the last 18 months we have been assessing existing schemes from the original Horizon list along with recently identified potential schemes generated from condition surveys, which we carry out in accordance with best practice guidance, for inclusion on Surrey’s Horizon 2 programme.

All roads on the Horizon programme have been prioritised in accordance with best practice guidance on asset management and in accordance with the cabinet approved prioritisation process. The process does not take account of customer complaints as you have inferred but criteria including: condition; network priority; risk and network management.

The full prioritisation process is published on our website:

https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/roads-and-transport/road-maintenance-and-cleaning/maintaining-our-roads-and-pavements/how-we-prioritise-road-maintenance

All the schemes have been prioritised against others countywide into a new list and unfortunately Byrefield Road did not score enough to feature in our planned works programme. The number of schemes involved (some 800+) means not all the schemes on prior Horizon lists or newly identified schemes from condition surveys will now appear on the new version.

I realise that this information will be disappointing for you. It will continue to be inspected and any defects at intervention level will be repaired under routine maintenance.

The Divisional County Councillor thanked Mr Slater for bringing the petition to the attention of the Committee.  It was noted that upto 8 buses per hour used the road and had been on a priority list for some considerable time.

It was agreed that the issue would be taken back to the Horizon Team and ask them to check that it had been accurately assessed and also include the letter from Aviva.