A row has broken out about the decision by Surrey Highways (SCC) to spend £77,000 on a relatively unused footpath as a part of the much publicised SCC plan to improve pavements with high footfall and which are near to shops, hospitals and public buildings.
SCC’s Pavement Project Horizon programme is a 5 year scheme to repair some of the worst pavements in the county, but Residents Association Councillors in Epsom and Ewell are furious about a decision of re-lay the whole of a 300 metre length of pavement in Epsom and Ewell which very few people actually use.
Banstead Road in Ewell was selected for the repair but there are just 26 houses at the start of the road before the pavement becomes a long walk alongside fields and open space:
County Councillor John Beckett in whose Ewell Division Banstead Road is situated said:
“I am pleased for the householders in the road but the actual pedestrian usage beyond the houses is extremely low considering the level of investment”
Work started on the footway in August and, two months on, the resurfacing is still not finished. All three Residents Association Councillors, John Becket, Jan Mason and Eber Kington, have received complaints from residents in their Divisions asking why such an unused stretch of footway is getting this treatment when pavements with high usage have been ignored.
County Councillor Jan Mason was equally astounded.
“My West Ewell Division is one of the most densely populated areas in the Borough with some of the most well-used used pavements but, as a result of their failure to consult local councillors about roads in most most need, SCC has wasted public money creating a five star surface for a low usage footway”.
In addition to the footway resurfacing, Surrey Highways has also undertaken work to cut back hedges and trees, a decision which County Councillor Jan Mason described as “adding insult to injury – with more money being spent on a project that no one requested and few people support”.
In his comments on the decision to resurface the full 300 metres of Banstead Road, County Councillor Eber Kington said:
“It is a footway with no school, no shops, no hospital and no-one supporting its upgrade other than SCC”.
“The leaders of SCC are complaining of reduced funding and hard financial times yet they can’t get such basic spending priorities right when it comes to the maintenance of our streets”
Photograph attached:
Shows (left to right) County Councillors Jan Mason, Eber Kington and John Beckett in Banstead Road.
For further Information please contact:
County Councillor John Beckett: 020 8393 8208
County Councillor Jan Mason: 0208 397 9325
County Councillor Eber Kington: 020 8786 7484 or 07598 322 406
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