Cranleigh Society asked Surrey County Council and Cranleigh Parish Council for
updates concerning the High Street plans – money Cranleigh deserves and needs.
Surrey County Council says –
‘The plans exhibited at the public engagement event in November ’23 are now moving to a detailed design phase. We will be taking into account some of the feedback we received as the plans are developed by a team of Highway Engineers over the next 3-10 months. During detailed design we will be undertaking further modelling of the Village way junction to ensure accurate representation of current traffic flows, and undertaking a pedestrian survey which will look at the use of each of the ‘middle pedestrian islands’ along the High Street and Rowland Road.
We have updated our Frequently Asked Questions page on our website : https://cranleighhighstreet.commonplace.is/en-GB/proposals/frequently-asked-questions/step1. If you have not done so already, please do visit our site, enter your email address to be kept updated.’
‘Works are expected to take six months. It will be carried out in phases, to avoid other works in the area where possible. Please note that the timeframes listed below are subject to change:
- Construction Phase 1 – Horseshoe Lane – Spring 2024 – Spring 2024
- Construction Phase 2 – Obelisk – Jan 2025 – Spring 2025
- Construction Phase 3 – High Street – Spring 2025 – Summer 2025′
n.b. The Horseshoe Lane roundabout is not part of the High Street project.
Cranleigh Parish Council has no news about a public meeting yet.
For the record – Cranleigh Society does not agree with the removal of the mini roundabout at Village Way and we have made this clear to the councils. This is historic as more accidents happened there before its installation. It’s difficult to know if modern research is correct, but this is the view of the committee and many members. We also have very serious reservations and concerns about many of the other ‘improvements’, such as bus laybys and pedestrian refuges and have expressed these clearly through the official channels.
One would think that we , the people who live in this urban sprawl , would have our wishes , concerns and needs addressed . Not , this fatuous, spectacular waste being forced upon us with this vanity project , a product of stupefying ignorance and a deaf council to whom we pay one of the highest local taxes in the land . We need decent , level pavements and roads . Gullies cleaning , better street lighting , a police presence , a traffic warden , street cleaning , speed calming , footpath maintenance . Ie , what we expect , no more no less . Stop the rot .
First of all the road through Cranleigh is used as an important part of a network of roads providing access in and out of various parts of our locality , with often no alternative routes. Thus anything that does not improve the safe flow of this traffic is not likely to benefit our community.
Cranleigh ,during the 38 years I have lived here, provides so many local services that do not require more than a few minutes stay ( quick visit to a specific shop, atms Etc) Current parking often means going somewhere else instead. I notice that on visits to the market that the car park is overflowing but the bike sheds are empty. Perhaps councils should identify what residents want- not what councillors think they should have.
Sadly we have been overrun with new house building yet shops close and many remain empty year after year- Perhaps the reasons for that should be addressed .
I am sure that the changes planned will have no effect on that at all and people will not come to just drink coffee and look at empty shops.
Cranleigh has been and still is a lovely place to live but before wasting £4million please don’t waste it on ill thought out “improvements”.
Find out why so many lovely shops have gone and set about getting them back- the rest will follow.
I totally agree with P A Reed’s comment about the empty shops. The council should try and find out why shops and businesses are not occupying the empty premises and address that. Perhaps the council could finance making the making of these structurally sound, restoring the aesthetic period facades and generally making the buildings viable for conducting business.
(I am assuming councils can still compulsorily purchase property)
I totally agree with HB Smith Tesfayes comments regarding the shops. There are so many that are empty at the moment that there is no attraction for people to come.
Cranleigh could be such a vibrant village with interesting independent shops that would draw visitors. Money needs to be spent to draw people in and I’m not sure that the traffic plans should be the priority. The new Heritage trail is great but visitors need more than that to encourage them to visit our lovely village.
The Council seems to be hell-bent on runing Cranleigh. Absurd unregulated building, no extra infrastructure have had appalling impacts on the village. They should be allowed nowhere near ANY planning decisions, especially in relation to roads, where they have proved to be wholly incompetent over decades.
The proposed removal of the village way mini roundabout is madness as it is such a busy junction and would make it almost imposable to exit from the car park as the High Street is so busy with the increased traffic volume.
These changes are going to cause chaos in Cranleigh and the Horseshoe lane one especially.
In a survey of residents conducted recently 497 out of 638 were against the proposal to remove the horseshoe lane roundabout.
Read more about the survey here:
https://cranleighhighstreet.uk/updates/
If they have all this money to spend , why not give us superb road surfaces , better signage – you don’t know that you are approaching a mini roundabout as you pass Handymans -and a solution to the disaster that is Knowle Lane ‘s junction. No amount of tweaking is going to sort out the problem that a percentage of Cranleigh’s drivers can’t read .
Thank you to cranleighhighstreet. Uk group for the hard work finding out what the cranleigh residents really want – isn’t this what our elected councillors are meant to be doing on our behalf?
It would be better to do nothing than wreck what is left of our much appreciated but struggling independent shops.
I am utterly exasperated & pinning all hope that sense will prevail before it’s too late.
I totaly agree the removal of te village way round about horseshoe lane would be creating most dangerouse junction.creating no parking in the lower part of the high street would allow a smoother flow .
I am very concerned to close the road way outside the Chinese take away & also the small coffee shop as both will be affected making it into a walk way as where will we be able to park to have a take away or have coffee & cake in the small coffee shop if there no parking there??? where will the taxi’s park all so? All this will be a complete waste of money which could be better spent elsewhere so please leave Cranleigh alone & spend the money more wisely …….