FARNHAM business owners overlooking Dogflud Way and Lidl are growing increasingly concerned as they continue to see a large number of cars going the wrong way down the one-way street.

Business owner Barbara Milne, whose intention isn’t to get the drivers into trouble but to highlight an important issue, has witnessed this happening on countless occasions alongside her team.

She believes that these cars exit from the loop behind the East Street development site at Hoops Velo, then drive over the hatched lines, as if going straight on towards Farnham Leisure Centre.

“This happens very regularly, at least once a week and sometimes twice a day. We are alerted to this because of the cars hooting,” continued Barbara.

“Fortunately, many cars realise and pull in to the refuge outside Lidl’s car park, but some actually make progress all the way past the sports centre.

“Our concern is that when people cross the road, they only look towards the oncoming traffic, not both ways, because it’s a one way street. Children going to the cycle park and sports centre, or people crossing over from Lidl to walk into town are at particular risk.”

The issue has been reported to Surrey County Council’s highways team, who have come to review the signage, which they believe to be adequate.

However Barbara believes this is “particularly ironic”, as they once saw a Surrey highways van going the wrong way down the road. Surrey highways referred the team to the police, who told them that they could prosecute offenders, but they cannot do anything preventative.

She added: “Effectively, the risk here is that if nothing pro-active is done to prevent this issue, apart from a few individuals being fined if they’re seen doing this, a serious accident could occur. At that stage, it will already be too late.”

Surrey highways will continue to monitor the situation but stated that it is a police matter.

A spokesperson for Surrey County Council said that they have visited the site to check that all the signage and road markings are correct and visible, but it is a matter for the police to enforce the laws to motorists that ignore them.