A call to postpone the Farnham Town Centre improvement project has been dismissed with the scheme hitting a landmark last weekend with the long-awaited reopening of Downing Street.

But with eyes now moving to The Borough, a councillor has pleaded with chiefs to throw “everything” at the road in the New Year as the start date nears for the biggest part of the two-year scheme.

Councillor Catherine Powell spoke for much of the room last Friday (October 31) when she voiced concerns at the Farnham Board meeting about the road’s impending closure.

Members heard there will be a full three-month closure of The Borough from January as there’s “not enough” space to accommodate workers, diggers and everyday traffic.

A “wide variety of options” were considered before Surrey County Council (SCC) and their partners agreed to the full closure in a “no pain, no gain” move. But there could also be work on West Street at the same time, with Cllr Powell arguing last week that efforts should be concentrated for arguably the most important road in the town.

Cllr Powell said: “Everyone in this room will recognise collectively that The Borough is the most impactful part of this project.

“Having talked to the other councillors we are all concerned that by working on The Borough while doing work on West Street we’re not throwing all the resources we could at The Borough.

“We will press to have all the teams we can working on The Borough, especially as we wanted it done during the summer.

“We want to make sure that we’ve done all we possibly can to reduce that time and period.”

There are concerns the scale of the work, plus its timing during the tricky New Year retail lull, will hurt traders with much said about the impact of the Downing Street closure on its businesses.

Concerns about the impact of The Borough’s temporary closure were raised the day after a suggestion was made by Tony Fairclough to Farnham Town Council that the improvement project should be paused.

Some town councillors believed the suggestion was political given Cllr Fairclough’s recent defection from Farnham Residents Group to the Liberal Democrats.

A motion was suggested but was ultimately withdrawn as there was a “resounding” consensus for the project to continue.

SCC leader, Cllr Tim Oliver, appreciated the town council’s support and urged people to have faith in the project, despite being under no illusions about the scale of work coming to The Borough.

He said: “I don’t think the traders want to see this paused, especially with the chances of seeing it restarted.

“Yes, The Borough is the heavy lifting part of the project. We appreciate the impact the work has had on traders and we recognise that, but we said at the time there would be pain for ultimate long-term gain.”

And with the barriers and cones finally removed from Downing Street, hopes are high its reopening will give a festival boost for traders and businesses following weeks of disruption.