A SENIOR county council road engineer has denied trying to mislead councillors into backing contentious road schemes for Farnham.

John Hilder admits mistakes were made in results published from questionnaires completed at an exhibition entitled Getting About in Farnham, but says they were genuine errors and not intended to lead councillors.

In an e-mail to Farnham consultant Jeremy Hyman, who identified the mistakes and cited 41 misleading roundings-up, he admits seven "substantive errors" and concedes the rounding methods used to collate the data appeared "convenient" in giving support to schemes such as a single-lane Downing Street and pedestrian-priority East Street.

But in the same e-mail he denied adjusting results and he reiterated this point to The Herald this week.

"I take offence at his (Mr Hyman's) implication that there was a deliberate attempt to mislead the committee. They were genuine mistakes and they will be rectified.

"I don't consider the mistakes to be relevant to getting the extra lane under Firgrove Hill, which was being discussed at the time. When we look at crossings in the town centre that would be the time to bring the correct results to committee."

Mr Hilder's most significant mistake was to state that 90 per cent of questionnaire respondents were concerned about narrow pavements. The actual figure was 60 per cent.

In asking if pedestrians were concerned about narrow pavements the county council was trying to gauge levels of support for wider pavements in Downing Street, which would mean the current two lanes of traffic reduced to one. Mr Hilder admits the mistake.

Another key error was Mr Hilder's transposing of figures. His report of the results stated that 40 per cent of respondents were happy with the number of pedestrian crossings in Farnham, with 60 per cent wanting more.

He has since admitted he got the figures the wrong way round, giving the false impression that there is support for more pedestrian crossings, such as the one proposed by Surrey highway officers at the junction of Downing Street and The Borough.

Mr Hilder also admitted to incorrectly stating 75 per cent of respondents said traffic lights at the Shepherd and Flock roundabout had helped town traffic. The correct figure was 63 per cent.

At the last meeting of the county council's Waverley Local Committee, Mr Hyman used the public question time to demand Farnham's interim measures, including deferred plans for a single-lane Downing Street and pedestrian-priority East Street go to another consultation because the results from the questionnaires are "largely false".

In putting his question Mr Hyman said the county council has privately admitted the results are "largely false".

But his contention was strongly denied in a prepared response and his demands for another consultation refused.

The response, read by chairman of the Local Committee, Maureen Nyazai, read: "The county council has at no time stated that the results are largely false and any contention that the results are largely false is completely rejected by officers.

"Officers agreed Mr Hyman had identified a few substantive errors and undertook to report them to committee when relevant.

"(Therefore) it is not the intention of this committee to undertake further consultation and consideration."

Responding to that rejection of a second consultation, Mr Hyman, who lives in The Chantrys, told The Herald: "I thought that the committee's responses were ludicrous, until I realised that Surrey County Council obviously has totally different definitions of the terms 'effective' 'meaningful', 'honest' and 'public consultation'."

Referring to the results of the consultation he has written to the council: "The effect of these errors, omissions and misjudgements is to discredit the entire consultation exercise and it is of great concern.

"The resulting consistent 'bias' in favour of pedestrian-friendly schemes cannot be explained by errors alone."