LONG-awaited plans for a “£5 to £10 million” overhaul of Farnham town centre’s congested road network are expected to see the light of the day in the new year, after councillors signed off £25,000 for a public consultation on the comprehensive scheme.

The decision by Surrey County Council’s Waverley Local Committee comes after a series of studies into the viability of the scheme, including computerised traffic modelling of its potential impacts, prompted by MP Jeremy Hunt’s successful referendum campaign in favour of part-pedestrianising the town centre in 2014.

Speaking to The Herald, both Mr Hunt and councillor Pat Frost, chairman of the Waverley Local Committee and county councillor for Farnham Central, confirmed the plans to reduce congestion and alleviate the town’s air quality problem are “well advanced” but hesitated to discuss the scheme in detail prior to the consultation.

Mrs Frost did reveal, however, that the scheme will likely be dependent on funding from the Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), a government fund set up to drive the economic growth of the area by working with businesses and key delivery partners.

She told The Herald: “Surrey’s highways department have produced a first go at the proposals but are now refining the scheme for presentation to stakeholders and the general public as soon as is practicable.

“The scheme is well advanced but, as chairman of the Local Committee and also the local member for the town centre, I would not want to release a scheme until it is a perfect as we can get it.

“All stakeholders and residents will be consulted first and we will listen to their views - but what I personally do not want to happen is that we spend the next 10 years arguing about it.

“A scheme of this importance is costly as it affects the centre and outskirts of the town. The cost can range between £5 and £10 million and we will need to apply for LEP funding but unless we have something on the books the LEP will not consider a funding bid.”

Mr Hunt added the Local Committee’s decision heralds an “exciting moment in Farnham’s history” and suggested the scheme marks a significant expansion on his draft plans in 2014.

He said: “One of the problems in the referendum campaign was that people felt they didn’t know exactly what they were voting for.

“Now Surrey has undertaken proper traffic modelling, we have the information and can tell people whether the traffic will go up or down, what times it will go up or down, and give them a chance to comment.

“The next step, which I hope will take place early in the new year, is to start a consultation so the people of Farnham can see the plan and see what the implications are.

“Once we have done that and we’re clear it is the right thing to do, then the next stage will be raising the funding.”

Mr Hunt added the £5 to £10m quoted for the scheme is “significant, but not ridiculously outrageous for a town of Farnham’s beauty and heritage and indeed commercial potential”.

He also expressed confidence that the scheme will not endure the same lengthy delays as Waverley Borough Council’s controversial East Street redevelopment.

“Unlike East Street,” Mr Hunt said, “we’ve had a referendum, we’ve had a debate and we know that even though only just over 50 per cent voted in favour of this in the referendum, the vast majority of people in Farnham would like some form of pedestrianisation.

“We know doing something to reduce the pressure of traffic on the centre of town and making it more family friendly is something that the vast majority of people in Farnham want, so what we now have to do is to find a viable, affordable scheme and crack on with it.

“There are still lots of hurdles to get over. We’ve still got to have a consultation and we’ve still got to raise the funds. But if you compare it to where we were a year ago, I think we’re in a much much stronger position.

“If we get the decisions right over the town centre, we can transform Farnham for a generation. This is a really big and exciting moment in Farnham’s history, and it’s a moment to deal with the biggest single bugbear people have living in Farnham - the awful traffic.

“And that’s really what we ought to sort out.”