THE FIRST fully-costed proposals setting out how Farnham, Waverley and Surrey councils intend to tackle Farnham town centre’s chronic air pollution issues are to be presented in public in the New Year, council leaders have pledged.

Challenged by South West Surrey MP Jeremy Hunt to present plans for The Borough by the end of January at last Friday’s Farnham Pollution Summit, Surrey leader Tim Oliver and Waverley deputy Paul Follows vowed to “do their best” to meet the target.

If all goes to plan, the councils’ joint proposals will be presented in public in the New Year – with further plans setting out how they intend to tackle the rest of the town’s pollution hotspots to be presented by the end of April.

It comes after Farnham-based air quality consultant David Harvey warned attendees at last week’s summit, co-hosted by the Herald at the Old Court House in Union Road, of an “alarming rise” in nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels in The Borough this year – with an annual mean NO2 concentration of around 50 µg/m3 anticipated, above the legal limit of 40 µg/m3.

Addressing the summit, Mr Hunt said: “I’m completely flexible about what scheme we end up with. But what we need is a scheme that the Surrey experts say is viable, that is costed.”

Surrey and Waverley announced to much fanfare in June that East Hampshire District Council’s in-house regeneration company, RegenCo, had been tasked with coming up with a strategic plan for Farnham.

Mr Hunt again praised this work last Friday, but called on the two councils to present “potentially viable” plans for The Borough by the end of January.

“That is not to say we have the money, but we just want to know what we’re talking about,” he added.

Responding, Surrey leader Mr Oliver said: “I would hope that we will do it by the end of January certainly. So unless there’s some structural reason why we can’t do it, that is what we will look to do.”

Mr Follows, Waverley deputy leader and Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for South West Surrey, was more hesitant.

He said: “Until there has been a wider engagement, we have actually paused some of the RegenCo work and I think the police had some objections to some of the issues with the Borough, and we need to look at why they did.”

But when pushed by Mr Hunt to echo his Surrey counterpart’s commitment, Mr Follows added: “We can certainly do our best”.

Mr Hunt also challenged the two councils to present a joint plan for the rest of the town, in public, next June or July.