SURREY County Council has been accused of throwing good money after bad by spending a further £22,000 of taxpayers money on new street railings in Haslemere which residents claim were not needed – and which have blighted the town’s conservation area.

There was an outcry in 2013 when railings condemned by objectors as “giant black and wonky” were installed in Lower Street and Shepherd’s Hill at a cost of £46,000, in place of the original lower, slimmer and single-barred style.

The railings line two sides of the pavement along the north side of Shepherd’s Hill and along the south side of Lower Street, in front of historic cottages, and had been white for more than 100 years.

Residents protested the iconic view of the approach to the town centre down Shepherd’s Hill had been ruined for no apparent good reason, despite the strict planning controls that apply to any alterations made to the historic cottages the railings front.

Objectors said they had not been consulted about the larger three-barred “urban-style” replacements and there was no need to replace the originals, but the council said they needed to be replaced for health and safety reasons.

Objector Jon Buckrell supported concerned residents by continuing to keep up the pressure on Surrey County Council and Waverley Borough Council, which was consulted in the process, to justify the decision to replace the original railings at a cost of £68,000 to the public purse.

Dissatisfied by Surrey’s internal investigation, which exonerated those concerned in a report issued in July this year, Mr Buckrell complained to the Local Government Ombudsman that the project had been mismanaged and his complaint has now been referred to appeal.

Following Surrey’s decision to repaint the railings, Mr Buckrell now fears it will be impossible to get them removed and revert to the original designs favoured by residents.

But he has vowed to continue the fight. This week, he told The Herald: “I have dealt with local authorities overseas as a human rights campaigner, including several dodgy regimes, and I fully expected Surrey to agree it had made a mistake in allowing idiots who essentially did not know what they were doing to install the railings.

“If Surrey hadn’t spent £22,000 on repainting the railings, they could have torn them down and replaced them with something more in keeping with Haslemere Conservation Area.

“I wanted to resolve this amicably. I didn’t want to go to the complaints procedure. To the credit of Surrey County Council my posts on Surrey Matters Facebook page are still available.

“Waverley Borough Council, on the other hand, has removed my posts and blocked me from making any more, which isn’t very friendly is it?

“I told Surrey about the inappropriateness of the design of the new railings in Lower Street and the very poor workmanship and Surrey suspended work temporarily – but it was a token gesture. A different contractor was used for the railings installed subsequently in Shepherds Hill.

“The reason why Surrey has had to repaint them is because of the substandard workmanship in Lower Street but there was no need to repaint them in Shepherds Hill at a cost of £10,000.

“The bin men have complained they can’t get to the bins in Shepherds Hill and Lower Street because the railings are now so tall and are furious they were not consulted.

“Surrey has spent £60,000 making the most historic part of the town look hideous.”

County councillor Nikki Barton said: “I am extremely concerned that the railings, installed in Shepherds Hill and Lower Street during 2013 have cost such a vast sum of public money.

“The railings, a project of my predecessor councillor Steve Renshaw, cost over £46,000 to install, and I understand a further £22,000 has been spent on their recent repainting.

“The railings still have a number of faults, bowing rails, base plates that either sit proud above the Tarmac or are covered in tarmac, and intermediate posts that were installed in error instead of the required end posts.

“These problems will cost further thousands of pounds to rectify.”

A Surrey County Council spokesman said this week: “These railings were put in to replace very old ones and enhance this conservation area. Since they were installed the paintwork has suffered a lot of damage and rather than retouching it we decided to repaint using more durable paint.

“A number of the rails between posts have become bowed over the last two years and these will be replaced by the original contractor at their own expense.”