DON’T PANIC! That’s the message to Farnham residents worried about work on the roads later this year.

Social media was awash with comments this week with some fearing the town centre would face a year of gridlock with several traffic schemes taking place at the same time.

Roads are the responsibility of Surrey County Council, and Central Farnham member Andy MacLeod said work would be well publicised in advance.

“There will be traffic congestion in the Royal Deer junction area later this year as Crest Nicholson carries out the changes to the road network to improve East Street,” he said.

“All three Surrey councillors in Farnham are very concerned about the consequences for local residents, retailers and businesses of this congestion.

“As we all have regularly experienced, traffic incidents in any part of Farnham can quickly lead to severe traffic congestion across the whole town.

“Crest has not yet finalised its plans for this work, which will have to be agreed with the Streetworks team in Surrey Highways, but it is likely to start in September or October and last for around five months.

“This work will cause considerable disruption in Farnham and my fellow councillors and I will ensure all the plans and diversion routes are widely publicised well in advance of the work.

“The South Street car park beside Sainsbury’s is in very poor condition and a refurbishment programme will be carried out this year by Waverley, which manages the car park, and Crest, which wishes to provide a good connection between the car park and the M&S Simply Food store, due to open in Brightwells in the spring of next year.

“The work will be carried out between April and September to avoid the Easter and Christmas trading periods.

“It will take about five months and will be phased to ensure parts of the car park remain open throughout this period.

“Southern Gas Networks (SGN) has notified Surrey Streetworks it plans to upgrade the gas mains in South Street, Longbridge and Abbey Street this year.

“The South Street work, which will run from the Royal Deer junction to Hickleys Corner on the A31, will take place in the school holiday period in July and August and the current estimate for the work is seven weeks.

“This will require phased lane closures in South Street.”