SURREY County Council has promised an holistic response to the news that the Hickley's Corner underpass scheme could be shelved until 2011. The accident blackspot, which has been the site of several fatalities and numerous road traffic accidents in recent years, was the subject of a much-anticipated £40 million SCC scheme. Following a meeting last Friday at the regional transportation board, it was revealed that the scheme was deemed a "low" priority, and consequently that funds for the proposed modernisation were not available. However, George Burnett, SCC's head of the local transport plan group, reiterated SCC's commitment to solving part of Farnham's traffic headache. "Hickley's Corner is one of the three priority schemes that we are waiting to get funded in Surrey. We fully recognise the problems of Farnham and have been determined to try to get Hickley's Corner off the drawing board and into reality," he said. "While the Hickley's Corner scheme was a good one in terms of value for money, obviously there was nothing about it which appeared to propel it into the regional transportation board's highest level of priority," he added. "We've made the good case for it, but there isn't enough money to stretch for all the desirable schemes in the South East - that is the battle we have on our hands at the moment. "If it becomes apparent that we are unlikely to get funding for Hickley's Corner in the next five or six years, as appears to be the case, there seems to be a point where we need to look at Farnham holistically. "We have problems with the need to relieve Wrecclesham from the traffic on the A325, we've got the difficulties of Hickley's Corner and we still have excessive traffic congestion in the town centre. "It may be that we have to rethink how we can try to tackle that with a scheme which takes on board everything that's necessary. "It would be a big scheme, but there may be a way of addressing these problems which brings in a different way of thinking. We will examine how we can get that scheme to have a higher priority. For the time being, Mr Burnett outlined SCC's strategy. "We will go back to the South East of England Regional Assembly (SEERA) and try to work together with them to find a scheme which addresses the problems. We will certainly do that over the next few months with a view to being in a position to know how to proceed early in the new year. Yet Mr Burnett had a prescient point to make to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. "If SEERA is expecting us to take new houses, then we need to be provided with an adequate infrastructure to deal with the increase in movement that will result from that. "In order to keep the South East functioning as best as it ought in transport terms, we need substantial funding from central government for major schemes like Hickley's Corner. Quite clearly, we are not getting it as a region and I think that is understood by SEERA. One way to try to resolve problems is to push for a more appropriate pot of money in which to try to bring forward these schemes. And Mr Burnett can count on the support of councillors Pat Frost and David Munro, who represent Farnham on the county council. After the presentation of a letter to SCC's leader Nick Skellet last week, Mr Munro remarked: "I'm partially reassured. Nick Skellet is a colleague of mine and he was actually elected chairman of the regional transportation board, which is good news - we've got a strong voice for Surrey there." And Mr Munro also saw light at the end of the Hindhead tunnel saga. "This is the area's number one priority, and we have all accepted that - some people reluctantly - but that is still on the cards. There is more uncertainty than we would like on that, but we have made a case to the regional transportation board that the Hindhead tunnel must happen. And that will take some of the pressure off Farnham, I believe. Meanwhile, Mrs Frost urged residents to show their dissatisfaction at the postponement of Hickley's Corner, and the plight of the Wrecclesham relief road. "The next steps are to bring this to everybody's attention and to make sure that everybody knows, as far Farnham is concerned, just how important these two traffic schemes are. "I think one of the things local residents can do is write to the regional transport board showing that they really support the Hickley's Corner scheme in order to urge them to move this up higher along the agenda," she said.
