CHRISTMAS came early for Grayshott Surgery patients after Boundary Road Residents’ Association (BRRA) paid for temporary road repairs to enable disabled patients and ambulances to drive to the door.

BRRA paid for a road repair specialist to fill the potholes as a quick fix while an urgently needed permanent solution is found.

In early December, Boundary Road Action Group (BRAG) stepped up its calls for concerted action to fix the “shameful, dangerous state” of the unadopted bridleway that is used as the main access to the surgery from Headley Road.

BRAG distributed leaflets to 5,000 surgery users urging them to add their voices to the ongoing campaign to get Hampshire and Surrey county councils, East Hampshire District Council, Waverley Borough Council, Grayshott Parish Council and Haslemere Town Council to work together to find the £70,000 needed for permanent resurfacing.

All parties agree it would be unfair to expect BRRA, which is responsible for the state of the Hampshire bridleway, to foot the steep cost of providing a long term solution to improve the 75ft stretch, heavily used as an access to the Surrey surgery with 12,500 patients.

Discussions between all interested parties were so protracted, the badly potholed stretch had become impassable for ambulances and disabled patients, who had to use the village hall car park instead. BRRA paid for road repair specialist Velocity to fill in the potholes, while the fundraising continues to find the £70,000 needed.

BRRA chairman Julia Tarento said: “This is a temporary repair while we try and raise the remaining funds required to replace the section from Headley Road up to the surgery with a surface that can cope with some 3,000 trips a week.

“Grayshott district councillor Ferris Cowper (right) has been a great support throughout and has managed to get promises of £35,000 when we carry out the permanent works.

“The surgery, the school and the residents are all involved and I am still hoping Surrey County Council will agree with most people living in the Grayshott area, that a contribution on behalf of the 6,000 plus patients from their county who use the surgery and pay their taxes to Surrey, would be the honourable thing to do.

“Now the residents’ association has got this far, it would be appreciated if those who use Boundary Road could treat it with consideration. It is a bridleway and cannot withstand the level of traffic of recent years. Please therefore only access the surgery from Headley Road and keep your speed down to less than 10mph, so the new surface is not churned up within a few months.

“Hopefully everyone’s trips to the surgery will be rather less stressful in 2016.”

Welcoming the temporary repairs, BRAG chairman Jem Barnes, who is disabled and a patient at the surgery, said: “It’s not perfect and it’s only guaranteed for a year. I expect the bits they haven’t done will inevitably crumble. But now, thanks to the residents association, Boundary Road is navigable. It’s great to see the doctors’ surgery car park back in use.”