Sadly this is not an April Fool's joke, but it would have made a good one, if it wasn't actually true! Back in the heady days of the Farnham Pollution Summit, there was an aspiration to make Farnham less congested.

They promised to give more people the option to leave their cars at home and get onto their bikes but the promises have been whittled down.

At the last Farnham Infrastructure Board (FIP) meeting just before April 1, they cancelled the Park Row changes for cycling plus a safe crossing for pedestrians and cyclists on Castle Street, leaving Farnham's only real cycle track still severed by Farham's widest street.

Plans for a cycling route plus a safe crossing for pedestrians and cyclists on Park Row and Castle Street were cancelled last month
Plans for a cycling route plus a safe crossing for pedestrians and cyclists on Park Row and Castle Street were cancelled last month (Peter Goodman)

The distant car in the photo is at the far end of the gap in the Scholars Greenway cycle track. This shows just how far parents and children going on bikes to school are expected to cycle amongst car traffic i.e. from the bottom of the photograph to the top.

So now all we have is a half-mile cycle track from South Street, along Borellis Walk leading to a car park (Riverside). As if this wasn't enough to make a good April Fool's joke, cyclists will not be accommodated on the new river bridge that the FIP will build.

Cyclists might illegally cycle on the pedestrian bridge, and even across Brightwells Yard. With no cycle tracks being provided across the rest of the town, only widened pavements, maybe cyclists will start to use these too as unofficial cycle tracks.

Four surveys of residents of Farnham have shown that there is a significant number of people who want to cycle to town, station, or schools if safe cycle tracks were provided.  This shows that a significant number of cars could be taken off the road making space for those who do have to drive, also reducing air pollution.

So if the Residents Group in Farnham wish to live up to their name, surely they should respond to the wishes of many of the residents?

Building a simple cycle network across the town centre would not need to close a single car lane and could provide help with the congestion that will soon be caused by two years of roadworks at Hickleys Corner A31 junction and 1.5 years of pavement widening roadworks.

It's not too late to stop fooling around with transport in Farnham town centre.