GBUG were very disappointed with Surrey County Council’s decision, announced on 27th February that:

• the active travel scheme between the town center and Boxgrove Roundabout will not go ahead,
• the scheme between Boxgrove Roundabout and Aldi in Burpham will be subject to further review and decision at a later date.
• Improvements to Boxgrove Roundabout will at least go ahead.

Fundamental flaws

GBUG strongly feels there are fundamental flaws in the council’s decision. We urge the council now to approve as soon as possible the bike lane improvements already designed for section one, and to reverse the cancellation of section three whilst appropriate and available alternative options are properly reviewed.

Some fundamental flaws include:

• For all three sections of the London Road Active Travel Scheme (plus or minus 1-2%), 50% of all respondents to the SCC public engagement survey were in favour of the scheme, way ahead of the 30% against.
• In addition to the backing of the public and Surrey Highways professional staff, all formal consultees engaged also provided their support, including:
  • George Abbot School (2.5k students),
  • Guildford High School (1.5k students),
  • Surrey Coalition of Disabled People/Surrey Vision Action Group,
  • Family Voice (Parent and Carer Forum),
  • Residents of Clockhouse Retirement Home,
  • Emergency Services (South East Coast Ambulance Service, Surrey Fire and Rescue Service, Surrey Police)
  • Stagecoach Bus Company.
• The safety of shared use paths was given as a main reason for the re-review of Section 1. However, despite there being many shared use paths in Surrey, of over 3,630 road traffic collisions in Surrey in 2022 recorded by Surrey Police, only 3 were between pedestrians and cyclists.

• Allow children to cycle to school. Give them the joy of freedom and independence.

• Proximity of children to schools and nurseries – many pupils are in cycling distance and could cycle if it was safe to do so. There are seven schools in the area.

  • George Abbot School 1973 pupils, 2023 intake on distance was 4.2km
  • Burpham Primary School 434 pupils, 2022 intake on distance was 2.2km
  • Boxgrove Primary School 631 pupils, 2022 intake on distance was 3.2km
  • St Peter’s Roman Catholic School 212 pupils
  • Guildford High School approximately 1000 pupils
  • Royal Grammar School
  • Tormead

• There are six nurseries in the area.
  • Peter Rabbit Nursery School ~ 250m
  • Sunshine Nursery ~ 140m
  • Burpham Pre-School ~ 340m
  • Christopher Robin Day Nursery ~ 510m
  • Busy Bees at Guildford ~ 175m
  • Christchurch Pre-School ~ 260m (ref Equalities Impact Assessment)

• Climate change – we need to reduce our carbon footprint. Surrey County Council needs to reduce carbon emissions to deliver on Surrey’s net zero ambition by 2050.  40% of Surrey’s emissions are from vehicles (ref Surrey’s Climate Change Strategy 2020) and this scheme will allow people to swap vehicle journeys for cycling and walking.

• This section is part of a wider route for an off road scheme from the Surrey Research Park to Cobham. The M25 junction 10 scheme is building pedestrian/cycle bridges to fill in the missing link. This could be extended to take the route all the way up to London.

• This section is also part of a network of cycleways planned around Guildford to enable people to use active travel to key destination points in Guildford. London road is identified as a key route in the SCC Guildford Cycling Plan (2015), GBC Guildford Borough Transport Strategy (2017) and GBC Guildford Cycle Route Assessments report (2020) and appendices. The London Road cycleways will link to existing cycle routes along Clay Lane to Jacobs Well and Ladymead to the Science Park.

• Reducing accidents for pedestrians and cyclists. 

• London, Cambridge and Bristol have implemented similar schemes with great success. Guildford can do the same.