2022 Nov SCC HIgh Street Proposals Cranleigh A4 poster
Surrey County Council is proposing to make improvements to Cranleigh High Street to improve road safety and enhance public spaces.
Come along to Cranleigh Library from Tuesday 1 November to Tuesday 8 November to view the proposals. The library is open 9.30am to 5pm Tuesday to Saturday. n.b. the display will be removed between 10 and 11 on Tuesday 8th!
The Surrey County Council project team will be present to answer your questions and listen to your feedback on the following dates: Tuesday 1 November – 11am to 4pm
Thursday 3 November – 3pm to 6.45pm
Saturday 5 November – 10am to 12.30pm
Follow the QR code or visit here to view the proposals and answer the survey online
Cranleigh Village
Improvements
Think there are some excellent ideas in all parts of the scheme and hope to see them fully implemented. I imagine there will be the usual howls of anguish by the parking obsessives who are allergic to walking and paying for their parking.
Scheme seems to have the environment and people firmly in mind – great.
Philippa Whittingham says To remove the parking spaces and little road in front of the post office is not a good idea.
It’s a Godsend for so many people, the elderly and disabled, those who want to just send a parcel or post a letter or get a pint of milk etc etc. I certainly wouldn’t use the post office if it was going to cost me 80p in parking.
I understand the need to improve the flow of traffic but these proposals will simply take business away. The little shops, which are becoming more and more rare, depend on people “popping in” for this and that and Cranleigh currently is one of the few villages where you can do that.
For the village to thrive you need to provide more parking for the hundreds if not thousands more in the new houses. Cranleigh needs a short stay car park at say 50p and another larger one.
I wish to question the need to spend so much money on changes to our high street. We have a special resource which needs to be improved and that is the Downs Link. Elsewhere in the country these ex-railway lines are used for commutes, recreation for families and to encourage residents to travel into towns by bike and not by car. The Downs Link has this potential but the surface in both directions from Cranleigh is poor and in winter verges on the impassable. Improvements to the Link would provide all of the benefits referred to above as well as encouraging fitness and the development of picnic and coffee stops along the route. Finally I wish to comment upon your current plans to remove parking in front of the post office and elsewhere in the village. Short term parking is vital for businesses and convenience, to imagine that it’s removal will not have a detrimental effect on the High Street because people will park, pay for the privelege and walk to complete a simple task such as posting a parcel or collecting a take away is completely wrong.
Addressing the mess around Sainsbury’s is a good idea but the changes to the high street parking must be opposed. It is so important for our high street for people to be able to make short trips to the shops or post office without having to pay to park, walk to the high street and then walk back again. As I said on Nextdoor, I will simply drive on to Shamley Green and I won’t be the only one.
These proposals will reduce our quality of life and be highly damaging to the shops on the high street.
I urge all that oppose these changes to complete the survey.
Rob on November 6, 2022 at 8:50 pm (Edit)
Very little positive of these proposals-it smacks of money being thrown at ideas which are ill-thought, when it could be used to promote businesses in the High St by ? reducing rates.
1. Traffic congestion will always be present, unless it is diverted to nearby country roads causing congestion there. Not helped by excessive building.
2. Flooding on roads -drainage needs improvement and new building needs to be curtailed, as we are high water table anyway!
3. Cycle paths ok but not possible down the whole length of High St, otherwise more traffic congestion.
4. Plants and trees ample unless you want to block views and compartmentalise areas off-plants and shrubs etc need maintenance!
5. There are enough outdoor eating and drinking venues[ summer], and not applicable for 4-5 months in the winter.
6. If pavements are widened, the road would be further narrowed, parking spaces reduced[ eg. disabled], further increasing congestion–see Farnham.
7. If no bus laybys, traffic would be held up. If no free parking or parking unavailable for “pop-ins”, local businesses would be affected, thereby impacting retailers. Shoppers will not pay parking fees for casual , quick items.
Suggestions-
1. Improve EXISTING pavements, but not expand them
2. More cycle stands [ no need for sheds].
3. Work on filling empty units in High St to keep it alive
ALL at a fraction of the cost.
Comment-
1. I would contest the percentage parking capacities’ quotes-what time of day were they assessed? and what happens when the new Leisure Centre is built?
2. Interested to see the research saying that 65% of population happy with these plans!!!
To create a healthy high street we need to attract more businesses and make them all accessible to the majority of Cranleigh residents. To narrow the existing road and to remove parking bays suggests the intention is the opposite. The buses can park without causing traffic holdups and passengers can use them safely . These proposals seem to be an excercise in changing what is ,at present , perfectly suitable for the village. Improvements can be made, certainly, but these plans are completely unsuitable in their present form.