Safer roads for drivers and pedestrians

By Dr. Marcus Jones, chairman, Whyteleafe Village Council

Whyteleafe Village councillors work closely with our district and county councils to improve the safety and utility of our local roads and pavements, particularly in the busiest parts of the village.

The team at Surrey County Council (SCC) Highways, in consultation with the county councillor, has systems in place to gather local input so that they can better judge their workload priorities.

The following summarises the list of priorities that we and others are currently working on:

• Changes to the Godstone Road (A22) in the southern area of Whyteleafe to improve safety and amenity. The highways engineer is looking at potential solutions.
• Safety at the Whyteleafe Hill/Church Road/Hornchurch Hill junction where road markings and new signage has been implemented but we feel it needs further improvements.
• Safety and traffic speed along Hillbury Road around the junction with Westhall Road and the entrance to the recreation ground.

Under Operation Horizon (the Surrey highway maintenance investment programme) there are already a swathe of improvements to local pavements and roads in the pipeline, such as surface dressing the northern stretch of the Godstone Road, and re-surfacing the bottom sections of Tithepit Shaw Lane, Whyteleafe Hill (between the roundabout and the level crossing) and Hillbury Roads (below the railway bridge). Plus surface dressing of the pavements in Station Road via county councillor funding.

You can find SCC’s schedule of planned roadworks here. 

There you’ll find the roadworks map, which shows all scheduled work over a range of periods: e.g. today, next two weeks, next three months etc.

The most efficient way to let SCC know about a highway issue is to report it online. Here you can notify them of potholes and all sorts of other important matters such as road markings, signage, street lighting and traffic lights. Anything you submit will be acknowledged and given a tracking reference number. Of course, if there is a highway emergency you should immediately ring the highways line on 0300 200 1003.

The county council needs the input of everyone to help improve the safety and amenity of our local roads. If you would like to suggest other priorities for us to consider please contact me on cllr.m.jones@whyteleafevillagecouncil.gov.uk, or our clerk, through our website.