Letter: Don’t Tarmac, Keep Our Village a Village

Published on: 14 Aug, 2021
Updated on: 15 Aug, 2021

Dagley Lane: Image Alison Hall.

Cecilia Taylor

Former Shalford candidate in May’s county council election

In response to: ‘Don’t Tarmac Our Beautiful Old Bridleway’, Plead Dagley Lane Campaigners

Shalford Residents were not consulted properly on the Dagley Lane scheme and we have created the Dagley Group to give residents the transparency Surrey County Council have failed to give us.

Cycle groups were consulted in August 2020 which only spurred the project on. In Shalford, all we had was a wonky sign on a post that used Covid as an excuse for not properly consulting.

Cllr Matt Furniss turned up at a Shalford Parish Council meeting waving a wad of cash to improve the lane for cyclists. I’m not sure he revealed it would be tarmac and streetlights.

Everywhere you look on our roads there are potholes: fill them up, don’t create a new lane that will also fall into disrepair.

Our respected local historian has traced the lane back 500 years, she is horrified at the loss of more commonland to urbanisation.

We have messaged all local political leaders, but our MP Angela Richardson and Cllr Furniss, the driving force, are being unusually quiet. A recent tweet from Cllr Furniss said he would only take down trees if they were sick or for safety, the proposals show many trees will ripped down. Are all the earmarked trees sick?

The idea of destroying a beautiful, carbon-reducing, authentic lane for a few cyclists is totally screwed up, we know many cyclists prefer the road.

Keep our village a village.

Responses to Letter: Don’t Tarmac, Keep Our Village a Village

Martin Elliott Reply

August 14, 2021 at 9:37 pm

Cecilia Taylor stood for R4GV in the May county council election. As that isn’t given, does it mean she has dropped the affiliation?

As for the sarcastic mention of Matt Furniss having funds for Shalford, it is noteworthy that Cllr Furniss was elected to represent the Shalford division with 56% of the vote; Cecilia Taylor’s vote was only 23%.

How many people, who’ve had over a year to comment on Dagley Lane developments, are now members of this Dagley Group? Are their wishes, to not improve sustainable travel, supported by R4GV? Was this debated as an issue in the SCC hustings? It is obviously of local interest?

Editor’s comment: Cecilia Taylor is, we understand, no longer a member of R4GV so it was felt attributing that label could have been misleading but perhaps a fuller explanation would have added clarity. Apologies. More generally, we can only state accreditations deemed significant or relevant and known to us.
John Lomas Reply

August 15, 2021 at 9:01 am

I do hope the “carbon-producing” in the last sentence is a typo, surely it should be “carbon-reducing”.

What are the comparable numbers of cyclists and horse riders using this Bridle Way?

There should be a clue in the designation as to its original purpose.

Editor’s note: Thank you for pointing out the error which should have been corrected in the edit. Apologies. It has now been corrected.
Andrew Calladine Reply

August 16, 2021 at 10:06 am

This is a really pathetic letter from Cecilia Taylor, not hard to see why she only got 23% of the vote in the local elections.

Ill thought out, poor logic, smacks of Nimbysm and demonstrates a complete failure to learn lessons from other parts of the UK and other countries, where the message is clear: if you want more people to walk and cycle, provide them with segregated infrastructure away from drivers.

Some current cyclists may prefer the road, but the vast majority of people who want to cycle do not, and that is the main reason why they are not currently cycling.