Letter: More Roads Before More Houses

Published on: 7 May, 2016
Updated on: 7 May, 2016

From Clive Handy

In response to: Congestion Is A Major Constraint To The Local Economy

Having just left the immediate area under discussion, I am under no obligation to agree or disagree with the various expressed here.

I now live near Bordon which is subject to major upheaval involving converting former army barracks to housing, upgrading to an sustainable town (downgraded from an “Eco town”) and at the same time building a massive project by-pass (A325) around the town. So the infrastructure to accommodate the new housing is being sorted out.

I question why in common with my good friend and former neighbour John Ferns, Guildford Borough Council (GBC) and Rushmoor Borough Council (RBC) didn’t get together to sort the infrastructure for potentially 10,000 houses in a little over five square miles.

To be fair, RBC have made efforts with improvements to the Holiday Inn roundabout on the A325, but that’s more to do with the Farnborough Air Show than anything else.

But GBC have, with Surrey Highways, done nothing to improve the road network for the extra housing especially in the western end of the borough in Ash/Tongham. The thought of an extra 900 plus houses (probably 1,800 cars) trying to exit The Street in Tongham onto the A31 towards Guildford boggles the mind.

The M25 at peak times would pale into insignificance compared to the queues through Tongham at peak times when all these houses are completed. A by-pass around Tongham is the least that should be considered, perhaps using the dead land parallel to the A331, taking in the old site of the stock-car racing stadium behind Oxenden Road.

I have no axe to grind having moved away but something should be done, and quickly, to address this problem.