Letter: Sallie Barker’s Election Leaflet Is Incorrect

Published on: 14 Apr, 2021
Updated on: 14 Apr, 2021

From: Annabel Agace

I’m a local town resident who is cross about incorrect claims in a Conservative election flyer.

Ms Sallie Barker is standing as county councillor for Guildford South West. In the literature she put out last weekend, she claims that in my area the new 20 mph zone is only Markenfield Road and suggests the “current councillor” overlooked the other roads.

But this is not the case. The Guildford Joint Committee meeting on July 1, 2020 agreed:

“A 20mph speed limit is implemented on Gardner Road, Road, Nettles Terrace, Dapdune Road, Park Road, Drummond Road, George Road, Artillery Terrace, Artillery Road, Stoke Fields, Stoke Grove and Church Road to support safer walking and cycling along the ‘Guildford College Link+; route and throughout the adjoining neighbourhood of residential roads.”

Our retired Lib Dem councillor, Caroline Reeves, pushed for this for years. Eventually, it happened, mainly because the county council eventually saw sense and did not require speed bumps, and the Guildford College Link (cycle route) gave added benefits, or so I infer from published material.

Ms Barker lives locally and should be better informed. In any event, her party colleague, Matt Furniss (SCC, Con, Shalford) lives on one of the designated roads and he is the SCC lead for Highways.

I especially don’t like Ms Barker’s comment that other roads are not included because the “current councillor” overlooked them. Ms Reeves, our excellent former borough councillor did not overlook other roads and was brilliant in helping make the 20mph limit happen.

Is it too much to expect election flyers to be truthful?

Sallie Barker’s election leaflet

Sallie Barker responded

I was delighted with the response I received from residents to my petition to extend the 20mph speed limit from the current route of the College Link+cycle between the Station and College to include Recreation, Stocton and Joseph’s Roads.

Within 24 hours I received double the number of signatures required for SCC to discuss the petition and this number is still growing. As a result, on June 30, SCC will consider the petition and, hopefully, extend the 20mph speed limit. The residents I spoke to yesterday are pleased with this progress and are keen to support me to ensure this happens.

Ms Agace is right when she says that the Joint Committee agreed the roads surrounding Markenfield Road were included in the scheme, however, I am referring to the ‘nearby roads’ that were not – Recreation, Stockton and Joseph’s Roads.

These were included in the report to the Committee but sadly when the decision was being made, none of the local councillors raised extending the scheme specifically to these roads, hence my use of the term ‘overlooked’. A recording of the meeting is available.

My election flyer is truthful and my key intention is to do something positive to help my local community, namely to reduce the speed limits on Recreation, Stocton and Joseph’s Roads.