BELDAM BRIDGE ROAD Speed Calming

I instigated a speed survey for Beldam Bridge Road after resident feedback from Kings Road and Beldam Bridge Gardens new estates. Some 228 residents signed a petition to implement speed calming at the junctions off of and into Beldam Bridge Road. Reduced visibility when exiting from Beldam Bridge Gardens, tail gating when coming out of Beldam Bridge Gardens or Kings Road by traffic on Beldam Bridge Road, and hazardous pedestrian crossing at the Kings Road junction are safety concerns. Parents are encouraged to walk their children to Holy Trinity School from Kings Road estates and the existing route could be made much safer with speed calming. The existing footway from Kings Road towards the school is narrow and uneven, and passing traffic is very close to pedestrians. This also affects people with mobility devices.

The speed survey revealed a significant amount of commercial traffic, even HGV's although the road being unsuitable for HGV. The speed limit for Beldam Bridge Road into the village is 30 mph and the survey recorded 37 mph for 85% of traffic. The remaing 15% recorded as up to 50 mph. If you remember the road safety campaign stating that people hit by a vehicle at 30 mph may not be fatal, but at 40 mph will likely be fatal. It doesnt need a scientist to deduce some enforced speed calming is needed.

So why has'n't the Highways authority implemented speed calming already? Well the 30 mph start point has been moved further down Beldam Bridge Road with village gateway posts, unfortunately this has had marginal effect. The Highways criteria for implementing meaningful speed calming is reactive, not preventative. This means someone has to die or suffer life changing injuries , or recorded accidents to invoke accident prevention risk . Near misses or unrecorded accidents don't count.

Even with compelling reasons to implement speed calming the Highways Authority stated there is no money available and road improvement schemes in other places are more important.

In my opinion speed calming should have been designed in when the new estates were planned, but this did not happen due to technicalities in the planning process, common sense did not prevail. In regard to money the funds for improvements supporting development were available through Community Infrastructure Levy but Surrey Heath Borough Council rejected the application for speed calming as not supportable unless a priority for Highways Authority, and I have explained how something becomes a priority above.

What is Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)? Its a tax on developers to fund improvements that support new development impacts. The bulk of this money ultimately came from sale of houses on the new estate, residents money, but the Borough Council wants to decide how and where 80% of it is spent. We are talking hundreds of thousands of pounds. The original CIL Policy at Surrey Heath provided for 15-25% of collected CIL to be spent in the Ward accomodating development but his is not enough to facilitate needs of some 1000 new residents in West End as an example.

During my term as a Borough Councilor I got the policy changed to a fairer distrubition of funds, this new policy gained cross party support and was adopted. It meant up to 45% of collected funds could be spent on justifiable improvements unless good reason to deny the proposed improvement. This reduced the potential of political interference in allocation of money.

In 2023 the new Liberal Council immediately sought to revert to the old polcy, denying preferential access to up to 45% of collected CIL funds to any Ward where the funds came from that had experienced significant development in particular. To add insult to injury the new estates are paying hundreds of thousands of pounds in council tax of which the majority goes to the County Council of which Highways is under their control.