Onslow bus service safe under Surrey proposals

The number 18 Onslow circular bus service is safe under proposals published by Surrey county council following a review intended to save £2 million across Surrey. This follows a consultation where Onslow residents wrote in to make the case for the importance of the number 18 bus service to our community.

The proposals produced by Surrey county council will now go out to a second consultation but no changes are proposed to bus services affecting Onslow directly. You can read the proposals here and you can find out how to respond to them here.

Commenting on the news, local Onslow Liberal Democrat campaigner George Potter said:

“This is very welcome news. Since the number 18 bus is subsidised by the county council there was a real worry it could have been hit by the planned £2 million of cuts to the transport budget but under these proposals it’s safe for at least the next financial year.

“It is disappointing that there are no improvements proposed to the number 18 route – such as more buses at times of day when people might need to use it to get to work or a Sunday service – but these are things we can try and lobby for in the future.

“For now everyone in Onslow who responded to the consultation deserves a big thank you for helping to keep our bus service – especially Onslow Village Residents Association who did a lot of work to encourage people to respond to the consultation.”

 

167 years to repair Surrey’s footways

Figures revealed recently have shown that one third of all footways in Surrey are “functionally or structurally impaired” yet, at the Conservative-run county council’s rate of progress, it will take 167 years to repair them all.

The revelation came following a question from Lib Dem county councillor Stephen Cooksey whose written question received an answer admitting that Surrey County Council plans to repair just 10.4 km (or 0.6%) of footways this financial year out of the 4,933 km of footways that it’s responsible for.

A 0.6% repair rate would of cause work out as taking 167 years to repair all the footways in the county (by which time many would obviously need repairing again).

I’m all for making sure that we spend enough on roads and cycle paths but it would be nice if pedestrians were kept in mind by Surrey county too – many footpaths in Guildford are becoming actively dangerous for those who are infirm and near impassable to those in wheelchairs or with pushchairs.