Spelthorne Partnership Assembly Questions for County Councillors

Resident of Ashford

Question

1.      Given that Surrey County Council palpably broke their own 'bottom up' rules in the development of recent parking plans will County Councillors seek to put the whole consultation issue 'on hold' until independent and authoritative legal opinion has been sought and published?

Response

As previously explained to Mr X , Surrey County Council (SCC) is allowed to propose parking schemes on the public highway as the highway authority.   The proposed paid parking scheme for Ashford Town Centre is following the required legal and approval procedures required and we are currently seeking feedback from the wider community on these proposals before making a final decision on how to proceed with them. 

Question

2.      Do county councillors agree that prima facie the current 'two hat' arrangement by which some county councillors are also borough councillors is unsustainable given the heavy load of work both positions involve?

Response

This is for each Cllr to decide whether they have the capacity in order to fulfil both roles.

Question

3.      Given the demise of ANRA (Ashford North Residents Association) are councillors able to help financially with establishing a (much needed) Ashford Residents Association to tackle the numerous urgent issues facing the community?

Response

Cllr Sexton has spoken to the former representatives of ANRA. They are looking for a new chair/committee members. Action - Cllr Sexton will update at the next meeting.

Littleton Common Residents' Association)

Question

4.      I am sure we would not be alone in asking about the extremely poor standard of grass cutting / verge & carriageway management that has been experienced throughout Spelthorne since the contract was taken back into County Council control.

Response

Surrey County Councillors have been working hard to try and resolve these issues.

Councillor Sexton received an email from Surrey 23/08/24 regarding the poor standards in the whole of Spelthorne. The response is as follows:

Thank you for contacting us. The inclement weather earlier in the year has had a severe impact in relation to grass cutting across the county and beyond, and in addition we have been struggling with an abnormally high growth rate of grass this year. We did take the decision to increase resource in Spelthorne as the delays were having a negative impact on the service and we now have multiple teams in the area catching up and hopefully making improvements to the service delivery. Most of the urban highway verges have now received 3 or 4 cuts this year, dependant on the electoral division. The rural verges will be getting their second cut shortly.

Sign up to 'Your Highways Update' to stay up to date with highways information for your local area.

Kind regards,
Maintenance Team (Environmental)
Surrey Highways and Transport
 

Action - All residents are asked to report concerns. County Cllrs will continue to monitor and report problems to SCC.

Ashford Resident

Question

5.      I would like to ask a question regarding Cyclists E Scooters and Electric bikes riding up and down Staines High Street. This is causing safety problems for pedestrians. Could signs be erected to prevent this? There is one that says `pedestrian zone no vehicles'. Law Enforcement officers should intervene.

Response

This was initially forwarded to Spelthorne Borough Council (SBC) Neighbourhood Services team.  SBC manage the High Street on behalf of Surrey CC.

Surrey CC issue the traffic order, as it is still a highway. This question has been forwarded to Surrey County Council officers and we have asked for the details of the traffic order. Action - Cllr Mooney to ask SCC Highways to provide details of the traffic order/provide further information on the situation.