Residents 'not informed' of new road bridge

Residents of a housing estate who live near a new road bridge have claimed they were not aware of the works.

The new Chester Bridge in Ash is due to open to traffic on Saturday.

It marks the beginning of the last stage of the £44m Ash Road Bridge scheme and it will be opened to cars and buses first.

Guildford Borough Council (GBC) said this project will provide new crossing across the railway, improve road safety and cut congestion caused by the level crossing.

However, some residents have told BBC Radio Surrey they were not aware of the scheme.

One woman said: "No, no clue at all. No one let us know."

Another resident said: "We didn't know before we moved in there was going to be a main road, I didn't know there was going to be a bus stop outside.

"I'm just really scared because it's going to be busy and I've got two young children."

Another resident said: "I think it will be beneficial for the area, but they need to justify all the money they spent on the bridge.

"Given the public finances at the moment, there are better things to spend."

Councillor Tom Hunt, GBC lead for regeneration, said: "The plans of the bridge have been in the public domain for a long time.

"I sympathise for the residents who might not have known the bridge was coming but planning permission for that estate was predicated on the bridge being there."

A spokesperson for Sovereign Network Group (SNG), which owns the housing estates, explained customers are required to hire an independent solicitor to assess the area prior to purchasing its homes.

"Planning applications are made public and as part of the conveyancing process, a solicitor should carry out local searches to identify any proposed development and highlight any potential impact on their client.

"The plans for this bridge have been in the domain since 2017," they added.

The work on the last phase starts on Monday 10 February and will take about nine weeks.

A Surrey County Council spokesperson said: "It is unfortunate if some residents on Stonehill Road acquiring properties from Bellway Homes Ltd were not made aware that the bridge was going to be built and that their road was going to serve as a through route.

"If private searches were undertaken individuals might not have had this brought to their attention, however all searches that came through Surrey County Council made it clear that the bridge scheme was being planned.

"The road has been designed in accordance with all safety requirements. It is not SCC policy to erect pedestrian barriers in a residential environment such as this."

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