Surrey Heath Local Committee mtg: Thu 3rd July: Follow up (26th Aug)

Nicola (Surrey Heath Local committee) responded with minutes from the July 3rd meeting:

Tue 19th Aug  (from: nicola.thorntonbryar@surreycc.gov.uk)

The minutes are completed and are attached.

I have posted these onto our website - but there is a problem at the moment as none of our local committee papers are being displayed - IT are looking to resolve the problem.

I have been in touch with both Andrew Milne and the Countryside access team, to chase up the report and costings, which we can then discuss at our next Committee meeting on 3rd October.  If the committee agree that funding this work is a priority for them, then it will need to be funded from the 2015/16 highways budget...

The links to the meeting minutes are below. I can't see Annex B (where committee responded to my question), so I've had to share it out below:
 - All Surrey Heath Meetings Minutes
 - 3 Jul 2014 6.30 pm - Agenda, Decisions, Draft Minutes
  - Annex B (response from committee)

My original question to the committee, and their response is repeated below:

Q. Written question from Mr Jon McClelland, Local Resident

The Hatches path, officially referred to as Bridleway BW19 by the Countryside Access Team, is long overdue maintenance. The path is overgrown on each side and is now a narrow strip of tarmac, much of which is badly potholed. In winter the path is muddy and flooded making it very difficult for pedestrians & cyclists to navigate.

Many people would like to see the path properly tarmacked across the full width of the path (approx 7-9 feet) and treated as a "Shared Use route for Pedestrians & Cyclists". I have started a blog and petition to raise awareness of this, which has 89 signatures to date. I expect more signatures as conditions get worse in the autumn.

Blog: http://thehatchespath.blogspot.co.uk/

Petition: http://petitions.surreycc.gov.uk/TheHatches/

I have been in correspondence with Luke Dawson of the Countryside Access Team who has visited the path and confirmed it needs maintenance work carried out. He has requested funds "from a bigger pot" to fund improvement works but was unsuccessful this year. He has investigated interim solutions to fix the worst of the potholes and improve drainage. He also suggested "a scrape of the surface mud to allow the full available width". I noticed this was done recently (by Mon 23rd June) but this has only cleared the existing 4 foot wide path. Potholes still need to be fixed and drainage improved.

My blog has full details of my discussions with the Countryside Access Team and sustrans. I will also update with the committee's feedback. Thank you for your time".

The question:

Can the committee help the Countryside Access Team with funding to upgrade the path properly to a Shared use route for Pedestrians & Cyclists?

A.    Response from Chairman on behalf of the Committee:

The Countryside access team have been working with Mr McClelland on this issue and initial remedial work has taken place as mentioned above.  The team are working with Highways officers and the cycle strategy group to provide options and costings for the committee to consider. 

A report will be produced for the next meeting.

The next meeting is on Thu 2nd Oct so we'll hopefully have some interesting feedback from the Countryside Access Team by then.