I promise, really, really promise that this is the last post on the Ambleside Road rebuild [….he hopes so].
Having yesterday driven down Ambleside Road, I’m pleased to report that it’s open, and the surface is a major improvement on what went before.
It’s highlighted to me, and no doubt to many other residents, the poor state of other roads in Lightwater, notably Macdonald Road. The clamour increases for rebuilding it too.
Surrey County Council’s parking team has reviewed on-street parking in Surrey Heath. Their proposals are presented to the Surrey Heath Local Committee, who will decide on their adoption. Prior to the next committee meeting on Thursday, 4 October 2018 at 7.00 pm, venue to be announced, there’s a public consultation about the proposals which concludes on the 12th September. The review identified changes which would benefit road safety and reduce instances of obstruction and localised congestion.
The proposals can be viewed HERE, and your comments can be submitted online HERE.
I’m aware of many of the pressures in on street parking in the borough, obviously in Lightwater, but also in Bagshot. Councillors have been particularly vocal in most of the proposals, pressing for parking restrictions in Lorry Ridge, Bagshot, and Lightwater Road in Lightwater. Of all the maps in the review, I’ve selected one for Lightwater, which shows the Lightwater Road proposed restrictions, about which the parking team say,
From the roundabout junction with Guildford Road to the junction with Derwent Road, introduce double yellow lines on both sides of the street to maintain traffic flow and sightlines for through traffic, particularly on the bend in the vicinity of the Lakeview Care Home, which has resulted in a number of complaints from members of the public with regards to traffic flow and sightline obstruction. The long extent of the proposed double yellow lines is to manage displacement of these parked vehicles, to ensure that they do not simply move to another more hazardous part of Lightwater Road. The displacement of these vehicles will need to be monitored following installation of the restrictions.
This may well be my last article on the rebuilding of Ambleside Road in Lightwater, for in my visits on Tuesday and Wednesday this week I’ve noted significant progress.
On Tuesday I took photos of the base layer middle part of Ambleside Road that was nowhere near as bad as upper part, which I noted had been prepared for it’s final layer of tarmac.
I also spent time chatting to one of the supervisors while the road gang were awaiting the arrival of tarmac. In the conversation he said he’d been in the team that resurfaced the road three years ago, and knew that the surface wouldn’t last long as they’d found the underlying surface was so poor.
He told me that in the rebuilding of the road in parts they’d dug down 450mm to find a solid surface, and also that the finished road surface would have 150mm of tarmac.
Yesterday, I walked along the road and a couple of the photos show the excellent result of their work. I imagine the final shortish stretch of road will be completed in a few days, and so the saga may come to and end. Along with a resident who joined our conversation, we thought vehicles would speed on the new surface, and before long there’d be road humps.
Another walk by the roadworks in Ambleside Road today to discover the progress made.
Some progress made in creating the base layers for the road, although undoubtedly not enough for the residents unable to exit their drives.
I did spot two houses with small streams leading to the road, though those streams are not the sole cause of the roadworks. That is simply that the road has never been upgraded from the heathland track that it was. A couple of photos for your perusal.
It’s been a few days since I last saw the ongoing work to rebuild Ambleside Road. There’s been progress, though from my photos it looks like there’s quite a bit more to do. Here are my photos of my visit late yesterday afternoon.
I’ve been much involved of late in preparing a short talk, along with my chum Reg Davis, about our work on renovating milestones in the borough.
It’s quite taken over my life, causing me to make errors in blog posts. Normally, it’s not a problem for me to prepare a talk. This talk is, however, to my peer group of wise and learned old gents of the Camberley and District Probus Club, and that’s pressure.
My part of our joint talk is more about the history of milestones and such. To lighten my talk I found this story of stagecoach travel along the A30 from Bagshot to Hartford Bridge. Here’s a view of the A30 in early 1900’s near where Blackbushe Airfield is now, and a print of two stagecoaches passing one another on this stretch of road. [Click on images to expand.] The print of the stagecoaches is important to note in the story.
Taken from ‘The Exeter Road’ by Charles Harper, 1899, and in The Camberley News 23rd November, 1990
An old passenger travelling from London to Exeter, having had an uncomfortable coach ride, quits the coach at Bagshot, congratulating himself on being safe and sound.
Approaching a waiter he says, “Pray sir, have you any slow coach down this way today.” A slow coach covers 8 miles in an hour. The waiter replied, “Why, yes sir, we have The Regulator down in an hour.”
He has breakfast, and at the appointed time the coach arrives. The waiter announces that The Regulator is full inside and in front. “But, sir”, he says, “You’ll have the hind dickey all to yourself, and your luggage in the hind boot.”
The old gentleman passenger again congratulates himself, prematurely, for they about to enter Hartford Bridge Flats, having the reputation of the best the best five miles for a coach in all of England. The Coachman ‘springs’ his horses, and they break into a gallop which does those five miles in 23 minutes.
The coach being heavily laden forward, rolled in a manner which it is quite impossible to find a simile, and the passenger utterly gives himself up for gone.
In the midst of its best gallops, halfway across the Flats, The Regulator meets the coachman of The Comet coming the other way, whose coachman has a full view of passenger in the hind dickey and describes his situation thus, “He was seated with his back to the horses, his arms extended to each extremity of the guard rails, his teeth set as grim as death – his eyes cast down toward the ground, thinking the less he saw of his danger the better.”
In this state the old gentleman arrived at Hartford Bridge, where he exclaimed he’ll walk to Devonshire.
Regular readers may recall my endeavours to get demolished road signs replaced on the ‘S’ bends on Red Road in Lightwater. That was all back in 2011.
Since then while there have been accidents of one sort and another on Red Road, the traffic warning signs have, to my knowledge, remained intact.
In passing through the ‘S’ bends the other day, I noticed that some have been demolished. Yours truly had to go and see the damage. I think a 50 mph speed warning sign, and a directional arrow sign have been demolished.
I wonder if it’s time for me to remind County Highways to repair the damage. There’s Surrey Heath Local Committee meeting in Bisley on Thursday 12th April.
Oops… thanks Ruth, have corrected the date – Thursday April 12th.
