Surrey County Council have published a list of projects under the heading ‘Travel Smart Delivery- Proposed Programme for Woking 2012/13’. One project is to create bus/cycle interchange with shelter and storage.  The enhanced bus stop will have CCTV, RTPI display, audio bus information, wayfinder information and solar power. The site chosen by SCC for a pilot project is close to the junction of Redding Way at the Vyne Health Centre.

There is no argument with the idea but the KRA question the proposed location. The roundabout at the Vyne Health Centre must be one of the worst for buses as they manoeuvre their way from Redding Way into the Broadway. The corners are so tight two buses cannot pass each other at the junction. There is also a proposed development on the corner of the Broadway at the Vyne, a developer has been granted permission to build 10 houses on the site and there is an application from the Alpha hospital group to build a new unit on the Redding Way with vehicle access via Barton Close. Both these devlopments will add to the traffic flow in that area of the village.

The report from SCC states that the exact location and specification is now being finalised in consultation with key stakeholders. The question is who are the ‘key stakeholders’?  Clearly not the local Councillors as they know no more than what has been published in the report quoted above.  The term ‘key stakeholders’ does not appear to include the residents who live close to the Broadway/Redding Way junction, so who does it include? We are trying to find out.

A related item, as reported elsewhere on the KRA web the extension to Sainsbury’s in Redding Way has now been given the go ahead. One of the conditions imposed on Sainsbury’s is the relocation of the bus stop that sits in the middle of the car park. The conditions require Sainsbury’s to provide a bus shelter incorporating poles, flags and timetable cases; Seating and an area for passengers in wheelchairs to wait; Lighting and CCTV cameras; Real Time Passenger Information (RTPI) shelter display. Sainsbury’s have also to provide additional cycle parking.

The above sounds like a bus/cycle hub, is there a requirement for two such hubs in Knaphill?

Phil Stubbs