A320 North of Woking improvements

In April 2014, the Council commenced work on the production of the evidence base which would ultimately underpin the Runnymede 2030 Local Plan. The main evidence gathering period continued up until 2018, when the Local Plan was submitted to the Secretary of State for Examination in the July.

Part of the evidence produced to underpin the Local Plan related to transport matters; with the potential impacts of the quantum and distribution of housing and other types of development over the Plan period (up to 2030) on the highway network being assessed (both in and surrounding Runnymede). The transport evidence developed sought to establish whether the growth proposed could be satisfactorily accommodated, including potentially with mitigation.

The evidence gathered showed that by and large the existing road network in Runnymede could accommodate development from the residential and commercial sites proposed. However, the transport evidence also indicated a number of ‘hotspots’ where additional stress on the network was likely to result in driver delays and where mitigation was required. In particular, the evidence confirmed that some of the Plan’s proposed site allocations had the potential to cause a severe traffic impact on the A320 without any mitigation.

The A320 is a key road corridor connecting Staines upon Thames and Guildford, running through Chertsey and Ottershaw in the Borough of Runnymede. In particular, the A320 runs past St. Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey which serves the Woking, Weybridge, Chertsey, Staines and Walton on Thames area and benefits from a major accident and emergency department. Just beyond the hospital, and also on the A320 corridor is the Chertsey (Ottershaw) Ambulance Station. The A320 is thus a strategic corridor for vehicle movements within the Borough and additionally provides essential local access to the M25 at junction 11 via St Peters Way East.

It was therefore of vital importance that movement along this corridor would be maintained as allocated local plan sites started to be delivered, and hence, when it became apparent that mitigation along the A320 corridor within Runnymede would be required, the Council, working collaboratively with Surrey County Council, National Highways and other partner local authorities, proceeded to develop a scheme of potential mitigation.

It was concluded that without this mitigation, the Runnymede 2030 Local Plan was highly unlikely to be found sound at its Examination, and the Council would be unable to adopt it. This is because approximately 50% of the Local Plan’s housing target was reliant on highway improvements being made along the A320. If the plan was found unsound, the knock-on effects were assessed to be possible Government intervention and a heightened risk of a loss of local control in terms of where development would come forward in the borough (for example with speculative developments potentially being granted on appeal).