Warlingham Parish Council has had to postpone the start of the construction phase of The Green Improvement Project for possibly six months, due to circumstances beyond its control.
It had been planned to begin construction in January, but pricing uncertainty in the building industry and the complexities of implementing the scheme mean the final costs have not been agreed between Surrey County Council Highways, which is undertaking the work on behalf of the Parish Council, and its main contractor. This means that work is more likely to start at the beginning of the school summer holidays in 2025.
Phase one of the project principally entails the paving of the south (Tesco) and west (Village News) sides of The Green with Yorkstone, which, for a project of this size, is only quarried once a firm order has been placed, so the lead time is many weeks.
The Parish Council is keen to ensure that the construction, which would take up to three months, causes as little disruption to motorists and traders as possible which is why the original start time, and the alternative, were chosen.
Depending on the final, updated costing, it will be decided whether phase one of the project will be completed in one go or split into two. If the latter is the case, the south pavement, a new path on The Green itself and pedestrian build outs to aid crossing to the north side, will be the first works to be completed as the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) grants that have already been obtained should be sufficient to cover this work. It is not certain that this CIL money will also cover the cost of the west side pavement, so this may have to wait until further funds can be obtained towards the end of next year.
The traffic management that will be needed during construction is going to create disruption and so we are discussing with Surrey Highways how best to keep this to a minimum. Options being considered include possible night working, diversions where practical and temporary traffic lights. Once we have more details we will issue further news as soon as possible.