A PAVEMENT widening project to allow for social distancing is starting to take shape in Farnham town centre, in preparation for the government’s planned re-opening of non-essential shops on Monday, June 15.

Farnham Town Council has this week proposed an alternative to Surrey County Council’s barrier-heavy approach, offering to instead separate traffic from pedestrians using colourful planters as an extension of Farnham In Bloom.

However, with a fixed plan for the town yet to be settled on, the Farnham Cycle Campaign has warned this week that if none of the new space allocated for pedestrians is shared with cyclists, then push bikes will instead be forced to share the newly-narrowed single lanes in Downing Street and The Borough.

Peter Goodman, of the campaign group, said: “This would mean car traffic will not have room to overtake and the line of car traffic will move at the speed of the slowest bike, which is typically no more than 10mph.

“Car drivers have previously been able to travel at 30mph in the centre and we believe that the drop to 10mph or below will come as quite a surprise to many and widespread road congestion is expected, which isn’t ideal for encouraging our valuable shoppers back into town.”

Farnham Cycle Campaign claims to have looked at detailed measurements of the narrowest streets and believe that, apart from the very top of Downing Street, there is enough width for a single car lane, a 2.4m pavement on one side and a slightly wider shared pedestrian/cycle lane on the other side of the road.

“Even on The Borough this should be possible,” added Mr Goodman.

“This type of shared pedestrian lane is common in places like Bordon, where Hampshire County Council announced a further extension of their existing shared cycle/pedestrian space only last week.

“The Farnham Cycle Campaign believes that a one-way shared space complete with a cycle speed limit would free up the roads for motorised vehicles, reducing the congestion.

“Surveys by Google’s WAZE app have shown countries that have the most segregated cycle tracks also have the ‘most satisfied’ car drivers.

“The reduced traffic levels have allowed cyclists to cautiously venture back on to the streets which were dominated by cars and lorries before the lockdown. And none of their silent journeys has added to Farnham’s air or noise pollution.

“But it remains to be seen how many of them will climb back into their cars rather than compete for the even tighter road space in future.”