FARNHAM’s new socially-distanced town centre, complete with wider pavements and narrower roads in Downing Street and The Borough, has been met with a mixed initial response from retailers, shoppers and motorists.

A team of volunteer town ambassadors have been dispatched, recruited by Farnham Town Council through the Farnham and Villages Coronavirus Helpline group, to advise passers-by and businesses on the changes.

And speaking to the Herald on day one of the new measures on Monday, Hedgehogs helper Paul Sacha said the reaction has been split 50-50 – with many praising the initiative for allowing businesses to reopen safely, while others have rubbished it as a “waste of money”.

Several business owners have also criticised the lack of consultation building up to the pilot scheme, one of two being trialled by Surrey County Council, as well as expressing fears that the single lane of traffic could cause gridlock once greater numbers return to work and schools.

One business owner, John Cronin, of coffee shop Krema in Downing Street, shared with the Herald a letter he had sent to Surrey’s cabinet member for highways Matt Furniss, before the scheme’s introduction.

He said: “I have just seen some pictures on Love Farnham (Facebook page) of the ridiculous solution for social distancing on Downing Street. As a local small business owner, I am furious.

“We have been closed without any income for almost 12 weeks now and this is how the council intends to support us to get back up and running, by squeezing the life out of an already-bottlenecked and dangerous corner.

“The traffic and congestion is already horrific with two lanes, so how do you expect it to function on one lane? And how will local businesses get deliveries?

“This will achieve only one thing – to deter people from visiting Farnham and kill small local businesses looking to recover from coronavirus.

“We will not re-open until this nonsense is reversed and I will be encouraging all local business to do the same.”

Bob Goodridge, owner of Goodridge Menswear in Downing Street, also shared his concerns with the Herald.

He said: “We’ve lost ten weeks of business at a key time of the year, and then to see the pavement widening, and to not even be asked about it... it’s not good.”

Bob added it seemed “okay” at the moment, with little traffic on the road.

But he fears it will be “chaos” in a few weeks’ time.

He did, though, report a “really good” start to trading on Monday, with ten customers coming through his door within the first hour of reopening.

Surrey County Council leader Tim Oliver said Downing Street “has been the subject of much debate” before the trial, but apologised to any businesses who “didn’t feel fully engaged”.

He said: “I think the arrangements in place are the best compromise but I realise this will be frustrating for some businesses.”

Farnham town clerk Iain Lynch added: “Businesses were being engaged through Councillor Michaela Martin, who owns Mulberry Silks in Downing Street, but part of the problem we had was that not many of the business-owners were actually in their shops.

“We did issue a detailed note to every business in the town centre on Friday, but even we didn’t know this was being implemented until last week, as we were still negotiating with Surrey to make sure there were enough crossing points and various other elements, such as the planters, to make it a more attractive scheme.

“There are still one or two elements still to be brought in – some additional signage to deter HGVs from the town centre and a 20mph speed limit.

“But in fairness, Surrey County Council has got 30 of these to do across the county and this was the very first one they’ve done. So there’s a little bit of learning coming about through this.”