Leatherhead AHEAD: Archives: Countdown to 'death of the town': 2002

Countdown to 'death of the town'
by Rob Ditcham and Beth McLoughlin
Leatherhead Advertiser 2002

The bustling town shown in the picture is little more than a fond memory for many Leatherhead residents.

It is a town packed with busy shops, with crowded pavements and, more importantly, with a traffic-filled High Street. The new campaign group Leatherhead Ahead is committed to restoring a currently pedestrianised town to this scene from 1965*. But the group, which includes local residents and traders, highlights a major obstacle to its ultimate aim - the proposed new water feature which is just 11 days away from being started.

Through traffic: Leatherhead High Street in 1965

Although it has been told the development is aimed at improving access to the High Street for wheelchair-bound people and as a sensory feature, campaigners believe it will lead to the ultimate death of the town. They claim the only way to breathe fresh life into Leatherhead and attract more shops and leisure facilities is to allow traffic to flow between High Street, Bridge Street, North Street and Church Street.

Local resident and campaign member Lin Friedstad said: "The town was built on the crossroads in the centre of the town. They are the arteries which feed the heart and they must be allowed to flow again." Peter Austin, owner of High Street furniture shop Pimms, added: "When the water feature is in place that will be the end of Leatherhead. The only way the town can be saved is if the crossroads are reopened to traffic. We thought this would happen when the Clock Tower was removed but now another obstacle is being put there. The main thing a town needs is access. People must be able to get into a town or it dies. Since Leatherhead was pedestrianised, 80 shops have left the town."

Mr Austin admitted the road is narrow but said Bookham High Street is wide enough for one-way traffic so Leatherhead should be as well. A 1997 survey prepared for town traders, many of whom are now part of Leatherhead Ahead, concluded that local residents wanted more car parking spaces, lower parking charges and easier access to the town centre. Parker Tanner, the market research consultants which carried out the survey, came to this conclusion after discovering that 84 per cent of those questioned used their cars when travelling to the town centre.

Leatherhead Ahead campaigners also highlighted a document produced in 1994 called the Mole Valley Local Plan Consultation Draft, which outlined highways options for Leatherhead. The document said the exclusion of traffic from Church Street and High Street were seen to reduce the level of activity in the town centre and public awareness of its shopping facilities. Councillor Hubert Carr (Lib Dem, Leatherhead North) argued in favour of a pedestrianised High Street but said it must be complemented by good access and parking around it.

Councillor Rosemary Dickson (Con, Leatherhead South) said she had been in favour of reopening the road to traffic but was told by highways experts at Surrey County Council that this would reduce road safety. Even Sir Paul Beresford campaigned for an end to pedestrianisation when he first became Mole Valley's MP, while town centre manager Peter Stait admitted that the town is paying the price for what happened in the 1980s.

But they stressed that the main voice when the decision over pedestrianisation was taken was in favour of banning traffic from the High Street. And they maintain people's views on the water feature and traffic in the High Street should have been clearer during the official phase two consultation period in 1999.

* In fact we have never supported the reintroduction of two-way traffic in the High Street, but do favour time limited one way access to the High Street, with short stay parking slots clearly marked and the ‘highway’ clearly delineated throughout, as a means of improving parking and access, and visibility of the shopping area.