I cannot be the only person to be completely dismayed by Surrey County Council leader, Tim Oliver’s column on reducing car use in the Farnham Herald (16 February).

The headline suggests that ‘reducing car use is key to the success of the town centre roads plan’. It’s a promising, if rather obvious, start. But, astonishingly, he then goes on to explain that not only is there no current plan to encourage alternatives to car use but also that there won’t be one in the foreseeable future either. The obvious conclusion, then, is that the town centre road plan is destined to fail.

Councillor Oliver seems completely unperturbed by this and is clearly without any sense of urgency. He is completely vague about when the elements of his much trumpeted 10 year Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan will be delivered.  He does not target a month, a season, or even a year. All he will say is ‘it’s a long journey’, oblivious to the pun.

To add insult to injury, he attempts to take credit for short and medium term interventions, which include upgrades to Borellis Walk and the Hale Trail. These have been touted for donkeys’ years, but once again he offers no timeframe for when work will get underway. If they’re short-term, I dread to think what he thinks long term means. Little wonder that Pete Goodman and his cycling campaign are hopping mad; it’s mañana culture, writ large.

The map accompanying his article is crisscrossed with worthy but meaningless lines which purport to be walking or cycling corridors. But the truth is that these are no more than that – lines on a map drawn by expensive consultants. They’ve not been consulted on.  And, they’re flawed because when they reach the town centre, cyclists and pedestrians alike will have to take their chances on Farnham’s busiest roads, including the one-way system. It’s a deeply unattractive prospect so I am not sure how it is supposed to encourage people to walk or cycle more.

It hardly needs saying that Councillor Oliver says nothing about the other less polluting transport options that Surrey Council claims to prioritise, such as public transport and car-clubs, other than to list them.

It’s time this lackadaisical approach ended.  The plans to support all of the more sustainable means of transport have to be accelerated. They should run in parallel, if not ahead of the town centre roads plan – they shouldn’t be an afterthought. And, we need clear target dates for delivery so that we can hold our politicians and their staff to account. It’s time that we stopped being fobbed off with these long-winded excuses for inaction.