Many moons ago, the various tiers of local government set out to draft Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans (LCWIP) for Surrey including one for Farnham. A bid would be made to the Department for Transport – among others – to fund it.

At the outset, the Farnham Cycle Campaign submitted a series of ‘desire lines’ for cycle tracks in Farnham, drawing on their experience and local knowledge. They aimed for convenient and safe routes to encourage more people to cycle around the town. 

Further work was then done by the consultants at Atkins and a number of workshops held with local stakeholders.

In the meantime the councils published and consulted on their Farnham Infrastructure Plan (FIP).

But, barring a few cycle racks and advanced stop lines, the FIP contained no significant cycling infrastructure whatsoever.

When this inconsistency was pointed out, Surrey County Council said they would circulate the draft LCWIP in October 2022.

However, they have now postponed this to an unspecified date in 2023 and refused a Freedom of Information request for details.

So, the following maps show what we know so far.

We need to be ready with our own ideas as soon as we can. Please email your comments, ideas or suggestions to farnhamcyclist@outlook.com.

• Take a look at the maps

You can see three maps here or below.  Each has coloured lines showing potential cycle routes in and out of the town centre.  They’re a good start but not great – you will see that we have annotated the town centre map with our comments.
If these prove to be the suggested LCWIP routes, what do you think of them?  How could they be improved?  And, how do we make them high quality, such that young or inexperienced cyclists will use them? Let us have your views as we will need to respond quickly as the LCWIP takes shape.

• Sign up now

We have a large number of supporters.  But it’s vital that we build a broad coalition of support for proper investment in cycling infrastructure.  So, think about your friends, family and colleagues and ask them to subscribe to our mailing list.  Sign them up here or email farnhamcyclist@outlook.com.