This petition has been created to save the small retailers in Station Parade, East Horsley this Christmas. Following the devastating closures due to Covid last year, including the most important trading weeks in the run up to Christmas, Surrey County Council have authorised road closures that will further damage local businesses again in the Christmas trading period.

SCC Highways’ plans to close Ockham Road North from 29 November to 10 December will have a highly damaging effect on the revenue of local shops at a critical time of year for the survival of these businesses. We estimate that 16 hard-working local retailers will lose £140,000 due to this poorly timed closure, following extremely difficult trading conditions through the pandemic. We have asked that the closure will be deferred until early January, just to give them a chance.

One of the reasons cited by Matt Furniss (SCC Cabinet Member for Transport and Infrastructure) for not being able to delay the road closure until January 2022, when the Christmas trading will be finished and roads will be quieter, was that “we‘ve spoken to the developer and asked if they can re-plan these works to the new year but due to the residents financial and logistical issues, they won’t be able to”. We ask why this is more important than the survival of our local shops, restaurants and cafes.

It is clear that only the financial issues for the developer have been considered, and the financial consequences for each of the businesses directly impacted by the road closure during the busiest month of the year, have not been taken into consideration. Many of the retailers in Station Parade were closed from November 2020 through to April 2021 due to Covid, compounding closures in the spring, and this all had a serious impact on their businesses. The run up to Christmas is the most important trading period and makes a significant contribution to the continuing viability of these shops. To have businesses affected two years running will be catastrophic for your village.

Whilst we understand that delaying the road closure until January may have financial implications for the developers, we asked Surrey County Council why each local Station Parade business should be penalised to the tune of £140,000 for something which has absolutely nothing to do with them, and to date, we have received no response.

We organised a paper petition on Saturday 20th November which was signed by over 800 people, demonstrating the very strong feeling in the village towards the road closure at this time of year. This has also been sent to SCC, but again we have had no response whatsoever.

Please take a moment to sign this online petition to ensure that Surrey County Council understands the impact of this decision on our village, and the ongoing viability of these businesses. We ask them to urgently respond to the concerns of local residents, and small traders who lost so much already due to Covid closures, and delay the road closures by just a few weeks.