Planning Consent Granted for New Access Road
Last night (30th October) Waverley Borough Council’s Joint Planning Committee approved Dunsfold Park’s planning application for a new access road onto the site from the A281.
The new access road will provide a direct link from the A281 to the main Perimeter Road within the aerodrome site. It will be capable of accommodating existing traffic, and is designed to be ‘future proof’ to cater for the phased implementation of the approved outline masterplan. It will also provide a more suitable and safer access for Heavy Goods Vehicles than Stovolds Hill to the north and Dunsfold Road to the south.
As well as vehicular traffic, the new access road will also provide new facilities for cyclists and pedestrians, creating a new link between the existing aerodrome facilities and the surrounding rights of way network. The new access road will be around 0.5km in length, extending from the A281 to the aerodrome Perimeter Road.
Jim McAllister, Dunsfold Park, Chief Executive, comments: “The new road has been designed as a dramatic celebration of Dunsfold Park’s aviation heritage, extending the alignment of the main runway and lining up with the planned Runway Park for the new village. A double avenue of maple trees will commemorate the Royal Canadian Engineers who built the airfield. With consent now granted we anticipate starting work on the road early in the New Year and for it to be complete spring/summer 2020.”
The first phase of the works comprise the roundabout and the majority of the realigned A281 that forms two of the arms of the roundabout. The roundabout has been designed so that it can be built off-line from the A281. This allows the first phase of the works to be built without affecting the A281.
Phase 2 involves (near) simultaneous work on the A281 to punch through onto the new approach arms and allow traffic to leave the existing A281.
Phase 3 then remediates the now unused road and completes the footways, landscaping and farm access extensions. The works will be co-ordinated with Surrey County Council to manage the impact to traffic flows on the A281.
The construction process will take between four to six months to complete, but it is anticipated that disruption to the A281 will be limited to a few weeks, due to the off-line construction phase.