Earlier this week, Lib Dem campaigner Lance Spencer presented a petition to the Woking Joint Committee calling for action over congestion outside Goldsworth Road’s McDonald’s Drive-through restaurant.

The petition, signed by 727 people, asked for Surrey County Council to review the traffic arrangements in Goldsworth Road at the junction with Poole Road, to prevent the access to McDonald’s causing access problems to homes and businesses, and gridlock to the traffic in that area at busy times.

The Woking Joint Committee heard that the Woking Fire Station and other organisations object to the idea of encouraging cars travelling from Victoria Way to access McDonald’s through Poole Road.

The Committee agreed that Council officials should meet with McDonald’s Manager to review the situation and identify any possible alternative routes to McDonald’s.  The cost of any traffic management measures would not be borne by local taxpayers, but by the restaurant themselves.

Lance Spencer, who is also the Lib Dem County Council candidate for Goldsworth East and Horsell Village, clearly did an amazing job at putting this petition together.  Both him and I were frustrated with the fact that the Council seems unable or unwilling to take action to reduce congestion in Goldsworth Road – their plan seems to hope the problem goes away.

Following questioning during the meeting, it was revealed that although the Council did create a travel plan when the original planning permission was granted, this only applied to staff working at the restaurant and not the customers.