Traders affected by roadworks in Farnham town centre have pleaded with highway bosses to see the light and make minor alternations to a major bottleneck.

Queues on Downing Street and West Street could ease if timings at the temporary traffic lights were changed and planters on the former removed.

That’s the view of Borelli’s Wine Bar owner, David Quick, and Steve Hamilton of Hamilton’s Tea House with the pair passing on concerns to Gregory Stafford MP during an on-site meeting last Friday.

Mr Quick has discovered the lights stay red for 1.45 minutes but are only green for a minute, with too much priority given to the trickle of traffic heading west from The Borough and the adjusted Castle Street junction.

Mr Quick said: “Everything comes to a halt for a few minutes because the sequencing is horribly wrong.

“A simple thing like resetting the lights could help.”

Mr Stafford repeated the requests to Surrey County Council chiefs and their partners during the Farnham Board meeting last Friday, saying the sequencing is a “real concern” to traders like David and Steve, who are convinced congestion is affecting footfall.

Mr Stafford said: “There is far more traffic trying to come out of Downing Street rather than along The Borough and the sequencing seems to be favourable to the latter.

“I would suggest changing the sequencing for half a week to see how it impacts traffic, because it can’t get any worse at rush hour.”

While plans are afoot to create more pull-in areas on Downing Street to help emergency vehicles, the temporary traffic lights are independent so cannot be sequenced with permanent ones on the gyratory system.

The good news is that Surrey County Council has agreed to turn on the sequencing sooner, but this still won’t happen until spring 2026.