For over 75 years now Surrey County Council and Epsom and Ewell Borough Council have initiated or approved everything that happens in Epsom town centre.

Now with Plan E they are telling us that it doesn't work very well.

Apparently, there are problems with having South Street one-way, so we need to make it two-way again.

The pedestrian crossings are not in the best locations, so they need moving and the pavements need building-out at the Spread Eagle junction.

Never mind that the latter was only done five years ago.

The street clutter needs removing, including the ugly advanced direction road signs adjacent to the Clocktower.

Why were they ever allowed to be put up in the first place? The paving needs upgrading. The road, bus and pedestrian signage need rationalising.

There needs to be better facilities for buses. The taxi rank outside of the Ashley Centre needs re-positioning.

And the bill for all this is £3.3m.

That is not a small sum of money and it seems to me that we shouldn't have to be spending so much money on bringing previously provided infrastructure up to standard.

Considering their previous performance, how do we know that the councils will get it right this time?

Apart from spending some money on removing some of the most obtrusive street clutter, the remainder of the money ought to be put aside to bring forward work that is more likely to reinforce the borough's inadequate road infrastructure.

Dare I mention the Kiln Lane Link, or segregated cycle paths along East Street?

Richard Evans
Epsom Road
Ewell