High Street traffic ban and improvements to Crown Court considered in new town centre strategy

Godalming High Street could be permanently pedestrianised, and the area around The Pepperpot supplied with outdoor tables and chairs, under proposals about to be put before the town council.

The Godalming Town Centre Strategy, which has the strapline Preserving the Past, Protecting the Present, Planning the Future, also envisages the town council taking over ownership of several places from Waverley Borough Council, including the public toilets in Crown Court, and the freeholds of both the Scout hut and the Wilfrid Noyce Centre.

The council has already approached Waverley to request that Charterhouse Green and part of the Lammas Lands next to Meadrow Allotments be transferred to its ownership.

Other suggestions include waiving some charges for the organisations that lay on music at the bandstand during the summer, and even envisages funfairs and circuses on The Burys Field.

The consultation document has been drawn up by council leader Paul Follows and Mayor Penny Rivers, and will be presented to council at its annual meeting on April 1st.

Closing the High Street to through traffic, a move brought in to allow for social distancing last May, and which will come back into force when non-essential shops reopen on May 12th, could also become a permanent fixture. The council has already decided that the bollard preventing through traffic from entering the High Street at its junction with Queen Street will also come back into use from April 12th, when non-essential retail reopens, until June 21st, when, under the Government roadmap, all restrictions are slated to be lifted.

Floral displays

The document also suggests beefing up the town's floral displays as part of the Floral Godalming initiative, increasing the number of troughs and planters to take in sites further from the town centre, such as the roundabout at the junction of Meadrow, Bridge Road and Chalk Road, and the Inn on the Lake roundabout. Plants could be grown at a community greenhouse behind Broadwater Park Community Centre that could support 'Godalming Growers' to produce plants from seed, the report suggests. It also recommends setting up a collective group to represent Godalming's artists, and trails the idea of public art being installed at prominent sites in the town, including outside the Red Lion at the top of the High Street. The report also suggests offering a degree of protection to buildings in the town centre that are not listed, by designating them 'buildings of merit', and supporting businesses and retailers to create a Business Improvement District. Improvements to Wiggins Yard and a support for the Godalming section of the Guildford to Godalming Greenway are also outlined in the document. Events.

On an optimistic note, the report says that the town council is planning several events for the rest of the year, if coronavirus restrictions ease according to the timetable.

Events will restart with the Farmers Markets in April, and the Music in the Park concerts will resume in June.

Also in the diary are a Green Gala in August 2021, the Town Show on September 19th and the Christmas Festival on November 27th.

"Whilst not quite the full slate of annual events, it is hoped that they will provide a launchpad to the continuance of Godalming's collective community spirit," the report notes.

Click here to read the document in full.