By community correspondent William Caruana New Malden residents were left fuming as they found out that there will be even more surgery on the New Malden high street. The high street has been dug up no less than 5 times since 2005 and now there will be a recurrence of the mayhem causing massive delays, traffic jams and even more locals left seething.

The first £1.3m renovation of the high street back in 2005 was greeted with celebrations and all seemed well, but they were short lived as the makeover backfired leaving the road crumbling and making it impassable for cyclists due to the pebbles idiotically placed at the side of the road. The high street was subsequently dug up all over again causing more delays and unrest amongst the public. Not only did the failure of the new high street frustrate locals because of the additional traffic and delays, but it was a waste of public spending. In 2006 and then again in 2008 the high street was again renovated costing millions of pounds. One man expressing his anger in the newspaper said, “Four times in two years? How incompetent is that! Yet again the high street will grind to a halt for weeks on end, traders will suffer and jobs will be put at risk. It is quite unbelievable that this is happening again.”

Today, unbelievably, the council is planning a new look to the high street causing even more road works and delays. If the council think that the previous anger expressed by locals has been extinguished then they are quite mistaken as dozens of complaints have already been flooding in, protesting about the new planned road works. The council have decided to redesign the high street as they have realised that the pavement is wider than the road itself, making it difficult for cars and buses to get down the high street, but locals are outraged that it has taken the council 5 times to finally get it right.

From 2005-2008, the high street was dug up 5 times costing over £2.3m and this figure is set to rise with the new plan to makeover the high street again. Not only do the road works cost millions of pounds, it ruins small businesses in the high street as there are fewer customers and so the shops may go out of business. This is sure to be made worse by the current recession. This leads to job losses and a rundown of the local economy.

Locals are right to feel angry that it has taken the council so long to get the high street flowing efficiently and looking attractive. They are complaining against the planned renovation in the hope of saving council tax payers money and hope the council will see sense and reconsider.