Photo credit:  Surrey County Council

Surrey County Council will use AI technology to detect potholes to help speed up road repairs across the county. 

Computer vision cameras fitted to dashboards inside highways vehicles will spot and photograph potholes which will then be automatically recorded for repair.  Highways Inspectors will no longer need to step onto the road to manually carry out inspections. 

Potholes that don’t need immediate attention will also be tracked regularly to ensure they are dealt with when needed.  Future enhancements will see other defects such as missing signs and foliage overgrowth also programmed for repair. 

Surrey is the first local authority in the UK to move away from manual inspections and solely use video and AI for this purpose.

Photo credit: Tracey Franklin

Tandridge District Council is consulting about increases to its car park charges. 

The Council says it would be the first increase since 2018 and is needed to cover car park maintenance and improvements.  There are no changes proposed to the two, three and four hour free parking currently available, but the Council is looking to increase the charges which start once the free parking period ends. 

One of those affected is the Ellice Road car park in Oxted which currently has free parking for the first two hours; the proposed increase for 2-3 hours parking would rise from £3 to £3.30. Those parking for over 4 hours would see a rise from £6.50 to £7.20. 

Season tickets and contract space fees will also increase. 

Residents have until the 31st January to email the Council at  parkingorder2024@tandridge.gov.uk with their comments.  The updated order can be viewed at tandridge.gov.uk/consultation and is scheduled to start on 3rd March.

Resurfacing work starts tomorrow on the M23 junction 9 roundabout, and the Gatwick Spur Road and Airport Way slip roads. 

The work will be completed in three phases overnight from Monday to Friday from 9pm to 5am.  During the first phase, from 7th to 22nd January, the northbound off slip road will remain open whilst the other slip roads will be closed overnight.

Traffic wishing to exit the M23 at junction 9 southbound will need to continue down the motorway to junction 10 to turn around and rejoin the M23 northbound. Traffic wishing to use the M23 eastbound Spur Road to join the motorway will be diverted via Airport Way and the A23 London Road to turn around at the Longbridge Roundabout. 

The final phase of works should be completed on 13th February.