Scheme background

The A320 Guildford Road is the main arterial road running through Woking. The historic road layout underneath and on either side of the Victoria Arch railway bridge create a pinch-point for traffic resulting in significant peak-time congestion. These issues have restricted local growth and housing development opportunities for many years.

Demand for housing in Woking is high, leading to an unmet affordable housing need. Research suggests that developers are willing to develop in Woking, but are restricted by the lack of infrastructure which places a significant burden on development viability.

It has been a long held aspiration of Woking Borough Council to address these issues by upgrading the highways configuration and widen the Victoria Arch bridge to benefit all users and unlock development sites for much needed town centre housing.

Historically, this has been constrained by the substantial investment required to deliver such major improvements and the timely alignment of Network Rail’s strategic objectives and resources.

How the scheme will contribute towards the borough's housing needs

Woking’s Core Strategy, adopted in 2012, identified Woking town centre (Policy CS1 and CS2) as a primary location to deliver homes for the future, whilst safeguarding precious green space.

The Victoria Arch widening scheme, using the Housing Infrastructure Fund, will unlock additional housing capacity for 13 identified development sites within Woking town centre. The majority of the identified housing development sites are allocated in our draft Site Allocations Development Plan Document (DPD). 

The site map below demonstrates the anticipated housing capacity for each site outlined in the DPD and what will be potentially achieved via the delivery of the Victoria Arch widening scheme.

View a map of the identified development sites within Woking town centre

Read more about Woking's Core Strategy

Read more about Woking's draft Site Allocations DPD

How the scheme is funded

On 13 February 2020, Woking Borough’s elected members approved the £115 million highways enhancement scheme, which when finished will be Woking’s biggest infrastructure project to date.

Acceptance of a £95 million grant, offered by the government and administered by Homes England, paved the way for us to complete the acquisition of the Triangle site on the south side of the town, deliver the significant improvements to the town centre’s road network and widen the out of date Victoria Arch.

In 2018, we (in partnership with Surrey County Council) submitted a comprehensive funding bid to the government’s highly contested  Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF), which finances a small number of strategic and high impact infrastructure schemes to unlock housing sites.

In June 2019, our HIF bid was formally approved by the Housing Minister. The £95 million is given in the form of a grant which means that it does not need to be repaid.

Project recovery strategy

The HIF recovery strategy seeks to bridge the gap between the total scheme cost and the HIF grant (£95 million).

Development in the town centre will be unlocked as a result of the finished Victoria Arch scheme. As a result, housing can be delivered over and above our current commitment, as set out in the emerging  Site Allocations Development Plan Document (DPD) by 2030.

Future developments will benefit from this significant amount of public investment, so it is fair and reasonable that this development also make an appropriate contribution.

Find out more about the HIF recovery strategy

Project management

Surrey County Council, Woking Borough Council and Network Rail are key partners in developing this scheme. There are well established joint governance arrangements in place between these two organisations with a experienced professional team in place to deliver this scheme.

Project task group

The scheme is closely monitored by a panel of elected members. The Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) Task Group monitor progress of the project, through the receipt of programme reports, against key milestone dates, budget and key risks.

View the HIF Task Group's terms of reference and members of the group

Contact us

To contact us about the project, please complete our online enquiry form.

Submit an enquiry about the Victoria Arch widening scheme