Elmbridge Roadworks: Esher Faces 12-Week Road Closure

A road in Esher is set to close for 12 weeks from 5 October while Surrey County Council installs a new bridge deck. The statutory notice was published on 18 September and names Couchmore Avenue, between the A307 Portsmouth Road and Macaulay Avenue.

Nothing on that scale is shut in the borough this week. The trains are clear this coming Saturday for the first time in a month.

Every entry below was checked today, Monday 21 September, against National Highways, Surrey County Council, the statutory traffic notices, Surrey’s bus disruption page and South Western Railway.

Couchmore Avenue, Esher: 12 weeks from 5 October

This is the largest closure coming to Elmbridge, and almost nobody knows about it yet. It is in neither council roadworks list.

Surrey County Council proposes to make a temporary order prohibiting vehicles in the length of Couchmore Avenue (D6819) that runs from its junction with the A307 Portsmouth Road to its junction with Macaulay Avenue. The road sits in the Hinchley Wood and Weston Green ward; the notice itself gives the address as Esher.

The detail from the notice:

• the work is installation of a new bridge deck, with resurfacing, road markings and maintenance
• it is anticipated to take 12 weeks, inside an 18-month order commencing 5 October 2026
• hours are 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday, and 8am to 4pm at weekends
• pedestrians, dismounted cyclists and equestrians keep access at all times
• emergency services, residents and businesses get access via Couchmore Avenue, Montgomery Avenue, Kingston Bypass and Portsmouth Road
• vehicles obstructing the works can be removed

One caution. This is a proposed order, not a made one, so 5 October is an intention rather than a decision. We will re-check it before it starts.

Two smaller Elmbridge orders came in the same 18 September batch, both also proposals:

• Matham Road, East Molesey, closed at its westernmost junction with the B369 Walton Road as far as the boundary of No.46 and No.48, for 6 days inside a 12-month order commencing 14 October, for UKPN cabling. Diversion via Matham Road and Walton Road, or via St Marys Road, Bell Road, Spencer Road and Walton Road.
• Hurst Lane, East Molesey, and Warwick Road and Speer Road, Thames Ditton, where SGN gas main replacement brings waiting restrictions in three phases from 12 October. Hurst Lane first, for a month; Warwick Road from 16 November for three weeks; Speer Road from 30 November for a month. Work runs 7am to 4pm.

Coveham Crescent, Cobham was due to shut today, and no permit says so

The council’s own scheme page still gives the Coveham Crescent closure as 21 September to 9 October 2026. That is today.

Surrey’s roadworks register, checked this morning, carries no permit for Coveham Crescent at all, in any month. The register is otherwise current, so this is not the stale-feed problem we reported earlier in September.

The statutory notice, published on 28 August, is also still only a proposed order, and no notice making it has appeared since. It gives the work as 26 days inside a 12-month order commencing 21 September, worked 7am to 5pm with the closure in operation 24 hours a day. On access it says the opposite of what the council’s scheme page says: the notice states it will not be possible to maintain access through the closure for residents or businesses, while the scheme page says access will be maintained for residents.

So three official sources disagree about a closure that was supposed to start today. If you live on Coveham Crescent, the site team is the only source worth trusting this week.

The extent in the notice runs from the junction with the A307 Portsmouth Road to the junction with Wyndham Avenue, and the signed diversion is Portsmouth Road (A307), Northfield Road, Pennyfield, Molesworth Road and Wyndham Avenue. That diversion starts on the road with the temporary lights.

Lower Green Road, Esher has been shut since 6 August

This one appears on no roadworks page. It is on Surrey’s bus disruption page, which is why it has gone unreported.

Lower Green Road in Esher has been closed since Thursday 6 August for footway works, and the council says the work is expected to last eight weeks, which puts the end around the start of October. The Falcon 515 is diverting via The Woodlands and cannot serve the stops at Esher Station or Woodend.

The same page has Weybridge. Balfour Road has been under a series of closures since 15 June for footway reconstruction, part of a wider footway and kerbing scheme in Weybridge town centre. The page still describes the current phase as night closures at the Portmore Park Road mini-roundabout “starting from Monday 24 August for approximately 2 weeks”, which has now passed without the entry being updated. While those night closures run, the Falcon 461 does not serve St Peter’s Hospital after 9pm.

Two Weybridge entries in the roadworks register look like the next stage of that town centre scheme: Baker Street, minor works to 24 September, and Bridge Road, a single day on 25 September.

Portsmouth Road, Cobham: lights until 12 February 2027

Southern Gas Network began replacing the gas mains in Portsmouth Road, Cobham on 1 September. The council’s scheme page says the work continues “until February 2027”. The roadworks register is more precise and books it to 12 February 2027. Temporary traffic lights are in place throughout, and the work runs in phases.

That is the A307, the road Cobham uses to reach Esher and Kingston one way and the A3 the other. There is no realistic alternative for through traffic.

Surrey County Council’s advice for the scheme is to allow extra time, check with your bus operator for changes to services or stops, and tell delivery drivers and visitors about the traffic management.

The Anyards Road gas works in Cobham, and the Connected Kerb charging point installation in Portsmouth Road and Matthew Arnold Close, are both booked to finish on 25 September.

One older entry on the council’s page is now three weeks out of date. It still carries the Fairmile Lane gas scheme with completion expected “early September 2026”. Fairmile Lane does not appear in the live roadworks register, which suggests the job is finished, but the council has not said so.

Surrey’s register is current, and four days ahead

Sorted on start date, the Elmbridge list this morning carries 115 works, the newest booked to start on 25 September, four days from today. 57 of them end today or later and 19 have not started yet. That is a working forward view, and a change from early September, when the county’s register had taken on no new job anywhere since 25 August.

These are the Elmbridge works that run past this week, or that close a road for a month or more:

Two rows are worth a second look. National Highways is working on Horsley Road, Cobham on 21 to 22 and 22 to 23 September, which is a local road rather than one of its own, and Hampton Court Way at Thames Ditton is a Surrey highways job on the A309 running to 25 September.

An empty forward list is not the same as an empty fortnight. Utility companies can notify Surrey up to two hours after emergency works start, and the council cannot refuse them.

The A3 and the motorways: Cobham services this week

National Highways’ current closure report runs from 18 to 24 September, so it does not yet cover next weekend. What it has for Elmbridge:

• Monday 21 September, 10pm to 5.30am: M25 clockwise junction 9 exit and entry slip roads closed for resurfacing, and the M25 clockwise junction 11 exit slip closed for inspection work
• Tuesday 22 September, 10pm to 5.30am: the junction 9 slips again, and the M25 anti-clockwise between junction 11 and junction 10 closed for urgent loop repairs
• Wednesday 23 September, 10pm to 5.30am: the A3 southbound Wisley exit slip closed for urgent sign repair, under the Esher to Wisley scheme, and the M25 clockwise entry slip at Cobham services, between junctions 9 and 10, closed for maintenance
• Thursday 24 September, 10pm to 5.30am: the Cobham services entry slip again

There is no A3 carriageway closure at Painshill this week, for the second week running. Junction 10 is Cobham’s junction and junction 9 is Leatherhead’s, the next one along.

National Highways describes every one of these diversions only as “via Local Authority and National Highway network” and names no route.

One trap for anyone reading the report themselves: it also lists an A2 westbound Cobham services closure on Wednesday and Thursday. That is Cobham in Kent.

Fairoak Lane, Chessington: two months of diverted traffic through Oxshott

The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames intends to close B280 Fairoak Lane from outside the electrical sub-station to No.45 from Wednesday 14 October, for high voltage electrical duct and cable work expected to take two months. The order stays in force for 18 months so the closure can be reintroduced.

Fairoak Lane is in Chessington, outside the borough, about two miles east of Oxshott. It matters here because of where the traffic goes. The signed alternative route is A243 Leatherhead Road, A243 Kingston Road, A244 Oxshott Road, A244 Leatherhead Road and A244 Warren Lane, which routes it straight through Oxshott for two months.

Access to properties on the closed length will be maintained as far as is reasonably practicable.

The trains: a clear Saturday, then Weybridge gains trains

South Western Railway has no engineering work planned for Saturday 26 September. That is the first clear Saturday for Elmbridge since the New Malden closure weekend.

There is one change that day anyway: rugby at Twickenham, kicking off at 3pm, diverts Waterloo to Shepperton services via Twickenham between 9.41am and 10.11pm.

On Sunday 27 September the lines in the Staines area close all day. That is good news for Weybridge. Waterloo to Reading services are diverted between Clapham Junction and Virginia Water and call additionally at Wimbledon, Surbiton, Weybridge, Addlestone and Chertsey. Waterloo to Woking via Staines services terminate at Hounslow, and buses run between Hounslow and Virginia Water, Windsor and Woking, all via Staines.

The same Staines closure runs all weekend on 3 and 4 October, with Weybridge again picking up the diverted Reading services on both days.

Then it goes the other way. On Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October the lines in the Guildford area close all weekend, and the Cobham line takes it:

• Waterloo to Guildford via Cobham services terminate at Effingham Junction on both days
• Waterloo to Guildford via Epsom services also terminate at Effingham Junction
• buses run between Effingham Junction and Guildford
• Waterloo to Portsmouth Harbour via Guildford services terminate at Woking on the Saturday

Effingham Junction is the last stop before Horsley on the Cobham line, so Stoke D’Abernon and Cobham keep their trains. Anyone going through to Guildford changes onto a bus.

The M25 junction 10 scheme: the project page is now six weeks out of date

The £317 million rebuild of M25 junction 10 and the A3 Wisley interchange was supposed to finish in spring 2026. National Highways’ project page still gives spring 2026 as the end date, and its most recent update is still dated 7 August, which describes closures in the week of 10 August. That is six weeks ago, and a week longer than when we checked on 14 September.

That matters here because junction 10 is Cobham’s junction, and the A3 through Painshill is how Esher and Cobham reach the M25 in either direction. The scheme has added a lane on the A3 in both directions between Ockham and Painshill, enlarged the roundabout, and put free-flow left turns at all four corners, along with work at the A245 Seven Hills junction and Painshill roundabout.

Read the project page for one thing only: it is the only place a signed diversion is ever published. Nothing has been published for this week’s closures. For what is actually shut, use the seven day closure report, which is reissued daily and has been the accurate one.

The routes that carry everything

Elmbridge has no bypass and no ring road. Five routes do nearly all the work, and when one of them goes, the alternatives are long.

The A3 runs the length of the borough, past Esher and Painshill, and is the link to both London and the M25. The A244 ties Walton to Esher and on to Oxshott and Leatherhead, and carries Walton Bridge. The A307 Portsmouth Road runs Kingston to Esher to Cobham, and is the road now facing six months of gas works. The A309 comes in from Hampton Court to the Scilly Isles roundabout at Esher, where it meets the A3 and the A307. And Walton Bridge is the only road crossing of the Thames between Hampton Court Bridge and Chertsey Bridge, so anything that shuts it pushes traffic several miles either way.

Surrey County Council is the highway authority for all of these except the A3 and the M25, which are National Highways. That split is worth knowing before you report a pothole to the wrong body.

Just outside the borough, Headley Road in Leatherhead, about five miles south of Oxshott, is closed near the Leatherhead bypass junction from 8am today until 5pm on 20 October for major Surrey Highways work. The Metrobus 21 diverts via Reigate Road, Mill Way and Leech Lane.

The parking fines being refunded, and the figures that now add up

If you were fined in an Elmbridge council car park between January 2020 and April 2026, check whether you are owed money. The council issued 9,318 penalty charge notices in the affected car parks since 2020, apologised at its May 2026 Cabinet meeting for a procedural error affecting its parking arrangements, and opened a refund scheme in June.

The car parks affected are in Esher, Cobham, Hersham, Walton-on-Thames and Weybridge. The council updated its figures on 18 September. They now cover 3 June to 15 September:

• eligible applications received: 1,376
• paid: 1,307
• ready for payment: 4
• in progress: 65

Two changes since our last check. The scheme has passed 1,376 applications, which is about one in seven of the notices the council says it issued in error, up from one in eight a fortnight ago. And the arithmetic now works: the subtotals add to exactly 1,376. In August and again in early September they added to more than the total received. The council has also dropped the “ruled ineligible” line, which stood at 35, and now describes the headline number as eligible applications received. It has not explained the change.

The claim deadline is 5pm on 1 March 2027, and the scheme closes at the end of that month. That date is not on the council’s refund pages: it is in the Cabinet papers that set the scheme up. Our full write-up is at Elmbridge parking fine refunds.

It aims to pay valid claims within two weeks. You apply through the council’s parking fine refund page with your registration number and proof of payment. Separately, the council warns of a text message scam demanding payment of parking fines. It does not chase penalty charges by text.

What it costs to park

The council froze its parking charges in June 2026 and added free time rather than raising prices. Its standard tariff, at Esher Civic Centre and Cobham Cedar Road among others, was unchanged when we checked it this morning:

Charges apply Monday to Saturday 8am to 6pm and Sunday 10am to 5pm, and not at all on bank holidays and public holidays. Blue Badge holders park free in the pay and display car parks. You can pay by cash, contactless or RingGo.

Three things are worth knowing. The free 30 minutes now applies in 22 car parks across Claygate, Cobham, Esher, Hersham, Long Ditton, Molesey, Oxshott, Thames Ditton, Walton-on-Thames and Weybridge, but you still have to take a ticket. Free evening parking now starts at 6pm rather than 7pm in the town centre car parks at Esher, Cobham, Walton and Weybridge. And a season ticket or resident permit is available for most of them, which is the sensible option if you commute from a station without its own space.

Getting out without the car

Every town in the borough has a station, and for London the train beats the car comfortably: 22 minutes from Walton-on-Thames to Waterloo, against an A3 journey that depends entirely on the junction 10 works. Full journey times, peak frequencies and season ticket prices for all ten stations are on our trains to London page.

Two stations, Hampton Court and Thames Ditton, are in London fare zone 6, so you can turn up and touch in with a contactless card rather than buying a ticket.

Where to check before you set off

• National Highways seven day closure report for A3, M25 and M3 closures. Reissued daily as a spreadsheet with one sheet per night, and currently the most reliable of the lot.
• Surrey County Council roadworks in Elmbridge is the searchable list by road and ward, and it is current again.
• Surrey County Council temporary bus changes is the one that carries closures the roadworks pages miss, with the diverted routes and the stops that cannot be served.
• Surrey County Council major utility roadworks for the gas, water and cable schemes big enough to close a road, listed by borough. This is where the Portsmouth Road job is.
• Public Notice Portal for the statutory traffic orders, which carry the exact extent of a closure, its diversion and whether it is proposed or made.
• National Highways M25 junction 10 for the signed diversions around Painshill, Cobham and Wisley, when it is updated.
• South Western Railway planned engineering work for weekend line closures before you swap the car for the train.
• Elmbridge Borough Council car parks for tariffs, permits and the finder for all 28 council car parks.

Sources

• National Highways, seven day closure report, the spreadsheet covering 18 to 24 September 2026, for the M25 clockwise junction 9 slip closures, the M25 clockwise junction 11 exit slip closure, the M25 anti-clockwise junction 11 to 10 carriageway closure, the A3 southbound Wisley exit slip closure and the M25 clockwise Cobham services entry slip closures, and for the absence of any Painshill carriageway closure this week.
• Surrey County Council, roadworks in Elmbridge, checked 21 September 2026, for the works table, the 115 rows, the 25 September newest start date, the 12 February 2027 end date on Portsmouth Road, and the absence of any Coveham Crescent permit.
• Surrey County Council, major utility company roadworks for the Portsmouth Road gas scheme, the 21 September to 9 October dates and the access statement for Coveham Crescent, and for the Fairmile Lane scheme and its “early September 2026” completion date.
• Surrey County Council, temporary bus changes for the Lower Green Road closure in Esher from 6 August and the Falcon 515 diversion, for the Balfour Road phases in Weybridge and the Falcon 461, and for the Headley Road closure at Leatherhead to 20 October.
• Public Notice Portal, Surrey multiple road traffic notices, published 18 September 2026 for the proposed Couchmore Avenue order, its extent, its 12 weeks, its hours and its access route, and for the proposed Matham Road order and the proposed Hurst Lane, Warwick Road and Speer Road waiting restrictions with their three phase dates.
• Public Notice Portal, Surrey multiple road traffic notices, published 28 August 2026 for the proposed Coveham Crescent order, its extent, its 26 days, its diversion and its access wording.
• Public Notice Portal, Fairoak Lane temporary road closure, Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, dated 17 September 2026 for the 14 October start, the two months, the 18 month order and the signed alternative route through Oxshott.
• National Highways, M25 junction 10, showing a spring 2026 end date and a most recent update of 7 August 2026 when checked on 21 September, for the scheme cost and timetable.
• South Western Railway, September engineering work for the clear Saturday on 26 September, the Twickenham rugby diversions and the Staines area closure on 27 September.
• South Western Railway, October engineering work for the Staines area closure on 3 and 4 October and the Guildford area closure on 10 and 11 October.
• Elmbridge Borough Council, parking fine refunds, updated 18 September 2026, for the refund figures covering 3 June to 15 September and the 9,318 penalty charge notices.
• Elmbridge Borough Council, Civic Centre car park, Esher for the tariff table, the operating hours and the bank holiday exemption.

Roadworks change at short notice and overnight closures are often cancelled or moved for weather. Everything above was checked on 21 September 2026. Confirm against the live sources before you travel.

More Elmbridge local information: trains to London, house prices, planning news and things to do in Elmbridge.