Elmbridge Roadworks This Week: Couchmore Ave, A3 Painshill

Couchmore Avenue in Esher closes from today, Monday 5 October, for up to 12 weeks while Surrey County Council installs a new bridge deck. Twelve weeks runs to the end of December.

On the A3, the weekend closure at Painshill is over. This week it is slip roads and links, every night to Friday morning. The A3 southbound Painshill exit and entry slips shut tonight and on Tuesday night.

Every entry below was checked today, Monday 5 October, against National Highways, Surrey County Council, the statutory traffic notices, Surrey’s bus disruption page and National Rail.

The A3 and M25 this week: slips and links, every night

The weekend closure of the A3 northbound at Wisley and Painshill ran on Saturday and Sunday night and is not booked again. What is left this week is smaller, all overnight. National Highways’ closure report covering 2 to 8 October lists:

• Monday 5 and Tuesday 6 October, 10pm to 5.30am: A3 southbound Painshill exit and entry slips closed, under the Esher to Painshill maintenance scheme
• Monday 5 October, 10pm to 5.30am: A3 northbound Wisley to M25 clockwise link closed, for vegetation clearance
• Tuesday 6 October, 10pm to 5.30am: M25 anti-clockwise junction 10 to A3 northbound link closed, for vegetation clearance
• Wednesday 7 October, 10pm to 5.30am: A3 southbound Wisley to M25 anti-clockwise link closed, for vegetation clearance
• Thursday 8 October, 10pm to 5.30am: A3 southbound Wisley entry slip closed, for vegetation clearance

For the Painshill slips, the diversion is given only as “via National Highways Network and Local Authorities”. No route is named.

Surrey’s register also has National Highways booked on Portsmouth Road, Cobham on 6 to 7 and 7 to 8 October, and on Byfleet Road at Weybridge St George’s Hill on 6 to 7 October. Those are the local roads either side of Painshill roundabout.

Couchmore Avenue, Esher: closed from today for up to 12 weeks

Surrey County Council made the order on 30 September, in its 2 October notice. It closes the length of Couchmore Avenue (D6819) from its junction with the A307 Portsmouth Road to its junction with Macaulay Avenue, from 5 October. The road sits in the Hinchley Wood and Weston Green ward; the notice gives the address as Esher.

What the made order says:

• the work is installation of a new bridge deck, with resurfacing, road markings and maintenance
• it is expected to take 12 weeks, inside an 18-month order
• 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

The closure still appears on neither of the council’s roadworks lists this morning, the day it was due to start.

Brooklands Road, Weybridge: night closures proposed from 12 October

Surrey’s 25 September batch proposed closing B374 Brooklands Road from Heath Road to St Georges Avenue overnight, from 12 October.

• it is for highway improvements, surfacing and maintenance
• work would run 8pm to 6am, within 4 weeks
• the closure covers all traffic, pedestrians and cyclists included, though people on foot or bikes will be guided through by staff on site
• the signed route for residents and businesses is Brooklands Road, the A245 Byfleet Road, B365 Seven Hills Road, A317 Queens Road and B373 Hanger Hill

No notice making the order has been published yet. The notice still says the council “propose to make” it, and no Brooklands Road permit is on the register. Treat 12 October as an intention until that changes.

Lower Green Road, Esher: due to reopen on Tuesday

Lower Green Road in Esher has been closed since 6 August for footway works. Surrey’s bus disruption page still gives an end date of 6 October. The Falcon 515 is diverting via The Woodlands until then and cannot serve the stops at Esher Station or Woodend.

The county’s roadworks register no longer lists the job, which it did on Friday. That does not prove the road is open. Until the bus page drops the entry, check before relying on the 515 at Esher Station.

Coveham Crescent, Cobham: still no permit, due to end Friday

The council’s scheme page still gives the Coveham Crescent closure as 21 September to 9 October 2026, with access maintained for residents.

Surrey’s roadworks register still carries no permit for Coveham Crescent, two weeks after the closure was due to start. What it does carry is SGN gas work on Wyndham Avenue, Cobham, where the Coveham Crescent diversion rejoins. That job was booked to end today. It now runs to 12 October.

The statutory notice published on 28 August was a proposed order, and no notice making it has appeared in the Surrey batches we have read since. It described 26 days of work and said access through the closure would not be possible, which contradicts the scheme page. If you live on Coveham Crescent, the site team is still the only source worth trusting.

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 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.

The council’s page still carries the Fairmile Lane gas scheme with completion expected “early September 2026”. That is now five weeks out of date. Fairmile Lane is not in the live register, which suggests the job is finished, but the council has not said so.

What else is booked: 68 jobs to 10 October

Surrey’s register this morning lists 68 works in Elmbridge running today or later. 22 of them have not started yet. The newest is still booked to begin on 10 October, the same as on Friday, so the register has added nothing further ahead since then. Surrey County Council has 16 of the 68, SGN 15 and BT 13.

These are the jobs that run longest, or that land on a main road:

The A3 entries, one in each direction, are listed under Transport for London, and neither TfL nor National Highways has published a closure to match them. Treat them as a booking, not a confirmed lane closure. Walton Road in Molesey carries two jobs at once: SGN gas work to 9 October and Connected Kerb work to 8 October.

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.

Later in October: five more Elmbridge orders

The same statutory batches carry smaller closures further out:

• Matham Road, East Molesey: order made on 30 September. Closed at its western junction with the B369 Walton Road, as far as Nos 46 and 48, for 6 days from 14 October, for UKPN cabling. Diversion via St Marys Road, Bell Road and Spencer Road.
• Hurst Lane, East Molesey, and Warwick Road and Speer Road, Thames Ditton: SGN waiting restrictions, order made on 25 September. Hurst Lane from 12 October for a month, Warwick Road from 16 November for three weeks, Speer Road from 30 November for a month, 7am to 4pm.
• Curzon Road, Weybridge: proposed, 8 days from 27 October for water mains work, from Waverley Road to Nos 17 and 19. Diversion via Heath Road.
• Holtwood Road, Oxshott: proposed, 8 days from 28 October for UKPN, between Nos 6 and 10. Diversion via Sheath Lane and Goldrings Road.
• Hare Lane, Claygate: proposed, one night, 10pm to 6am, from 29 October, under the railway bridge for a Network Rail inspection. Diversion via Littleworth Road, Oaken Lane and The Avenue.

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 cable work expected to take two months.

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.

The trains: Cobham and Weybridge both lose trains on 10 and 11 October

The Staines area closure that gave Weybridge extra trains last weekend is back on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October, and this time National Rail lists it as a closure of all lines between Feltham and Virginia Water. Weybridge services that run via Staines are among the routes affected.

• buses replace trains between Hounslow and Virginia Water, and Hounslow and Windsor
• on the Sunday, buses also run between Hounslow and Woking

The closure is on the Staines line, not the main line through Walton and Surbiton. If you normally go via Staines, use the main line that weekend.

The same weekend the lines in the Guildford area close, and the Cobham line takes it:

• Waterloo to Guildford trains run only between Waterloo and Effingham Junction on both days
• buses run between Effingham Junction and Guildford

The Guildford area closes again on Sunday 18 October, with the same Effingham Junction turnback.

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

Further out, all lines between Staines and Hounslow or Twickenham close on 24 and 25 October, with Weybridge among the routes affected, and Hounslow to Virginia Water closes again on 31 October and 1 November.

The M25 junction 10 scheme: the project page is now nine 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, when we checked it this morning. That is nearly nine weeks ago.

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.

None of last weekend’s Painshill closures, nor this week’s, appear on the project page. For what is actually shut, use the seven day closure report, which is now reissued daily.

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 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.

The parking fines being refunded: 1,582 claims so far

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 1 October. They now cover 3 June to 22 September:

• eligible applications received: 1,582
• paid: 1,495
• ready for payment: 10
• in progress: 77

The subtotals add to exactly 1,582, as they did last time. That is about one in six of the notices the council says it issued in error, up from one in seven a fortnight earlier.

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, or by phone on 01372 474 474. 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 last checked it, on 2 October:

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 on which slip roads are shut that night. 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. A spreadsheet with one sheet per night, now reissued daily, and the most reliable of the lot.
• Surrey County Council roadworks in Elmbridge is the searchable list by road and ward, covering today to the end of next week.
• 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 scheme itself, 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 2 to 8 October 2026, for the A3 southbound Painshill slip closures on 5 and 6 October, the junction 10 link closures and the A3 southbound Wisley entry slip closure on 8 October.
• Surrey County Council, roadworks in Elmbridge, checked 5 October 2026, for the works table, the 68 rows, the 22 not yet started, the 10 October newest start date, the National Highways bookings, the Wyndham Avenue extension to 12 October, and the absence of any Couchmore Avenue, Brooklands Road or Coveham Crescent permit.
• Surrey County Council, major utility company roadworks for the Portsmouth Road gas scheme, the Coveham Crescent dates and access statement, and the Fairmile Lane “early September 2026” completion date.
• Surrey County Council, temporary bus changes, checked 5 October 2026, for the Lower Green Road closure and its 6 October end date, and the Falcon 515 diversion.
• Public Notice Portal, Surrey multiple traffic notices, published 2 October 2026 for the made Couchmore Avenue and Matham Road orders, the made Hurst Lane, Warwick Road and Speer Road order, and the proposed Curzon Road, Holtwood Road and Hare Lane orders.
• Public Notice Portal, Surrey multiple traffic notices, published 25 September 2026 for the proposed Brooklands Road, Weybridge night closures.
• Public Notice Portal, Surrey multiple road traffic notices, published 28 August 2026 for the proposed Coveham Crescent order, its 26 days 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 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 5 October.
• National Rail engineering works notices, linked from South Western Railway’s engineering works calendar, for the Feltham to Virginia Water closure on 10 and 11 October, the Guildford area closures on 10 and 11 and 18 October, and the Staines closures on 24 and 25 October and 31 October and 1 November.
• Elmbridge Borough Council, parking fine refunds, updated 1 October 2026, for the refund figures covering 3 June to 22 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 5 October 2026, except the car park tariffs, last checked on 2 October. 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.