Painshill roundabout loses lanes overnight from 11 to 14 August and Fairmile Lane is shut in sections to September. Plus the 9,000 parking fines being refunded.
Two sets of works are affecting Elmbridge drivers this month, and both are at the Cobham end of the borough.
Painshill roundabout loses lanes overnight from Tuesday 11 to Friday 14 August, including on the slip roads and the A245. National Highways is working 10pm to 5:30am from Tuesday to Thursday and 11pm to 6am on the Friday. There is also an A3 northbound lane closure from Ripley to junction 10 overnight on Monday 10 August. Both are part of the M25 junction 10 scheme.
Fairmile Lane in Cobham is shut in sections until early September. Southern Gas Network started on 22 July, replacing metal gas mains with plastic pipework, and expects around six weeks. The closures move along the road as the work progresses, access is kept for residents and businesses where possible, and the signed diversion runs via Portsmouth Road, High Street, Mill Road, Stoke Road and Leigh Hill Road.
The M25 junction 10 scheme, still going
The £317 million rebuild of M25 junction 10 and the A3 Wisley interchange was supposed to finish in spring 2026. National Highways still lists it as work in progress in August, with overnight closures continuing week by week.
It matters here because junction 10 is Cobham’s junction, and the A3 through Painshill is the route Esher and Cobham use to 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, plus improvements to the A245 Seven Hills junction and Painshill roundabout itself. National Highways puts the traffic through the junction at over 300,000 vehicles a day, which is the busiest stretch of the M25.
Recent weeks give a sense of the pattern: overnight closures of the A3 southbound between Painshill and Wisley, of individual slip roads at Painshill and Wisley, and of single lanes on the M25 clockwise between Cobham services and junction 10. When the A3 southbound closes overnight, the signed diversion is via the Hook interchange and the A243, or eastbound on the A245 at Painshill and round through the A307 and A309.
Check the M25 junction 10 updates page before an evening journey, because these change at short notice.
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. 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 in either direction.
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
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 over 9,000 penalty charge notices incorrectly because of a procedural error affecting its parking arrangements, apologised at its May 2026 Cabinet meeting, and opened a refund scheme in June.
The car parks affected are in Esher, Cobham, Hersham, Walton-on-Thames and Weybridge. As at 4 August 2026 the council had received 794 applications, paid 671 and rejected 29, with 67 still in progress. 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, runs:
| Stay | Charge |
|---|---|
| Up to 30 minutes | Free, but you must take a ticket |
| Up to 1 hour | £1.80 |
| Up to 2 hours | £3.60 |
| Up to 3 hours | £5.30 |
| Up to 4 hours | £6.60 |
| Up to 5 hours | £8.15 |
| Up to 9 hours | £8.90 |
| Over 9 hours | £12.00 |
Charges apply Monday to Saturday 8am to 6pm and Sunday 10am to 5pm, and not at all on bank 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 get 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
- Surrey County Council roadworks map for every current and planned closure on borough and county roads, filterable by date and postcode.
- Surrey County Council major utility roadworks for the gas, water and cable schemes big enough to close a road, listed by borough.
- National Highways M25 junction 10 for the A3 and M25 overnight closures around Painshill, Cobham and Wisley.
- Elmbridge Borough Council car parks for tariffs, permits and the finder for all 28 council car parks.
Sources
- National Highways, M25 junction 10 latest updates, update of 7 August 2026, for the Painshill roundabout and A3 closures from 10 to 14 August, and for the scheme cost, timetable and traffic figure.
- Surrey County Council, major utility company roadworks for the SGN works on Fairmile Lane, Cobham and the diversion route.
- Elmbridge Borough Council, parking fine refunds, updated 6 August 2026, for the 9,000 incorrectly issued notices and the refund figures to 4 August.
- Elmbridge Borough Council, investing in Elmbridge with parking boost, 22 June 2026, for the charge freeze, the 22 car parks with 30 minutes free and the 6pm evening start.
- Elmbridge Borough Council car park pages for the tariff table and operating hours.
Roadworks change at short notice and overnight closures are often cancelled or moved for weather. Everything above was checked on 10 August 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.
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