Chobham Road crossing – consultation questionnaire

A consultation questionnaire is now available online until 4th August 2013 for the public to give their views on the proposed locations for the Chobham Road crossing. Surrey County Council has identified two sites, Site A just south of Broomhall Lane, and Site B between Horsell Rise and Wheatsheaf Close.

For those without internet access or where there are multiple members of the household (including all children) you may find it easier to obtain hard copies, which are available from Woking town centre library or Woking Borough Council offices.

To access the questionnaire go to: www.surreycc.gov.uk/chobhamroad and follow the link to https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ChobhamRoad

The analysis of the consultation process will be carried out in August and in September 2013 will be reported to the Local Committee Woking, with a recommendation for approval to design and implement the crossing. If the Local Committee gives its approval, the detailed design of the crossing and supplementary work will be carried out during the winter of 2013/14, with the aim of implementing the new crossing in Spring 2014.

Sara Rhydderch

bianconiuk@yahoo.co.uk

Horsell Panel Meeting – 10th April

The next Horsell Panel Meeting will take place on Wednesday 10th April at 7.30pm in Horsell Village Hall.

Come along and meet the local safer neighbourhood team and please feel free to bring up any local issues or concerns you may have.

The priorities set out at the last panel meeting were:

• To work on the burglary issue in Horsell
• To work on the anti-social behaviour issue in Horsell

Please come along to share your views on what issues you feel most affect our community.

PC Rebecca Holder and PCSO Derek Slee will be happy to address anything you put forward.

For more information, visit the Horsell pages of the Surrey Police website.

Meeting with Kevin Hurley, Surrey’s Police & Crime Commissioner

Kevin Hurley, Surrey’s recently elected Police & Crime Commissioner, has accepted an invitation from Woking’s Neighbourhood Watch movement to meet with him here in March.

This gives Horsell and Woking residents an excellent chance to inform him directly of what we all think are the important police priorities and issues that affect us in this area.

Woking Association of Neighbourhood Watches (WAN) has decided to extend attendance to anyone who lives in a Watch or who would like their road or estate to be covered by a new Watch.

If this applies to you, WAN would like to invite you to this important workshop session, which is to be held on Monday 11th March 2013. The workshop will start from 7.30 pm and will take place in town. WAN wants to demonstrate that we are an engaged community in Woking, so please respond by email to chair@wanw.org.uk, or ring 01483 764351 to secure an invitation.

Mr Hurley will also be explaining his objectives. WAN plans for the session to be as interactive as possible and definitely not a one-way dialogue. We want to be able to feedback to him your ideas and find ways in which we may achieve the results we all want.

We plan the following agenda, subject to Mr Hurley’s comments on the subject of the workshop sessions – these will be break-out groups where residents will talk among themselves and then feed back.

After introductory speeches we plan three workshops. The first will discuss the policing priorities in your area, the second how best the Commissioner can communicate with residents and then thirdly how we can feed back to him our concerns over the next four years he is holding office.

WAN looks forward to hearing from you.

Tony Kremer

Chair, Woking Association of Neighbourhood Watches

Surrey switch and save

Surrey County Council has set up a collective energy switching campaign. The idea is that the scheme gets a group of people to buy energy together, and negotiate a cheaper rate from suppliers.

The following information comes from the council:

“Would you like to pay less on your electricity and gas bills in 2013?

If so, why not join Surrey’s hassle free energy switching scheme to save up to £200 on your annual bill.

Simply tell us some information about yourself and your energy usage. After Tuesday 26 February 2013 you’ll be contacted with the price of the deal, when you can decide whether to take it up – it’s that simple.

To find out more and to register by 25 February, visit www.surreyswitchandsave.org.”

Chobham Road crossing update

In October, we posted a message from local resident Sara Rhydderch, regarding a petition for a pedestrian crossing across Chobham Road. This week, Sara sent us this update:

“The petition for a pedestrian crossing across the Chobham Road (A3046) has now closed, with 426 signatures, many thanks to those who signed.

The petition will be presented at the Council meeting on Wednesday 5 December in the Council Chambers.

We hope as many interested people as possible will attend to show their support for the campaign.  You are advised to arrive around 6.30pm, and may leave as soon as you like.”

Sara Rhydderch

bianconiuk@yahoo.co.uk

Horsell Christmas Fair – 30th November

Horsell’s Christmas Fair will be held on Friday 30th November, 4-8pm.

Plans are now well advanced for Horsell’s Christmas celebrations! This letter is to bring everyone in Horsell up to date. And below you can also find a list of areas in which we are still seeking volunteers.

Last year the Schools’ PTA ran a very successful event in St Mary’s Church over two days – a Christmas Tree Festival in which many local organisations and individuals made their own trees in a competition. Many hundreds of people came to see the trees. The Second Thursday Club is building on that event which will be staged again this year and opening up Horsell Village Hall and High Street to stallholders and traders.

There will be a Fair at which traders will sell gifts and cards; choirs and bands will perform; several local pubs and restaurants will serve street food and so on. Several groups will be raising money for local charities or community groups but of course many restaurants and traders will just be aiming to attract more income to our village businesses.

This event is being organised by the Horsell Second Thursday Club – the team behind the incredibly successful Horsell Jubilation. We have projects underway already: the Pares Woodland Garden restoration project and the monthly Litter Pick for example. Xenia Norman has asked us to find volunteers to help her expand Horsell Preserves (www.horsellpreserves.weebly.com) and we will be busy jam- and jelly-making so that we can be selling to you at the Christmas Fair. And we have other ideas at the planning stage such as a Community Choir and a Christmas Charity Post …

So a lot is happening already but of course we still need helpers both now in the build-up and on the day of the Christmas Fair itself. Don’t forget: this is a celebration for Horsell, organised by Horsell, so don’t be shy!

The best place to volunteer is on our website www.horsellstc.org.uk/home/christmasfair but you can ring me if you prefer.

These are some of the areas where we need your help:

• would you like to give more publicity to your mini-business by running a stall? Please contact Sue Jones by email at windover99@hotmail.co.uk.
• we are reviving the Road Representative network to distribute this letter and/or sell Christmas Fair Programmes to your neighbours. We want to get messages like this out to everyone in your street. Have you a dog that needs walking? Please let me know.
• can you help at the Christmas Fair or in the build-up? Are you a doctor or nurse or a qualified first-aider?  Why not join a rota so that we can provide good coverage on the day? You can do this on the website or contact me, Tony Kremer, at a.kremer@ntlworld.com.
• The Fair Programme is going off to the printers and goes on sale in our shops on 9 November, price £1 – does anyone want to sell to their neighbour? If so, contact me.
• can you display a poster on a board in the garden? These will be going up around 12 November.

Hoping to hear from you soon

Regards,

Tony Kremer

Ring 01483 764351 or email a.kremer@ntlworld.com

Warning about cold calls

A company called Direct Response are telephoning people in the area and saying they are running a local crime and safety campaign called Home Safe Home.  They say that they are registered with the local police and are in the area for a couple of days.  The recipient of the phone call is told that they are one of four lucky households to get a free trial of a wireless burglar alarm system.

There is no Home Safe Home campaign and Surrey Police do not endorse this company.  This is a sales pitch to sell the company’s burglar alarms.

I have reported to Surrey Police who will put out advice through Neighbourhood Watch and other channels.

Councillor Ann-Marie Barker

http://barkerbitsandpieces.blogspot.co.uk

Petition for Chobham Road pedestrian crossing

I’m currently running a petition to bring forward plans for a pedestrian crossing on Chobham Road.

The need for a controlled crossing was recognised 13 years ago. Due mainly to financial reasons, the scheme was carried forward year on year with no success. Construction is now proposed for 2014-5, based on a survey the prior year. The purpose of this petition is to demonstrate to the council that the local residents consider the lack of a crossing point to be a serious safety concern and that it should be their priority to complete this work before the 2014-15 financial year.

The petition is open until the 20th November and can be accessed via the following link: http://petitions.surreycc.gov.uk/Chobham-crossing/

It would be good to get more support from Horsell residents since the road is very well connected with all the footpaths and is essential for people to get to/from town or the Wheatsheaf playing fields.

Sara Rhydderch

bianconiuk@yahoo.co.uk

Co-operative store wish to relocate in Horsell

The Co-operative has this week submitted plans to Woking Borough Council for planning permission to carry out works to premises previously occupied by Woking Glass on Horsell High Street. The proposed plans are to convert and adapt the ground floor to accommodate a new store. The first floor is to be converted for staff usage and a storage area, with the remaining space to be retained for office use.

The Co-operative would then relocate from the existing premises on the High Street which would, in due course, be re-let to a retail outlet.

Dorothy Smith

Horsell’s ‘Second Thursday Club’ successfully launched

Around 25 Horsell residents met on July 12 to launch a new forum, following on the success of the Jubilation event. It is an attempt to build on village enthusiasm for working together on community projects. Open to all who live or work in Horsell, the meetings will be held on the second Thursday of each month – not counting August – and they will also meet online by registering via the co-ordinator Tony Kremer.

Tony says: “ We hoped to get ideas for events and activities, and already we have four good ones we are researching, each very different from the others. It’s equally important we get volunteers to carry out research on what needs to be done and to build teams to work on them together.”

So now the Second Thursday Club is working on:

• setting a regular monthly litter-pick morning
• planning a Christmas Market
• forming a community choir
• finding an educational and leisure use for an overgrown corner of land.

Tony can be contacted on 01483 764351 or a.kremer@ntlworld.com.

Tony Kremer

The next ‘Second Thursday Club’ is planned for 13th September 2012. See previous blogpost for more information on the Second Thursday Club.