Surrey Police Authority Fights Budget Cuts

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The short fact sheet can be viewed here.

Agenda – Open Meeting – 1st June 2009

Leatherhead Residents’ Association

Agenda – Open Meeting – 1stJune 2009
at the Letherhead Institute, 7pm

1. Apologies for Absence

2. Minutes of meeting on May 2009

3. Matters Arising in the Minutes

4. The Theatre, Past and Future – an illustrated talk by Simon Fielder, Artistic Director.

5. Reports from sub Groups

a) Planning – The Core Strategy Inquiry

b) Highways – LRA submission to MVDC, and response

6. Any Other Business

Community Fun Day - Saturday 13th June 12PM-4PM

Click on images to enlarge ..

Agenda for tonight's meeting?

I notice that although on the 'Meetings' page we are told to see the Blog for the Agenda for the meeting on may 11th, no such agenda appeared on the Blog. I have been trying to discover the agenda in the past few days. I have just learnt that it is likely to be:

Apologies

Last Minutes

Matters Arising

Police Report (and clarification on future reports)

Open Discussion on Seating in the High Street

Any other business

I hope the Association can give more advanced notice next month!

Leatherhead Advertiser reporter raising money for cancer charity

Leatherhead Advertiser reporter David Blackmore is raising money for a bowel cancer charity to help schoolchildren and their parents in South Africa.
He will be taking part in the Bobby Moore Fund’s Project South Africa, which will see volunteers heading out to the African country in March 2010 to renovate a dilapidated school and a football pitch in partnership with the local population.
The project will give the local children and their parents the chance to continue their education in their own village, close to their families, rather than being obliged to move away.
The 22-year-old will be hosting many fundraising events throughout the year and will have a football-themed stall at Ashtead Village Day on June 20.
The West Ham fan is hoping to raise more than £4,000 to go towards the project and also to bowel cancer research.

He said: “With the project taking place next year it makes my fundraising effort even more poignant as in summer of 2010 there will be a little competition called the World Cup in South Africa.

“As I am sure you are aware, one of Bobby Moore’s biggest claims to fame is being the only England captain to have lifted the World Cup.”


To make a donation visit www.justgiving.com/davidblackmore6 and for more information about the project e-mail david.blackmore@essnmedia.co.uk or call 01306 88 66 90.

In addition, David would also like to hear from local business who are interested in helping him and maybe hold their own fundraising event.

South East Surrey Community Pharmacy - May Bank Holiday Rota

Bank Holiday Pharmacy Cover for both May Holidays (4th & 25th) are as follows:

Boots the Chemist 10.00am – 4.00pm

11 Swan Court

Leatherhead, KT22 8AN

01372 372751

Ashtead-Leatherhead Forum

Last evening was the third Ashtead-Leatherhead Forum I have attended - and the longest! 7.30 it started and went to 9.55 - and was it worth it, I ask myself?
"Sustainability in the Home" was competently presented by Graeme Kane. Is he doing this for each Area Forum? Anyone interested in sustainability can go to the MVDC website: http://www.molevalley.gov.uk/greener/

Then we were told about the refurbishment and management of the Leisure Centre. This went on and on and on; the presentation was rambling and not always easy to follow (or hear) - the main thing I learnt from the long and tedious presentation was that MVDC seems to be the only District Council in this area that's offering free swimming to the over-60s. No doubt this presentation was made here because it is realized that people from Ashtead use the Leisure Centre as well people from Leatherhead.  But, hey, don't we ever get people from Fetcham or Bookham as well?

As it was getting late by this time, it was thought that the Police report should be made at this stage, since Leatherhead High Street could wait (Where have I heard that sentiment before?). But weren't we in effect,  hearing what's reported, probably in greater detail, at the Ashtead, North Leatherhead & South Leatherhead police pannels?

Anyway, somewhere around 9.20 we came to "Leatherhead High Street"! I waited expectantly to see the plan the Council had for its latest refurbishment of the High Street, since at our AGM in March I recalled "All be revealed on the 22nd April." Was all revealed? Was it like as heck! There was no overall plan presented; no detail of where seating areas or parking bays would be. As I understood it, each restaurant will have to apply separately for planning permission if it wants to retain outside seating after 4.30 pm - in other words, a piecemeal approach yet again.

Basically, I learnt nothing that I had not known before - except for the sort of barrier the Council would be recommending so that traffic wouldn't accidently knock into happy diners!

An audience member from Ashtead pointed out that Leatherhead High street was of interest not only to residents of Leatherhead but also to those of Ahtead, Fetcham & Bookham as people from these places frequently come into Leatherhead to shop. That, said the Chair, is why it is being discussed at the Ashtead-Leatherhead Forum. But the cries of 'What about Fetcham & Bookham' were ignored.

But that is the point, isn't it. This is something of interest to residents of all these places. Would not the more appropriate Forum for discussing this be the "Leatherhead and District Forum" (formerly the "Town Centre Forum')? Yet the Council refuse to acknowledge that Forum. Is the Council afraid that it might learn what people really want from that Forum?
Why must we have the Bookham-Fetcham and Ashtead-Leatherhead Fora thrust on us? Very few, if any, in the north of Mole Valley wanted these Area Fora. Why cannot the MVDC consult directly with each of the four Residents' Associations on matters affecting each community, and take part in the Leatherhead & District Forum on matters of common interest to the whole of the north Mole Valley area.

Food Waste - where do we go from here?

The Food Waste trial in Fetcham is coming to an end. MVDC have failed to provide an alternative and build on the experience gained from the trial. This is disappointing from a Council that likes to boast about it's high recycling rate.

Anaylsis of the figures from DEFRA (November 2008) show that MVDC is 12th place for dry recycling, however, the council's record on composting & food waste is poor in comparison. The overall position is that MVDC lies in 46th place out of all the English Local Authorities. The figures are:

• Recycling : 32.81 %
• Composting (inc Food Waste): 12.91%
• Total 45.72% (leading councils are around 58%)
  

A quick check of the MVDC website does not give any further indication of what the future plans are. The link to the Food Waste Collection Trial is broken - even if the trial has ended, it would be useful to know the results & conclusions. The linked Local Waste Strategy document only looks as far as 2009 and curiously is named "draft_strategy.pdf". What are the plans for the future? If you email the Recycling Officer at the email address given you do not get a reply - perhaps there is no officer or future plans to "Green up the Valley".

Okay, MVDC signed the Nottingham Declaration & they claim to have an award for their website. However, it would be interesting to see how they plan to achieve the recycling rates that they lay out in the Sustainable Development Strategy Document (v6) In this document, the national targets for recycling are set as:

• To recycle or compost at least 25% of household waste by 2005
• To recycle or compost at least 30% of household waste by 2010
• To recycle or compost at least 33% of household waste by 2015

MVDC aims a lot higher (probably because the district has almost hit the 2015 goal) by adopting the "Surrey Joint Municipal Waste ManagementStrategy (JMWMS) in October 2006. This strategy is covers municipal waste management in Surrey for the period 2006 to 2026". This set targets of:

• recycling and composting targets of 40% by the year 2010
• recycling and composting targets of 50% by 2015
• aspire to reach a long term target of 60% recycling and composting by 2025.

Now, there is some confusion here. What is the point of adopting these targets if Mole Valley is already at a 47% rate ? Further on in the Sustainability Strategy Document, the Community Action Plan states:

• To exceed the government recycling and composting target of 30% - to 36% during 2006.
• To reach 42% recycling rate by 2008.

You have to assume at this point that the document is due a revision to reflect the current state of recycling in the area. Most importantly, the document does not have any Commitment to Action on the subject of Food Waste. Obviously, individual can do more by not wasting as much & not rely on on our resource stretched Authorities. Folks can also use a Food Cone or a wormery. The Council actively encourages the first of these options, however, not everyone has the space or the know how to use these solutions and so a proposal for Food Waste needs to be put forward to put Mole Valley back at the top of the list of Green local authorities.

It would be nice to see the Leatherhead Residents Association actively pushing MVDC for answers on this topic.

Litter Pick

To say that the Litter Pick on 19th April was not well supported is an understatement. I know that regrettably the Spring Newsletter has been delayed and, therefore, the Litter Pick was not as widely publicized as we had hoped. It had, however, been announced at the open meeting earlier this month.

Three of us spent two hours endeavouring to make Leatherhead a little tidier and I realize that other commitments kept some away who would otherwise have joined us. I trust we in the new Residents' Association still retain the civic values of the old Leatherhead Society and want to make our town & its environment a better place.

See you on the next Litter Pick     :)

Ashtead-Leatherhead Area Forum Agenda

Dear All

The Ashtead-Leatherhead Area Forum Agenda for the next meeting on 22nd April is now available on the Council's website.

Please click on the following link to view the agenda:-

http://www.molevalley.gov.uk/media/pdf/p/1/Ashtead_Leatherhead_22nd_April_2009.pdf

(A hard copy of the agenda will be distributed to Mole Valley District Councillors on Thursday 9th April).

With kind regards,

Arabella Davies

Arabella Davies

Democratic Services Manager

tel 01306 879137

arabella.davies@molevalley.gov.uk

Agenda for April's Open Meeting

The next Open Meeting will be held on April 6th starting at 7pm at the Leatherhead Institute.

The agenda:

1. Apologies
2. Minutes
3. Matters arising
4. Parking issues
5. Reports from other local groups
6. General reports from sub-committees
7. AOB

Surrey Police Pledge

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Surrey Police Pledge - full document here

North Street - Bus Stop Improvements

Location: D288 NORTH STREET - LEATHERHEAD

Days of work: .From 23 March 2009 to 6 April 2009

Times of work: 07.00 - 19.00; Monday to Friday

What will the work involve? Bus Stop Improvements
How will my route be affected? Kerb and footway to be restricted

Who has been informed about the roadworks? Information on the web (???)

Who is doing the works? Surrey Highways Partnership

National Science and Engineering Week: 6 - 15 March 2009

National Science and Engineering Week is part of the ‘Science: [So What? So Everything]’ campaign which aims to show people how science benefits our everyday lives, is crucial in strengthening the UK economy and meeting some of the major challenges of our time.

More details here.

Friends of Triel Leatherhead and District Twinning Association

Website: http://www.friendsoftriel.com/

Leatherhead & District was officially twinned with a small town in the North West of Paris called Triel-sur-Seine in 2004 following informal exchanges that had taken place on a regular basis since 1992. Every year there are exchanges between groups in our area and groups in Triel.

Our last exchange visit was a great success, our biggest and busiest ever with a 55 French vistors travelling by coach to visit us. The next Exchange Visit will be taking place from Friday 23 May to Monday 26 May 2009 when we will be travelling to Triel. More information can be found here.

There is great enthusiasm in Triel to link up with local organisations over here - representatives from French churches, choral societies, football clubs, schools and a host of other organisations in Triel are keen to foster links with similar organisations in the Leatherhead area. The twinning committee would be delighted to hear from any local groups who would like to join the 'Friends of Triel'. On a more personal level, the welcome and hospitality encountered by the various groups who have visited Triel over the years is always warm and generous. The committee are keen to expand the membership of the 'Friends of Triel' and would welcome any individuals or families who would like to join as new members.

Surrey Police March 2009

Click on the image to enlarge.

AGM Treasurer's Report

We are indebted to John Hampton for auditing these Accounts.

The Leatherhead Residents’ Association has a very healthy bank balance at present, including a ‘General Reserve’ of £3000 - the amalgamation with the Leatherhead Society providing this. The three year membership fee, that the majority of our members have paid, has to be split over a three year period in the accounts – a third of it is transferred to the Income and Expenditure account each year and this is the amount of money that can be used for that year, together with the one year membership fees and any donations.

In order to give our members good value for their membership fee, anyone joining the Association after 1 September each year is recorded as being a member from January the following year and therefore receives four months free membership. Membership fees received in advance therefore go into the accounts for the following year – expenses of course for those four months still go into the accounts for that year, and this is why the Income and Expenditure Account and Balance Sheet show a deficit, when in fact the bank balance is healthy.

As the LRA started up from scratch eighteen months ago, there have been some startup expenses, such as starting up the Road Steward system based on the system used by the Bookham and Ashtead Residents’ Associations. These associations have found that a network of road stewards is the best way of maintaining a high level of membership, which is vital if the Leatherhead Residents’ Association is to represent the views of the residents to the local council and town forums etc.

Now that we have established a system for running the Association and for getting more members, we have made some changes and should not be incurring the amount of expenses we have had over the last eighteen months. However, we still need to set up more Road Stewards and the membership fees will also be used to cover the cost of hiring the meeting room, printing membership forms and of course producing the newsletters.


Paula Sabine
Hon. Treasurer

AGM Chairman's Report

Due to the inspiration of David Smith the Residents Association was re-vitalised from the remaining nucleus of the Leatherhead Society, and thanks to the hard work particularly of Paula Sabine and Fran Barnby the membership has grown from two to five hundred households. Ray Brown set us on course with the establishment of our Website and we now have the excellent support of our Webmaster John Bleackley.

I am not going to bore you with a summary of the events of the past eighteen months. All members have received our newsletters and those who have access to the Website have a regular update of minutes and are aware of our concern with events in the area concerning planning, parking, the High Street, the River Path, Epsom Hospital, transport and the Core Strategy – future planning for Mole Valley.

My task is to thank members who have supported our meetings, Roy and Cheryl Allen and Caroline Brown for their support to local residents and their concerns over planning issues.

Over this past year that has been a considerable increase in concern over consultation, MVDC has provided training for Residents Associations concerning planning, but the situation still continues of proposals concerning the High Street where consultation has not been extended sufficiently to residents who are concerned over the obstruction to comfortable and safe access through the High Street, due to clutter of A boards, chairs and tables, parked cars and the sad state of the paving, drains and rough cobbles. However there appears to be action planned to improve this situation.

Changes have been made in the methods of providing information and consultation. We no longer receive paper copies of minutes and Agendas of the MVD Council meetings, and now have to rely on the Internet. The introduction of Council controlled Forums, in our case the Ashtead and Leatherhead Forum, has led to concern from all four district Residents Associations in the North of Mole Valley, who all agreed the importance of maintaining the Leatherhead Town Centre Forum as a means of sharing our mutual concerns. This has led to a change of name and will now be known as the Leatherhead and District Forum.

Three years ago representatives of each of the four areas led the research involved in the establishment of the Leatherhead Plan and the eventual formation of the Leatherhead Area Partnership to enable the opportunity for finding additional funding for local projects. Some have been successful, a few led yet again to concerns over insufficient consultation. Three members of the Leatherhead Residents committee, David Smith, Paula Sabine and myself are now members of the Leatherhead Area Partnership and are in a better position to represent the concerns of residents and also to promote local need for organisations needing funding.

The LAP now intend to centre their aims on supporting local organisations, which will ensure that projects are put forward that are hopefully not likely to cause contentious opposition. That is my interpretation of the decision. The LAP reports to the Leatherhead District Forum and it also has established links and incorporates representation by local Council Officers and County and District Councillors, at present these are Tim Hall and David Sharland.

Another change intended to involve greater public in-put to influencing services is the establishment of Local Involvement Networks, which replace the Patient and Public Information forums. Members of the public are invited to monitor both Health and Social Services. Surrey LINks is in its first year of establishing committees and I serve on the communications and mental health groups.

The Government have also decided that greater concern should be taken in the views of people of age 50+, and the establishment of local a regional forums through Age Concern and the amalgamation of Age Concern and Help the Aged are again adding to a volume of meetings, not to mention the Co-design meetings held by the Surrey Primary Care Trust concerning the provision of services at Epsom Hospital. The outcome of these is to be announced on Wednesday at Epsom Town Hall.

Challenges: The recent announcement of MVD cuts in subsidies and increases in charges, in the current credit crunch, leaves us all aware of the need for not only tightening our own belts, but also the need for extra support both by volunteers and petitioning and fund-raising. One advantage of the concerns of climate change and considering reducing the effects of CO2 emissions is that it involves reducing expenditure, although sometimes it involves initially increased installations costs. The arrival of 1400 employees to Unilever in Leatherhead has increased the road and parking problems, but hopefully helps to support our local shops.

This week presented the proposals for waiting restrictions for consultation and the next stage of the Core Strategy and housing provision proposals. But without consultation the latter has included a suggestion of a possibility of increased housing provision over the car park area in Bridge Street.

This last Saturday a number of voluntary and service organisations took part in a health and community event jointly promoted with Mole Valley 50+. Apart from providing information useful to a number of residents on issues of finance, carers concerns, health, transport and volunteering, there were a number of suggested ventures, which will present us with challenges:

• The survival of the Theatre
• The formation of a Credit Union
• The offer of a musical event as an opportunity of funding.
• The challenge of encouraging Leatherhead to become a Transition town and to decrease the use of oil, preparing for the inevitable reduction in oil supplies and the problems of climate change.
• And an assurance of funding from Surrey County Council for a future community event.

As increasingly the means of communication becomes focused on e-mail and the Internet, I find myself involved with communication to a variety of organisations with members, who do not have access to the internet, either due to age, health problems or lack of income. I have reluctantly decided that I cannot cope with the increase of commitment that I have undertaken and have decided to step down from the chairmanship of the Residents Association, knowing that there are others with greater computer skills and experience of local government than myself well able to take over. I will continue to support the committee and look forward to the challenges that are inevitably going to keep me busy with your help.

Hilary Porter 1.3.09

Support Polesden Lacey Shakespeare

A New Beginning

The works of Shakespeare have been performed, since 1951, in the Open Air Theatre at the National Trust property Polesden Lacey, near Bookham in Surrey. The theatre was created in the grounds of this country mansion through the work of the Bookham Community Association. Performances of Shakespeare’s plays have been part of the summer festival under the umbrella of the National Trust. A new company, Polesden Lacey Shakespeare, has been formed to carry on this tradition. The National Trust continues support for our future plans but we need to find extra funding to help us progress our activities.

This year we present ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ on Saturdays 11th and 18th July and Sundays 12th and 19th July starting at 3pm. The production is directed and adapted by Margaret Hunter to make it accessible to all audience members young or old, with entertainment before and during the interval. Dorking Hall Box Office (01306 881717) have kindly agreed to act as our booking agency. Sale of tickets will commence on 2 April. Further information is available on www.polesden.co.uk.

What would we like you to do?

We have obtained an amount of funding but would of course welcome further support. A team of local professionals have been drawn together to prepare for the productions not only from the artistic but also the commercial point of view. We would like to grow the strength of Polesden Lacey Shakespeare to provide, in these idyllic surroundings, Shakespeare for audiences from the local community, London and the South East.

Last year the National Trust launched the Friends of Polesden Lacey Shakespeare. We have now taken it over from the Trust and are inviting public help to build the future of this much loved local tradition. We have taken over the website that was used for the festival and invite those interested in becoming a Friend to ring 01372 453638 or visit www.polesden.co.uk, for a joining form.

Whatever you choose to do, we do hope you will come and enjoy this enchanting play in the glorious surroundings of Polesden Lacey.

With all best wishes from
Margaret Hunter and Polesden Lacey Shakespeare

AGM Notification - 2nd March 2009 - 7pm

The Leatherhead Residents Association AGM will be held at the March open meeting on Monday March 2nd, following the Police Report at 7 pm.

The meeting will be held at the Letherhead Institute.


1.Police Panel
2. Apologies
3. Chairman’s Report “Change & Challenge”
4. Treasurer’s Report
5. Election of Committee members:

• Chairman
• Vice Chairman
• Treasurer
• Secretary
• Committee members (8)

(Currently serving members: Hilary Porter, David Smith,
Cheryl Allen, Roy Allen, Fran Barnby-Smith, Caroline Brown,
Ray Brown, Hubert Carr, Paula Sabine, Dennis Wickham.

6. Membership
7. Planning

• High Street
• Waiting restrictions

8. Members’ Issues
9. A.O.B.