Health Centres: Englefield Green deserves better

Time after time after time, political attitude surveys show the most important political issue to people to be that of the future of National Health Service.

Sadly, despite being the closest unit of government to the people – reflecting, what I hope, is the views of Runnymede residents – our local Borough Council has no power over our local health services.

The Government has provided all PCTs with funding for one GP-Led Health Centre to provide medical services for residents from 8am to 8pm, plus walk-in services for non-registered patients, foreign nationals etc.

Our local PCT, Surrey, wishes to provide this service at far-away Ashford Hospital! Click here for a map .

The site has been chosen because it is in an area of comparative deprivation where health services are not currently as strong as they could be.

That said, however, I concerned with the decision to place the clinic in Ashford for the following reasons:

1) Our local GPs in Runnymede could well lose patients thus further contributing towards the closure of GPs services. This is the last thing we need.

2) “In practice”, as the RBC formal response says, “the centre will only serve Ashford”. Can one really envisage residents in Englefield Green who cannot drive making the long trek to Ashford?

3) As alluded to in my previous post, public transport to the site poor. In common with all NHS services, the primary users of clinic are the elderly. How are elderly residents in Englefield Green expected to make their way to Ashford?

4) Quite honestly, we need a good local GP surgeries locally - not distant ‘health supercentres’.

Do let me know if you have any comments on the proposal before the cut-off dae of 9th July and I shall forward them on to relevant parties.

Longcross Incinerator Public Meeting

Over the past few weeks, I have received scores of e-mails from local residents in Englefield Green and across the Borough expressing their concern at the decision by the Executive of Surrey County Council to consider constructing a waste incinerator at Longcross in Lyne.

Runnymede Borough Council is firmly opposed to the scheme.

I thought you may be interested in hearing details of a public meeting with Philip Hammond MP will be held in the Ballroom at Wentworth on June 18th at 7:00pm.

Surrey County Council has now adopted their Waste Plan. This plan identifies only two sites within the whole County as being suitable for waste incineration facilities.

- The Green Belt land adjacent to the Wentworth Estate and Virginia Water.

- Capel – located to the west of Gatwick airport.

A planning application will shortly be submitted for an initial 160000 ton p.a. waste Incinerator to be located on the Green Belt land adjacent to the Wentworth Estate.

Many residents have asked the WRA to host a public meeting at which this development and its implications for the neighbourhood can be fully understood.

Following these many requests:

A public meeting will be held in the Ballroom of Wentworth Club on Wednesday, June 18th at 7pm.

The objective of the meeting is to provide a greater understanding on why County Councils’ choice of this site for a 24/7 Incineration plant is unsound and highlight action that can be taken by all residents of the Estate, Virginia Water and neighbouring villages to stop any planning application for this site being passed by the County.

Philip Hammond MP, Geoff Woodger Borough Councillor, and Peter Sims, Director Technical Services of Runnymede Borough Council will be on hand to provide their views on the Surrey County’s decision.

We look forward to meeting you in person to discuss and agree a unified action plan to fight this unwelcome development in our neighbourhood.

If you are unable to attend but would like to make a suggestion on the way forward, I would ask you to please contact me at wentworthresassoc@btinternet.com.

Kind regards

Melville Few
Chairman Wentworth Residents Association

Hugh Meares’ Mayoral Valedictory Statement

As I mentioned yesterday, Hugh Meares has concluded his year as Mayor of the Borough. I thought you may be interested in reading his valedictory Mayoral address to the Council.

Good Evening and Welcome – Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.

For many of those in the public gallery, this is the first time that you will have sat in this chamber; but what you may not know; is that is also the first time for most of us, as these are new Civic Offices which we only moved into last week.

This building is the result of several years complex planning. It’s a modern building, designed for modern working practices and it replaces the damaged and down at heel old buildings which you can see just beside us. In these difficult financial times, as the Governor of the Bank of England reminded us yesterday, you will be pleased to know that the sale of the old buildings will more or less pay for the new. I have been told not to dwell on this, as the pleasurable duty of officially opening the building will fall to the incoming mayor: but I will just say that the Architects have achieved the difficult task of producing a building which recognises and complements the surrounding architecture of Station Road and which inside is light, airy and above all a “Green” building in its operational credentials. It is only too easy for a project of this size to lose its individuality in the process which goes into its creation, but this award winning project was put together by a small working group of officers and councillors under the leadership of Cllr Furey and they have succeeded in stamping their own aesthetic on the building.

As I draw to the end of my Mayoral year, various people have asked me what engagements were the most interesting. The answer, and I am not being simply diplomatic, is that every event in the year was interesting. The year is a wonderful opportunity to discover wonderful things going on in the Borough which one has never known of. It is also an opportunity to meet many volunteer and vocational workers and see at first hand what they contribute – and to let them know how much the Borough appreciates their service. In fact, that is the message in the motto of our Borough. (You can see on the wall behind me, the original Grant of Arms to Egham and of Chertsey and then the current arms of Runnymede into which those two were combined. The Chertsey motto was “servire contendimus”, which means “We strive to serve” and that of Egham “Ut homines liberi sint” which refers to Magna Carta “That men should be free”. These were combined to our current motto “In Freedom We serve”.)

If I were to share just one or two highlights with you, one would be the Magna Carta Triennial in Canterbury – joining a military procession with full brass band, parading through the ancient town of Canterbury with the five Mayors of the Charter Towns in full robes behind the Master of the Rolls, one of the most senior judges in the land, dressed in his knee britches and periwig and being photographed by the Japanese tourists who clearly thought that this was a regular Sunday ritual in Cantab.

For the Mayoress, the most exacting moment might have been being asked to choose the most glamorous Grandad from a line up of burly glamorous granddads at the Lyne summer fair.

My own most exacting moment was being filmed for a Channel 4 documentary “Tony Robinson’s Crime and Punishment” which goes out shortly, although I still hoping that this episode may have found its way to the cutting room floor. I was with Tony Robinson on the Runnymede meadows explaining how the Magna Carta was sealed between the Barons and the King with a “Kiss of Peace” when he whipped a golden crown onto his head and planted a kiss of peace on my nose.

On a more serious note, one of the highlights of my year has been to hear from Surrey Police that Total Reported Crime in Runnymede dropped by 13.4% in the year to March 2008.

And last Sunday, I attended the Commonwealth Memorial Service at the Air Force Memorial in Coopers Hill Lane with almost every High commissioner in London present and Heathrow closed for 4 minutes to allow a Lancaster and Spitfire from the Battle of Britain memorial flight to fly past.

I would like to now recognise some of the people who have been so much help to me during this year. Mandy Smith somehow manages to combine the role of Secretary to the Chief Executive and the Borough Secretary with the role of Secretary to the Mayor. She is an enormous source of strength, not only in keeping the Mayor’s diary and in arranging functions such as the Mayor Making tonight, but also in providing a constant stream of indispensable advice.

The Mayor generally carries out 3 functions exclusively on behalf of the Borough and another 3-4 functions which are charitable, and include the Opera Evening, the Ball and a Mayoress’s lunch or Golf Day. Unlike some Boroughs, Runnymede has no events manager, so these require a great deal of work to be put in by the Mayor’s Charity Committee. Those of you who were present at them were kind enough to say that you thought they were entertaining and stylish and this was one of the main aims of my Mayoral Year, to present the Borough at its best.

My principal charities were three,

- Home Start providing care for the Young,
- Runnymede Care Assistance providing care for the Old
- and Eyes Right.

These events have raised more than £20,000 for the Mayor’s Charities as well as being events which have drawn our community together.

I would also particularly like to single out Michelle who has done an enormous amount of work this year. There are over 700 names on the Mayor’s list of people who merit recognition by the Borough for the part they play in civic, vocational or voluntary activity, as well as the businesses which operate in the Borough. She has completely reworked the Mayor’s list of guests and prepared the guest lists for all of the functions and she has also worked indefatigably on their organisation.

In this she has been supported by her charity committee which included Derek and Diana Cotty who did so much for the Civic Service and the Ball, Chris Norman who organised the Golf Day. Thank you all very much.

There is one other name which deserves mention and that is Dr Brian Perry of Procter & Gamble. P&G like many US companies has a tradition of benevolence and support of the community and they have a program of support for a wide variety of community activities across Surrey. Brian was their community support officer, but his engagement in the community has gone far beyond his employed role. He has worked tirelessly for so many local charities and civic groups, in the evenings and at the week ends and has assisted Runnymede’s mayors for the last 5 years by sitting on the Charity Committee and providing expertise and continuity from on year to the next. He has just retired from P&G but intends now to continue to work every bit as hard for the community in his retirement. We thank him all greatly for his personal contribution and I would like to present him with a small token of our respect. (presentation of crested glass champagne flutes).

I would now like to thank all of those who have worked to make by Mayoral year so enjoyable, Father Michael who has been such a wonderful MC this year and who sadly is in the poorest of health and who gave us such a wonderful civic service when not at all well; the companies in the Borough who have so generously donated, Great Fosters for their magnificent Civic Reception, Foxhills for a wonderful golf day and Wentworth for a very glamorous ball; and, finally, the deputy mayor who has so ably supported me and to whom the rest of this evening deservedly belongs and so now is perhaps the appropriate moment to move on to the next item of formal business which is the election of the new Mayor.

Annual Council 2008

After a successful year as Mayor, Hugh Meares handed over the chains of office to Cllr Jim Broadhead (pictured right) at the ‘Annual Council’ meeting yesterday evening.

I know that the majority of people reading this blog know Hugh well and would agree that he has been a fantastic ambassador for the Borough over the past year. The sense of pomp, ceremony and grandeur that he brought to both Council meetings and his hugely enjoyable civic events was hugely enjoyable, not to mention the thousands of pounds he raised for local charities during his year in office.

Jim, a theatrical and jovial chap with a naturally sunny disposition, will be supported by his Lady Mayoress Cllr Peggy Broadhead who herself served as Mayor of the Borough between 2002 and 2003. The new Deputy Mayor is Cllr Paul Tuley (Chertsey Meads).

Lisa Lawson and Andrew Panter were unanimously elected as residents’ representatives to the Englefield Green committee.

The full list of committee appointments as approved by a unanimous vote of the Council is as follows:

CORPORATE MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE (10 Members)

Councillors J R Furey (Chairman), D R Hamilton (Vice-Chairman), A Alderson, J M Edwards, Mrs L M Gillham, H W V Meares, C J Norman, P I Roberts, PJ Waddell and G B Woodger.

External Appointments Sub-Committee (6 Members)

Councillors J R Furey, Mrs L M Gillham, C J Norman, P I Roberts, P J Waddell and G B Woodger.

Civic Offices Sub-Committee (6 Members)

Councillors A Alderson, J R Furey, C J Norman, P I Roberts, P J Waddell and G B Woodger.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE (10 Members)

Councillors P I Roberts (Chairman), D A Cotty (Vice-Chairman), A Alderson, M J Brown, H A Butterfield, Mrs R M Denby, Mrs C E Gant, J W C Perschke, L C Pouyanne and J J Wilson.

HOUSING AND COMMUNITY SERVICES COMMITTEE (10 Members)

Councillors P J Waddell (Chairman), H A Butterfield and Mrs R M Denby (Vice-Chairmen), J R Ashmore, C J Chapman, R J Edis, P A Francis, R N Jones, Mrs M Roberts and J J Wilson.

LEISURE AND ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE (10 Members)

Councillors C J Norman (Chairman), M J Brown and Miss M N Heath (Vice-Chairmen), C J Chapman, A J Davis, Mrs M T Harnden, M T Kusneraitis, A M Moore, J W C Perschke and L C Pouyanne.

LICENSING COMMITTEE (10 Members)

Councillors Mrs P I Broadhead (Chairman), Mrs FJ Barden (Vice-Chairman), R J Edis, P A Francis, Mrs E Gill, Mrs M T Harnden, R N Jones, C Knight, D W Parr and Mrs M Roberts.

Licensing Sub-Committees (3 Members)

Three Members drawn from the membership of the Licensing Committee.

REGULATORY COMMITTEE (5 Members)

Councillors D W Parr (Chairman), R J Edis (Vice-Chairman), Mrs P I Broadhead, Mrs M T Harnden and C Knight.

PLANNING COMMITTEE (15 Members)

Councillors G B Woodger, (Chairman), D W Parr (Vice-Chairman), Mrs F M Angell, J R Ashmore, Mrs FJ Barden, J M Edwards, J R Furey, Mrs E Gill, C Knight, M T Kusneraitis, Mrs Y P Lay, H W V Meares, Mrs M Roberts, N Stewert and P B Tuley.

REVIEW BOARD (9 Members)

Councillors P B Tuley (Chairman), H W V Meares (Vice-Chairman), D A Cotty, A J Davis, P A Francis, Mrs L M Gillham, R N Jones, A M Moore and A P Tollett.

Committee Appointments for 2008-9

On Thursday evening, the ‘Annual Council’ meeting will take place; a meeting where the new Mayor and Deputy Mayor officially take office and councillors are allocated their committee appointments for the year ahead.

Pending a final vote by members of the Borough Council, the Englefield Green Councillors have been nominated to serve on the following committees:

Daniel Hamilton – Corporate Management (Vice-Chairman)
Marisa Heath – Leisure and Environment (Vice-Chairman)
Mike Kusneraitis – Leisure and Environment / Planning
Hugh Meares – Review Board (Vice-Chairman) / Corporate Management
Jack Perschke – Lesiure and Environment / Economic Development
Pat Roberts – Economic Development (Chairman) / Corporate Management

All councillors will continue to sit on the Englefield Green committee. In addition to this, two representatives from residents living around The Green. The three names which will be voted on by the Borough Council are Andrew Panter, Andrew Telford and Lisa Lawson.

Bakeham Lane Road Works

Apologies for the lack of blog postings over the past few weeks – things have all been rather quiet on the Council-front following the Borough Council elections. With the committee appointments for the 2008/9 year and Annual Council meeting taking place this week, things promise to be much busier over the coming days…!

I have, this morning, received an e-mail from Surrey County Council’s Highways Department alerting me to work that will be carried out on Bakeham Lane from 19th May for approximately four weeks.

Royal Holloway will be digging up parts of the road to lay down fibre optic cables in order to provide a communication link between the Royal Holloway Campus and the Huntersdale Campus.

Over the short length to the north of Prune Lane the cable will be installed in the verge. However, it will be necessary to use temporary 2-way traffic signals to maintain the required safe working zone. This element of the works will be restricted to off-peak periods.

At the point where the cable crosses the junction with Prune Lane it will be necessary to use temporary 3-way traffic lights and these works will take place over a weekend. I will confirm the dates as soon as I receive notification.

The remainder of the works will require the use of 2-way temporary traffic signals 24 hours a day since the cable is having to be installed in the carriageway.

Please click here to download a PDF outlining where the works will be taking place.

New Civic Offices

On Friday afternoon, I was delighted to attend a tour of the Borough Council’s new Civic Offices in Addlestone. Whilst construction problems have delayed the move to the new offices by several months, it was well worth the wait.

The present Civic Offices (which were constructed in 1968 with a shelf-life of only 25 years) are, to put it charitably, dark, dank, decrepit and depressing. The bright, airy, spacious and open plan new offices will undeniably prove to be a much better working environment for the Council’s staff.

The most impressive part of the building is undoubtedly the new Safer Runnymede Control Centre; a room whose careful design and use of state-of-the-art technology resembles both the deck of the Starship Enterprise and a Westend nightclub. In conjunction with EGVRA, I will be organising a visit to the facility in the next couple of months.

The atrium of the Civic Offices

I explore the yet-to-be-furnished first floor of the building!

Cllr Yvonna Lay tries out the furniture…

The new Runnymede Council Chamber.

The first Council meeting to be held in the new offices will be the Planning Committee on 14th May followed by Annual Council on 15th May where Cllr Jim Broadhead will be installed as Mayor with Cllr Paul Tuley as his Deputy.

Thanks to Cllr Elaine Gill for allowing me to post these photographs on this blog.

Thank you to Chris Clark

Whilst my last couple of weeks of blogging activity have been almost solely devoted to various ramblings about the Borough Council elections I wanted to write a short post paying tribute to the work of Chris Clark, the outgoing Head of External Relations at Royal Holloway.

When I was originally elected to the Borough Council, I had expected to be deluged with complaints from local residents about late-night noise and poor student behaviour. To date, I have only received two complaints; both regarding parking. Out on the doorsteps over the past few weeks, many residents have praised the University for initiatives such the ‘Big Spring Clean’ which has brought a new lease of life to areas of the village. Speaking to many people in the village, it appears that much of the good will demonstrated towards Royal Holloway has been generated over the past five or so years and in no small part because of the tenacity of Chris and his team in working with groups like the Englefield Green Residents’ Association to work constructively to find solutions to the problems of tensions between the student and resident population.

The Royal Holloway and Runnymede Consultative Group which was founded by Chris last year in order to bring together local councillors, representatives from the Egham and Englefield Green Residents’ Associations and the Students’ Union has already begun to make a difference locally and I am delighted that the group will continue to meet several times a year.

I know that I speak for all the councillors and community groups in Englefield Green and Egham when I say that we’ll hugely miss Chris. We all wish him the very best of luck for the future.

Runnymede Election Results 2007

The people have spoken. It has been a very long day so please do excuse me if I keep my comments on the election results today brief…

Both Marisa Heath and Hugh Meares were re-elected to the Borough Council with increased majorities from the 2007 result. Despite heavily targeting both Englefield Green wards, Labour were the real losers on the evening. In the East, Labour finished only 10 votes ahead of UKIP with around 9% of the vote whilst in the West the Green Party almost stole a march on the UK’s governing party! In numerical terms, the UKIP vote fell in both wards. I am delighted that Marisa and Hugh have been re-elected as Councillors.

The Conservative group has four new faces: Chris Chapman and Louis Poyanne in Chertsey St Anns, Jon Wilson in Egham Hythe and Paul Francis in Foxhills. I have known Chris and Jon for a long while and know that both will be outstanding councillors. On the Independent benches, we welcome Margaret Harnden in Thorpe.

On that same note, whilst I am strongly of the opinion that age – young or old – should have no baring whatsoever on the ability of anyone to serve as a local Councillor, I am proud that Runnymede now has six representatives under the age of 30. We’re even being talked about over at the Daily Telegraph and on ConservativeHome.com.

Finally, congratulations to John Edwards and Chris Norman who are celebrating 25 years as members of the Borough Council today!

For the real political anoraks amongst you, the results for each ward are as follows:

Englefield Green East

UKIP 91
Con (Marisa Heath) 493
Lab 101
Lib 264

Englefield Green West

Green 109
Lib 77
Lab 129
*Con (Hugh Meares) 464
UKIP 264

Addlestone Bourneside

*Con (Peggy Broadhead) 975
Lab 230
Ind 141

Addlestone North

UKIP 77
*Con (Becky Denby) 731
Lab 185
Lib 132

Chertsey Meads

UKIP 294
*Con (Chris Norman) 826
Lab 247

Chertsey St Anns (2 vacancies)

UKIP 191
*Con (Chris Chapman) 755
Lab 395
Lab 461
UKIP 142
*Con (Louis Poyanne) 698

Chertsey South and Rowtown

*Con (John Edwards) 947
UKIP 262
Lab 201

Egham Hythe

Lab 299
Lab 281
Lib 187
*Con (Yvonna Lay) 659
UKIP 141
Lib 191
*Con (Jon Wilson) 600

Foxhills

*Con (Paul Francis) 975
Lab 227
UKIP 187

New Haw

Lib 339
*Con (Adrian Tollett) 895

Thorpe – 2 vacancies

*Ind (Elaine Gill) 1024
*Ind (Margaret Harnden) 935
Con (Geoff Roberts) 485
Con (Nick Wase-Rogers) 373

Woodham

Lab 272
*Con (Bob Jones) 1187

Virginia Water

UKIP 159
Lib 218
*Con (Margaret Roberts) 986

It’s Election Day! Get out and vote!

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The polls will be open from 7:00am until 10:00pm tonight, with results declared by around 1:00am on Friday morning. I urge you to support your two excellent Conservative candidates in Englefield Green.

I will be publishing a full round-up of the results on this blog early on Friday morning.

ENGLEFIELD GREEN EAST – Marisa Heath

If you live in Albert Road, Alder Close, Alderside Walk, Armstrong Road, Ashdene, Bakeham Lane, Barley Mow Road, Barnway, Bulkeley Close, Chestnut Drive, Clarence Drive, Coopers Hill Lane, Danehurst Close, Egham Hill, Englefield Close, Falaise, Falconwood, Furzedown Close, Greenacre Court, Harvest Road, Highfield Close, Highfield Road, Hollycombe, Kinburn Drive, Kingswood Close, Kingswood Rise, Lancaster Close, Lodge Close, Middle Hill, Oak Tree Drive, Parsonage Road, Prune Hill, Roberts Way, Savill Mews, South Road, Spencer Gardens, St Cuthbert’s Close, St Jude’s Road, The Retreat, Tite Hill, Victoria Street or Willow Walk you vote at:

Jurgens Centre
(Adjacent to the Catholic Church)
91 Harvest Road

Click here for a map.

If you are a Royal Holloway student (students living in Halls have been automatically registered to vote) that lives in Beeches, Butler, Chestnuts, Elm Lodge, Founders, Gower, Highfield Court, Kingswood, Penrose Court, Reid, Runnymede, Tuke, Wedderburn or Williamson you vote at:

Room G24
Ground Floor
Arts Building

ENGLEFIELD GREEN WEST – Hugh Meares

If you live in Englefield Green but do not live in one of the roads specified above, you vote at:

Englefield Green Youth Club
Corby Drive
Englefield Green

Click here for a map.

EGHAM TOWN – Andrew Sheldon

If you live in Egham, you vote at:

Egham Town Band Hall
Waspe Farm Car Park
Station Road

Click here for a map.

HYTHE – Yvonna Lay and Jon Wilson

If you live the Hythe you vote at:

The Hythe Centre
Thorpe Road
Staines
TW18 3HD

Click here for a map.

If you do not live in Egham or Englefield Green, please click here to find out the location of your polling station.

All British, European Union and Commonwealth citizens over the age of eighteen are entitled to vote in this election.

If you are unsure as to whether or not you are registered to vote, please contact the Borough Council’s Election Office on 01932 425 650.