Category Archives: Meetings

Next Waverley Local Area Committee Meeting

The next Waverley Local Area Committee meeting will be held on Friday 21st March 2014, at Haslemere Hall.

The meeting will include discussion of:

  • Operation Horizon: highway resurfacing programme
  • Road Safety Policy
  • Dementia Friendly Surrey

Meeting Poster

About Your Local Area Committee Waverley

Agenda LAC (Waverley) Dec 2013. Parking Review. Surrey Cycling Strategy. Next Full Council. Local Items

Cycle strategy meeting on 28th November 2013

Attended this meeting. View webcast here:

Item 13 of the LAC December 2013 meeting (see below) will consider the outcome of the recent consultation.

You may be interested to read the Draft Consultation, Surrey Transport Plan – Cycling Strategy 2014 – 2026 here.

FUTURE SCC MEETINGS

LAC Waverley meeting 13th December 2013

A review of the Phase 1 changes to the on-street parking arrangements in Haslemere that were introduced earlier this year (including residents-only parking and some yellow lining) is currently being carried out by the SCC parking team.  The review recommendations will be discussed at the Local Area Committee meeting being held in Godalming at 1.30pm on Friday December 13th, 2013.  The Committee can agree with the recommendations or adjust them, following which final recommendations will be published in the Haslemere Herald and in the Library for a period of public consultation.

All feedback will be taken into consideration and the recommendations with or without amendments will be taken to the Local Area Committee meeting in March 2014 for decision.

I have worked with the parking team to assess the impacts of Phase 1 with reference to 3 key criteria: Safety, Access and Efficiency. In my view, any refinement, enhancement or modification of the current Phase 1 arrangements will need to be based on these criteria alone.  This means that we can expect a relatively modest number of recommendations to come out of this regular parking review.  The full SCC parking review report and maps, are included in the committee papers, including the agenda.

The annual review of on-street parking in Waverley-wide car parking review is item 8 (pages 9-112), Waverley-wide review here.

If you only wish to read the Haslemere Review and see the maps, click here.

Environment & Transport Select Committee

Here is the agenda for the meeting of the Environment & Transport Select Committee to be held on 12 December 2013.

Items include:

  • Surrey Highways Customer Service & Resident Satisfaction
  • Community Recycling Centre Service Update
  • Tree Maintenance
  • Gully Cleaning Update

Next Full Council meeting

The agenda for the meeting of the COUNTY COUNCIL on 10 December 2013 is available here.

The meeting will be held in the Council Chamber and available to watch live on the Council’s website (http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/webcasts).  There is public seating in the gallery for approximately 50 people.

UPDATE ON LOCAL ISSUES

Wey Hill Re-surfacing

I am delighted that following extensive discussions with SCC highways Wey Hill has now been fully resurfaced.  In my November uopdate, I mentioned that there had been interim repairs. It was surprising to discover that Wey Hill was not included in the Project Horizon road repair program. I am grateful to John Hilder and his team at SCC for agreeing that the extremely poor condition of the road warranted a full repair.

Members’ Allocation

All SCC County Councillors receive a members’ allocation, £12,826 to be spent in their local communities.  I encourage any groups that would like to apply for some funding for their charity or community projects to contact me at nikki.barton@surreycc.gov.uk.  The deadline for applications for the 2013/14 is mid February, so I do urge anyone interested to apply.

Councillor Surgery

I look forward to receiving any input from people in Haslemere and Grayswood, and will host a surgery from 9.30-11.00am on Monday 9th December at Haslewey. See here for more information.

Junction Place

The yellow lines have been finally removed from Junction Place slip lane and this means there is space for more parking for shoppers here now.

Camelsdale Admissions Consultations

I wrote about this last week. Please read here.

Waitrose Local Producers Shopping Event

Waitrose are hosting a Christmas Shopping Evening between 4-8pm on Thursday 12th December. There are several local producers such as Langhams Brewery (Surrey), Wickham Vineyard (Fareham), More Food Cakes (Chichester), Farmhouse Cookery (West Sussex) which will offer tastings of their products, all stocked by Waitrose.

Councillor Surgery on Monday 9th December 2013, 9.30 – 11.00am

I will be holding a Councillor surgery on Monday 9th December 2013, 9.30 – 11.00am.

This will be at the Haslewey Community Centre.

This will be an open session where you can get information and advice, inquire about services that Surrey County Council provides, or speak with me about a council issue that you may wish to raise.

I look forward to meeting with you.

Next LAC Meeting, Parking Review, Wey Hill Repairs, Fosters Bridge, Fairground Public Inquiry, Members Allocations, Remembrance Service, Project Wenceslas and more

The next Local Area Committee (Waverley)

The next meeting will be on Friday 13th December 2013.

The meeting will include discussion of:

  • Review of on-street parking in Waverley
  • Highways improvement programme 2014-15
  • The work of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey: Kevin Hurley to attend

Download more information here.

SCC Parking Review

LAC Review: SCC Highways parking team are evaluating and reviewing the changes to on street parking introduced earlier this year, including the residents only parking scheme and lengths of yellow lining.

There is no intention to revoke the ROP scheme, and I have discussed this with the parking team, assessing the measures in terms of access, safety and efficiency.   In some areas of the scheme the on street parking capacity is not being used efficiently. There have been some displacement effects.

The parking team will supply me with a map of any alterations proposed which I will circulate before the LAC.  All changes will be taken to the Local Area Committee for discussion on December 13, 2013.  Any alterations approved by the committee will then be advertised in the Haslemere Herald for public consultation.  The parking team will collate all feedback and any changes to the on street parking provision will be voted on at the March, 2014 LAC meeting.

Weydown Road: Double parking at the bottom of Weydown Road is a cause for concern as identified by the residents’ association and Waverley police. I discussed the possibility of pushing through the parking proposals for Weydown Road (a series of parking bays on alternate sides of the road) as an emergency measure with the parking team and the chair of the LAC.  It was considered that the proposals should follow the due process, and be taken to the LAC in December.  I have agreement from both parties that the proposals will be implemented as a matter of priority following the March LAC meeting.  An interim measure of some additional white lining to improve access for one property has been agreed.

The issue of speeding cars has also been identified as an issue on Weydown Road. I requested to PC Canon that some action should be taken.  He has confirmed that Weydown Road will be placed on the Waverley Borough Council Speed Management Plan which will ensure it gets an appropriate level of enforcement/police activity.

Junction Place: SCC parking team has agreed to remove the double yellow lines on the slip road and restore the situation as it was before.  Currently cars are cutting through the slip road at very high speeds.

Project Horizon

The recent bad weather has resulted in delays to some Project Horizon repairs.

Wey Hill interim repairs

These took place on 19th November.

Fosters Bridge

LAC funds have been allocated for a feasibility study to understand why the road under Fosters Bridge floods.  Local residents with expert knowledge suggest improved drain clearance would greatly help the problem.  I have included a bid to the LAC for any structural improvements identified in the report, for example, an additional culvert to divert run off during periods of intense rainfall.

Wey Hill Fairground Car Park Public Inquiry

Received confirmation that the public inquiry into the planned refurbishment by Waverley Borough Council of the Wey Hill Fairground site would be held in April 2014.  The venue for the inquiry is located in Godalming.  Given the importance of this site, and the strength of public concern about its future I believe the meeting should be held in Haslemere. I made contact with the PINS case officer to understand who had made this choice. He confirmed that the responsibility for venue choice lies with the applicant, in this case WBC. PINS sets certain criteria for venue selection.  Haslemere Hall was the obvious choice, but is unavailable over the 3 days set for the inquiry.  I understand that discussions are being held with WBC to see if an alternative venue in Haslemere can be found.

Visits to Local Schools to meet Headteachers

Met Headteachers at Shottermill Infant and Junior Schools to understand how I might support them.

Remembrance Service

Represented SCC at the Haslemere Remembrance Service on Sunday 10th November.

Remembrance Service November 2013 Haslemere

Thanks to the Year 11 pupil at Woolmer Hill school who sent me this photograph, which is part of his portfolio for an application to Guildford College.

Woolmer Hill Year Eleven Memorial

Waverley Borough Council’s Haslemere Conservation Area Appraisal

Agreed to join steering group for Waverley Borough Council’s Haslemere Conservation Area Appraisal. A 6 week consultation period will begin in March 2014. The steering group will feed into the consultation.

Meeting with Town Mayor

Agreed the tree at the junction of Lower Street and Shepherds Hill will be removed and a substitute will be re-planted once funding has been agreed.

Haslemere Town Council’s November Full Council Meeting

Attended this evening and presented my County Councillor report (contents contained in this blog update).

Members’ Allocation

Each Surrey County Councillor receives a members’ allocation of £12,876 per year which must be allocated by the end of February, 2014.  Funding applications must meet the following criteria:

  • projects must benefit the community and be inclusive and accessible to all
  • meet the Council’s agreed policies or priorities
  • one off projects
  • supported by the local County Councillor

Excluded or restricted projects:

  • political organisations
  • delivery of the national curriculum
  • on going revenue costs
  • statutory obligations of other authorities
  • retrospective bids are discouraged

Each Local Committee also has £35,000 of Capital Funding allocated for 2013/14.

Please contact me if you would be interested in applying for funding for a community project at nikki.barton@surreycc.gov.uk.  The application process has been simplified and is now a straightforward process.  Once an application has been agreed, funding is transferred to the applicant within 2 weeks.

LOCAL AREA COMMITTEE, PRIVATE MEETING: 15 NOVEMBER, 2013

Surrey Superfast Broadband project

  • Fibre based infrastructure to over 84,000 Surrey homes and businesses, of this over 15,900 in Waverley.

On-street parking enforcement: role of Local Committee

  • Guildford Borough Council’s parking team run on street parking in Waverley as well as running both on and off street parking in Guildford and the park and ride sites.
  • Civil Enforcement Officers (CEOs) normally work between 7:30am and 18:15pm Monday to Saturday. Targeted patrols are also arranged outside of working hours to deal with problems that occur outside of the normal working day.
  • The three CEOs are split between the 4 main centres and surrounding areas in a ratio of Farnham (1), Godalming (1), Haslemere (0.5) and Cranleigh (0.5).
  • It has been agreed that surplus generated on the borough or district parking account will be split: 60% to local committee, 20% to the enforcement authority (district council) and 20% to the county council.
  • Regular reviews are needed in order to help improve road safety, increase access for emergency services, improve access to shops, ease traffic congestion and better regulate parking.

Adult Social Care in Waverley

  • In March 2013 Dementia Friendly Surrey launched countywide. For more information please visit www.dementiafriendlysurrey.org.uk.  A Recognition Scheme has been launched, recently Cranleigh held a meeting with local partners to discuss how the village could become more dementia-friendly – could we look at doing the same in Haslemere?

  • The Local Government Association’s Ageing Well programme in Surrey is a collaborative programme of work between the voluntary sector, public health, social care and wider partners to ensure that people are able to live healthy, independent lives, where older people are at the centre of decision making about services and designing new ways of working.  For more information: www.surreyinformationpoint.org.uk.

Sure Start Children’s Centre Report

  • Sure Start brings together services for young children from birth to 5 years and their families in a multi-professional way.
  • Core purpose: child development and school readiness, parenting skills and child and family health and life chances.
  • In Haslemere, the Tennyson’s Sure Start Centre, at St Bartholomew’s Primary provides an invaluable resource for families.

COMMUNICATION NOTICES FROM SCC

Surrey’s Telecare service

We all value our independence. And there will be times when we will need some support to maintain it. Our Telecare service is one of the ways we help residents remain in their own homes. Telecare provides people with sensors, such as a falls detector or smoke alarm, which are linked to a 24 hour monitoring centre. If there is an emergency, then our residents are not alone even if they live by themselves. And their loved ones can have reassurance from the service too. In 2011, 17% of Surrey’s population was aged 65 years or older. By 2035 it’s predicted that will increase to 24% (figures from Surrey-i). So demand for services like Telecare will increase. Please share information with neighbours who may have use of this service. (http://www.surreytelecare.com/)

Street Works

Communication from John Furey, Cabinet Member for Transport, Highways and Environment. Street Works is changing.  On the 11 November this year a new Permit Scheme was introduced to control works being carried out on Surrey’s roads. This replaces the current system known as Noticing.

Further details on the scheme can be found on the website:

http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/roads-and-transport/road-permits-and-licences/the-traffic-management-permit-scheme

Stronger council powers to cut roadworks misery – Road users plagued by roadworks will benefit from a new congestion crackdown launched this week by Surrey County Council. For years, the law has allowed different companies to dig up the same roads at different times, costing the local economy millions a year and causing misery to road users. Now the council is taking control of who digs where, when and with whom by introducing a permit scheme. If companies fail to plan enough to limit their impact on traffic, they will be refused permission to do the work. It is estimated this permit scheme means there will be up to 2,400 fewer roadworks in the county every year, will reduce congestion and save Surrey’s economy around £6.5 million a year.

Hi-tech glue revolutionises road repairs – A high-tech glue has revolutionised Surrey’s road repairs and is set to save taxpayers millions by recycling old roads and making them new. Instead of ripping up old roads and laying new ones, Surrey County Council is now mixing a super-flexible glue with recycled tarmac to transform it into a brand new surface.

Gritters swing into action – Surrey County Council’s winter operation has swung into action. The council’s fleet of gritting lorries was out this week for the first time this winter after road surface temperatures dipped. Ahead of winter, Surrey stockpiled 16,000 tonnes of salt, prepared 39 hi-tech gritters and signed up an army of farmers equipped with spreaders and ploughs. In addition, more than 1,800 roadside grit bins were filled. Roads were gritted extensively over night 19th-20th November.

Surrey’s Home to School Transport Policy

Communication from Claire Potier, Principal Manager Admissions and Transport (Strategy). Surrey County Council is consulting on its home to school transport policy for 2015. Details of the consultation and a link to the online response form are available online at www.surreycc.gov.uk/schooltransportconsultation.

In the current economic climate, Surrey County Council is not proposing any change to its home to school transport policy for 2015. With the cost of transport increasing, Surrey is working hard to ensure that its expenditure under existing policy remains within budget. Any proposal to extend or vary policy would lead to an increase in expenditure on home to school transport and any increase in expenditure would be likely to impact on other services that the Council offers as Surrey would need to consider making savings elsewhere to fund that increase.

However, whilst the County Council has not proposed any changes to its policy, it is interested to hear:

  • the views of Surrey residents and schools on the equity of the existing policy
  • details of any home to school transport difficulties that Surrey parents might currently face; and
  • details of any suggestions for change (recognising that any additional expenditure on home to school transport would mean that Surrey would need to make savings elsewhere).

Details of this consultation have been sent to all Surrey schools and early years providers along with a form of wording that they might use on their websites, in newsletters or on notice boards. However in order to reach a wider audience I am sharing with readers here.

LOCAL INFORMATION AND TOWN EVENTS

For travel information on the move including Winter gritting information follow www.twitter.com/surreytravel

For seasonal highways information, www.surreycc.gov.uk/highwaysinfoonline

Project Wenceslas

Lions Club of Farnham are promoting an initiative called ‘Project Wenceslas’ which invites people to donate their winter fuel payment if they are not in need of it, which will then be directed to those that are in real need of this assistance.

Please note that you don’t have to be receiving a winter fuel payment to make a donation, this can be done directly by logging on to their justgiving website.

Haslemere Christmas Market – Sunday 1st December 2013, Haslemere Town Centre, 10am to 4pm

Haslewey Christmas Market – 14th December 2013, 10am to 4pm

Free Parking on 7th December – all day

  • WBC Executive, following a letter from government, has agreed to give one free day car parking on the Saturday at the start of December across the Borough.

GENERAL UPDATE

Local Road Safety Index (via Evening Standard) After months of planning and development, Road Safety Analysis – who independently collated and analysed more than 200,000 pieces of data from the Department for Transport and AXA  – have launched the ‘Local Road Safety Index’.

  • In the past 6 years more than half a million collisions took place on local roads within a 500m   radius of British schools, 85,814 children have been killed or seriously and slightly injured.
  • 67% of parents feel that road safety is an important factor in choosing a school.
  • The index examines all road related incidents within a 500m radius of schools, parents can enter their post codes and see how safe the roads around their schools are.
  • The sponsors AXA are asking volunteers across the UK to complete a survey assessing speed limits, road markings and crossings.
  • Data from the surveys is to be assessed alongside data of the number of incidents in that area to identify what works.
  • Aim of helping to bring down the number of casualties down to 1,500 by 2020, a 40% reduction from 2011.

To find out more about the overall road safety nearest your local school visit this page.

Haslemere and Western Villages Task Group Meets Today

The Haslemere and Western Villages Task Group meets today. The meetings are held in private but I’ll happily share things I’m thinking about that I hope to bring to the meeting. Clearly this is not in priority order. Many items have been discussed with SCC Highways. These topics have been collated through Haslemere Vision feedback. Bear in mind each item has a different price tag and funds are very limited. Some items will not be taken forward. Other items may be added.

  • Gateways on the 4 main approaches to the town: Aimed at enhancing sense of place and influencing driver behaviour/speeds.
  • Feasibility study: Safety improvements at Shepherds Hill j/w Courts Hill Road: Aimed at assisting pedestrian/cycle movement across the A286.
  • Ornate railings at Claytons Jewellers: To match Lower Street/Shepherds Hill.
  • Pedestrian crossing at the museum: Pelican (signal crossing) rather than zebra at this location due to speeds/width.
  • Feasibility study: Pedestrian crossing Shepherds Hill: Crossing at j/w Lower Street.
  • Feasibility study for Haslemere/Weyhill cycle/pedestrian  network: To include looking at off-road link using Network Rail land by Jewsons.
  • De-clutter town centre and Wey Hill parade: Rationalise signs/railings etc.
  • Lighting upgrade Wey Hill parade: Conservation lighting columns to match High Street.
  • Pedestrian crossing Wey Hill at St Christopher’s Green: Probably Zebra as speeds thought to be low.
  • A286 Grayswood Road pedestrian crossing.
  • A286 Grayswood: Refurbish traffic calming by renewing red banding.