Tag Archives: Haslemere

Councillor Update

This is my first councillor update since being elected to Surrey County Council and re-elected to Haslemere Town Council.

6th May 2019 – received update from South Western Railway regarding electric charging points at Haslemere Station. The update states South Western Railway will be installing eight electric vehicle charging points in Haslemere station car park. Read more here and here.

Charging points

7th May 2019 – travelled by train and bike to County Hall in Kingston for meetings and to sign Surrey County Council declaration papers.

7th May 2019 – received a Surrey County Council invitation to join a member reference group to support the development of a refreshed Surrey Climate Change strategy. I will sign up to join this group.

10th May 2019 – meeting with SCC highways officer to discuss way of future working together.

11th May 2019 – took part in Haslemere’s Critical Mass Bike Ride. Read my write up here.

11th May 2019 – attended Gourmet Geezers charity dinner. All proceeds for the Gourmet Geezers cookbook (on sale in Haslemere Bookshop) will go to The Hunter Centre.

13th May 2019 – attended Surrey County Council Residents’ Association/Independent group meeting County Hall in Kingston.

13th May 2019 – attended Haslemere Town Council induction meeting.

14th May 2019 – promoted information online about Members’ Community Allocation Funding to support local community groups. More here.

14th May 2019 – shared information online about road surface dressing works in Lion Lane, Haslemere. More here.

14th May 2019 – met briefly with Haslemere First Scouts and local WBC councillors in Critchmere and Shottermill ward to understand the history of this scout group’s dealings with the previous WBC administration in respect to their tenure at The Youth Campus.

14th May 2019 – attended steering committee meeting for Haslemere Vision, discussing the future of Haslemere’s Neighbourhood Plan.

14th May 2019 – shared a note about the process of Mayor Making here.

15th May 2019 – attended South Western Railway Community Rail in the City at Waterloo station to promote Haslemere’s businesses and beautiful surrounding countryside.

16th May 2019 – attended Haslemere Town Council’s full council meeting. Papers here.

17th May 2019 – attended Haslemere South Residents’ Association meeting and drinks at The Georgian Hotel.

19th May 2019 – a great Little Lumpy event – over 600 riders raising funds for Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice. It was fun cheering the riders as they crossed the line. Well done Ken Griffiths and his amazing team of volunteers – including all the cake makers.  I have promised to ride next year, I invite all my fellow councillors to join me!

Pictured with Robert Groves, professional hand cyclist

21st May 2019 – attended my first Surrey County Council Full Council meeting since being elected. Papers here.

Greeting peaceful Climate Change activists outside County Hall before Full Council

28th May 2019 – shared information about Tennyson’s Lane road closure for Thames Water works. More here.

29th May 2019 – met residents and Thames Water on site to discuss the Tennyson’s Lane road closure and major diversion.  Major works are being carried out to the main trunk water pipe that supplies a large part of Haslemere. I liaised with the Highways team to agree an improved road management program that will reduce the time Tennyson’s Lane is closed. Thames Water letter here.

29th May 2019 – received notification that the Surrey Hills to South Downs Community Rail Partnership has been officially recognised by the Association of Community Rail Partnerships.  The original Haslemere Community Rail Partnership, successfully established in 2015, is expanding to include, as a first step Milford and Witley stations.

30th May 2019 – met with Highways officers on site at the road junction by St Stephen’s Church that is in very bad condition.  It was on the winter maintenance list last year, but works were not carried out.  I am pressing for a full resurfacing of this busy junction as a matter of urgency.

Notification of Future Events/Meetings

1st June 2019 – planting session for Wey Hill In Bloom. Volunteers are asked to meet at 10am outside Haslewey.

20th June 2019 – Launch of the Surrey Climate Commission. Event information here.

28th June 2019 – Waverley Local Area Committee Meeting,
Waverley Council Chamber, The Burys, Godalming GU7 1HR.

12th July 2019 – Surrey’s Rural Economy Conference 2019,
Cranleigh School Cranleigh Surrey GU6 8QQ

Update about Tennyson’s Lane Closure for Thames Water repair

The letter below is being sent to Tennyson’s Lane residents today regarding the works by Thames Water to replace a Trunk Main. I wrote about this here earlier this week.

Resident Letter from Thames Water

Thames Water have shared with me that they had a leak on site yesterday, as the team suspected. During a hand dig operation they exposed a ferrule which was certainly already leaking. The team stayed till 10pm last night to get this fixed and are now continuing the planned works on the trunk main.

Tennyson’s Lane road closure for 6 weeks

Thames Water needs to replace the large diameter water pipe (Trunk Main) which feeds all the other smaller pipe to prevent leaks in the future. This large water pipe provides water to a huge area in Haslemere so it’s essential that it’s replaced.

Tennyson’s Lane will be closed from the junction with Scotland Lane to the junction with Chase Lane. A road closure is required as Tennyson’s Lane is far too narrow for any other alternative form of traffic management. They will also be carrying out works on Scotland Lane (close to the junction) so there will be Multi-Way Signals as well. The works are due to take place between 27/05/2019-07/07/2019. 

I have been informed that Thames Water are to liaise with Waverley Borough Council to address waste refuse collections. 

Surface Dressing Works in Lion Lane

I have received notification of surface dressing works in Lion Lane on Thursday this week:

Around one hundred roads across Surrey are scheduled to receive surface dressing during May and June. The programme is due to start on Wednesday 15th May.

Surrey County Council’s surface dressing team will treat areas with a high volume of traffic that require preventative treatment to keep them in a good condition. We will also seal and waterproof the road, provide a new surface to improve braking and increase safety. This work is highly weather dependent so likely to change. The road surface has to be completely dry to lay the surface dressing so even a small amount of rain, or rain overnight, could stop the works taking place if it’s not dried out in time. You can find out more on SCC’s surface dressing page.

The Process of Mayor Making

I thought it would be interesting for residents to read how the process works for electing a Mayor or Mayoress in Haslemere.

Here is an explanation sent by the Town Clerk, Lisa O’Sullivan, to all Haslemere town councillors.

From: “Lisa O’Sullivan” <town.clerk@haslemeretc.org>
Date: 14 May 2019 at 10:17:26 am BST
To: All Town Councillors
Cc: <deputy.clerk@haslemeretc.org>, <admin@haslemeretc.org>
Subject: Thursday night’s meeting – process

Good morning,

I had a couple of questions last night after the meeting about the process for the election of Mayor on Thursday. Apologies, that is something I could have covered last night for those of you not familiar with how it works.

Thursday’s meeting is known as ‘Mayor Making’. It is a standard Council meeting, open to the public, with the exception that in May, the first order of business is to elect the Mayor for the coming civic year.

Process as follows:

Incumbent Mayor opens the meeting. First items on the Agenda are election of Mayor and Deputy Mayor.

Incumbent Mayor asks for nominations for Mayor.

Each nomination must have a proposer and seconder.

Traditionally the proposer spends a couple of minutes describing why they think that their nominee is the person for the job. The seconder is not required to say anything other than seconding the nomination.

At this stage a councillor may ask a question of the nominee or proposer.

The incumbent Mayor will then ask if there are any other nominations. If there are, this process continues until there are no further nominations.

If there is more than one nomination, the incumbent Mayor will ask for a show of hands for each candidate in the order that they were nominated. The new Mayor will be elected by a simple majority of those present and voting.
 
Once elected the outgoing Mayor places chain on the New Mayor. The new Mayor takes Mayor’s seat and is required to make the Declaration of Acceptance of Office followed by a short thank you speech.

There is a short presentation where the outgoing Mayor and Mayoress / consort are thanked for their service.  

The new Mayoress / consort is presented with their badge.

Mayor then presides over the election of deputy Mayor – nomination and voting process as for Mayor.

Meeting continues as usual.

There will be a short drinks reception in the Council Chamber after the meeting ends to which you are all invited.

Any questions please get in touch.

Kind regards,

Lisa

Lisa O’Sullivan
Town Clerk
Haslemere Town Council  

Haslemere’s First Critical Mass Bike Ride Yesterday

Two weeks ago, I was tagged in a Facebook post by David Elliott who works for The National Trust locally. The post was about a Critical Mass Bike Ride in Haslemere.

Advertisement for Critical Mass Bike Ride in Haslemere

I was delighted to join so many cyclists, including lots of children in the first mass bike ride organised by Transition Haslemere. Below are some photos from yesterday’s ride which began at Shottermill Ponds and ended in Haslemere High Street.

The aim of the ride was to both raise awareness of the desire of many Haslemere residents to make cycling safer for all, and also come up with practical ideas as to how this could be done.   I have been a keen advocate of cycling over my 6 years as a county and town councillor. I fully support and encourage this initiative. I look forward to working with the group to take their ideas to Surrey County Council highways team to explore what can be done.  Given the urgent climate change agenda, the need to reduce traffic pollution in our town and the added health and well being benefits that cycling can bring, I believe this is the perfect time to give cycling the highest priority.

Along the Liphook Road
Up Wey Hill, sharing the road with cars
Sharing the space with cars and pedestrians on Wey Hill
Looping through Haslemere Station
Finishing in Haslemere High Street

Thank you

This is the result of the Haslemere by-election for Surrey County Council, 2019:

  • Nikki Barton, Independent – 2,665 votes – ELECTED
  • Malcolm Carter, Conservative – 1,159 votes
  • Adrian Paul La Porta, Labour – 263 votes

This is the announcement:


Below is an interview with Rebecca Curley of the Surrey Advertiser.

Interview with Rebecca Curley after winning the seat

These are the results of the Haslemere Town Council seats for the Haslemere South ward:

  • Nikki Barton, Independent – 972 votes – ELECTED
  • Gareth David, Conservative Party Candidate – 466 votes
  • Simon Paul McMillan Dear, Conservative Party Candidate – 587 votes – ELECTED
  • David William Dullaway, Conservative Party Candidate – 480 votes – ELECTED
  • Kirsten Lisa Ellis, Independent – 505 votes – ELECTED
  • Jennifer Mary Radford, Liberal Democrats – 468 votes
  • Tom Van Den Broek, Conservative Party Candidate – 384 votes
Announcement of results for Haslemere South ward of Haslemere Town Council, 2019

Why Haslemere Library is So Important To Our Town

Surrey County Council is facing cuts across many of its services.

Documents published in March 2018 suggested the council was looking to cut the budget by around £2.3 million by 2021, chiefly by reduced spending on libraries, but the cabinet papers from October 2018 indicate a larger cut is now planned. (Source here.)

I talked with Emily from Haslemere Bookshop about why the library service is so important to her. Emily grew up going to the library and it started her love of books from a very young age.

Should Haslemere’s fantastic library be at risk at any time, we will of course work together as a community to save it.