Archive for category: Parish Council

Letter from the Chairman

Dear Villagers,

As the Parish Council monthly meeting is the last Wednesday of every month, traditionally, we do not hold a meeting in December over the holiday period. Thus, it is usually a quieter month. Looking to the year ahead, we expect planning activity to continue at some pace, as the rate of applications did not slow in December. Accordingly, we held a special planning meeting in December. That said, 2024 is a year of change, as we will see elections in the District and Parish, as well as likely at the national level. So, a few reminders for the year ahead, as well as an update from our Speed Watch team leader.

Parish Elections in May

Woldingham Parish Council elections will be held in May, as will Tandridge District Council Elections, when the whole of each Council is up for election. Please consider whether you would like to serve on either Council. At the Parish level, we believe at least two councillors will not be putting themselves forward again, and of course we always welcome and hope that as many people as possible will run for Parish Council. Typically, we all run independently at Parish level, with no affiliations to parties. We are hoping that some of you may step forward to volunteer for the Parish Council. We work to protect Woldingham as a community and to further social well-being in the village. We need help organising events for the village, commenting on planning, helping beautify the village, working on security and safety and representing village views in consultations and other matters. If you may be interested, please reach out to hear more at deborahwoldinghampc@outlook.com. Or perhaps consider attending a meeting! If you are interested in serving as a Councillor or attending a meeting, please email our Clerk for more details at: parish.clerk@woldingham.com

Police Meeting 18.30 on the 26th of March

Please save the date to attend the meeting that Woldingham Parish Council have organised with Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner Lisa Townsend and Sergeant Wayne Stephens and their teams on the 26th of March 1830-1930, at the Woldingham Village Hall. Topics will include car break-ins, thefts and house break-ins, apprehension and conviction rates and Q&A. All are our welcome. Let us know in advance if you have specific questions by the 15th of March, especially if they may require data or research, at parish.clerk@woldingham.com

Winter Road Gritting

Surrey Highways grits the seven publicly adopted roads in Woldingham, and your Parish Council contracts for all our other roads to be gritted. Given the warm winter we have had, while writing this I note we have only had to grit once. That said, should a late cold and wet front arrive, please remember to keep roads clear and hedges cut back so the tractor with gritter may pass, turn and turn around when needed. When organising for hedge trimming this year, please keep this in mind and have them trimmed accordingly for the coming winter as well.

Planning Work

As a reminder, the Woldingham Parish Council is a statutory consultee on all planning matters within the Parish. The Parish Council now have a planning subcommittee, although all write-ups and suggestions are reviewed in detail and voted on by the full council. We seek help from anyone that has expertise on planning or may wish to learn about it. If you are interested, please contact parish.clerk@woldingham.com

Quarry application update

We do not have a firm date as to when there will be feedback on the application for a housing estate on the AONB and Green Belt land at the quarry. You may recall that on the 20th of October, we submitted a joint objection to Surrey County Council regarding the Southern Gravel Chalkpit Quarry application to vary the minerals license and build seventy-five houses on this Green Belt and AONB land. We continue to track the matter closely and will report back in the pages and online as soon as we hear anything further.

The growing problem with traveller’s sites harming the Greenbelt

You may recall that the Parish Council recently worked closely with Chelsham and Farleigh Parish Council, Tatsfield Parish Council and Warlingham Parish Council to address the growing number of transgressions on sites in the Green Belt around us, including a number of sites near the boundary of Woldingham. The Tandridge Chief Planning Officer, Helen Murch, and her team have agreed to meet with us on the 17th Of January. I will report back on the policy and approach that Tandridge is taking to travellers’ sites in the Green Belt.

SpeedWatch

We are grateful to Jeremy Wormington who has taken on the leadership of our SpeedWatch team. The team is now up and running and we thank you all for your help in protecting the village. I received the following update from Jeremy:

“December saw the restart of Speed Watch in the village. The team conducted a number of sessions across the village which caught eighty vehicles exceeding the prescribed speed limit set by Surrey Police, which is a bit higher than the set 30mph across the village. These drivers will have been contacted by the Police and repeat offenders may see further action taken. The highest speed seen during the sessions was 47mph, with a good number exceeding 40mph. The winter months are always a bit more restricted due to the reduced daylight and weather, which has been particularly horrible.

Now that the village has a functioning team of volunteers and activity can be seen around the village, we would welcome further support so that we can increase the number of roadside sessions. Training is on-line and takes about 60 minutes, while the consensus is that each volunteer should aim to provide about an hour of their time each week in support of the roadside sessions (depending on their commitments).”

We still would love to see more volunteers helping Jeremy and the team, so if you have the time to volunteer, please email parish.clerk@woldingham.com

 

Finally, please remember to check Woldingham.com for updates and news from around the village.

Chairman Deborah Sherry

Woldingham Parish Council

Woldingham Parish Council are pleased to announce that completion of the limited assurance review for the year ended 31 March 2023 without any comments.

> AGAR 2022/23

If you would like a copy of the AGAR form please contact Karen Newman, Parish Clerk on parish.clerk@woldingham.com.

Letter from the Chairman

Dear Villagers,

In the pages of this venerable Woldingham publication I have been updating you about a number of major initiatives and government consultations that, depending upon the outcome, could create long lasting changes to Woldingham. The three most prominent that we have been working on are: the Chalkpit Quarry housing estate proposal, the Surrey AONB consultation and the Tandridge District Council Ward Boundary review.

Chalkpit Quarry housing estate proposal

The owners of the quarry, Southern Gravel, presented their latest proposals at a high level to the Council and the community at our May meeting. They are working to vary their minerals license for the quarry and asking to be allowed to build a housing estate in exchange for ending the license 19 years early. The latest proposal is for 75 houses on roughly 6.4acres. The average plot size of house and garden would be roughly 40×93 feet. Circa one third of the houses would be affordable housing.

The positives are that it would yield more housing for Tandridge and possibly more clientele for the golf club, shop and social club in Woldingham. It would also stop quarry lorry traffic roughly 13 years earlier than the license allows. In addition, the proposal would make improvements to Chalkpit Lane to make it safer for both cars and in some sections for pedestrians.

The negatives are that it would violate not only protected Green Belt but the AONB (Area of Natural Beauty). If approved, it would be the only development of this scale in the AONB or the North Downs of Surrey. It would create intense light and noise pollution that would harm wildlife in this protected area and be visible from across the Downs, the M25, parts of Woldingham and Oxted. Quarry lorry traffic is already diminishing due to the economy and importantly competition, who are in much easier to reach sites that are winning contracts from this quarry, thus the lorry traffic is already becoming less problematic and the amount of car traffic, deliveries etc to and from the new development would exceed the quarry traffic. It would likely be 2029, after closing the quarry and recontouring the land before work could commence meaning that for the sake of 13 years of no truck traffic, we would blight the AONB forever when under the current license, in 2042 the land must be returned to its natural contours and nature. For both Oxted and Woldingham, the roads, parking, educational, medical and other infrastructure are not in place to accommodate such population growth in this location.

We were disappointed to learn that the touted consultation actually had only somewhat over one hundred respondents. And we note that bar a few homes, the developer acknowledged that Woldingham was not consulted. We have yet to receive detailed information about the proposal to properly evaluate it and we also await detail from the developer regarding traffic estimates and survey respondents. There remains disagreement between Surrey County Council (SCC) and Tandridge District Council (TDC) over the jurisdiction of the housing approval. As the quarry operates under a minerals license, which is the domain of SCC, SCC maintains that it has the authority to grant or deny approval for the housing estate. TDC does not agree, as planning approval it the domain of the District. We continue to review the matter, as well as coordinate with Oxted and TDC. And we await the actual housing proposal so we can review it in detail.

Surrey Hills AONB Review

The Surrey Hills Area Of Natural Beauty (AONB) review is in process and the first phase of evidence gathering concluded and a proposed map of new areas of AONB designation is now under review. The consultation period for commentary on the proposed new areas for AONB designation closes the 13th of June so will be closed by the time this reaches you. The whole of Woldingham has been proposed to be included in the AONB. Should this remain unchanged after this consultation period, there is still a lengthy process ahead with Natural England and the Secretary of State before any additions to the AONB are confirmed.

The Tandridge District Council Ward Boundary Review

The boundaries for Tandridge District Council (TDC) were under review as required by statute. These boundaries were last reviewed 25 years ago. Since that time, the Local Government Act revised requirements for the number of Councillors per ward. Given that TDC holds elects one-third of its Councillors every three years, the Local Government Boundary Commission of England (LGBCE) is now bound by statute to try to achieve wards with three Councillors per ward, only with rare exception. This may well have resulted in Woldingham district ward being merged with another larger ward on its boundary and losing some its voice in the District.

However, the Parish Council and the WA made submissions to the LGBCE, as did a dozen villagers – far more than any other ward in the District – and together we successfully argued that Woldingham’s unique community and geography meant it should remain a one Councillor District. Although other Parishes also argued for this, we were the only community to successfully achieve it. The new District Ward map has proposed wards of three Councillors each except Woldingham (a distinct ward with one Councillor) and Warlingham East and Chelsham and Farleigh (a two Councillor ward). While we are now in a consultation period over the proposed map, it is unlikely to change.

A huge thank you to everyone who helped with this initiative and to all who participated in the brief survey on this topic. Together, we helped protect the needs of the village.

With great thanks,
Chairman Deborah Sherry

Speeding in the Village

As a reminder, we have reinvigorated Speed Watch. We are now actively planning a series of vehicle speed readings at key sites in the village. We have a number of volunteers and (after a delay over the Covid years) on-line training is now available. The speed recording gun is being recalibrated and readings will commence once training is complete. We have previously collected data using wires across roads at key locations and we will now be able to add to this data and collect at other sites to give us a complete picture of vehicle speeds across the village. We will, of course, report results. If anyone is interested in getting involved in this project or if you want to suggest locations where you feel a speed check is needed, please do get in touch at parish.clerk@woldingham.com.

Councillor Alex Foulds

Chairman’s Update

March having been the rainiest March on record for 40 years, aside from the litter pick (see Councillor Fould’s update below), the Parish Council work has largely focussed on what we can do indoors. Long planned and hoped for work to tidy up more of the Crescent awaits better weather. Meanwhile, on the planning front we continue to have a planning application review workload more than double the average of previous years (pre-pandemic). The plans for the Council’s Coronation Celebration Saturday evening the 6th of May and the Council’s The Big Lunch on Sunday, replete with large brass band, have fallen into place nicely, as have many other community plans. Key events are taking place on the Glebe, with huge thanks to the Glebe for their facilities and their support. In addition to our planning and administrative workloads and our Coronation planning work, in March the Parish Council submitted responses to two consultations: the national planning policy consultation and the District ward boundary review. We also finalised and sent out a newsletter, which should have reached you in early April.

District Ward Boundary Review

As I updated last month, the District Council wards are being reviewed as part of a periodic government review. Because our district election cycle is to elect one-third of the district councillors every three years, under present legislation (unlike previously), the Local Government Boundary Commission of England (LGBCE) must try to deliver wards of 3 Councillors each, with rare exception. The Parish Council ran an online survey to which 15% of the village voting population responded and the message was clear. 97.1% of respondents wanted us to fight for Woldingham to retain its direct representation. So, the Parish Council voted to make strong arguments for retaining our Woldingham District ward as unique ward. We submitted this consultation response on the 20th of March. We know that a number of other Woldingham organisations and residents have also responded to the consultation.

The LGBCE, taking into account all the feedback it has received across the District in the initial public consultation on communities and wards, will publish its suggested map of ward boundaries by the 30th of May, thereby commencing the next phase of consultation on its proposal. We – and all of you — will then have until the 7th of August to give additional feedback to the LGBCE.

In the meantime, we are working with District Councillor Carole North on trying to reopen the conversation and vote in Tandridge District Council (TDC) with respect to the electoral cycle. Had TDC voted to move to electing all District Councillors every four years, there would be no ward size constraints. Based on the documentation the Parish Council received from our Freedom of Information request to TDC, we believe this initial vote was taken without full awareness of the impacts on communities and without full understanding of and consideration for all of the statutory criteria and the difficulty of meeting then as fixed 3-Councillor wards.

Woldingham Welcomes 30th September 2023 12-6pm, at The Village Club

This event (bar in the pandemic) used to run bi-annually. We are now trialling it as an annual event. We will also have community organisations from Surrey and Tandridge in attendance and more. No matter how long you have lived in Woldingham, we are sure you will learn something new. And meet new people! So save the date! We will share more details as the date draws nearer.

Congratulations to our Parish Clerk on her 20th Anniversary with the Council!

Clerk Karen Newman celebrated her 20th anniversary working for the Parish Council earlier this year. We are very lucky to have such a knowledgeable, capable and long-serving Clerk. The Parish Council celebrated Karen’s tenure with us and we thank her for her years of service.

Have you visited Woldingham’s Village Website recently?

It has a wealth of information including the latest news from your Parish Council, your local MP and other organisations, as well as details for many community shops, societies and clubs. The Security section includes crime reduction advice from Surrey Police and contact details for our local Neighbourhood Watch team, whilst the Environment pages give details of current biodiversity and climate projects as well as local walking routes. Give it a go: www.woldingham.com.

If you wish to include your village group’s details on the website or have some community news you wish to share with the village, please contact the webmaster@woldingham.com.

Finally, if you have any feedback for the Council, whether on anything we publish in the magazine or the website, or on any topic in the newsletter, please do not hesitate to reach out or call. Upcoming work includes our environmental policies in response to the climate emergency, for which we are also seeking volunteers. And as ever, if you would like to volunteer to work on any topic, please email us at parish.clerk@woldingham.com.

Chairman Deborah Sherry

King’s Coronation Celebration – Help Needed

The King’s Coronation is in a few days’ time and the Parish Council and many others have been hard at work on commemorative events. All Woldingham’s celebration events are listed in the Coronation weekend calendar in this magazine. Throughout the festivities, parking in the Glebe car park will be restricted to disabled residents.

Volunteers required:

To help with litter picking on the Glebe on Sunday 7th May (9-10am) and Monday 8th May (9-10am). Please just turn up at those times. We also are looking for volunteers to man the Glebe car park to manage the parking on both Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th during the events. Please contact theglebewoldingham@gmail.com if you can help.

Please watch out for further announcements on the Woldingham Facebook page. We look forward to seeing you there.

Councillor Carole North, Vice-Chair

Spring Litter Pick

The spring village litter pick took place on Saturday the 11th of March. For the first time we were hosted by the Glebe, which meant the Pavilion was in operation for teas, coffees and cakes. Many thanks to Janine for hot drinks and cakes and for Annie (again) for another spectacular range of homemade cakes. In another first, the Rainbows joined us, so along with the Scouts we had a large and enthusiastic group of keen young litter pickers. Together with some adult helpers, we managed a pretty good coverage of the central roads and open spaces in the village.

There was much discussion about the way that many villagers pick litter from the verges near their homes as a matter of course on a regular basis, and how we might really get on top of the job if everyone did this. The twice yearly community litter picks will continue in any event.

Anyway, we collected the usual slightly demoralising pile of rubbish, but the village is cleaner as a result. With thanks to everyone who turned up to help, keep an eye out for the date of the Autumn litter pick, to be announced soon.

Councillor Alex Foulds

 

Chairman’s Update

A relatively mild beginning to February weather-wise was the counterpoint to the pace of work in the Council last month. A near record fourteen planning applications flooded in for commentary. We continued to work on feedback for the National Planning Consultation and the District Ward Boundary Review. And as ever, planning for community events and celebration continues.

The National Planning Policy Consultation

The National Planning Policy Consultation, as mentioned last month, is important to us because crucially, amongst other planning rules, how and whether to enforce housing targets are under review. Hitting fixed housing targets that have been uniformly shared across the country is incredibly difficult in a District like Tandridge, which at 94% Greenbelt, contains the highest percentage of Greenbelt land in the country. We completed and submitted our feedback on 2 March. The consultation is now closed and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities is ingesting the feedback. We will report the outcomes and policy changes, if any, once they are shared.

The District Ward Boundary Review

The District Ward Boundary review is a thorny issue. We may lose our direct representation as Woldingham as a result of this review. Today we are one electoral ward, with one directly elected representative that represents our interests and works on our challenges – District Councillor Carole North, who is also our Parish Council Vice-Chairman. The current proposal on which we are commenting, is to reduce the number of wards and so to create larger wards with three Councillors per ward, each elected by the full ward. The Local Government Boundary Commission for England last reviewed the boundaries in Tandridge District Council 25 years ago. We are working hard with the Woldingham Association and others in the community to make a case that protects Woldingham’s voice in District matters. By the time you read this, we will have had a public meeting on the proposals on the 16th of March and will have submitted our feedback to the consultation shortly thereafter. I will summarise that feedback in the May edition of the magazine and lay out the next steps in the consultation process.

The Coronation Celebration 5-8th May

The Coronation Celebration is taking shape across the community. The vast majority of the events will take place on the Glebe, our wonderful village centre, with satellite events on the Village Green and at the Woldingham Village Club. As a reminder:

5th of May: Performances of The Fat Lady Sings in little woldie” in both the afternoon and the evening from the Woldingham Players at the Village Club.

6th of May 5pm-1130pm: The Council’s Coronation Celebration. Bar and food stalls open from 5pm, with bao buns, hog roast, spit roast chicken, sausages and more. Barn dance and caller with Moves aFoot from 530-8pm and local rock and indie band Parallel Sky from 9-1130pm.

7th of May: 10am Thanksgiving Eucharist for the Coronation at St Paul’s Church, followed by The Woldingham Association’s treasure hunt, at 11.30am. The ‘Coronation Big Lunch’ on the Glebe from 1230pm – bring a picnic and enjoy the large Croydon Brass Band 2-4pm. Bar and burgers and more available on the day.

8th of May: The Big Help Out takes place. More information will be available soon. The Glebe is looking for volunteers for their garden projects. If there are any other community volunteering projects, or if anyone would be interested in volunteering for other projects, please do get in touch with Vice Chairman Carole North at carolewoldinghampc@outlook.com.

A number of associations and residents are also planning activities across the weekend. The History Society will be displaying the Royal beasts (created by Hazel Dixon for the Silver Jubilee), along with a portrait of His Majesty King Charles III, on the Village Green throughout the weekend. The Glebe is running an art competition, email theglebewoldingham:gmal.com for details, deadline 24th April 6pm. The Woldingham Writers Group are running a poetry competition, deadline 24th April, email wwgpoetry@423@gmail.com for details.

Woldingham Welcomes 30th September 12-6pm, the Village Club

Turnover in the village has increased over the last decade, and our demographics have shifted, as evidenced by the latest census. We are trialling moving the Woldingham Welcomes event to an annual event. Like last year, this will be held at the Woldingham Village Club. There is always new information about what Woldingham organisations offer and are doing. We are also inviting some Tandridge and Surrey organisations to partake, so watch this space for more information. There was a great and social turnout to the last one, so save the date!

Annual Parish Meeting, 14th April 6.30pm, the Village Hall

Our Annual Parish Meeting is taking place on the 14th of April. Want to hear about your village in detail and share ideas and concerns? Then please join us at the Annual Parish Meeting. More details on the agenda will be posted on the village website, the village Facebook page and the noticeboard at the Crescent in early April.

Chairman Deborah Sherry

 

Dog walkers in Woldingham

The upsetting, and extremely sad, incident at Gravelly Hill, Caterham, has brought the role of dog walkers into prominent focus recently. Many of us rely on walkers to care for our dogs while we are unable to walk them during the week but the shortage of dog walkers in the district means that we may be less rigorous in vetting them.

If you are looking for a dog walker please make sure they have insurance, which will only cover up to six dogs per walk, and are licensed with Tandridge District Council. Professional, licensed dog walkers will take their time to understand your dog’s behaviour and habits. Usually, they will request a trial walk before introducing them to other dogs they walk to make sure their temperaments are matched and don’t be surprised if they want to keep your dog on the lead for the first few walks while they work on recall. All of these steps are important to keep your dogs, the walkers and members of the public safe.

Vice-Chairman Carole North

 

Climate Emergency Policy

We are in the final stages of agreeing a policy on the climate emergency. Whilst the Parish Council does not own any buildings, and we have therefore limited direct impact on climate change, we know that this is a really important issue for us all. We also know that Woldingham has a much higher consumption footprint across all indicators that contribute to greenhouse gases (including heating homes, transport, food consumption and disposing of waste) than the borough and the country as a whole.

We therefore want to work within the scope of our powers and resources to protect our wildlife and habitats, and to enable residents to benefit from a green and beautiful environment. Activities such as the regular anti-litter campaigns, action to keep footpaths in good order and the way we procure and support events all have an impact on our environment. We know that there are many great ideas and activities already happening across Woldingham and we are keen for you as residents, local groups, schools and businesses to share your ideas and initiatives that we can help support and promote.

Councillor Daniel Mann

 

Ukrainian Refugees

As you may recall, residents in Woldingham hosted many Ukrainian refugees in their homes.  Much of this was coordinated by local resident Claire Dunn. While the war itself remains a prolonged and tragic situation, many of those housed in the village now have jobs and are looking for permanent homes. Local housing is not easy to procure, but very important, particularly as many refugees now have jobs in the wider area and children at schools in the area.  Flats in the area urgently needed, so if you own a flat and would be willing to rent to a Ukrainian refugee and their family, please get in touch with Claire Dunn at dunnorris@gmail.com.