Parish Council News Update – July 2025

Letter from the Chairman

Dear Villagers
It was a great pleasure to see some 500 of you out and about at the Parish Council’s Summer Starts Here festival in June, run in conjunction with Woodlea School. I am always struck by the sheer volume of groups and volunteers that deliver a vast array of activities in the village. Your Parish Councillors worked hard on the event, and special thanks goes to Vice Chair Carole North as the grand organiser from the Parish Council.

Planning.

Planning commentary continues at the usual pace and we are chasing down a couple of enforcements as well, which is always challenging. We still await news from Surrey County Council later this summer regarding the proposed large development at the Chalkpit Quarry.

Speedwatch.

Speedwatch leader Jeremy Wormington reports: The Speedwatch team continued to monitor traffic during May and found that the trend of speeding traffic was still just below 10%, although vehicles exceeding 40mph rose significantly to be more than 50% of all offenders. We appreciate the support from many residents but we require more volunteers, so please support us.” If you think you might have some time to volunteer, please let our Clerk Karen Newman know at clerk@woldinghamparishcouncil.gov.uk.

Local Government Reorganisation.

The Government decision is expected in the autumn. We just await outreach from the District or others to contribute to any consultations. There is still no word on the expected white paper on communities (including parish councils).
New website and email addresses. Please remember our website address is now woldinghamparishcouncil.gov.uk (the old website will forward you). And our email addresses have also changed to .gov.uk addresses and our old emails are forwarding. All new addresses are on the website.

Woldingham Parish Assets.

We are making slow but steady progress towards acquiring the assets in Woldingham owned by Tandridge District Council (The Green, the land at The Crescent, Saxonwold and the ‘overflow’ car park). We have voted to acquire the lands if they can feasibly be transferred, and the car park is now under consideration.

Monthly Council meetings.

WPC meetings are at 730pm the last Wednesday of the month (except August and December), open to all and the agendas are published at least 5 days in advance (website and noticeboard). The public are welcome to speak at the start of the meeting. There are occasional ad hoc meetings, also published in advance. If you would like to speak on any topic, please advise our clerk Karen at clerk@woldinghamparishcouncil.gov.uk

Wishing you all the best,
Chairman Deborah Sherry

New Bunds on the Green

In March 2021, large concrete blocks were placed around the village Green to prevent unwanted incursions onto the land. While they weren’t very pretty or popular, they were a quick and effective solution to an immediate concern. The Parish Council has been working since then on ensuring we have a more aesthetic but equally effective alternative, and we are delighted that the new earth banks are finally complete. The banks are high enough to prevent vehicular access, and they have been covered with special Meadowmat turf, which is sown with a combination of annual and perennial wildflowers. The turf and flowers will take a little while to establish but, with regular watering (huge thanks to Green resident Adrian Sands for taking on this job) we should be treated to an annual display of native wildflowers.

Not only will this help boost biodiversity and support our pollinators, but it will also be good news for the local bat and bird populations – more flying insects means more food for them. The bare indents left by the concrete blocks have been filled and re-seeded (thanks again to Adrian), and the metal access gate will be painted a more discrete dark green in due course. We hope that these new meadowbanks, while serving a practical purpose, will help enhance the Green and serve as a colourful feature for years to come.

Councillor Cat Neave

Carbon Footprints

As the Parish Council begins reviewing what we can do to be more sustainable and environmentally friendly, and as we begin to ask local businesses the same, it would be wonderful if each individual reading this could get involved in making changes too.

A great place to start is by calculating your carbon footprint – a tangible way of working out your individual impact on our environment. There are many of these free calculators online (just Google “carbon calculator”), often offered as the first step of using a carbon offsetting programme, but you can still complete the form and get your results without giving your personal details or committing to anything. If you aren’t online, you could always ask a friend or relative to go through the questionnaire with you instead.

Once you know your approximate carbon footprint, i.e. how much CO2 you generate per year, usually expressed in tonnes (!), and which aspects of your lifestyle are most polluting, you could start thinking about what changes you’re prepared to make.

Unfortunately, this probably won’t be an especially comfortable process. We all generate a huge amount of carbon per year and reducing this requires a proactive approach. It won’t always be easy or convenient, and may involve sacrificing some creature comforts, buying different products, and changing how we think about the resources we consume. It would, of course, be much easier to avoid thinking about it altogether. But we all have a responsibility to care for this planet we share, and that involves facing our own undeniable roles in the climate crisis head on.

So why not get online, calculate your carbon footprint, and make changes you – and generations after you – can be proud of.

Councillor Cat Neave