Revitalised Weybridge Library Hub

Posted on 26/11/2025 by Cllr Ashley Tilling

Weybridge’s revamped library hub has reopened its doors, and it already feels like the beating heart of our community again. The space is now a brighter, more welcoming home for learning, creativity, connection – and of course, for borrowing and discovering great books.

The redesigned layout offers greater flexibility than before. There are cosy reading corners, quiet study areas for students or peripatetic workers, and improved digital facilities for anyone needing reliable access to technology. We particularly love the bright children’s section and the dedicated area for teenage readers – both feel fresh, engaging, and full of energy. Meeting rooms of different sizes are also available for hire. Importantly, re-using and upgrading the structure already in place has avoided the carbon footprint of demolition and new construction.

Ashley Tilling was involved at the planning stage for submissions to SCC and put forward installing the kitchen in the activity room for use by the community services team and getting rid of the staff parking spaces at the Churchfields approach so that it could become a full public entrance and a sitting out area. Thank you to Weybridge in Bloom for their planting to improve the look and feel of the seating area.

Monday to Friday each week, the Weybridge Community Hub is open in the first-floor activity hall to welcome everyone of all ages. Hot food and drinks are served from 10am to 1:30pm, with snacks and hot drinks available until 2:45pm. It’s a friendly space to relax, meet others, or simply enjoy a cuppa when you’re passing.

Looking ahead, Surrey Libraries’ Super Access system is planned for Weybridge – something already working well in other libraries across the county. This extended-access approach will give residents more freedom to use the library outside staffed hours.

The revamped Library Hub is a real step forward for Weybridge, and we’re excited to see how the community makes it their own in the months ahead.

CIL awards in Weybridge

Posted on 27/08/2025 by Cllr Helgi Joensen

Over Half a Million Pounds for the Community

This year your local councillors were pleased to be able to allocate £559,370 in Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) funding to projects across the Weybridge area.

The levy is paid by developers on new building projects. It ensures that development is matched by investment in local facilities and infrastructure. Local organisations can apply for CIL grants to support their capital projects. Importantly, applicants are expected to contribute funding themselves, ensuring that their money leverages greater value from public resources.

Education was one of the largest beneficiaries this year: Cleves School, Walton Leigh School, Oatlands School, St James Primary and Manby Lodge all received funding for a variety of projects.

Sports and recreation also received strong backing with new facilities planned for Weybridge Vandals, Weybridge Cricket Club, Oatlands Park Bowling Club and Walton & Hersham Youth Football Club.

Whiteley Village received support for its refurbished clubhouse while Brooklands Museum secured funding to accommodate Brooklands ATC. Girlguiding Weybridge and NW Surrey Synagogue gained funding to improve accessibility and sustainability.

Weybridge Hall latest

Posted on 23/11/2024 by Cllr Ashley Tilling

History

The former cinema, which opened in 1920 and was acquired by Elmbridge Borough Council in 1956, operated as a public hall until its closure in 2014. Since then, the building’s condition has worsened. Swift Entertainment Venues (SEV) had an 18-month option to buy the building, but this expired in April 2024. The building has been actively marketed for sale since then.

Sale

Several offers were received for the building, with most proposals including residential upper parts and various ground floor uses like gyms, restaurants and churches. The offers were evaluated based on conditionality, such as a requirement to convert and sell upper floor flats, proposed use, ability to transact and price.

At the Elmbridge Cabinet meeting on Wednesday 20 November, councillors agreed to sell the Hall to Equippers Church. This is seen as the best option for community and leisure use. It is the least risky choice and ensures the building’s future use better than the other offers received.

Equippers Church

Equippers Church plans to refurbish the building, featuring a two-tiered auditorium seating 300 to 400 people. The upper parts will be converted into studios for midweek meetings and workshops on mental health, wellbeing, counselling and youth gatherings. The building will also host weddings, birthday parties, exercise classes, art exhibitions and will be available to schools and other community groups for concerts, plays, speech days and other events. Additionally, the church is expected to bring significant added value to local businesses in Weybridge.

The transfer will be subject to a restrictive covenant that the ground floor of the building can only be used for leisure/community use that provides an active frontage onto Church Street. Equippers Church have agreed to this term and are keen to purchase the building. Completion of the sale is subject to contract.

St Charles Borromeo church, Heath Road

It is understood that Equippers Church will be using the old Catholic Church and Rectory as their College for training in leadership roles. The church has already undergone long-needed refurbishment and restoration to bring it back into use after many years of decay and neglect.

Weybridge Library

Posted on 06/02/2024 by Cllr Ashley Tilling

Extension and major refurbishment

We hope you were able to visit the Library for the recent public ‘drop-in’ event to view the latest plans for its major refurbishment. We were pleased to see that the revised drawings included our proposals for this to become more of a Community Hub by including a kitchen and servery next to the activity/performance hall on the first floor which should give it greater scope for a wide variety of daytime activities and evening functions; the entrance into the ground floor extension from the car park will be moved to make it more visible and easier to use and the area in front of it will be landscaped to make it more attractive.

Planning consent was granted in December 2023 but some additional work will take place to include the changes described above. It is intended that the contract for the refurbishment work will be awarded in March, services temporarily co-located in the Community Centre in the same month, construction completed in April 2025 with fit out, handover and occupation in May 2025.

Large numbers enjoy expanded Weybridge Festival

Posted on 30/06/2023 by Cllr Helgi Joensen

2023 was the year of our new King and for Weybridge, a new festival. The week long programme started with a dinner catered and served by Brooklands College students and finished with the Community Fair on the 24th June. An exhibition by local artists, photographers and sculptors spanned the halls and walls of the library and Oatlands Park Hotel; concerts and plays, restaurant and cafe lunches and dinners, literary and art talks and a quiz, were enjoyed by many all over the town.

Over one hundred stalls, two stages hosting local choirs and soloists, a beer tent run by Weybridge Vandals and the best cream teas hosted by the Soroptimists and the local Ukrainian population in the Community Centre, all came together at the Community Fair based on Churchfields Recreation ground.

Councillor Judy Sarsby, who worked with the Weybridge Society to organise the Festival, said “an estimated 8000 attended these events and to see churches, schools, sports clubs and local organisations supporting each other was truly inspiring. We are very lucky to live in such a giving community.”

Elmbridge’s Vision 2030 – public event 7th March

Posted on 12/02/2023 by Cllr Ashley Tilling

Elmbridge’s Vision 2030

On 8 February, Elmbridge Cabinet recommended to Council a new Elmbridge Vision 2030; a Vision that encapsulates Elmbridge’s sense of community, that understands how our residents care about their environment, how they care about supporting each other and how they care about the vibrancy of their towns and villages.

The 2030 Vision has been co-created with our residents, businesses, colleagues, and Councillors, who all understand more than ever that Elmbridge has the potential to grasp the future, to be an enabler for growth and opportunity, that we should be ready to adapt to future working life, future high streets, and future living.

On 7th March, residents, businesses, and local partners are invited to the Civic Centre in Esher to hear more about our Council’s Vision 2030 and our aspirations for Elmbridge.

Timings:

6-7pm arrival and networking
Meeting some of our partner organisations such as Surrey Police, The River Thames Scheme and our waste partners Joint Waste Solutions.

7-8pm Vision 2030 launch
Hear from The Leader, Cllr Chris Sadler, the Deputy Leader Cllr Bruce McDonald and the Chief Executive, Adam Chalmers. There will also be time for questions and answers.

Register your attendance at the launch event via Eventbrite

Great news about Weybridge Hall

Posted on 21/09/2022 by Cllr Ashley Tilling

At last Wednesday’s Elmbridge Cabinet meeting, approval was given to selling Weybridge Hall to Swift Entertainment for its use as a Theatre and Arts Centre. Your ward councillors are really pleased that their continual pressing for the Hall to continue as an entertainment venue, either as a cinema or theatre, is set to come to fruition and will give a boost to the night-time economy of Weybridge. This landmark building at the centre of the town will now be reopened as a venue for the community run by a proven operator – Swift recently refurbished and now successfully run Esher Theatre.

Swift will invest £1.5 million on refurbishments and installations to make it a state-of-the-art facility: a theatre on the ground floor with recording, dance and art studios on the upper floors.Architects drawing of the proposed Floor Plan

Council grants awarded to local organisations

Posted on 02/09/2022 by Cllr Helgi Joensen

Your local councillors participated in one of the more pleasurable parts of the job in June and July, that of deciding how to allocate money to organisations that had applied for ‘CIL’ money. Every new development is liable to pay a small proportion of the costs as a Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) to the council to mitigate the effects of the development on local infrastructure. The sums totalled over a year are allocated only to the local area, in our case Weybridge Riverside, St George’s Hill and Oatlands and Burwood Park wards via the Local Spending Board made up of all the ward councillors.

Councillors were pleased to be able to support the following projects in Weybridge:

St James’ Church ‘Access to All’ to finish installing a ramp, an automated new ramp and kitchenette;
Elmbridge Canoe Club for a balcony extension to provide an outdoor land-based training space;
Manby Lodge to refurbish and extend a garage on site to provide an additional activity space;
St James’ School to improve an under-used outdoor space as the first phase of a mindfulness garden;
Weybridge Town Business Group for installing three totems in key spots along the High Street;
Weybridge Vandals rugby, cricket and netball club to provide two female changing facilities.

Applications for Local Infrastructure Funding

Posted on 17/02/2022 by Cllr Ashley Tilling

Elmbridge Borough Council will soon be accepting applications for the annual local Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) funding. The application period is Monday 21 February to Sunday 3 April 2022 at midnight,with the applications being reviewed in June and early July.

CIL allows Elmbridge Borough Council to raise funds from developments in the borough to help pay for the physical infrastructure needed to mitigate the impacts of new development. As part of the process, EBC annually allocates a portion of CIL funds to be spent locally on smaller infrastructure schemes that are required in the communities where development took place.

Seven settlement area committees, known as ‘Local Spending Boards’, have been formed to cover the whole of Elmbridge; these consist of Ward Councillors serving in each of the areas who meet to decide how their local CIL funds will be allocated. Successful local CIL applications have included projects such as improvements to state schools to better enable them to meet the needs of an increasing school population, improvements to community facilities, footpath works and countryside access improvements.

It is anticipated that by the time the bids come before our Local Spending Board (Oatlands & Burwood Park, Weybridge Riverside & Weybridge St George’s Hill) in June there will be around £250,000 of CIL money to be allocated.

Find out more on the Council’s Community Infrastructure Levy webpages.

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Category Archives: Culture

Revitalised Weybridge Library Hub

CIL awards in Weybridge