Category Archives: Culture

Weybridge Hall latest

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

Weybridge Ukrainian Hub

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Every Tuesday morning between 1000 and 1200 a group of volunteers from Elmbridge CAN, our local refugee charity, hosts the Weybridge Ukrainian Hub at the Weybridge Centre for the Community.  With over 400 Ukrainians in Elmbridge through the Homes for Ukraine scheme, this and other weekly hubs throughout the borough are proving to be a vital source of information as well as a place for fellow Ukrainians to meet over a coffee and homemade cake.  

From finding out where to enrol for English classes, how to open a bank account or register with a GP or access school places and everything in between, including access to a Food Banks and other necessities that we take for granted, the hub has grown to provide support in CV writing and interview skills whilst also organising children’s activities. After several weeks, some of the Ukrainian visitors have also taken on support roles themselves as they have become more integrated into life in Weybridge.

There have been uplifting stories but also harrowing ones and the volunteers have shown compassion and ingenuity to find ways to lessen the trauma of settling into a new life a long way from home. It is always a pleasure when the same faces come back to the hub regularly to share details of their progress.

If you would like to find out more about volunteering at these hubs or would like to host a Ukrainian visitor or family, please email jsarsby@elmbridge.gov.uk



Council grants awarded to local organisations

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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:

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

Applications for Local Infrastructure Funding

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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.

River Thames

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The River Thames is a popular location for Weybridge residents to participate in many different types of recreation.  In this joint blog article Pete Hampson describes what the River Thames has meant for him over this past year and then Judy Sarsby reports on recent developments on unauthorised moorings. 

Pete Hampson writes: 
“Sitting at the confluence of the Wey and the Thames, Weybridge affords its residents some lovely surroundings, a fact that was brought home to me this year as lockdowns and other restrictions limited where we could go and what we were able to do.  

As a cyclist and keen walker, I can regularly be found making my way along one of our rivers and, in the case of the Thames, rowing along on it.  Since March I’ve been working from home and during the first lockdown my daily exercise often took me cycling along the Thames path.  In May we rowers were allowed back onto the river, socially distanced single sculling being the order of the day – single sculling closer than 2 metres to another boat generally provides a more immediate concern than potential COVID spread.  

In the absence of the normal water-traffic, nature had taken full command of the river, and when non-motorised craft were allowed to venture back we returned to an ornithologists dream with a great abundance of young bird life to be found: amongst the usual coots, mallards, moorhens, swans and geese, there were grebes, herons and even kingfishers to be spotted. 

Over the course of the summer, recreational river use flourished; canoeists and paddle boarders were out on the Wey, and in addition to their number on the Thames, we saw skiffs, oar-boards, kayaks, sailing boats, and plenty of swimmers alongside the usual pleasure craft mixing in with us rowers.  Meanwhile along the bank, anglers, walkers, runners and cyclists were making the most of the glorious weather and the wonderful surroundings.  Businesses were popping up, renting out equipment for people to enjoy, and providing classes to those wanting to try something new. And as the pubs re-opened, there were full beer gardens of patrons relaxing by the waters edge.

Now as we come to the end of the year, and endure a further lockdown, I’m again returning to my cycling and walking along the towpaths of our local riverbanks, and am heartened to see the many others who are managing to spend time out and about during these short days. Our rivers bring enormous benefit to us, improving our health, happiness and prosperity, but as with all natural resources they also need our protection.  Ensuring that we can continue to enjoy them for generations to come requires us to not only be aware of the risks they face, but play an active role in their conservation.”

Judy Sarsby adds…
I recently interviewed local Olympic rower Pauline Peel (Bird). Please follow this link to view the video: Pauline Peel interview

One of the problems faced by users of the River Thames is the presence of boats mooring permanently on both public and private land without permission.  Councillor Ashley Tilling is a fellow member of Weybridge Rowing Club and of Thames Valley Skiff Club and we have witnessed a significant increase in boats moored without permission along the river.

Many users of the river and local residents have raised a variety of concerns about these vessels. Their visual appearance is often dilapidated, there are questions about how the boats dispose of their general waste and on the Molesey stretch the boat residents have even fenced off areas of the towpath to claim as their own gardens. Towpath walkers have found this intimidating.    

The EA (Environment Agency) is responsible for policing the river and in September this year they told Elmbridge Borough Council that of 148 boats moored on the river only 53 had permission. More than six out of ten boats that the Agency checked had no permission to be on the mooring they were occupying.

The EA moorings are intended to be used free for the first 24 hours and are then chargeable up to a maximum of 72 hours. After the 72 hours the vessel is expected to move on and there is now a no return period of 24 hours. New signs have been erected explaining the charges and advising on how to pay. 

Maintaining an available supply of temporary moorings is very important to allow vessels to make passage, over several days, up and down the River Thames. If all the temporary moorings are blocked by vessels using them permanently then vessels on passage are forced to find an ad hoc unauthorised mooring. In October last year the EA at long last responded to these concerns and engaged an enforcement company to actively check licences and monitor moored boats. There was some success before the latest lockdown and it is hoped that work to move -on vessels moored without authorisation will commence apace over the summer months so that we can better enjoy our wonderful stretch of river.

The Borough with a Big Heart

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Judy Sarsby writes:

When I saw the call Care4Calais put out for winter coats and boots for the refugees living in the French camps, I knew people in my borough, who had responded so well to the shout out for PPE in care homes, would respond. And they did. Elmbridge Excelled!  I shall be travelling to Calais on the 21st and will now be taking a large van, as the donations have flooded in from all around Elmbridge.

I work as a volunteer for the charity Elmbridge Can who help refugees settle in the borough, so I was not surprised when my colleagues stepped up. Their generosity and the generosity of the Elmbridge Lib Dems, of friends and of locals from Claygate to Weybridge has been exceptional. One chap got the whole street in Claygate involved and, after filling the car last week, I am going back again for more. 

I put a word out to friends in the Weybridge Rowing Club and had parcels left in the changing rooms and on the mail box at all hours. Given how much we all cleared out during lockdown the response has been wonderful. There are no words for the generosity extended by our people to those people in Calais so desperately in need. We would like to thank each and every one of those who donated for the kindness of their contribution.

The charity Care4Calais https://care4calais.org/donate-now/  supports refugees sleeping rough across France and Belgium. This drive is particularly focused on the immediate need to keep people warm and dry, not an easy task when most live in tents or makeshift shelters. The bitter cold of winter has now moved in and people are trying to stay alive in freezing conditions. 

During my time working with Elmbridge Can, local acquaintances have referred to my work with “illegal immigrants”. It saddens me that these people are not aware that refugees are not illegal immigrants. The people I help don’t want to enter our country illegally – the problem is that the situation in their home countries means they have to leave to protect themselves and their children. If you come from a country that is at war or you live under oppression it’s unlikely that country will issue you with a passport or visa, so there is no legal way for them to travel.

My granddaughter asked why our Syrian friends left their home. I explained that their home was bombed, the schools and the shops closed, their lives were at risk and life just couldn’t go on as normal. I said I hoped if that happened to us that someone would care enough to help. The refugee crisis is one of the greatest humanitarian issues of our generation and how we respond will define us for years to come. In Elmbridge, this month, we showed that we care enough to at least try and give what others so desperately need.