Category Archives: Health

15 years more of sewage discharges into our rivers!

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Our MP, Ben Spencer, and many other Conservative MPs have just voted to pass a target which will allow water companies to dump harmful substances into rivers until 2038.

The Environment Act, which was voted on in Parliament last week, set a target of an 80% reduction in phosphates in rivers by 2038. Phosphates are naturally occurring minerals deriving from human waste and too much phosphate can cause a dramatic growth in algae and deplete oxygen levels when they are dumped in rivers. This new regulation would allow sewage to continue to be dumped in rivers for another 15 years.

Recent analysis has already shown the lack of care from the Conservative government when it comes to our rivers. Data from the River Trust shows that in 2021 The River Mole at Cobham and Esher has been pumped with sewage 100 times for a total of over 1000 hours. Meanwhile, for the whole of the River Mole’s catchment area, sewage was discharged over 800 times for a total of 9,120 hours.

Since 2010, the Environment Agency (EA) has been on the end of dramatic cuts to its budget from the Government, this has been reduced by nearly two-thirds from £120 million to just £48 million. This new target can only result in these figures getting worse as the EA struggle to inspect, monitor and enforce regulation.

At Elmbridge Borough Council, the Overview & Scrutiny Committee recently invited the EA to answer questions on their performance, including why they are continuing to fail at tackling the problem of illegally moored boats on the Thames. For the second time in a year they failed to attend. This lack of accountability by a public body is very disappointing and does nothing to help explore ways to resolve matters.

Water safety in Elmbridge

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Elmbridge Borough Council agrees £30k of additional water safety measures

Being situated within close proximity to rivers and open water has many advantages for Elmbridge but of course it brings responsibilities and consequences. While many of our residents and visitors safely enjoy the river both in terms of hospitality and water activities, the dangers of open water should never be underestimated; cold water shock, currents, and the risk of being caught in submerged debris is ever present.

In the absence of a single body responsible for water safety in Elmbridge, and in recognition for the important role that the rivers and other water courses have in the borough, Elmbridge Borough Council is leading the way in Surrey with a ‘Respect the Water: Drowning Prevention Plan’, which was agreed by Elmbridge Cabinet on 11 January.

The plan sets out to reduce the number of water incidents in the borough through training and improved awareness and commits £30k for 2023-2024 to deliver additional drowning prevention projects including:

  1. Free swimming lessons for 12- 18-year-old non swimmers during the summer delivered by Places Leisure at the Xcel Leisure Centre.
  2. Subsidising lifeguard courses run by the internationally recognised Royal Life Saving Society.
  3. Additional throw line boards: Six throw line boards have already been installed at Hurst Park Open Space, Thamesmead Recreation Ground, Waterside Drive, Albany Reach x 2 and Cowey Sale. Additional throw lines will be installed at other high-risk areas, including Desborough Island.

Leading community safety

The Elmbridge Community Safety Partnership has been leading the way in Surrey for a number of years with its multi-agency Drowning Prevention Strategy. Working with our partners at Surrey Fire and Rescue, Surrey Police, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA), the Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS) and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), the partnership educates and informs about the dangers of open water and acts to keep the open water safe in the borough.

The Partnership also consults with ROSPA about safety equipment such as throw lines.

Educating and informing

This education takes the shape of regular sites visits to our more popular river locations, schools’ promotion, the annual Junior Citizen programme, where in 2022 over 1,550 year 6s from around Elmbridge participated in an interactive session on water safety run by RNLI.

Surrey Fire and Rescue Service, working with Elmbridge and other partners, have also held a number of water safety events in recent months, demonstrating throw line use and highlighting the dangers open water.

Cllr Tilling promotes recycling and waste reduction

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Esher Church School has been awarded a prize for winning a competition as part of a waste reduction schemeAs Cabinet member for the Environment, just before Christmas it was lovely to be able to award Esher Church School a prize of over £419 for winning a competition as part of a waste reduction scheme in Elmbridge. The school will use the prize money on a project that will lead to more recycling in the school, this includes enhancing its recycling area in front of the school and installing a cover with a wildflower green roof. The school’s aim is to have all its pupils confident in what they can and can’t recycle.

The competition was part of Rethink Waste, a trial scheme that I have been promoting for the last year which aims to reduce the amount of waste produced in Elmbridge. Residents who sign up carry out activities, watch video clips and make pledges to help them reduce waste and win points for doing so. The competition saw schools in Elmbridge compete for points to be donated to them.

Residents who subscribe to the Rethink Waste scheme donated over 90,000 points as part of the competition, 37,745 of which were donated to Esher Church School. Five schools (Esher Church School, Bell Farm Primary School, Cleves School, St James CofE Primary School and St Matthews Infant School) took part in the latest round of the competition and received a share of the £1,000 funding based on the number of points they received. Other projects that will be funded using prize money include ones to improve compost and food waste recycling facilities, buy gardening equipment for children to work on a school allotment and help forest school areas flourish.

The competition follows the success of an earlier one as part of Rethink Waste that saw Grovelands Primary School in Walton-on-Thames win £846.88. Using the money, the school has prepared its outdoor area and ordered new classroom planters in preparation to grow fruit and vegetables. Councillor Tilling, Portfolio Holder for Environmental Services at Elmbridge Borough Council said: “This scheme is once more a huge success in the local community, encouraging children and parents to reduce waste. It’s great to see results in helping the the environment as well as supporting local schools with eco projects.”

Rethink Waste is being delivered by Greenredeem, funded by the Surrey Environment Partnership and supported by Elmbridge Borough Council. Rethink Waste is open to all residents in Elmbridge and is free to join. To find out more, head to Greenredeem.

Help with cost of living pressures

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How your Council is helping

As winter set in, the Council set up Warm Hubs around Elmbridge. These were up and running in early November at the seven Centres for the Community, including Weybridge. These offer our residents a hot drink and somewhere warm to be as the temperatures drop. The Centres teams are also supporting with advice and signposting when requested.

On the 16th November, the Cabinet agreed to dedicate £250K to support residents with cost-of-living expenses and this was approved at December’s Council Meeting. This will go towards food vouchers for approximately 1,500 families on benefits with children aged 16 years or younger. Some local businesses have also contributed to this fund, and we thank them for their commitment to the community.

Elmbridge Borough Council has been working with partners from around the borough to support residents at this difficult time:

  • We have administered the £150 energy rebate schemes for eligible taxpayers.
  • We have used the Household Support Fund to support Elmbridge pensioners and those on benefits.
  • We are working closely with the local Citizens Advice to offer payment plans for those struggling with council tax and other charges.
  • Our cost-of-living support hub is being kept up to date with all the latest information and support available.

We will work with our charity and voluntary sector partners to ensure this new funding quickly reaches the most vulnerable.

Visit our cost-of-living hub to see the range of support on offer.

Sustainable Elmbridge – our green ambitions

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A sustainable Elmbridge is at the very heart of our decision-making

Climate change impacts us all. Whether that is a heat wave in August forcing us indoors and causing drought warnings or more wet and stormy winters leading to floods and energy blackouts. Our borough is not immune from climate change, which is why in 2019 we declared a climate emergency and pledged to become a carbon neutral council by 2030. Since then, we have been actively working to reduce our own carbon emissions and to encourage our community to do so too.

As the Cabinet member for the Environment, I was pleased that we were able to put sustainability at the heart of the Council’s decision-making. We set out a ten-year action plan to reduce carbon emissions and plan how we will become carbon neutral by 2030 and in last year’s capital spending plan the Cabinet agreed to spend close to £1 million on some key projects. These included solar panel installations and a shift to a fully electric council fleet of vehicles. Projects already completed are:

  • Installing electric vehicle (EV) charging points in our main town centre car parks. Cobham, Esher and recently Churchfields in Weybridge all now have EV chargers and Walton is shortly to follow this year.
  • The solar panel installation on the roof of the Xcel Leisure Complex in Walton-on-Thames was made operational in December 2022; these 973 panels are projected to reduce electrical consumption by 40% and will lead to an estimated CO2 saving of over 75 tonnes per year, based on an estimated annual generation of 304 MWh.
  • Solar panels have been installed at our Centres for the Community in Walton, Cobham, Claygate, Hersham and Molesey, as well as at the Village Hall in Hersham.

Our recent car park survey highlighted that 27% of respondents either owned or planned to buy a ‘plug-in’ electric vehicle in the next year, with 24% expressing that they would use EV charge points in car parks.

A sustainable Elmbridge is fundamental to our draft Local Plan which sets out how we can connect communities through active travel methods such as walking and cycling, as well as how we can build more energy efficient homes in Elmbridge. Energy efficient home design is an active element in the creation of the Elmbridge Design Code which is currently underway in conjunction with our residents.

Cllr Ashley Tilling

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.

New station car park cycle ‘sheds’

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Those who have visited the car park on the town side of the station recently will have noticed two new cycle storage facilities. The near one in the photo is for general rail traveller use which is in addition to the racks next to the ticket office. The far one is going to be used for a ‘collect and ride’ scheme operated by the Brooklands Business Park; this aims to encourage workers to travel by train and then cycle along the new Brooklands Accessibility path to their offices and workplaces – another way of reducing vehicle emissions and traffic congestion.

Churchfields Town Paths

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At last there has been a positive decision from the Local Inquiry that was held on the 7th September last year. The Inquiry was ordered by the Secretary of State and it has determined that the town paths running through the heart of Weybridge, which were upgraded last year as part of the new link between the town centre and Brooklands Business Park, could be shared by cyclists and pedestrians.

The paths have been used by recreational, slow-moving cyclists and by school children attending Heathside School for many years as a convenient and safe way of travelling around the town. We realise that some people feel vulnerable on the paths and your councillors have worked with the Weybridge Society to promote a Share with Care campaign; signs that have been specially designed will now be placed along the paths with the aim of supporting the campaign to encourage all users to be considerate, careful and safe.  

River Safety

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The British winter doesn’t stop rowers and kayakers on our stretch of the Thames from venturing out when the temperature drops!

In the last few months, your local Councillors have worked with the Environment Agency (EA), other water-sport clubs and the River Users Group to try to make our stretch of the Thames a safer place for the enjoyment of river activities. Fallen trees, many partially submerged along the bank, have been a constant reminder of the ruthless chainsaw felling earlier in the year and the aftermath of some powerful storms. The obstructions they cause can easily cause a capsize of an unwary visitor in any small boat which, in freezing temperatures, can be dangerous.

Cllr Ashley Tilling & Eva Ferlez winning their event at Walton SBH

We are pleased to report that many of the broken trees and overhanging branches were cut back and removed just in time for the Walton Small Boats Head race on the 11th December.

We continue to try to identify places where we could plant new trees to help to combat climate change and to make our green spaces more attractive (see article here). We will also keep working with EBC to persuade the EA to take their responsibilities seriously and remove the unsightly and polluting illegally moored boats that continue to proliferate on our Elmbridge stretches of the Thames.

Protect our Rivers from Raw Sewage

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Our protest against dumping raw sewage

Last week the government rejected a Lords’ amendment to place a legal duty on water companies to reduce raw sewage discharges into rivers. Yet every river in England is polluted beyond legal limits. In England last year, water companies released untreated human waste directly into our waterways over 400,000 times for a total of 3.1 million hours.

Thames Water sewage data show hundreds of illegal spills:
https://on.ft.com/2ZEdJVZ

Can the water companies afford to improve their sewage systems to prevent discharges? This article suggests that they have spent billions on share dividends that could have been used to tackle this problem: cutting sewage spills 

Many people in Weybridge use the Thames to improve their well-being through sport and recreation. Our local MP, Dr Ben Spencer, voted with the government to reject the amendment to clean up our rivers. You can contact him by email to challenge him on his position: ben.spencer.mp@parliament.uk