Category Archives: Schools

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.

Supporting our young people’s mental health

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Elmbridge Mayor Tony Popham’s chosen charity this year provided many Weybridge sports clubs with the opportunity to show support and solidarity for young people struggling with depression and mental health problems, following the two lockdowns. 

Cllr Judy Sarsby had the idea to organise a sponsored “Row, Paddle, Run” event to raise money for the Grace Dear Charity. It was attended by Graham & Hope Dear, the father and sister who founded the charity after Grace tragically took her own life after a long struggle with mental health in 2017. Over a hundred local athletes, including members of rowing, kayaking, rugby, netball, cricket, tennis and running clubs participated in the event.

It raised over £6000 and has already enabled the running of two mental health first aid workshops to help educate coaches and welfare officers of local sports and social clubs. More are planned in 2022. These aim to aid recognition of the signs and symptoms of mental health illness, how to approach those struggling and provide them with support.

The first of these was held at Elmbridge Canoe Club and was attended by Lib Dem Councillors Judy Sarsby and Jez Langham of Long Ditton. Judy and Jez plan to run a series of these workshops to help create a web of mental health support across the Borough using sports and social clubs. “A young person struggling may not go to their parents or the school for help, but many have built relationships of trust and friendship with coaches”, says Judy who is also a club welfare officer; “We hope that by educating coaches on what to look for and how to ask the young if they are OK, we can find those who are struggling the most and offer support. We’re not health professional but do have access to a lot of support outlets. This pandemic has hit the young particularly. Many are struggling and not sure where to turn. We’re hoping these workshops will help and have already had done success .” The next workshop is planned for February. If you feel this could be beneficial to you in working with the young, to learn the signs and symptoms, please contact Judy at Jsarsby@elmbridge.gov.uk

New Mayor launches his Charity Appeal

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Following his election as Mayor of Elmbridge at the Annual Meeting of the Council on Wednesday 19 May, Councillor Tony Popham held his charity launch via Zoom on Thursday 20 May. Councillor Tony Popham has chosen to support The Grace Dear Trust for his Mayoral term of office.

Judy Sarsby writes:

In a year like no other, when so many are struggling to stay positive, it was encouraging to hear that the new Mayor has chosen a charity that reflects the needs of the young people of the borough struggling with mental health. The Grace Dear Trust is a powerful and active mental health charity set up in the memory of a sister and daughter, Grace, lost to suicide in February 2017 aged just 27. Grace had been suffering with depression and anxiety from the age of 13. The aim of Grace’s father, Graham, and sister, Hope, is to help save the lives of other young people suffering with mental health issues. Mental health is still seriously underfunded and requires more effective approaches to prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

Their slogan “it’s ok not to be ok” communicates the message that we can all have feelings of depression, but that we can reach out so that we do not have to suffer alone as there is help available. Many young people struggle to understand their own feelings and don’t know how to talk about them; this can lead to them suffering in silence without seeking the help they need. The charity supported by the Mayor, who lives in Hersham and has a teenage daughter, raises money to deliver presentations to schools and organisations on the importance of good mental health. The charity partners with local schools and clubs, providing mental health training courses and sets up strategies to support club members and pupils. They have embraced the pairing of sport with good mental health and also set up a young persons’ theatre project where they talk about their feelings through creative and performing arts. The Grace Dear Trust is certainly an appropriate cause in a year when showing empathy, listening and community spirit are of optimum importance to the young.

https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/mental-health/find-an-urgent-mental-health-helpline

Laptop Appeal

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I am writing to let you know about one aspect of the ongoing work of local Liberal Democrats in these challenging times. A major issue being faced by many local families at the moment is the lack of access to laptops. From my time as a teacher I am only too well aware of the detrimental effect that the government’s failure to plan for home schooling, compounded with their inability to provide sufficient resources, is having on the education of many children. To help alleviate this situation we recently launched The Elmbridge Laptop Appeal, reaching out to local residents and businesses, asking them if they have unused laptops that could be donated.

Thanks to the very generous responses we’ve received already there have been 10 laptops donated to an Elmbridge secondary school. And more laptops are on their way ready to go out to other local schoolchildren across Elmbridge. We have been overwhelmed by the support of local people and local businesses to this appeal, so quickly pledging computers or making generous financial donations.

We have had a wonderful response so far, but we would like to do more: if you or your business have laptops, or wish to donate to the campaign, please do get in touch. The cost of a brand new, relevant specification machine is around £500, but we have managed to secure a limited number of refurbished units for £260 each. If you can donate an old laptop, or if you would like to donate money towards the campaign to buy either refurbished or new laptops, please see our website (elmbridgelibdems.org.uk) for more information on the Elmbridge Laptop Appeal. All donations from this campaign will go directly to buying laptops for school children. Your generosity will provide reliable access to education for children at home during this lockdown who don’t have the necessary equipment.

Thank you for your support.
Best wishes,
Ashley

School Streets

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Surrey County Council has decided to pilot “School Streets”.  A school street is where the road outside a school is closed to motor vehicles during school drop-off and pick-up times. 

In practice, this means the road is closed twice a day for 30 to 60 minutes. The restriction usually applies to both school traffic and through traffic. Exemptions are made for residents living in that street and for blue badge holders.  

Surrey hopes that the pilots will encourage active travel, improve air quality and promote road safety. School streets are also effective for enabling social distancing outside schools.  Surrey County Council has approved the principle of a school street pilot at Heath End School in Farnham and is inviting nominations for other school streets elsewhere in Surrey.

There are also plans to measure air quality around a sample of schools in all eleven Surrey districts and boroughs.  The measurement would be at child-head height to identify the level of air pollution children are being exposed to at school drop-off and pick-up.

School streets started in Italy in 1989 and were first introduced to the UK in 2015 when schemes began in Scotland.  Camden was the first site in London in 2017. Today there are over 130 school streets in Britain.  

Evaluations have shown that motorised traffic not only decreases on the school street where the scheme has been implemented, but also on surrounding streets. This suggests a change in behaviour with people swapping mode of transport to active travel.

It remains to be seen whether residents in Weybridge would welcome the introduction of school streets in our town.  Queuing traffic is a frequent feature of life in Weybridge and some may fear school streets would create more problems. It very much depends on the layout and context of each individual location. Please let us know what you think.

If you would like more information about School Streets it is available at  www.schoolstreets.org.uk