Category Archives: Well being

Our MP votes against improving GP and ambulance wait times

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The Runnymede & Weybridge Conservative MP, a qualified doctor, has been criticised after voting against a Liberal Democrat amendment which would have committed the government to improving GP and ambulance wait times.

The amendment also called on the government to build the 40 new hospitals that had been promised and bring in measures to address the crises in the NHS and social care.

The Liberal Democrats have set out a clear plan to fix local health services, including giving people the right to see a GP in a week or 24 hours if in urgent need. 

Ellen Nicholson the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for  Runnymede & Weybridge said: 

“Dr. Ben Spencer has shown a callous disregard for patients waiting in pain. As a medical professional himself, this is deeply concerning. Runnymede & Weybridge deserve local health services that provide the care people need, instead of being forced to wait for weeks on end for a GP appointment or hours for an ambulance to arrive. They also deserve an MP that will be a strong local champion and stand up for our health services.

“This Conservative government has run our NHS into the ground. Communities like ours have been taken for granted for far too long. Voters know that with the Liberal Democrats they will get much better, just as they deserve to.”

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.”

Our MP visits Weybridge Rowing Club

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Our local MP, Dr Ben Spencer, accepted an invitation to row at Weybridge Rowing Club on the 6th June. A former college rower (he’s in the blue t-shirt in the middle of the boat), he was accompanied by Cllr Judy Sarsby, a member of the rowing club, as he rowed around Desborough Island in an eight. It was a good opportunity to point out some of the problems experienced by river users, including the illegally moored boats along the Desborough Cut, which a few weeks earlier had again caused the cancellation of the much-loved Weybridge Ladies Regatta, and sewage discharges by the water companies. He was talked through the key location for the future flood-relief channel into the Thames (the River Thames Scheme) and where the ‘Row Paddle Run’ charity event takes place to raise money for The Grâce Dear Trust for young people’s mental health. He experienced a busy morning of residents using the river for sport and pleasure.

Helping to clean our river – you can join too!

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Councillor Judy Sarsby stepped up the litter picking efforts around Desborough Island this summer, having initiated the Monday morning litter pick on the island two years ago.

Together with rowers from Weybridge Rowing Club, Judy paddled around the River Thames and pulled out floating plastics from the banks. A big thank you to Judy, who works so tirelessly on so many issues!

Keeping our rivers and waterways clean is as important as removing the litter from the land, not only for pollution reduction to enhance life for humans, animals and plants, but also for climate resilience.

If you would like to make an immediate impact locally and help with our litter pick, please get in touch with us at JSarsby@elmbridge.gov.uk. Come and be part of making a better river environment in our area!

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.

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.

Outdoor play

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The RA/LibDem administration want to ensure a sustainable and thriving Elmbridge will always provide opportunities for outdoor play in our hundreds of parks, recreation grounds and open spaces we provide and maintain across the borough.

Among the sandpits, natural play equipment, the swings, slides, zip wires and skateparks we have two paddling pools, both in Weybridge and built in the 1950s, one in Churchfields park and one in Oatlands park. However, they are costly both financially and environmentally: they need filling with fresh water and emptying every day which requires someone on site for up to eleven hours. The third wet-play facility in the Borough is the Hersham splash-pad which was converted from a similar paddling pool; it reduces the need for lengthy filling and emptying and is therefore opened for a much longer period over the summer than the paddling pools.

The first step to reviewing how the pools fit into Elmbridge’s sustainable future will be a public consultation over the next few weeks to understand what residents feel is their preferred way forward for play provision across the Borough.

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.

What you told us

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We’ve analysed the views coming out of the survey which was dropped through Weybridge Riverside letter boxes last November:

Excluding the don’t knows, 69% thought government needed to do more to tackle climate change, with more electric vehicle charging points and a proper commitment to insulate homes the main demands.

And 58% (again excluding the don’t knows) thought that more needed to be done to enable the building of affordable homes. But people questioned whether “affordable” homes were actually affordable and had few solutions to the problem.

People like living here because of the green spaces, river, convenience for London, schools, high street and safe environment. But they were concerned about overdevelopment, insufficient parking, air pollution and the future of the walk-in centre.

Support for traffic calming measures in the High Street was very mixed. There was concern about Traffic density and/or speed on Heath Road and at the top of Monument Hill. And several “rat runs” were highlighted (Portmore Park Road, Elgin Road and York Road).