Too much development?

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Your local councillors are concerned at the cumulative impact on traffic and infrastructure (doctors, schools, nurseries) of the number of developments that are being submitted in and around the town, mostly in the Brooklands area. We recently attended a meeting with the Weybridge Society and our Weybridge SCC councillor to review the potential impact.

Some of these started as permitted development (PD) applications whereby an unused office block can be converted to flats without going through the full planning process. An example of this is the refurbishment of Clive House on Queen’s Road. But developers seem to always want more and they then put forward plans to build on adjoining land or to demolish and rebuild properties to maximise income from the sites. At the moment there are the following potential developments:

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  1. JTI building, Members Hill (photo right): 57 under PD, now 205 flats with two large, new blocks.
  2. St George’s Gardens, offices on both sides of Locke King Road: South side 213 or more (photo above); North side 58 PD, maybe up to 100 if re-developed.
  3. 6, The Heights: 21 PD, up to 40 if re-developed.
  4. Abbey House: 48 PD, 106 on re-development.
  5. Brooklands College: a proposal for 87 houses and up to 263 flats.

The total number of dwellings involved is nearly 1,000; potentially adding some 2,500 residents and 1,500 vehicles and creating an unsustainable additional demand on already saturated local medical facilities, roads, and schools.

The meeting was unanimous in agreeing that such developments were unsustainable within the current Weybridge infrastructure and inconsistent with the local demand and environment.

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

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

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.

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



River Thames Scheme edging closer

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The scheme to build a second flood-relief channel to help prevent the flooding of residential areas, called the River Thames Scheme, has been a long time coming. Plans were first presented to the public by the Environment Agency over ten years ago but were then put on hold by the government due to cost. The floods in 2014 provided impetus to revive the idea of a Thames supplementary channel from Staines to Shepperton as well as work on the downstream weirs at Sunbury and Molesey to allow for the additional flow.

This large scheme is treated as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) which requires a Development Consent Order (DCO). This removes the need for separate planning permissions in each local authority and is a quicker process. The application for the DCO is now (September) being presented to the government’s Planning Inspectorate after which parties with an interest in the scheme will be able to comment.

More information is at: www.riverthamesscheme.org.uk

 

A planning concern from Runnymede Council

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Weybridge Business Park

All offices on the main Business Park on Hamm Moor Lane have been emptied and the site owner has applied to Runnymede Council, application RU.22/0776, for permission to build three warehouse units. The largest of these, with 10 loading bays and 12 waiting bays, is believed to be earmarked as an Amazon distribution centre.

It has been pointed out in letter of representation that the impact on local roads of the estimated 99 HGVs per day, as well as numerous delivery vans and commuter transport (of up to 450 employees), would be significant and would almost certainly affect traffic in Weybridge High Street, Heath Road and Portmore Park Road. Indeed, National Highways has asked for a 56 day delay in any decision so that a further review of the methods used to calculate the trip generation in the Transport Assessment can be reviewed. However, the consultant acting for the applicant has responded by providing data that shows a reduction in the number of vehicle movements from the level of previous occupancy of the site.

Cllr Ashley Tilling writes that EBC were consulted and responded in June but as traffic impact is a matter for SCC as our Highways Authority they understandably could not find any planning grounds on which they could raise an objection (EBC 2022/1662). To voice your concerns you should contact your County Councillor or local MP, Dr Ben Spencer.



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.

Health Campus gets priority

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Ever since the fire burnt down the Weybridge Community Hospital 5 years ago, residents have been asking what will be replacing this and when. Things are now finally moving forward with a commitment to faster progress on an affordable and achievable plan.

The recent public exhibition established that the new Health Campus on the old hospital site will get the primary focus, but the redevelopment of the library site is also expected to press ahead.

Weybetter Weybridge (a partnership of the key local organisations who are delivering the programme) estimate that the new health campus will be operational towards the end of 2025. Their vision is that the campus will provide:

  • Doctors, nurses and therapists working together to provide a one-stop shop for local health services
  • Access to ‘on the day’ urgent care provided by nurses, GPs and a range of health professionals
  • Ultrasound and advanced blood testing diagnostic services on site
  • A range of children’s services including a 0 to19 health visiting and school nursing hub, as well as speech and language and other therapy services

However, replacing the walk in centre is not in the plan (due to the creation of the Urgent Treatment Centre at St Peters) nor is an X-ray unit proposed (as the previous one was underused and there is good capacity in Walton).

The new library space will be designed to be flexible, enabling different types of activities and events to take place. It will include exhibition and performance space, alongside confidential rooms that can be used for workshops, classes or for groups to meet. There will be space throughout the building where people can use facilities including Wi-Fi, computers, printing and photocopying to support them to collaborate, work or study.

Weybetter Weybridge are proposing that part of the Churchfields Car Park will move from its existing position to Churchfields Bowling Green. This will allow for a large plaza as a multi-functional public space behind the new library. There is resident concern about this proposal.

LibDem Cllr Helgi Joensen will be participating in Weybetter Weybridge meetings. Do please add your own comments to this article.

There will of course be extensive public consultation in the months ahead. If you want to be kept up-to-date, submit your email address at https://tinyurl.com/jcfmtpnf. Further information is available at https://tinyurl.com/yswep5zp.