The children’s play area in Churchfields Recreation Ground has had a makeover. You’ll find brand-new play equipment as well as extra picnic tables. The former paddling pool has been transformed into a spacious sand pit, and the surfaces around the equipment have all been renewed. It’s looking great and ready for plenty of fun — and all of this is in addition to the very popular splash pad, which Elmbridge Borough Council opened last May. These improvements make the park an even more welcoming spot for everyone to relax, play, and enjoy time outdoors together.
This year your local councillors were pleased to be able to allocate £559,370 in Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) funding to projects across the Weybridge area.
The levy is paid by developers on new building projects. It ensures that development is matched by investment in local facilities and infrastructure. Local organisations can apply for CIL grants to support their capital projects. Importantly, applicants are expected to contribute funding themselves, ensuring that their money leverages greater value from public resources.
Education was one of the largest beneficiaries this year: Cleves School, Walton Leigh School, Oatlands School, St James Primary and Manby Lodge all received funding for a variety of projects.
Sports and recreation also received strong backing with new facilities planned for Weybridge Vandals, Weybridge Cricket Club, Oatlands Park Bowling Club and Walton & Hersham Youth Football Club.
Whiteley Village received support for its refurbished clubhouse while Brooklands Museum secured funding to accommodate Brooklands ATC. Girlguiding Weybridge and NW Surrey Synagogue gained funding to improve accessibility and sustainability.
In December 2024, central government published a paper to set out its approach on devolution – transferring more powers from government to local or regional authorities. They proposed that each area should elect regional Mayors where they don’t currently have them. This approach means that additional power is given to the Mayor, giving them more control over strategic decision making for their area.
To unlock the devolution of further local powers and elect a Mayor, some areas need to reorganise first. This means creating unitary authorities to simplify and streamline local government. Unitary councils are responsible for the services currently delivered by both the county council and local councils. In Surrey, there are eleven district or borough councils, responsible for waste collection, planning, cemeteries, parks and recreation grounds, and Surrey County Council responsible for Children’s Services, Adult Social Care and highways. LGR would mean dissolving all of the existing councils and combining services into unitary authorities. Having fewer councils creates efficiency, clarifies service delivery and saves money. It is, though, debatable whether this is ‘devolution’, which surely entails giving responsibility for democratic decision-making to the most appropriate local level.
The effect of being in the first wave
The Tory-led SCC administration volunteered to be in the first wave of devolution knowing that this would mean the cancellation of the county elections due to be held in May 2025 and extending the term of office of current councillors by two years without a further election. It has also meant that there has been very little time to thoroughly explore all the options for the configuration of the new unitaries, how the debt of councils will be managed and the complexities and costs of organising new teams to handle the key areas of Children’s and Adult Social Services.
Final plans submitted to government
A six week public consultation finished on the 5th August. Congratulations if you waded through the dense, opaque language in the numerous questions better suited to officers working in local government rather than members of the public.
Three unitary proposals
Nine of the eleven local councils are promoting a grouping of current councils into three new unitary authorities. They argue:
Our proposal offers local government that is built around Surrey’s distinct and recognised functional human and economic geographies. By aligning local government with well-defined and understood places, we can create a system that is more responsive, effective and attuned to the diverse needs of the people, communities and businesses that call Surrey home.
Put simply, we believe that local authorities with administrative boundaries that reflect functional and locally recognised areas are better equipped to meet the needs of these areas. They will also improve the potential for partnership working across the system and with community partners.
Two unitary proposals
Surrey County Council, Elmbridge and Mole Valley have promoted a final plan to government splitting Surrey into two councils, East and West. They say:
We’ve analysed a wide range of data on how the two councils would operate and our approach is supported by many of Surrey’s key public sector organisations including health, police, fire, business and community leaders. Existing county council services across Surrey are proven by independent inspectors to be strong, with successful outcomes for residents, and Surrey County Council and many of the district and borough councils have stable finances. This puts us in a good position to see Surrey through reorganisation smoothly.
What next?
The government is now considering the proposals and will make their decision know by the end of September or October. It is rather worrying that in the rush to provide lengthy proposals, key aspects such as how many councillors will represent each ‘division’ (‘wards’ will disappear) have not yet been put forward.
Surrey County Council confirmed on the 23rd June that the experimental prohibition of Heavy Goods Vehicles in Weybridge will be made permanent. In the long consultation that ran from 25 October 2024 to 1 May 2025 86% of respondents supported the ban.
Enforcement of the ban will be with the installation of an Automatic Number Plate Recognition camera on Brooklands Road so that penalty charge notices can be issued to drivers. We hope that this will herald an end to HGVs forcing other vehicles onto the pavement at the Balfour Road roundabout junction and to their frequent damaging of the railings.
Your local councillors were pleased to attend the opening of the new water-play area at Churchfields recreation ground on Thursday 22 May with the ribbon being cut by the new Elmbridge Mayor, Cllr Steve Bax.
A splash pad was promoted in the Cabinet several years ago by Cllr Ashley Tilling as the portfolio holder for Environmental Services and Climate Change as we reported last year: http://weybridgelibdems.org.uk/2024/11/splash-pad/
Sustainability was a top priority when selecting the design and equipment; it therefore has a filtering and recirculating water system to reduce water consumption as well as solar panels to make it more energy-efficient than most similar facilities. The splash pad is packed with exciting and innovative water features that promise hours of enjoyment for toddlers and young school-aged children.
Opening times
The Weybridge splash pad is open from 24 May to 2 September. Opening hours are 10am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday, and 10am to 5pm on Sundays.
The council has approved buying another 86 more dual recycling/waste street litter bins. Many of the older bins were showing their age with rusting bases. These will replace bins in all town centres across Elmbridge where needed.
There will be two more in Weybridge High Street, six in Queens Road and two in Oatlands village.
A year ago we posted our support for the petition started by our St George’s councillor colleagues to introduce a weight limit on HGVs coming through the town via Heath Road and Brooklands Road: http://weybridgelibdems.org.uk/2023/11/hgv-petition/.
After a lengthy consultation period, this has now come into effect. Apparently it won’t be possible to issue fines on drivers contravening the restrictions for the first six months as it is a trial ban. Anyone seeing vehicles flouting the order should report the incident, preferably with photos, via:
At Elmbridge Borough Council’s Planning Committee on Tuesday 5th December the application to redevelop the Brooklands College site was approved.
The application involves providing a total of 320 new homes in blocks of flats, town houses and the refurbishment of the listed Brooklands mansion into luxury apartments. The College put forward a development of such a significant scale on Greenbelt land largely to pay off £20m of a £25m debt it had incurred when contracting apprentice training to a company that subsequently went bust. The money is owed to the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), an agency of the DofE.
The debate in the Planning Committee meeting involved discussions on whether paying off the debt was a legitimate use of the planning process and constituted the Very Special Circumstances (VSC) necessary for building houses and flats on Greenbelt land, whether the design, mass, bulk and height of the proposed buildings were acceptable and whether there would be undue additional pressure on our roads. Despite being advised that paying off the debt did not constitute VSC, and with a number of councillors expressing concern about the scale of the proposed buildings and the effect on our already congested roads, the application was approved by a majority.
Clearly there are advantages to the proposals, including:
Upgrading the College’s teaching facilities;
Increasing the provision on site for local students requiring a high level of Special Education Needs, supported with funds from Surrey County Council;
Delivering a new sports centre and community space for the use of the College and the wider local community;
Refurbishing the site’s listed mansion, returning it to its historic residential use and restoring its terraced gardens;
40% of properties will be affordable homes providing a mix of rented housing, shared ownership and discounted first homes;
Opening up 12 hectares of woodland for newly accessible public use;
Reopening pedestrian and cycling access across the railway bridge giving residents living south of the railway better access to Brooklands College, Heathside School and into Weybridge;
Remediating and building on areas that were former landfill sites.
Local Liberal Democrats have slammed Dr Ben Spencer for VOTING AGAINST a compensation scheme for swimmers who get sick from sewage.
The amendment to the Victims and Prisoners Bill, tabled by Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron, would have allowed anyone who gets sick, as a result of illegal sewage dumping, to claim compensation from water companies. However, it was voted down in the Commons this week after Conservative MPs, including Dr Ben Spencer, voted against it.
It comes despite a recent report which found a staggering 1,924 cases of people getting sick due to suspected sewage pollution over the last year, nearly triple the number of cases reported in the previous year.
Ellen Nicholson, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Runnymede & Weybridge, said:
“It’s shameful that Ben Spencer and this Conservative government have once again put water companies’ profits before people’s health.
“It is a complete slap in the face to all those in Runnymede & Weybridge who expect their MP to stand up and fight for them, instead of for massive companies who have dumped filthy sewage into our rivers and lakes.
“It is a sad state of affairs when swimmers are falling seriously sick from sewage while water company bosses trouser millions in bonuses.
“The Liberal Democrats have exposed the sewage scandal and will continue to hold these polluting firms to account even if Dr Ben Spencer refuses to.”
Your local councillor team has held discussions over the last few months to improve the planting of the prominent beds at Churchfields Rec following the dying back of the annual summer bedding plants. This accords with the council’s vision for a more sustainable Elmbridge with improved biodiversity and they have now been planted with lower maintenance grasses and flowering shrubs to provide an attractive display all year round.
