Author Archives: webknaphill

Brookwood Farm and Sparvell Road

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The latest change to the plans for Brookwood Farm development shows Sparvell Road becoming the second access road into the proposed housing estate Brookwood Farm.

The plans are now available on the Woking Borough web site under PLAN/2012/0224 & PLAN/2012/1059. Details of the plans for Sparvell road are included in a revised Transport Note from Bellamy Roberts, consultants to Cala Homes.

We are still evaluating all the figures that are included in the above mentioned report and of course wait for the views of Surrey’s Highway Authority. The following bullet points are our initial reaction to the plans.

  • Cala Homes have used the original figures they published for the amount of traffic going into and out of the estate to the housing development. These figures have been questioned and the points raised then still apply. The number of vehicles quoted as departing from the residential area during the morning rush hours is underestimated by at least 20%.
  • The consultants state that as traffic leaving Sparvell Road cannot turn right all traffic from the proposed residential area that is going either towards Woking or Guildford will use the junction at Redding Way. WRONG, traffic from the new housing going towards Woking will use Sparvell Road, Chobham Road and Barrs Lane. Drivers will try and avoid the Redding Way and Brookwood Crossroads if that is feasible.
  • The use of Sparvell Road will be best used in the evening rush hours when traffic coming from the M3, Bisley etc. can turn right into Sparvell Road and on into Brookwood Farm thus easing the traffic at Redding Way.
  • The figures produced by the consultant fail to take into account the additional traffic generated by the proposed enlarged Sainsbury’s.
  • The Education Authority estimate that 23% of pupils attending the new school on Brookwood Farm will walk. As the education authority cannot predict the choice of school a parent may make the figure of 23% is high.
  • There is nothing in the new plans that addresses the congestion at Brookwood Crossroads and it would appear that Surrey County Council have not planned any major road build or modification to the A322, Bagshot Road, for the next ten years.

As stated earlier the above is our first examination of the new plans. The main message is that the plans are now open to comment from residents and the closing date for comments is 02 January 2013.

Police update

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Please find below your weekly Neighbourhood Watch Crime Bulletin.

 

Friday the 30th of November 2012 – Thursday the 6th of December 2012

 

In Your Area

 

I have to report that in the last week the following crime/crimes occurred in or near to your area.

 

 

Crime Reference WK/12/7345 – Between the hours of 15:20 and 15:38 on Monday the 3rd of November an insecure bicycle was stolen from HERMITAGE ROAD, KNAPHILL.

 

Consider securing bicycles with a Sold Secure approved D-Lock, visit www.soldsecure.com to find products that meet this approval. A record of their frame number should also be kept and registered onto a national property database, visit www.immobilise.com for further information.

 

 

Crime Reference WK/12/7388 – Between the hours of 15:45 and 17:50 on Thursday the 6th of December 2012 a property in GORSEWOOD ROAD, KNAPHILL was subject to a BURGLARY.

 

During this time the offender/offenders gained access to the unoccupied property via an open window. At the time of writing it is unclear what had been stolen

 

The majority of burglaries that are committed occur at the rear of properties. For this reason it is important to deter access into your back gardens. Gates should be closed and locked at all times when not in direct use. Deter the scaling of gates and fences by adding trellis to the tops of them.

Please make sure all doors and windows are closed and locked when not in direct use. Please don’t think that because you are only popping out for a moment that it won’t happen to you!

Consider the installation of an intruder alarm in your home. Any alarm installed should ideally conform to standard BS EN 50131 and should be fitted by a company that is NSI (National Security Inspectorate) or SSAIB (Security Systems and Alarms Inspection Board) approved. Details of such companies can be found at www.nsi.org.uk or www.ssaib.co.uk

 

 

If you feel that you have witnessed any incident that may relate to the above crime/crimes please call 101 quoting the relevant crime number.

 

Can you please circulate the details of the crimes to the members of your watch if you think it will be of value. Remember that if you have elderly or vulnerable residents in your road this information may frighten them so be careful how you deliver this message.

 

Yours Sincerely

 

Mark Saunders

Crime Prevention Design Advisor
If you need to contact us in the meantime, you can reach us on

Email: 13180@surrey.pnn.police.uk
Tel: 101

Speeding has reached our limits

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Recent debate has begun regarding the concerns of residents on speeding in the village. A recent poll showed that 55% have noticed speeding frequently, 25% often and 20% not at all.

Residents in Chobham Road, especially around the Knaphill Lower School area, have raised the issue due to inconsiderate and dangerous driving around the school. Near misses from speeding 4×4’s and ill-considered parking from parents dropping children off at school are at the center of the concern.

This is not the first time speeding, parking and traffic have been raised but we are in the very early stages of attempting to make sure it’s one of the last. All measures will be up for consideration and local councillors, police and the school have been invited to join in and take an active role – indeed the village will require their support if aims are to be met. One suggestion is for a reduction in speed limit to 20mph; you can read an article on this from The Telegraph here.

Shortly there will be a petition created for residents to sign to show their support for such a set of actions to reduce speeding and traffic problems, with a focus on the areas outside schools.

Updates on this topic will be posted here so please get in touch if you wish to add any information.

 

UPDATE 3/12/12

Cllr Melanie Whitehand has already been in touch and has contacted both Geoff McManus regarding parking and the police to help the situation…

UPDATE 4/12/12

We’ve met with county councillor Diana Smith (a fortuitous meeting while putting up lights around Anchor Cresent!) and SCC are in the process of installing speed monitoring equipment in Chobham Road. This can, apparently, take some time to put in place however so a quicker option in the interim is for the police to conduct some speed testing. The results from the testing in the High Street are about to become available so we shall find out what they are soon and what, if any measures are implemented.

12/12/12

The school now have a banner for safer parking on the front fence and the police presence on school days is having an amazing effect – well done all. I do feel slightly sorry for the police though, they look frozen today!

Sainsbury’s (Even more!)

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We felt it necessary to update residents on the article we published on 26 October. Following our representation to Woking Borough Council the Council have published a number of the plans submitted by Sainsbury’s and their agents to meet the planning conditions imposed on them as part of the agreement for Sainsbury’s to build their extension. The plans can be found on the Council’s Planning web site under the original planning application reference number, PLAN/2011/0160. If you have difficulty in finding the plans please feel free to contact our secretary at secretary@knaphill.org.

In this article we will deal with only one of the planning conditions, the enclosing of the service yard. There are others covering landscaping, air quality monitoring and the barrier at the entrance of the proposed car park extension.

Service yard enclosure

As reported in October Sainsbury’s have submitted a plan for an enclosure that will be fitted around the whole of the service yard but the plan is not for a fully enclosed service yard as required in the planning decision notice. Although Sainsbury’s have stated that they will review their plans no new information has been received and therefore we can only go with the plans that have been submitted to Woking Borough Council.

A public consultation launched by WBC on 9th November closes on 30th November and therefore anyone planning to comment on the plans as they currently stand will have to submit their comments as soon as possible.

The KRA have asked Woking Borough Council to reopen the public consultation period if Sainsbury’s submit amended plans.

BROOKWOOD FARM – CALA HOMES AMEND THEIR PLANS

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We have received a letter from Woking Borough Council stating that the developer, Cala Homes, have submitted amendments to the planning application for Brookwood Farm.

Details of the amendments are on the WBC planning web-site (http://www.woking.gov.uk/planning/publicaccess) Just to remind everyone the planning application reference number is PLAN/2012/0224.

The amended plans are open to public consultation and residents have until 14 December 2012 to comment.

The Residents’ Association will study the amended plans and make a more detailed comment later.

The amended plans do not deal with the major issues of school places, road congestion, air quality or adequate GP practices.

Brookwood twist

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An interesting turn of events has come to light in the development of Brookwood Farm. Cala Homes, the company behind the designs for the site have been put up for auction as reported in The Independent today

How this affects the plans both from Cala and WBC is unknown but it is unlikely that any pressure will be coming from the Cala camp in the near future as they see just how their auction goes and if any break up of the business is on the cards.

This activity is unlikely to derail the Brookwood Farm development however and only lead to delays in breaking ground.

Litter pick 2012

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A damp start to the day provided normal KRA operating conditions for the recent litter pick of Knaphill village, organised by our own Ann Mason and Antony Polack. Helped along by a pack of pickers, we had 15 helpers in all and our thanks go to each of them for giving generously of their time to help improve the village.

A considerable amount of rubbish was collected – the most common offenders being cigarette butts and energy drinks cans. We also found empty wine bottles, clothing, rags, receipts and the usual junk carelessly discarded or blown from topless bins.

Phil Stubbs also took the opportunity to rake the leaves up from the old library site in preparation for the service on the 11th.

Thanks should also go to Kate Wilson from WBC who came over from Surbiton just to help out and lend the use of garbage grabbers and provide bags for Serco to collect.

I’m mightily pleased that we got volunteers to help out and even though we got some funny looks for cleaning the village, it was a worthwhile effort to make the streets just a bit tidier. Lets hope the village can keep it that way for a while!

 

Police: Operation Candlelight update

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This year’s anti-burglary initiative, Operation Candlelight, launched on Monday, 22 October and is well underway. Operational activities have targeted high risk neighbourhoods and known offenders; crime prevention postcards have been sent to ‘at risk’ properties to encourage residents to improve their home security while roadshows and bus back advertising have taken place across the county.

 

In the second phase of the operation, we are teaming up with Crimestoppers in a bid to urge residents to tell the charity what they know about possible burglars and the handling of stolen goods in return for cash rewards of up to £1,000.

 

Following the success of last years campaign which saw an increase in calls to the charity, Crimestoppers will use Facebook, advertising posters in buses across Surrey and a targeted ‘Know a burglar?’ leaflet drop to make as many people as possible aware of the rewards while pledging the anonymity that Crimestoppers offer.

 

Tim Prideaux JP, Chairman of Surrey Crimestoppers said: “We all want our homes and valuables to be as safe as possible so if you have any information about any burglary but don’t want to reveal your identity then please contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.”

 

Detective Superintendent Ray Blythe said: “Surrey Police is pleased to be working alongside Crimestoppers once again in our bid to reduce burglary activity. We know that some people don’t want to talk to the police and don’t want to give their name but do have information about burglars in their area. I would encourage anyone who knows about those involved in this distressing crime to tell someone – whether that be the police or Crimestoppers – to make sure we can bring these individuals to justice.”

If you need to contact us in the meantime, you can reach us on

Email: 13207@surrey.pnn.police.uk
Tel: 101

 

Mark Saunders

Distributors wanted

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As some of you will know, we’ve had to use a delivery chap for the last year or more. While this has been an excellent service and we thank Richard for his efforts, two things have come to light – firstly, members that helped deliver the magazine before started to feel left out and wanted to re-start the deliveries. This is naturally a fantastic situation to have as we can now help them help us, so to speak. It also mitigates the second issue of cost of delivery which I have to admit was eating into the coffers somewhat.

Neville Hinks has been in touch with the old distribution network and I’m pleased to say that most roads in the village are covered by existing or recently found volunteers. We do however have some outstanding roads that we would appreciate a volunteer distributor for, they are (quantities in brackets) –

Cavell Way and Tringham Close (115)
Alexandra Gardens (200)
Lane End Drive (95)
Nursery Road, Halls Farm Close, and St Hildas Close (100)
Robin Hood Road, Anchor Hill, Waterers Rise, and Barnby Road (200)
Robin Hood Crescent (70)
Lansbury Estate (40)
Knaphill churches (50)

How it works

The magazines are delivered to the editor and sorted into piles by road. These will then be taken to the deliverer’s doorstep for distribution.

Anyone feeling ready, willing and able should get in touch with the editor ‘editor@knaphill.org‘

Sainsburys Redding Way (more!)

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Although Woking’s Planning Committee approved the latest application from Sainsbury’s to extend their store in December 2011 the legal paperwork was only completed in August this year. With any major planning agreement there are a number of planning conditions that the developer has to meet either before the developer starts to build or before the shop owner starts to trade in the extension.

As residents will know, the determination of this application has always raised concerns on a number of grounds. Even now, such concerns continue and there are a number of procedural matters that the KRA consider still need challenging, even the general legality of the Decision that has been taken. The KRA has therefore made a formal complaint to Woking Borough Council.

One of the principle benefits for local residents that was to have been secured by the grant of this planning permission was the “full” enclosure of the service yard to address noise impact concerns. Such work was imposed as a planning condition which needed to be discharged prior to other works.

The Planning Committee (presumably even at that time sceptical of Sainsbury’s intent to deliver their promises), insisted that the design of the conditioned enclosure has to be returned to the full Planning Committee for approval and that the enclosure of the service yard had to be given priority in carrying out any building work.

One of our colleagues and Cllr. Melanie Whitehand met with Sainsbury’s team last week to discuss their plans for the enclosure of the service yard. The first disappointment was that even before that meeting had had an opportunity to take place, Sainsbury’s had already submitted their plans for approval to Woking Borough Council. The second disappointment was that it was quite clear from those plans that the current enclosure design does not deliver the “promises” made to residents and the Planning Committee.

On a slightly more positive note, Sainsbury’s team have advised that they will “re-visit” their designs. The KRA will continue to challenge robustly any proposals that do not deliver what was promised to residents (and the Council) last year. We will update you, once Sainsbury’s had advised further.

We also now wait to see what action will be taken by Woking Borough Council in response to our complaint.

P.S. Just in case any residents are wondering why they are not actually aware that the Council’s decision has been issued – there is a very simple explanation. WBC have not yet sought fit to advise you! That is despite such formal notification being a requirement of their own Statement of Community involvement and Charter for Development Enabling.