A note of caution to everyone driving this festive season – you have been warned! From Eagle Radio website, 30th November 2013 –

Sending a text message could save a life this Christmas.

Surrey Police is urging us to report drink-drivers via our mobiles.

The force says the Christmas and New Year period is when drink-driving offences peak.

A text messaging service has been set up to report someone you think may be drunk behind the wheel.

The idea is to make reporting easier – and it can be done in confidence.

Text ‘POLICE’ to ‘66644’ followed by details of who, what, where and when as well as the registration number of the vehicle.

The service will launch on 1 December and run until Wednesday 1 January.

Head of Roads Policing in Surrey, Inspector Richard Mallett: “With the festive party season about to begin please resist the temptation to drink and drive.

“Plan your evening ahead and have a designated driver – anyone tempted to get behind the wheel with alcohol in their system not only risks taking their own life but the lives of others.

“Motorists are warned that getting behind the wheel after drinking alcohol or taking drugs could lead them to being banned from driving, fined up to £5,000 or even facing a six-month prison sentence.

“Some people will have to get used to life without a relative as a result of drink drivers over Christmas and we want to reduce that if we can.”

“Texting remains popular and we’ve got to look at different ways of reducing casualties, and this is just one of them.

“But don’t drive and text!”.

Woking & Sam Beare Hospices (WSBH) and Woking Borough Council are pleased to announce they have agreed a loan facility of up to £6 million from the Council which will go some way to enabling its development of a long term, sustainable presence in the local community.

WSBH services are currently working at full capacity serving over 1,000 patients annually both in the community and from their hospices in Woking and Weybridge. The Hospices are however coming under increasing pressure – a problem expected to heighten as people live longer, making increasing demands on the service and as they need the ever more complex End of Life Care Hospices offer.

Against this background the Hospices, led by Chief Executive Nigel Harding and with the full support of the Trustees conducted an extensive strategic review of future service provision needs. At the core of the review was the uncompromising determination to deliver excellence in everything the Hospices do including delivery through in-patient units, day units, at care and residential homes and within patients own homes.

The review produced many recommendations which now form a challenging Strategic Plan for the Hospices. The plan includes two recommendations fundamental to the future sustainability of the Hospices in the community:

• to change the organisational infrastructure, moving to a single in-patient unit
• to grow capacity in day care and community care services to meet future demand and align service care provision to national guidelines

The loan from Woking Borough Council has enabled the Hospices to act quickly on these recommendations which will help to transform End of Life Care in North West Surrey. The financing will help to create a new Hospice and centre of excellence with a 20 bed in-patient facility to be located in Denton Way, Goldsworth Park, Woking leading to:

• a cutting edge, state-of-the-art hospice for the North West Surrey community
• the re-location of beds from the Sam Beare unit to the new Hospice in Woking creating a focused centre of community care, day-care and counselling excellence in Weybridge improved delivery and quality of in-patient care and accommodation
• better prioritisation of patients with greatest needs
• expansion of day-care support, short-term therapeutic interventions and carer support provision
• cost and efficiency savings to be re-invested in further service improvements

Underpinning this work, the Hospices will work even more closely with all its valued donor partners – large and small who together make such a massive contribution to sustaining the on-going work of the Hospices in the community.

WSBH Chairman, David Perry said: “Our Hospices in Woking and Weybridge provide excellent care and we continue to develop and improve the quality of support we offer both in the hospices and, just as important beyond them into the community. This will continue seamlessly over the next three years while the new facility is commissioned. Our challenge is to ensure a sustainable Hospice Care provision, ready to adapt to changing demands on services and to provide the kind of care that people deserve. This loan from Woking Borough Council is great news and allows us to take the first steps to address these challenges and to further enhance our End of Life Care.”

Cllr John Kingsbury, Leader of Woking Borough Council, said: “The Council considers the hospices a vital part of our community and I am delighted we are able to assist them in securing a sustainable future in the best interests of current and future residents. At the same time as supporting the Hospice, we will underpin our own financial strategy to enable us to protect Council services for local people.”

The Hospices will provide regular progress updates through the design and refurbishment phases of the project through to the opening of the facility which is anticipated during the second half of 2016.

To find out more about the project, public meetings have been arranged for Wednesday 4th December at 7pm, HG Wells Suite, Woking and on Thursday 5th December in Weybridge Hall at 6.30pm. Further information on the Hospice website www.wsbhospices.co.uk

Fireworks at Knaphill by Lesley Godbolt!

What a Fantastic Fireworks display at Knaphill last night. I was feeling a bit bah humbug and didn’t really want to go out in the cold. Jasmine, Colin’s daughter, was having none of it, and we found ourselves at the 1st Knaphill Scouts Fireworks display at The Vyne Field, Redding Way, Knaphill.

It was definitely chilli last night, as well as windy and I was glad of the 5 layers I had decided to wear. My hat also got it’s first outing and although not the most flattering of ‘beanies’ it did the trick and kept my ears warm!

We arrived at the Vyne field about 6.45pm, paid our £3.50 entrance fee and immediately headed for the burger and hot dog queue.  I was expecting mediocre burgers and hot dogs for over the top prices but was pleasantly surprised to see that the burgers and hotdogs were supplied by local butcher, Prince and Sons of Horsell. The cheese burgers were served with real cheese i.e. not that plastic cheese square stuff and the hot dogs were real sausages, both for £3 each, pretty reasonable.

Once we’d scoffed the hotdogs and hamburgers we headed for the ‘drinks’ queue. After queuing behind a bunch of people who weren’t in the queue for 5 mins!  we finally got to the front and ordered some lovely hot chocolates and one cup cake between us. This proved to be a big mistake as the cup cake was delicious ( apparently home-made by Kerry, who was on the stand) and we wished we’d got a couple more. Only our waistlines thanked us for abstaining from the cup cakes.

The fire which had about 10 Guys on it was lit at 7pm and quickly caught fire and whipped up into huge warming flames with some exploding  Fire Crackers to add to the excitement. The wind was really blowing at this point and I was a little worried for the nearby trees as the flames seemed to have been blown upwards and towards the trees, but it was all under control and got the evening off to a blazing start.

Little groups of teenagers huddled together with their hamburgers and hotdogs trying to look cool, while families stood around watching their kids playing with sparklers, making shapes and writing their names in the sparkler’s light. Kids were hoisted onto shoulders to get a better look at the bonfire and quite a few little Jedi knights were merrily sword fighting with their new neon lightsabers. Mums were running round after their little Lukes and Darths making sure they didn’t stab their swords in the wrong person or stick their toffee apples to Auntie’s new leather coat. Meanwhile, the dads discussed the technicalities of the fire and reminisced about how they’d once done their own fireworks display.  The crowds were variously lit up with neon Mohicans, bracelets and necklaces and it all added to the special atmosphere of fireworks night.

We amused ourselves trying to stand behind the tallest person to get out of the wind, hands stuffed in pockets and heads down we jostled like penguins for the best position. We moaned about a lack of tights under jeans, hopped from one foot to the other, engaged in random jumping and clapping of hands and generally behaved like the British when they are trying to keep warm.

Finally the display kicked off. The Fireworks were fabulous, with lots of oohing and ahhhing from the crowd, loads of big bangs and explosions and showers of light. They seemed to keep going for ages we kept thinking it was going to end only for more and more fireworks to flash across the night sky. Finally it came to a noisy finale with a well earned round of applause from the crowd. My neck was killing me from constantly looking upwards into the sky but it was definitely worth it. The 1st Knaphill scouts put on an amazing display and a thoroughly enjoyable evening out.

We went home to our mulled wine and chocolates with a warm fuzzy feeling having seen a great British tradition at it’s best!!

Knaphill fireworks display gets two thunderbolts rating – very good