Category Archives: Knaphill Community

Headhunters up for another award!

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Ben Madle of Head Hunters hairdressers in the High Street was recently in the shortlist for Photographic Stylist of the Year award. Although he didn’t win, being placed so highly is in itself a huge accomplishment. Ben also recently worked at London Fashion week at which much to his surprise he was appointed Head of Hair Styling for 10 shows at the last minute which in itself must have been a great experience.

Imagine Ben’s surprise and delight then when an unknown person nominated HeadHunters for The National Hairdressers Federation Britain’s Best Stylist Of The Year 2013. The National Hairdressers Federation Britain’s Best Stylist Of The Year is a nomination only award which is decided via text voting.

Ben said –

“It was a great surprise to find out that I was nominated  by someone for this great honor”

Well done Ben and Head Hunters!

nhf stylist of the year

Police NW update 20/9/13

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Friday the 13th – Thursday the 19th of September 2013

 

In Your Area

 

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

 

 

NUMBER PLATE THEFT

 

Crime Reference WK/13/5317 – Sometime between the hours of 21:45 on Thursday the 12th and 08:15 on Friday the 13th of September 2013 a vehicle parked in MEYRICK CLOSE, KNAPHILL had both the front and rear number plates stolen.

 

Criminals will often steal vehicle registration plates to place on their own vehicles in order to carry out other criminal activities in an attempt to go undetected. Protect your registration plates by securing them to your vehicle with tamper proof screws and bolts. Visit www.safe-plates.co.uk for further information.

 

 

NON-DWELLING BURGLARY

 

Crime Reference WK/13/5391 – Sometime between the hours of 17:00 on Monday the 16th and 08:30 on Tuesday the 17th of September 2013 a property in LITTLEWICK ROAD, KNAPHILL had a trailer stolen along with a back pack leaf blower and other gardening tools from an unsecured yard.

 

Crime Reference WK/13/5448 – At some time bewteen 09:30 on Wednesday the 18th and 02:00 on Thursday the 19th of September 2013 a garden shed in VICTORIA ROAD, KNAPHILL was broken into. The offender/offenders entered the rear garden via an unsecured alley gate. A man’s mountain bike was taken even though it had a lock on it. It is assumed that the lock was removed later.

 

Outbuildings should be locked at all times. Large valuable items should be placed out of view and chained up to other items or a secure anchor point within the outbuilding. Items could also be property marked via engraving or painting your house number and postcode onto them. A record of their serial number should also be kept and registered onto a national property database, visit www.immobilise.com for further information.

 

 

NUMBER PLATE THEFT

 

Crime Reference WK/13/5421 – Between the hours of 22:00 on Tuesday the 17th and 13:00 on Wednesday the 18th of September 2013 a vehicle parked in the car park of CAUSEWAY COURT, KNAPHILL had its registration plates stolen.

 

Criminals will often steal vehicle registration plates to place on their own vehicles in order to carry out other criminal activities in an attempt to go undetected. Protect your registration plates by securing them to your vehicle with tamper proof screws and bolts. Visit www.safe-plates.co.uk for further information.

 

 

CRIMINAL DAMAGE

 

Crime Reference WK/13/5412 – Sometime between the hours of 09:00 and 12:00 on Wednesday the 18th of September 2013 a vehicle parked in CARDIGAN CLOSE, KNAPHILL had a side window smashed however nothing was taken.

 

 

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

 

 

If you have any queries please feel free to email me. As I’m only in the office on Wednesday and Friday mornings I may not be able to respond immediately, however, I’ll be sure to reply as soon as I can.

 

It is also possible to email the Woking Borough Safer Neighbourhood Policing Teams on woking@surrey.police.uk. This e-mail box is regularly monitored from 07:00hrs – 15:00hrs from Monday to Friday.

 

For non-urgent notification of a crime or something suspicious that you have seen, please contact 101 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week). If you are unable to use the 101 service you can dial 01483 571212.

 

If you have a serious crime, accident or another emergency to report, always dial 999.

 

If you are hard of hearing or speech impaired, textphone on 08001 101 (non-emergency) or 08000 101 (emergency) or text us on 07786 204020 or 999 (register at www.emergencysms.org.uk) or you can also use the online crime reporting facility available at https://my.surrey.police.uk/reportonline/ReportIt/

 

For local news, dates of local surgeries or your next Police Public panel meeting please visit www.surrey.police.uk and go to ‘My Neighbourhood’

http://www.surrey.police.uk/my-neighbourhood

 

 

Yours Sincerely

 

 

Arthur Brown

Neighbourhood Watch Volunteer

Not another take-away!

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Woking Borough Council has received and published a planning application from a London based company to convert the shop/office that sits on the corner of Anchor Crescent into a restaurant/café/take-away. These premises were last occupied by Mackrell Turner Garrett, solicitors. The planning application is a formal request to change the use of the premises from A1/A2 to A3/A5. A3 stands for restaurant/café and A5 stands for hot food take-away. The applicant has also requested permission to remain open until 11.00pm at night.

If you want to express a view on this planning application you can either register on the WBC Planning web site or send an e-mail to developmentcontrol@woking.gov.uk  If you do intend to write to WBC it is important that you quote the planning application reference number PLAN/2013/0756 and the property address 8, Anchor Crescent, Knaphill.

The KRA are planning to use this web site to give residents more information on planning applications and developments within the village, more to come.

Surrey Police: Police Support Volunteers Required

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The Junior Citizens Scheme aims to encourage children to be the responsible citizens.  It is an imaginative way of teaching primary school children how to identify risk and make positive decisions in everyday life. It provides practical learning for young people who are due to make the transition to secondary school, while at the same time encouraging good citizenship and sense of community responsibility.

Junior Citizens schemes are an annual event run on a district/borough basis as a joint initiative between district and borough councils, Surrey Police, Surrey Fire and Rescue Service and volunteers. Children take part in interactive learning sets which require them to make decisions about personal safety and the safety of others, while raising their awareness of danger and the consequences of criminal actions.

Each scheme runs over two or three weeks, depending on the number of schools attending.  There are two sessions each day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  Each session will accommodate one or two schools dependent on numbers. On arrival the children are split into groups and will visit each ten minute learning set in rotation.

Learning sets include some or all of the following ( usually 8-10 sets):

  • Fire Safety
  • Rail Safety
  • First Aid
  • Water Safety
  • Road Safety
  • 999 emergencies
  • Internet Safety
  • Stranger Danger
  • Electrical Safety
  • Garden Safety
  • Park Safety
  • Anti-social Behaviour

This is where you come in.  Surrey Police are after volunteers to assist with the delivery of this scheme in the following areas:-

  • Guildford
  • Woking
  • Spelthorne
  • Elmbridge
  • Runnymede

You do not have to be resident in the area, but you must be able to travel to and from the location of the scheme easily.  Travel expenses will be paid.

If you are interested please email volunteer@surrey.pnn.police.uk to request an application pack.

Kind regards

Nikki Percy

Police Support Volunteer Co-ordinator

Surrey Police

Parking in Knaphill is it an issue?

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A report on on-street parking was presented at last month’s meeting of Surrey County Council’s Local Committee for Woking. The report contained SCC’s proposals for changes to on-street parking in and around Woking. The report states that the County Council’s parking team had carried out a review of on-street parking restrictions within the Borough and had identified changes which would benefit road safety and reduce instances of obstruction and localised congestion. The report goes on to state that the starting point of the study was an assessment of over 130 requests for parking restrictions from residents, councillors and emergency services! The report then breaks the whole of Woking down into specific areas and Knaphill, I assume, came under the heading Woking South West. I say assume because there was not a single mention of Knaphill. Does this mean that the County Council are completely happy with the level of parking on pavements, especially in the High Street, and with the congestion and accidents caused by cars and delivery vehicles parking outside the approved areas? I am pleased to report that the County Councillors who represent Brookwood and Knaphill rejected the section of the report covering our area. So if you have any views on street parking in Knaphill I suggest you contact linda.kemeny@surreycc.gov.uk or saj.hussain@surreycc.gov.uk.

Sainsbury’s name change

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This is a bug bear of mine so apologies for the verbiage. A massive superstore on the outskirts of a village and complete disregard for actual location, preferring to be called ‘Brookwood’ over Knaphill. All other Sainsbury’s stores throughout the country, as far as I can determine, are correctly named after their location. Not so for Knaphill who has had numerous problems with the way this business approaches local communities (this is a small reference to planning and conduct of the store on recent years in case you were wondering!)

Your views

This bothered me so much I created a poll to see YOUR views and a hefty final 76% wanted it changed to be named after Knaphill. Curiously, before I sent a letter to Sainsbury’s Plc head office the figure was 85%, it dipped shortly after. No, I am not saying they had anything to do with it, merely pointing it out.

As mentioned, I sent a request to Sainsbury’s asking for a name change to be considered as a part of their current enlargement of their Redding Way store. I got a quick ‘it’s been passed to our property team’ and nothing more for a month. So I chased it and got another quick response – NO.

The store is, according to the property team’s investigation, named after Brookwood Hospital and therefore has an historical link. This is despite having been convinced in previous years that reference to Brookwood be dropped (ergo the historical reference is not that important perhaps?), reference to the store in numerous communications being stated as ‘Knaphill’ and even having a current web site for the development headed as ‘Sainsbury’s Knaphill’ (http://sainsburys-knaphill.co.uk/contact-us/) which I fully expect to see changed soon. I was then passed to their PR company, GKA.

I would have been content with that if the store name had been ‘Sainsbury’s Brookwood Hospital’ which would indicate both location and historical reference; but it isn’t. It still just refers to nearby Brookwood to any visitor, despite it’s obvious address. So I replied and pointed this out to them, also that it was Knaphill Common prior to being Brookwood Hospital (so I am led to believe) and I got a quick reply – we’re not changing the name, speak to our PR company (although they ‘want to be a positive part of any community we are working in’. The level of engagement thus far is underwhelming.

Naming confusion?

I didn’t mention this before but I asked Sainsbury’s shortly after moving to Knaphill just why their store was named after a different village… They said it’s because of the railway station. Not to be a pedant (OK, partly to be a pedant) but that does not gel with their current line of reasoning.

I believe the real reason is that it costs cash to change a few details (new signage and name on receipts etc) and the people of Knaphill’s opinion is not worth the relative pittance it would take to achieve this. Personally I’d be quite content with either ‘Sainsbury’s Brookwood Hospital’ or ‘Sainsbury’s Knaphill’ but I am NOT happy with the current naming pedigree.

What next

What happens next? Well I forwarded on the conversation to Sam and Jodie at GKA and am awaiting a response. Just what they can do, even if they wanted to change the name is beyond me as it’s a separate company to Sainsbury’s. Still, I keenly await the ‘We’re sorry etc’ reply.

——————————————

UPDATE 9/7/2013

I’ve had several replies from various people with the same job title – Customer Manager – along the same lines. We’ll look into it, please contact GKA, no current plans to change the name, please contact GKA, despite references to Knaphill in documentation it is officially called Brookwood, please contact GKA, we’re awaiting a point of detail and finally:

I appreciate that the store’s name is a source of frustration for you given its location. As you have been advised Sainsbury’s is unable to change the name of their stores as the official name that was originally adopted is used throughout the organisation. It is important for each Sainsbury’s store to be clearly identified with one name so that it can be easily referred to within the company. To change the name could cause confusion from an operational perspective and may also lead to confusion amongst customers from the wider area who know the store as Brookwood.

The recent information mailings and website regarding the on-going construction project have referred to ‘Knaphill’ as this is how the store was referred to publicly throughout the planning stage. The information issued during planning and construction has been aimed specifically at the store’s close neighbours and does not affect the store’s corporate identity.

Sam Hinton (GKA)

For unable, read: unwilling. So there we have it – not going to happen. Sainsbury’s is apparently keen to be an active member of the Knaphill Community so if anyone has any evidence of them doing so please tell me as I can’t remember a single thing they’ve done apart from build a store and call it after a neighbouring village. I do genuinely want to know this!

 

Police: Witness appeal following suspicious incident in Knaphill

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Surrey Police is appealing for witnesses following a suspicious incident in Knaphill earlier this morning (13 May).

Officers are investigating a report that a 12-year-old female pupil was approached by a man in a green vehicle in Raglan Road at the junction with Hermitage Road around 8am.

Patrols have been stepped up in the area and an investigation is underway.

Police are appealing to anyone who witnessed this incident or anyone who has seen a green vehicle acting suspiciously in the area, or anyone with any other information which could assist the enquiry, to come forward as a matter of urgency.

West Surrey Detective Chief Inspector Karen Mizzi said: “If anyone has any information which could assist, we would urge them to make contact with us straightaway. We are following up a number of lines of enquiry, but any assistance would be gratefully received.”

Woking Neighbourhood Inspector John Davies added: “We have stepped up patrols in the Knaphill area and will be working with the local community to try to establish what exactly has taken place.”

If you can help, please contact Surrey Police on 101, quoting incident reference number P13138917 or if you would prefer not to leave your name, call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111

Coral want to open a second Betting Office on the High Street

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Late last month we read in the local paper that Coral Racing had applied for a premises licence for 13 High Street, the old HSBC Bank. The notice did not give very much detail and so we wrote to Coral asking if it was their intention to move their current betting office or operate two shops?

We have now received a response and Coral have confirmed that their plans for 13 High Street are to operate a full licenced betting office (over the counter transactions as well as 4 fixed odds betting terminals). With regards to the current betting office at 29A High Street Coral state that they plan to operate the two premises for a minimum of 3 months and then decided whether there is sufficient business to operate both shops.

So the application for a full premises licence for 13 High Street is in addition to the licence held on the premises at 29A High Street.

Do you believe that we, the residents, want two betting shops in the centre of the village?

 

Footnote: If you want to read more about fixed odds betting terminals such as those operated by Coral then please look at this Google search.

Investigation launched following reports of man approaching girls in Knaphill

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Investigation launched following reports of man approaching girls in Knaphill.

Surrey Police is investigating after reports that a man approached two girls in Knaphill and offered them money.

The incident was reported to officers on 5 May from the father of a five-year-old girl who said he had seen her talking to a man in an old-style green vehicle in Nursery Road. He became suspicious and called to his daughter and the man drove off.

Officers also received reports of a man in a car with a similar description approaching a five-year-old girl outside the Co-Op supermarket in the High Street around 4pm on 29 April.

The girl said the man, who was driving a dark green vehicle, stopped alongside her and asked if she wanted a pound. She took the money but threw it on the ground because she said it felt plastic.

She described the man as white with a wrinkled face and hands.

Woking Neighbourhood Commander Inspector John Davies said: “Firstly, I would like to reassure the local community that we are aware of these incidents and are investigating to try to establish what has taken place. The Safer Neighbourhood Team is working closely with the local community and has stepped up patrols in the area. We do not have a lot of information at the moment but we would encourage anyone who is approached by a man in a car matching this description to contact police straightaway. Please report any suspicious behaviour to the police on 101 or on 999 if a crime is in progress.”

If you have any information, or wish to report a similar incident, please contact Surrey Police on 101, quoting crime reference number WK/13/2648.

New Arrival at the Mizens Railway

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Local residents in Knaphill had a surprise on Thursday morning when a
huge low loader transporting a full size steam locomotive tender was
skillfully maneuvered down Littlewick Road and into Barrs Lane.

Discovered recently in a Doncaster scrapyard, where it had been hidden
under piles of old lorries and cars for more than 20 years, the 52 tons
tender was being taken to Mizens Railway for restoration and display.

Project Leader Ken Livermore said that the tender was built by the London
& North Eastern Railway more than 60 years ago. Tenders of this type were
used to provide coal and water for express trains for more than 30 years.
Despite it’s age and its many years out of service, the tender is still in reasonably
good shape and, being one of the very few of this type left in the UK, it is a very
worthy candidate for preservation.

The Mizens Railway are open for miniature train rides every Sunday from
2 – 5pm from the beginning of May to the end of September. Further details
can be found on the website : http://www.mizensrailway.co.uk/