Town centre development will affect bus users

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On Tuesday 4th November Councillors on Woking’s Planning Committee will discuss the latest plans for the development of Woking town centre. This is the land from the old market ground down to Toys r Us, including land currently used for the fire station. The Council presents this as good news as it will bring M & S back to town plus a new large hotel, restaurants and apartments. What Councillors have failed to communicate is the impact this development will have on commuters, shoppers and anyone else who uses our buses to travel to and from town.

The development requires the closure of Cawsey Way (the road that goes past Toys r Us, Wolsey shopping centre and the side of Boots) and the High Street, that will go across the old market ground, becomes a one way road down from the railway station.

So the buses from Knaphill (28, 34, 35 & 91) on reaching Victoria Way will turn left travel along Victoria Way to the roundabout, at the far end, up Chertsey Road and Stanley Road to reach the bus stops on the Broadway (next to the railway station). Please note officially this is not a bus station. There will be a new bus stop on Victoria Way,this will be the one nearest to the shops, and it will be near the Lightbox, close to the junction of Victoria Way and Chobham Raod.

The so called transport experts state that the journey time to the railway station will only be extended by 2min 86 seconds. This may be true on a sunny Sunday afternoon but on a wet Friday morning in the rush hour the extension in time will be nearer 10 minutes.

[pullquote]The elderly or anyone slow on their feet are going to find it much harder to reach the shops.[/pullquote]Commuters can alight at the Lightbox and then hot foot it through town. The elderly or anyone slow on their feet are going to find it much harder to reach the shops.

We are told that this is progress but what it demonstrates is that in the eyes of Woking Borough Council and the County Council bus passengers will be treated as third class citizens. What happened to the idea of an integrated transport system or Woking having a public transport hub?  Just words.

Surrey County Council are concerned with the level of subsidy they pay to Arriva the bus company. This redesigning of the road network in Woking is not going to entice more commuters out of their cars and on to the buses. Then there is the added congestion on Victoria Road as the nearside lane becomes a bus only lane.

WBC – Waste and recycling survey

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A lot is said about the amount of rubbish we send to land fill sites, the frequency of rubbish collections and the regularity of the Council emptying street rubbish bins. Well you now have the opportunity to comment via Woking’s waste and recycling survey. This survey form can be accessed via Woking Borough Council’s website. The survey is open until 7th November.

Pentangle’s Big Charity Event

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Local business and community supporter Pentangle Aquatics (34 High Street) are organising a charity day in support of Woking Hospice and Children in Need.

Hosted on the 16th November at their shop, the day will run from 10: 30am to 4pm and contain a variety of entertainment for children and adults alike. Fancy hooking a duck? You can do that! Who doesn’t enjoy ‘whack a rat’?! That’s there too… Also on the day you’ll find a tombola, a bag pipe player (yes!), a tattoo artist (temporary tattoos only so mum’s and dad’s can breathe easy) and a silent auction.

Nick will also be doing 15 minute sessions where you can learn to overcome your fears in a one-to-one environment. Those fears of spiders will be history!

More entertainment is planned including, hopefully, a big ole Pudsy bear, face painting and quite a variety of others.

Show your support folks!

Owner Nick Forrest and volunteer Danielle have put in a massive effort for the day so please do go along and show your support for them as well as local and national charities.

For those of you able, they also still would like donations for the silent auction and tombola [hint hint!]

You can contact Nick via his website www.PentangleAquatics.co.uk or pop in to 34 High Street, Knaphill.

Access to a GP

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One issue raised at the recent Village Meeting was that residents are having problems in getting an appointment with their GP at a time convenient to them. The problem is only going to get worse especially when the houses on Brookwood Farm are complete and occupied. Jonathan Lord, our MP, has just sent me an answer to a written question he had submitted to the Department of Health. Below is an extract from this reply.

‘We understand that a recent survey by Healthwatch highlighted Woking is an area where there was a potential issue with booking and arranging appointments which are convenient to patients. Following this, we (Dept. for Health) are advised that Surrey & Sussex Area Team agree to meet with the Health and Adult Social Care Committee and Healthwatch to set up a working group to look at areas which could be improved with regards to access to GP services.’ Department for Health.

The KRA will continue to monitor the situation. We also plan to write to North West Surrey CCG. This is the body responsible for coordinating GP services in our area. We will raise the specific issues facing residents in Knaphill, Brookwood and Bisley.

Knaphill public toilets

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I ran into Phil, Saj and Melanie today (KRA secretary and councillors for those that don;t know) and we got to talking about the public toilets in the High Street just outside Tesco.

Apparently the council would be willing to remove them after a public consultation process had been completed. It got me to wonder how the residents think about the toilets, afterall they’re not exactly the nicest of things this village has to offer but they do provide a service. Are they used, should they stay or should they go? Would their absence be missed and would their removal lead to any problems down the line?

Do look at the poll and maybe leave a comment below or discuss it in the forum area.

[yop_poll id=”16″]

Follow on from Village Meeting

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At the beginning of October the KRA hosted a Village Meeting when residents were given the opportunity to question local Councillors, police and Council Officers. Although the number of residents who attended was disappointing small there was an interesting debate covering numerous subjects. Over the next few weeks we will enlarge on the issues raised by residents. Starting with schools.
First the good news, according to Surrey County Council all parents who submitted a 1st preference for a local first or junior school in our area got their first choice. All our local junior or first schools were undersubscribed with 1st preferences. Part of the proposed development on Brookwood Farm was a new school. This new school would have been part ofBrookwood School and the two buildings would be linked by a purpose built footpath. SCC has decided to defer submitting the final details on a new school and thus there will be no new school building being built in the near future. SCC plan to expand Bisley Church of England Primary School.

The above means that once the houses on Brookwood Farm start to be occupied the pressure for school places at junior and first level will fall on the current Knaphill schools. What is not clear is whether SCC will go ahead with a new footpath that would assist families living in the new houses accessing both Brookwood school but also the railway station.

Another Planning Application from Sainsbury’s

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Sainsbury’s of Redding Way, Knaphill has submitted a planning application (PLAN/2014/1017 ) to build a single-storey, standalone, dry-cleaning pod to front (south-east) elevation of superstore.

This further extension if granted, would be operated by Timpson’s and would offer dry-cleaning, shoe repairs, watch repairs, key cutting, engraving and photo processing. There would also be illuminated signage which may be particularly relevant to the residents opposite the store that have already mentioned night time lighting.

Agents for Sainsbury’s in a statement attached to the planning application state that they do not see this new business having an impact on current businesses in Knaphill.

 

View and comment via WBC website – http://www.woking.gov.uk/planning/publicaccess

Should you choose to make a comment on the WBC planning portal, it is useful to back it up with reference to the Core Strategy document – http://www.woking2027.info/corestrategy/adoptedcorestrategy.pdf

Website update

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The keen eyed among you will notice you can’t find anything where it used to be and things just look odd.

There’s a good reason for this – the website was in need of a refresh and a bit of a revamp. Lots of reasons but I won’t bore you with them.

I’ve tried to keep the change in visual impact quite small and so it remains a light theme and a similar layout. Hopefully it’s quite clear visually but if you can’t read something easily then do leave a comment. There’s a news ‘ticker’ at the top of the homepage, this ticks through the latest posts, and the main menu navigation is now simpler. You might also notice it looks different on mobile devices than it does on a desktop pc – it’s intentional I promise!

The front or home page has a changing slider at the top which picks out new posts to rotate through and the rest of the page is divided into sections – Knaphill Community – Planning – Meeting Minutes – Memory Lane – Policing. The order of these is likely to change.

It will evolve over time with a few additional changes and features that will ultimately provide a rich source of Knaphill information. One thing I should point out is that with the change to the front page, the ‘Quicklinks’ have moved. They now appear on EVERY page but at the bottom in the footer.

Of course we always want guest submissions so if you want to get posting just ask away or send something in.

I’d love to see more people using social media within the village (that goes for the businesses too!) so do make use of the sharing buttons you’ll see beneath each page or post (they’re the funny multi-coloured thingies down there). Together we can spread the good word – that Knaphill can be great!!