South Western Railway have just opened up their Customer and Communities Improvement Fund (CCIF) to new applications.
CCIF is South Western Railway’s programme to support projects that have a community benefit or address an area of social need across their network.
CCIF is intended to support small and medium-sized projects which can be completed over the course of the year.
For more information click this link.
Kind regards,
Kevin
Some of you may have noticed clearing works being undertaken on the woods down the Brookwood Lye Road. This land is owned by Surrey Wildlife Trust and has a blanket TPO on it.
Having checked this out with officers I can confirm that there is nothing to worry about here and include below a statement from SWT regarding the works:
‘Network rail sought permission from us to access their embankment to undertake essential work, this was originally planned 12 months ago and has now started.
They are clearing a pre existing access track, removing bramble and fallen trees primarily, they have ecologists on site supervising the work! There is a felling licence in place and we have an on going thinning program with Merrist Wood College for this woodland area, in line with the site management plan and approved by the Woking Borough Council Tree Officer’.
Kind regards,
Kevin
A copy and paste from a SCC Highways email I’ve received. Overall, it looks like one day of disruption for the residents of Brookwood. As soon as I know when that will be, I’ll make it known, but it will be anytime from June. The map below gives a visual overview of the closed bit and the proposed diversion.
‘The Surrey County Council Connaught Road (A324) Brookwood Temporary Prohibition of Traffic Order 2022
Surrey County Council propose to make the above-mentioned Temporary Order under Section 14(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, the effect of which will be to prohibit vehicles from entering or proceeding in that length of Connaught Road (A324) Brookwood as extends from its junction with (A322) Bagshot Road and (A324) Brookwood Lye Road to its junction with (D3601) West Hill Close. Alternative Route – Connaught Road; Bisley Camp Road; Queens Road; and A322 Guildford Road/Bagshot Road or this same route in reverse.
The Order is required to facilitate telecoms pole replacement and/or new pole installation and/or cabling and/or utility maintenance works to be carried out by, or on behalf of BT Openreach within the length of road described in this notice. These works are anticipated to be carried out over 1 day between the hours of 9.30am and 3.30pm within the 12-month period of operation of this Temporary Traffic Order which commences on 30 May 2022. Advanced warning signs will be displayed, and the temporary closure will only operate when the relevant traffic signs are displayed. Access for pedestrians and dismounted cyclists will be maintained at all times. Vehicular access to premises within the affected length of road including access by emergency vehicles to these properties will be maintained if safe to do, if necessary, via the diversion route. During certain phases of the works, vehicular access to premises may be restricted, when this is the case such restriction of access will apply for no more than eight hours within any 24-hour period’.
Kind regards,
Kevin
I’d like to apologise for the garden waste service that for the previous eight months has fallen below all of our expectations. The reasons are well known and I have regularly and directly communicated with subscribers via email or letter over that period keeping everyone informed of our progress to resuming a normal fortnightly service.
I’m delighted and relieved to say that normal fortnightly collections will resume from week commencing the 18th April alongside the recycling bins, and week commencing the 25th April alongside the rubbish bins.
An email or letter will be sent to all subscribers shortly detailing this. A total of 13 collections were suspended and subscriptions are being extended to reflect this. A further email or letter will be sent once this operation has been completed giving all subscribers notification of their new renewal date.
As a subscriber myself, I’m certainly glad we have managed to resume this service as the growing season takes hold. I thank everyone for their patience while we resolved the challenges presented to us, and I’m extremely grateful that we managed to maintain the food, recycling and residual (black) collection services during this period.
Kevin
The Heathlands councillors will be holding a surgery at Brookwood Memorial Halls on Saturday 5th February at 11:00 for an hour. This is part of a series of surgeries across the ward.
All three of us expect to be there but occasionally there may be reasons why any one of us is unable.
We’ll be in the small hall and will be following the Covid guidelines at the time of the event.
Kevin
As you should know if you are a garden waste subscriber, our winter collection plan is in operation and we are collecting in Woking this week and next.
We started yesterday and we are collecting much more than we were expecting. We were expecting a big uplift in the tonnage, but today it was around 60 tonnes which required additional trips to the processing site. The crews are doing a great job trying to keep up.
The net result was a few roads were not completed, and they will be first on the list for tomorrow. I expect this pattern to continue during the week and I’m currently working with Joint Waste Solutions and Amey to have a Saturday collection in operation to mop up anything missed this week.
Please bear with us and if your green bin isn’t collected when you were expecting it to be, please leave it out as the plan is that it will be collected the next day.
This will be the last collection for this year, and I will be writing to all subscribers in January when I know exactly when the next collection will occur.
We still have a high degree of confidence that the service will be back to normal mid to late spring next year.
Kind regards,
Kevin
Back in September when it became obvious that the national HGV driver shortage was going to impact our options to provide a full garden waste collection, we started to look at what we could achieve with the resources available to us.
By the end of September, we were fairly confident that by working with out partner boroughs in the Joint Waste Solutions area a reduced winter service would be feasible, operating every other month in each borough. Not ideal, but better than nothing, and at the same time we were able to announce am extension of all current subscriptions by six months as some form of acknowledgement of the disruption caused.
We operated an October collection, and I am very happy to announce today that we will be operating the next collection in Woking borough week commencing 22nd November for the two weeks through to December. That gives people the opportunity to have the autumn leaf fall taken away.
Your collection will be the same as it always has been. If your garden waste is collected on the blue week, it will be collected alongside your recycling, and if it is collected on the black week, it will be collected alongside your residual.
The future is looking more positive, and by continuing to follow our winter plan, we expect to run a January collection service, probably towards the end of the month. We’re still on track to get back to service normality mid to late Spring.
Of course, things can change and we will keep everyone up to date on where we are, together with sufficient notice of when a collection will take place. Letters and emails will begin to be sent out shortly confirming this latest collection.
Kevin
Tomorrow evening the Leader of the Council Cllr Azad, CEO of Woking Borough Council Julie Fisher and a member of the Executive will be appearing at an evening roadshow where you can go along and have your say on the Council’s future priorities.
The event will take place at the Holy Trinity Church, Chobham Road, Knaphill, GU21 2SX. You’ll need to book in advance and the link may be found below, together with the other dates and locations planned.
https://communityforum.woking.gov.uk/have-your-say-on-the-council-s-future-priorities
Kevin
As you are aware the national shortage of HGV drivers has been impacting our waste and recycling services. The situation has not improved so unfortunately the garden waste service will be suspended in Woking and Mole Valley from Monday 16 August until Friday 27 August.
We are working with our partners in the joint collection contract to manage this issue and avoid anyone missing two consecutive garden waste collections. Taking this approach means that our service will restart from 30 August while services are then suspended for two weeks in Elmbridge and Surrey Heath.
We are trying to figure out at this stage whether we have a long term or medium term problem and work is ongoing to assess all possible options for future service delivery. We will then review these with the other boroughs to determine the best approach going forward.
We are again writing to all subscribers to keep them up to date but using email where possible to keep costs down. Again, the garden waste subscription will be extended to compensate for missed collections. Please keep an eye on the service updates from JWS and it’s worth checking this the night before your usual collection day: https://www.jointwastesolutions.org/service-updates/woking/
It’s not a situation we want to be in, and I apologise that we can’t collect green waste as frequently as we want to.
Kevin
Very quick update to my previous post to say that all garden waste subscriptions have been extended by a fortnight.
We’re also working with the other boroughs in the Joint Waste Solutions partnership to try and ensure the service is reinstated for the next scheduled collection.
Kevin
Cllr Kevin Davis 