Parish Council News Update – October 2022
Oxted Quarry
At our September meeting, Southern Gravel Limited presented to us their proposals for Oxted Quarry. Over the summer the company held a public exhibition and a public consultation which many members of the surrounding communities attended. The Southern Gravel team essentially asked whether people would like to see the current quarry activity continue and intensify or to see the site used differently. They currently run roughly 100 trucks per day from the quarry but have permission for up to 200 and stated that if they cannot develop the site with housing, they will double the quarry traffic. They could not corroborate that their is business demand for this extra traffic. They said that overwhelmingly, people prefer their proposed alternative. We have not seen the raw data to confirm this, nor do we know who has responded to the consultation. We do not believe many Woldingham residents have engaged with the consultation.
Oxted Quarry has been operating for 150 years. Its license expires in 20 years, after which the licensee, Southern Gravel, must replant and return the site to its original state. In advance of this, Southern Gravel is proposing to end quarry activities early, use roughly 11% of the 26-hectare site to build 75 houses and return the rest of the site to nature for walking (which they must do in 20 years anyway, with no development). Southern Gravel are owned by Hollybrook, a construction company specialising in property development. Southern Gravel’s first proposal, which was less well received, was for 100 homes and a care home. They intend to submit a planning application to Tandridge District Council by the end of this year. Woldingham Parish Council will review the application once submitted. More detail is available at futureofoxtedquarry.com and we welcome your comments and feedback.
Litter pick 12th November 2022
Please join us to help keep Woldingham clean and beautiful. The next litter pick takes place on Saturday the 12th of November, organised by Councillor Alex Foulds. We are meeting on The Green at 10am. Drinks and cakes will be served afterward. Come and help us tidy Woldingham and enjoy some social time with the community!
Road Gritting
As a reminder, when there is inclement weather, major public highways are gritted by Surrey Highways. The Woldingham Parish Council have a contract with Church Farm Services to grit our local, mostly private roads. Our grit has arrived and the new equipment we bought last year is ready. Last winter did not provide much occasion to use our new equipment, but if this year more snow falls, we are ready. Please remember to keep all hedges and other foliage trimmed and away from the road. And if snow, hail or sleet are predicted, please try to keep cars out of the road where possible. If the tractor cannot get through or turn, it will not be able to grit your road.
Carols in the Crescent 10th December 2022
Carols in the Crescent will be on December 10th, 2022, at 6.30pm. Please save the date! Last Christmas, we had a beautiful concert with the North Downs Consort and enjoyed mulled wine, hot chocolate and mince pies. Despite what was then a rainy evening, a huge crowd attended and filled The Crescent. This Christmas we will once again host the North Downs Consort and expect another lovely evening. Please join us!
Councillor Vacancy
We remind everyone that we have one vacancy for a Parish Councillor. Parish Council work is very varied, from running community events to planning work or upkeep in the village or work on security. There are many different ways to get involved and you do not need any specific expertise. If you might be interested, please reach out to parish.clerk@woldingham.com.
Grant Applications Due 21st November 2022
While we will entertain grant applications throughout the year, the Woldingham Parish Council has an annual process to review most requests. We review grant applications annually at our November meeting. This year’s grant applications are due by the 21st of November.
Please use the form on the website to apply: WPC Grant Scheme Application Form
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us as you are drafting your application. Please contact our Clerk at parish.clerk@woldingham.com.
Chairman Deborah Sherry
FTTP Broadband update
With the help of Claire Coutinho, MP for East Surrey, I received a response from Building Digital UK about my complaint regarding the need to compulsorily sign up to an FTTP contract with Openreach. It would appear that this was the requirement from the start of the Government’s Project Gigabit. Their suggestion was to find a different fibre partner who may be able to mitigate the risk, so I have registered interest with FW networks, who have built networks locally.
In the meantime, I received a call from a resident who advised me that his neighbour in Slines Oak Road had been told that Ultra Fast Fibre is now available there. From my research, it would appear BT is bridging the gap by offering Fibre to the Premises and there appears to be no cost involved in building the network. The download they are offering is 80Mbps and upload 20Mbps (as a comparison my download is 25.8 and upload is 3.2).
This possibility is driven by communities registering their interest so the more people who do so the more likely they are to consider Woldingham. Please do let your friends and neighbours know and you can register at:
www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/ultrafast-full-fibre-broadband
Vice-Chairman Carole North