Woldingham Parish Council – Update February 2021
CCTV Update
There has been a great benefit to the CCTV on church road by the station, having played a key part in various police investigations throughout 2020. They are regularly monitored and serviced to ensure they are working fully and functioning properly ready for when they’re needed.
CCTV cameras have now also been installed at The Glebe, leading to reduced levels of crime. To further improve the security in the village, the PC believe it would be beneficial to install further CCTV cameras in the Crescent, potentially one at either end. We are also looking at the possibility of installing cameras utilising solar power at the view point on The Ridge. We are currently doing further research and gathering information on this, we hope to have more of an update soon.
We are proud of our wonderful village and we feel it’s important that everyone feels safe. We hope that by having some more security in the village we can deter criminals from operating in this area.
Councillor Rebecca Fuller
Pathways Upgrades
This photo will resonate with many! A lot of rain during the last few months has inevitably meant that many of the footpaths in and around our village have become extremely muddy and, in some places, impassable. This situation has been intensified by the increased footfall during lockdown, partly due to residents enjoying our beautiful surroundings more but also because Woldingham has been discovered by many within driving distance who seek to spend time away from their more urban immediate areas.
WPC is hoping to ‘overhaul’ the whole footpath network around Woldingham in the coming months so that we can continue to enjoy the outdoors beyond lockdown. This will include ensuring that all footpaths are maintained and well signposted, and that stiles are safe to use. We are also looking into having scalpings spread along some of the muddier paths so that they can still be used to connect different parts of the village on foot. If you would like to identify a particular path for our attention, please contact us at parish.clerk@woldingham.com or on 01883 371266. We can’t promise to keep the mud away completely but we aim to do all we can to ensure that our local paths are a pleasure to use.
Councillor Denise Todd
Councillors Needed for Elections This May
The WPC wrote in last month’s magazine about the upcoming election on 6th May this year. We have a number of Councillors retiring from the Council or picking up other responsibilities in government. We are a 9 seat Council and we will have several vacancies in May and of course always welcome more people to run for the Council in the election. We would normally hold ‘meet the Council’ drinks evenings in the Village Club to informally share what the Council does. We hope this is possible in the future, but in the meantime, we wanted to share with you some of the activities we undertake.
What does the Parish Council do? Our most regular activity is commenting on planning applications in Woldingham, as the Parish Council is a statutory consultee. We also work on matters of safety and security, providing vehicle activated speed signs to curb speeding and CCTV in the village to abate crime. And we are about to undertake further studies to measure speeding problems. In a non-pandemic year, we run social events like the Carols in the Crescent and more regular litter picks and support events like the village picnic. We also undertake projects to improve community areas like The Crescent and the pathways. This past year, we have participated in consultations with Biggin Hill airport over proposed flightpath changes, commented on governmental consultations on changes to planning and development and registered the North Downs Golf Club as a community asset. And we regularly support activities of other organisations in the village.
If you are interested in serving your community, please consider joining the Parish Council. Contact us at parish.clerk@woldingham.com for more information on the Council and the election process. And please do attend a Council meeting. They are always public. We meet the last Wednesday of the month (with some exceptions, so please check the calendar on the website). We hope you will consider joining us!
Chairman Deborah Sherry