Woldingham Parish Council – Update – June 2021
Update from the Chairman
Election day in May came and went uneventfully for us here in the village. The Parish Council held its Annual Meeting (not to be confused with the Annual Parish Meeting) on the 12th of May. At it we elected a Chairman, Councillor Deborah Sherry, and a Vice Chairman, Councillor Carole North, each to serve for the next year. We also appointed roles of no fixed term on the Council. Councillor Nick Gardner was installed as Head of Safety and Security, Councillor Peter Holbrook as Head of Planning and Councillor Peter Hutchinson as Head of Finance.
We have started our new term with gusto, having already responded to two consultations run by the National Association of Local Councils on Electronic Communications Infrastructure and on Rural Broadband. Councillors Carole North and Alex Foulds are running teen focus groups to ensure youth needs are taken into account as we work on the Open Spaces Strategy for Woldingham. To continue to address speeding issues in the village, we have just paid Surrey County Council to run a speed test on Station Road, which by the time you read this should be up and running. And Councillor North continues to expand the initiative to bring superfast broadband to more roads in Woldingham. Please contact us at parish.clerk@woldingham.com if your road needs help. We have begun planning for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022 at which we look forward to celebrating Her Majesty’s great reign and to at long last enjoying a plethora of community events. The Council has formed a working committee, spearheaded by Councillor Kate Holmes, and we are looking for volunteers in the community to work with us. Please contact us at parish.clerk@woldingham.com if you would like to work on the Platinum Jubilee committee.
The owners of the North Downs Golf Club submitted an application to destroy the existing clubhouse, an architectural jewel in need of some attention, and all of the associated club buildings and to construct two new homes on the golf course. They propose to wholly reconfigure the golf course into a leisure rather than sporting activity and build a new, large modern building in the centre of the course, highly visible and disruptive to the AGLV and Greenbelt views. To access it would require significant infrastructure including roads and lighting to be built, further harming the openness of the greenbelt, as would the construction of two new houses. The Parish Council and the Woldingham Association objected to the application, as did the Campaign to Protect Rural England and hundreds of Woldingham residents. At the time of writing, we await the decision from Tandridge District Council’s planning team. We hope to defeat this attempt to develop such beautiful and precious greenbelt land and we continue to work on ideas to preserve it for the long-term. Planning applications continue to roll in at a rapid pace. We have had a dozen in the past month alone, an unusually high volume, and we expect this to see additional planning activity for some time to come.
As a reminder, Parish Council meetings are held at 730pm on the last Wednesday of the month, mostly in the Village Hall (occasionally in the Garden Village Peace Centre Hall). Please check the website for details. Meetings are now held in person, but with upgraded WIFI at the village hall, zoom attendance is possible, if imperfect.
And please save the date for the village AGM on the 23rd of July 2021 at 7pm at the North Downs Golf Club.
The Parish Council will host the village Annual Parish Meeting in the dining room of the North Downs Golf Club. The bar will be open and the Parish Council will serve party food. Please arrive at 7pm for drinks and food. The meeting will kick off at 730pm, followed by more drinks and nibbles. An agenda including guest speakers will be issued shortly on the website and on Facebook. We will also post notices on the village noticeboard and in the village hall. We hope to see many of you there.
Chairman Deborah Sherry