Woldingham Parish Council – November Update

The Viewpoint on The Ridge

Many of you will know the Viewpoint located on The Ridge just before Chalk Pit Lane, what many residents may not know is that the Viewpoint and a number of houses along the Ridge actually fall under Oxted North Parish and not Woldingham. You may also not be aware that a number of Woldingham residents have for some time volunteered to maintain the site and try to keep the weeds and undergrowth at bay. This has been done through their sheer hard work and also over the years with various grants and also some financial assistance from the Parish Council (despite this not being within Woldingham Parish).

The Parish Council have been concerned by the appearance and some of the ongoing issues associated with the Viewpoint and given our previous assistance (and the fact most residents think it is within the Parish) we are working with both Tandridge Council and Oxted Parish Council to have the boundary moved so the Parish Council can have more control over the maintenance and offer assistance with the site.

Cllr Cameron McIntosh (County Councillor for Oxted) has already presented thisto Oxted Parish Council who are ok with our proposal and we’re now progressing this with them along with Tandridge Council.

Cllr Michael Thurgood

Update on parking in The Crescent

Parking on The Crescent can at times be challenging, from time to time the parking warden does visit Woldingham, but it is frustrating when cars and vans appear to be parking there all day and spaces to pop to the shops are few and far between.

Woldingham Parish Council have been looking into options available to us to alleviate parking and are now in a position to report back on our initial findings.

Our idea was to widen The Crescent road a little and introduce herringbone parking along both kerbs. Unfortunately having looked into the legal position of this it seems we will not be able to for two reasons:

• – The first is that the green area of The Crescent is a designated green space in The Village and protected under an Act of Parliament, making it very difficult to reduce in size
• – The second is that various commercial properties along The Crescent own curtilages including the pavement and in some case to the middle of the road meaning changing elements of the layout is not a Surrey County Council decision.

Many thanks to Jenny King and Janine Battersby for researching and pulling this together and in helping me make sense of it! So unfortunately we will have to lay that idea to rest!

We did also want to introduce a one-way system to at least reduce the frequent traffic jams – and we are still working with Surrey County Council on this.

There are a couple of other ideas we are looking at and as and when these look potentially viable we will share with everyone. If you do have any thoughts or ideas on parking in The Crescent do please contact me.

Cllr Becky Rush
Lead Councillor Crescent Regeneration Project

And the Roundup

And in other works around the Village, we are still progressing the Speed Signs project to get the signs placed along the road, foliage is being cut for the Security Camera sight lines on Church Road and we are giving the Police direct access to the camera. We are also persisting in trying to understand the cost to get Croft Road repaired to Surrey standards to see if they can adopt it. By the time you receive this, we will have held The Litterpick (on 14 October) and we will have reviewed and awarded grants in ourannual grant process (31 Oct) – we will update you on these awards in the December Magazine and on the website. We still seek one more Councillor so please let us know if you might be interested.

Don’t forget to save the date for Christmas Carols in The Crescent! Join us and your community, along with the Salvation Army, on Saturday 8 December at 6pm!

Councillor Deborah Sherry