The South & South East in Bloom Awards were held last week and we are delighted to hear that the Walled Garden won a Gold Award and Overall Best Small Park.

This would not have been possible without the continued and unstinting support of Spelthorne Council - especially noteworthy in these straitened times - and the professionalism of their gardeners.

Congratulations also go to the staff at the Gallery for their contribution in maintaining the Walled Garden's reputation as the landmark feature of Lower Sunbury. Well done to all!

The next Music Night at Sunbury Cricket Club falls on Friday 26th September, when the Club is delighted to welcome back one the great supporters and pioneers of our Music Nights, Paul Cox with his band The Proof. Paul was one of the first artists to appear at the Club when we started and he has been spreading the word among the artist community ever since, as well as appearing at the Club in different guises.

Paul is a great showman and one of the very best blues, soul and rock singers on the circuit – as has been noted before, Paul Jones of Radio 2 and The Blues Band has gone on record as describing Paul as one of Europe’s top vocalists, and he always delivers a dynamic and thoroughly entertaining show.

All the band members have backgrounds in big name bands. Keyboard player Roger Cotton is well known to us as a member of Buddy Whittington’s Band – he was with Clockwork Orange and Peter Green’s Splinter Group in the’70s and ‘80s, and has toured or recorded with John Mayall, Carlos Santana and Dr. Feelgood, among many others. Guitarist Mike Summerland has played over the years with Blodwyn Pig, Georgie Fame, Doris Troy, Graham Lyle and The Marvelettes. Bass player Nigel Hardy has toured with Mick Jagger and Bryan Adams, and was with Paul Jones in earlier years, and drummer Pete Stroud was with top ‘70s rock band Sassafras and more recently, by way of a contrast, was with Bjorn Again.

They recently headlined on the main outdoor stage at the Rye International Jazz & Blues Festival over the Bank Holiday weekend, and after they play our gig they are off to France for festival appearances in October. We can look forward to a fine night of up-front blues, soul and rock, so the Club hopes to see another excellent turn-out to welcome back Paul and the band.

Sunbury 197 ao (45 overs) Sandiacre Town 198-8 (44.3 Overs)

In an exciting match between two closely matched sides (see article of 4th September) Sunbury just failed to take the spoils when Sandiacre Town got over the line with three balls to spare.

In a fiercely competitive game with both sides matching each other on the batting front it was the bowling of Sandiacre's seamers on a greenish wicket against Sunbury's spinners that in the end turned the tide in favour of the Derbyshire outfit.

Sunbury's skipper, Olly Roland-Jones, and his team did Sunbury proud on that day and they were equally grateful for the tremendous support they received from the 150 or so supporters who made their way down to Bristol.

An update was received at the recent meeting of The Friends of Sunbury Park regarding the pilot project of cattle grazing in the Park as part of the grassland and biodiversity management programme. As those who have been through the Park will have seen, the fencing and gateways have been installed in preparation for the proposed implementation in the autumn.

However, there have been two complications:

- The kissing gates that were originally fitted did not allow for use by mobility scooters, and it turned out that the suppliers had sent gates of the wrong specification, so replacements are being awaited..

- Having got all the way to this stage, it now appears from a meeting that Spelthorne officers and FoSP Chairman Gerry Ceaser attended with the Surrey Wildlife Trust - who originally proposed the programme - that SWT have expressed concern about the fact that dogs run freely in the Park, despite that fact that this is coming from same people who surveyed the Park in the first place and made the original recommendation. 

As a result, Spelthorne are having discussions with an alternative grazier to explore other options. Whatever the case, it is more or less certain that there will be no cattle in the Park until next Spring. It remains to be seen whether there is sufficient time or budget for the grass in the park to be mown during the autumn to avoid the rank grasses compacting down, which is what the grazing was intended to deal with.

A record breaking 1482 parks and green spaces this year received a Green Flag Award and Spelthorne Council is urging residents to vote for the Sunbury Walled Garden as ‘Park of the Year’.

The annual People's Choice Award is now open - giving the public the power to decide which one of the 1482 Green Flag Award sites should be named Park of the Year in an online vote.

To vote:

• Visit www.greenflagaward.org
• Select the South East region on the interactive map
• Search for Sunbury on Thames and click on the green flag for the Walled Garden
• Click the 'vote for this site' button

Paul Todd, Green Flag Award Scheme Manager, said: "Following a record breaking year for the Green Flag Award we are now asking the public to decide which of the 1482 parks and green spaces deserves the coveted People's Choice Award 2014.”

The vote will close at noon on 30 September and the winner of the 2014 People’s Choice will be announced on 16 October.

The Green Flag Award was first launched in 1996 to recognise and reward the UK’s best green spaces. It is the standard for parks and recognises well-managed, high-quality sites that meet the needs of the community.

Residents will have experienced an increase in aircraft noise in recent days and may wish to see this edited explanation from Heathrow:

Easterly trial

The trial that is affecting your area will finish on 26 January 2015. During the trial, instead of spreading tracks over a wide area, aircraft following more precise routes. The height or number of aircraft using each route is not affected. For people living under these routes it’s likely you’ll experience a concentration of aircraft during periods that these particular routes are being used. They’ll also be people that have less aircraft over them.

These are just temporary changes and when the trial finishes in January, flight paths will return to usual flight patterns.

There is more information about the trial on our website here http://www.heathrowairport.com/noise/airspace-modernisation

Since last year, Heathrow has been liaising about the trials with local authorities around Heathrow as well as noise pressure group HACAN and will continue to have an on-going dialogue with them throughout this process. Now that the trials have started, feedback from residents affected by the changes will be important in shaping the future design of airspace around Heathrow.

If you wish to register a complaint, write to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. You may get the standard reply but the more complaints the better informed the 'trial' will be.

Action Fraud report that their contact centre has received hundreds of calls about scam emails arriving in victims’ inboxes that are likely to contain malware.

All the examples that have been reported use spoofed emails addresses in order to appear legitimate.

They are designed to play on your curiosity and get you to download the attachment which is likely to contain malware. It appears the scammers are changing the company name, date, order number and times whilst spamming out these emails.

Three legitimate businesses whose company names have been used as part of the scam said that these are not associated with them in any way.

Example scam email

From: Cory Ramdas sale@design[email redacted].co.uk
Subject: Order no. 18562525232

Thank you for using our services!
Your order #18562525232 will be shipped on 04-09-2014.

Date: September 03, 2014. 12:26pm
Price: £155.28
Payment method: Credit card
Transaction number: 7309E4BDE683E0

Please find the detailed information on your purchase in the attached file (order_2014-09-04_11-43-50_18562525232.arj)

Best regards,
Sales Department
Cory Ramdas
+07644 [number redacted]

It is important to remember that this is a scam email - your credit/debit card will most likely not have been charged.

If you receive one of these emails, do not open or download the attachment, delete it and report it to Action Fraud. If you have opened the attachment then call them on 0300 123 2040

Following recent changes in the way you register to vote, Spelthorne residents are being urged to complete their online electoral registration if they received notification that they need to do so.

Under the previous system, one person in every household was responsible for registering everyone who lived at that address. With the introduction of Individual Electoral Registration (IER), each person is now required to register to vote individually, helping to tackle electoral fraud and improve confidence in the Electoral Register.

All electors in Spelthorne have recently been sent a letter explaining the changes. The majority of residents have been advised in the letter that they have been automatically added to the new system and that they do not need to take any action.

However, anyone who received a letter telling them they were not transferred to the new system needs to visit www.gov.uk/register-to-vote to register to vote. Please register by the date shown on your letter. Registering takes just five minutes. If you don’t have internet access, call Electoral Services on 01784 444218.

If you didn’t receive a letter or have problems completing the online form, please email Electoral Services at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 01784 444218.

Further to the article published on this Site on 6th August, this is a reminder of the Spelthorne Together annual event at Kempton Park on Friday 19th September from 9.30am to 1.30pm. In addition to the Market Place dedicated to spreading the word on Council and voluntary sector services, the Business Secretary, Vince Cable will be speaking. Most significantly for Sunbury residents, SATEP (Spelthorne Against the Eco Park) will have a stand with information on the fight against the "Eco" Park no one else in Surrey wanted. Healthwatch Surrey will also be there to collect direct local input on Primary and Secondary health care for the Government. For more details, click here: http://www.spelweb.com/

A local student at the Geography Department of Durham University is undertaking her dissertation on food quality and has asked LOSRA if we can help at the data collation stage.

She requires a short anonymous survey to be completed with the more data, the better.

She is particularly interested, though not exclusively, in responses for the over 65s. If you would like to help this student, please click here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MMY2MMB