LOSRA has received this press release from Spelthorne Council:

Calling all good boys and girls - join us on a fun and free interactive walk. Come along on an adventure where you will meet lots of famous characters from Christmas tales and help find Santa Claus before it’s too late.

Children are encouraged to come in festive fancy dress and there will be a prize for the best one. To buy a Santa suit for £3 (cash only) come to the reception area at the Council Offices any week day between 10am and 4pm. Come soon as stock is limited.

The dates and time for the walks are:

• Saturday 7 December at 2pm - Meeting point: Sunbury Clock (opposite parade of shops on the north side of Staines road west), Sunbury Cross roundabout
• Sunday 15 December at 11am - Meeting Point: Manor Park car park, Church Road, Shepperton
• Sunday 15 December at 2pm - Meeting point: Fordbridge Park car park, Kingston Road, Ashford

Cllr Penny Forbes-Forsyth, Cabinet Member for Young People and Leisure said: “This is lovely festive event for families. It’s free to attend so why not come along and get into the Christmas spirit.”

Some residents will have received a letter from Kempton Park through their letterboxes - click here to view. We are grateful to Kempton Park for making a first response to residents’ deep concerns, expressed in the recent LOSRA Autumn newsletter, regarding the possibility of a housing development on Green Belt on the Kempton Park estate. There is no doubt that debate on this subject is set to continue. 

The Kempton Park letter touches on a number of points which we highlighted in the LOSRA newsletter, including:

• the backlog in the Council’s plans for affordable housing;
• the Covenant on the land of which the Council is a beneficiary, and about which discussions have been taking place;
• developments plans for other parts of The Jockey Club’s business.

There are also other questions and issues which will be the subject of further discussion and enquiry:

• the role of the Council Steering Group, which comprises members of the Planning Committee, representatives of The Jockey Club, and Council officials;
• the extensive preparatory modelling work which has already been completed with respect to redeveloping the road layout and traffic management arrangements at Sunbury Cross roundabout;
• how and when Green Belt, and particularly this bit of Green Belt, came to be identified as the site of a possible new housing estate of substantial proportions, thereby flying in the face of the planning Core Strategy which governs development in the Borough.

No doubt other questions will arise in future.

A who's who of the principal participants in the discussions may be be viewed by clicking here

Further updates will be published as and when we have more news.

As most residents will have heard, Surrey County Council plan to cut the Fire and Rescue Service in Spelthorne in half. 

There will be a March to Save the Spelthorne Fire Stations on Saturday 7 December, starting at 11:30 am at the Fire Station near Sunbury Cross, and finishing at the Fire Station near Ashford Hospital. All welcome. Bring your own placards, banners and Fireman Sam outfits.

To view the letter from Paul Couchman, of Save Our Services in Surrey, click here

Lower Sunbury celebrates Advent with its annual community carols event, Carols in the Meadow, which takes place this year on Thursday 12th December at 6.30 in Orchard Meadow on Thames Street. This is always a popular and well-attended start to the Christmas season, with music led by the Salvation Army Band, and Father Christmas putting in an appearance for the children. Mulled wine will also be on offer for a donation and buckets will be passed around to help defray the costs of putting on the event.

This year, once again, the event coincides with the Christmas Market (5pm – 9pm) outside the shops in Avenue Parade which is organised by the Lower Sunbury Business Community. There will be 20 stalls offering arts and crafts, food sampling, presents, jewellery and accessories. A real reindeer and a community raffle run by Laura at the hairdressers completes the attractions; so all are welcome to join in the fun and get into the festive spirit.

In case you missed the earlier article, please scroll down to read the entry for Tuesday 5th November.

SITA needs to change the incineration technology because the original manufacturer went bankrupt. This means big changes... which require a new full planning application, so to avoid further delays SITA is sneaking these big changes through as 'minor amendments' under what is known as a Section 73 procedure. This procedure allows for minor amendments to an earlier approved application; but it is our contention that the proposed changes are not minor by any definition. Surrey County Council are simply using S.73 in order that the extant application can be rubber stamped without further delay.

You are urged to register your objection to this; and to find out more about the changes being proposed and how you can go about it please click here: http://satep.co.uk/

The Cricket Club is delighted to welcome the excellent Hampton-based Venice Red, led by guitarist, harmonica player and vocalist Chris Allard, a great supporter of the music nights and a former colleague of Karl Green and Kevin Welling before the formation of Dave's Not Here. Before he headed for London, Chris's career goes back to the '60s with Hades and Nottinghams's top prog rock outfit Dawn Trader, who opened for Def Leppard, Krokus and Saxon over the years. Some readers will know vocalist Sarah Burley from when she ran the excellent music venue, the Duke's Head in Hampton, and the line-up is completed by Graham Reed on alto sax, Paul Chaplin on tenor sax, Nick Taimitarha (keyboards), Pete Horsnell (bass) and Chris Kerrigan (drums).

They play an eclectic mix of rock, soul and R&B classics, and it will be an entertaining evening in the true Sunbury Music Night mould.

On Friday, 8th November, Crest Nicholson, the developers of The Avenue London Irish site held a drop-in event for all those residents living nearby and most likely to be affected by the housing project.

If you were unable to attend or would like to view the display boards used to illustrate the plans, please click here

Roads around Walton Bridge will be closed for five nights this week to enable road surfacing on either side of the new crossing to take place.

Costain Ltd will be carrying out work along Walton Bridge Road to complete the road surfacing at the new Walton Lane roundabout on the Shepperton side and at the traffic-signalled junction of New Zealand Avenue and Oatlands Drive.

The Callender-Hamilton bridge has now been completely removed and the last parts of the fifth crossing will be taken down at the end of this week and work has now started on constructing the permanent cafe on the Cowey Sale side of the river, which was displaced during the build.

A resident has been receiving calls from various companies offering PPI refunds - the latest claimed they were from Trading Standards and offered a substantial refund in connection to her late husband. They asked for an address saying the cheque could be delivered that afternoon. Needless to say this was NOT us and she didn't divulge any personal information and reported it!

There seems to be an influx of cold callers in the Sunbury area offering energy saving surveys that are supposedly connected with a government scheme.

Think before you open the door or agree to anything and, above all, do not let strangers into your home!

Further reports of alarm sales. These follow unsolicited calls to elderly residents who are then subjected to pressure sales and even persuaded to change their already installed and more than suitable community alarm for the traders expensive contract version!

NB These are sometimes sold as 'free' but actually come with an expensive and lengthy maintenance contract.

Please look out for friends, family and neighbours!

As the saying goes, if you put lipstick and a frock on a pig, it is still a pig. Whereas an earlier application for the installation of a gasifier was approved by SCC last year, by cunning sleight of hand, SCC are now seeking to vary that approval for the installation of an incinerator. The two are very different but the County Council, in defiance of independent definition, insist that the revised installation at Charlton lane is still a 'gasifier'. This is of course nonsense but SCC cannot admit this for, to do so, would imply a new application rather than a variation to that already approved.

LOSRA and the Shepperton Against The Eco Park (SATEP) have campaigned long and hard to prevent this untested and unproven installation being situated so close to a residential population but it seems that SCC are determined to press ahead in defiance of the local residents' wishes and their legitimate fears.

As time passes, more and more reports are published clearly stating that incinerators are the cause of increased cancer rates.  By the very nature of the incipient progression of these diseases it is only now that these long term studies are revealing the truth.

The following is the conclusion of an in-depth accredited Spanish study which involved a significant amount of sampling work in support of that conclusion:

5. Conclusion "Our results support the hypothesis of a statistically significant higher risk, among men and women alike, of dying from all cancer in towns situated near incinerators and hazardous waste treatment plants, and specifically, a higher excess risk in respect of tumors  in the stomach, liver, pleura, kidney, and ovary. Furthermore, this is one of the first studies to analyse the risk of dying of cancer related with specific industrial activities in this sector at a national level, and to highlight the excess risk observed in the vicinity of incinerators and installations for the recycling of scrap metal and scrapping of ELVs, regeneration of spent baths, and treatment of oil and oily waste." The full report may be viewed by clicking here:
http://news.newclear.server279.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/1-s2-0-S0160412012002279-mainIncindeaths.pdf

All residents are urged to make their representations by 28th November to Surrey County Council by writing to Alan Stones, Planning Development Control Team Manager, (ref.SP13/01553/SCC), Planning and Development Group, Surrey County Council, County Hall, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT1 2DY. Alternatively by email to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The application itself may be viewed by clicking here: www.sita.co.uk/your-environment/our-plans