Village News
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Lower Kingswood Residents Association Chairman: David Patel Secretary: Robert Brown Treasurer: Faye Miles VILLAGE NEWS www.lowerkingswood.co.uk SEPTEMBER 2017 Autumn Edition 2017 Inside this issue: Chairman's Report to Residents Welcome to our Autumn 2017 issue of Village News registration number or perhaps discretely take a Borough Council report; 2 and we would like to extend a warm welcome to all photo then forward the details to the Council’s Joint Residents’ Association Committee report 3 those new residents who have moved into the village Enforcement Team via the Council’s website or by over the past few months. Please remember that all telephoning 01737-276300. County Council report; 3 residents of Lower Kingswood are members of the Village Fete Residents’ Association, if you have any concerns LOWER KINGSWOOD RECREATION Food Waste - Food for 4 about the Village, the Residents’ Association GROUND & PAVILION Thought; Kingswood Committee is here to try and help you and represent For some time the Residents’ Association Com- Village Hall Trust your interests. mittee have been concerned as to the future of Kingswood Primary School 5 Unlike most other local Residents’ Associations there both the Recreation Ground & Pavilion and, fol- Wisdom of God Church; 6 is no annual subscription payable – our running costs lowing discussions with our Councillors, have Forthcoming Parish Events are met from the revenue of advertisements in our determined that our initial focus should be to newsletter. So please help support our local consult with local residents to ascertain their Wisdom Stories; Sunday 7 views as to the way forward. Family Fun; Church Hall; businesses and advertisers; if using the services of Monthly Coffee Circle; LK one of our advertisers please mention that you With the history of the Recreation Ground going Baby & Toddler Group saw their advertisement in Village News. back well over 120 years, we have therefore com- LK Evangelical Church; 8 DOG FOULING piled an appropriate Questionnaire to seek your Crumbs views. This particular subject continues to be raised by Girl Guiding 9 residents not only relating to mess in the Recreation Please take the opportunity to read about the historical background on page 15 and complete Scout Group; Kingswood 11 Ground and verges on the side roads, but also on WI open land, fields etc. which surround our village. the questionnaire on page 16. This should be returned to our Chairman in Kingswood News/ Not only is such mess unsightly, with the potential for Post Office no later than 31st October 2017. it being inadvertently trodden indoors; it also presents potentially serious health risks particularly for young VILLAGE NEWS children. Once again thank you to all who have contributed Can we remind those dog-owners who are exercising articles and helped with both the production and their pets to please clear up any mess that may be distribution of this newsletter. Village News is deposited and, if walking across open fields, keep to distributed free to all households in (and around) the designated footpaths. Lower Kingswood, and this is only possible because STUBBS LANE RECYCLING AREA of the assistance given by a number of volunteers. If you can help with distribution - in particular The continued misuse/fly-tipping at this facility was Monkswell Lane and Mugswell (and providing cover one of the issues raised at our recent AGM. for holidays etc.) - please contact our Chairman. We very much appreci- As previously reported, this site is being monitored by AND FINALLY…. ate the support of our CCTV and the Council will take appropriate advertisers but their ap- enforcement action given the relevant evidence. In a We should also like to again take the opportunity of pearance in our newslet- recent instance one fly-tipper was fined £7,800, given thanking Fidelity International for their assistance in ter and/or our website 200 hours community service and a suspended prison the printing of this your Residents’ Association’s does not constitute a sentence. If you spot anyone you believe may be fly- newsletter Village News. recommendation. tipping or littering, take a note of their vehicle A meeting will take place on Wednesday 4th October (at 7:45pm) at the Evangelical Church in Smithy Lane to discuss ideas/plans for the 2018 Village Fete [see page 3]. Reigate & Banstead Borough Council report Dear Residents Councillor Rod Ashford Member for Kingswood with Burgh Heath GETTING THE MOST FROM REIGATE & BAN- Email: Cllr.Ashford@reigate- STEAD BOROUGH COUNCIL banstead.gov.uk As Councillors, we are pleased to say that most of the time the Telephone: 01737-831446 services operated by Reigate & Banstead Borough Council (RBBC) usually run very smoothly and most residents do not find cause for complaint. On the odd occasion that things do go Councillor Ros Mill wrong, residents can sometimes find themselves frustrated and Executive Member wondering how to get the council to sort things out quickly and for Leisure & effectively. Wellbeing [Employment and Executive] Missed bin collections, anti-social behaviour in our communities, Email: Cllr.Mill@reigate- fly-tipping on our streets, inconsiderate parking, noise and lost banstead.gov.uk or found dogs are some of the most common issues residents Telephone: 01737- want to tell the Council about. 833705 For those with access to the internet, the quickest and most ef- fective way to communicate with the Council is via its website. This may seem a little impersonal but the online reporting forms will be directed to the correct departments for action as soon as Councillor Simon Parnall the message is received. Member for Kingswood with Burgh Heath [Planning and Overview & Scrutiny] For those without internet access, telephoning the Town Hall Email: Cllr.Parnall@reigate- can be a good starting point, but it is worth noting that when banstead.gov.uk you report something to the Council's officers by telephone, they Telephone: 01737-830888 enter the information into the Council's online system on your behalf. It is simply the most effective way of directing your re- port to the correct department. It is important to tell the opera- Residents’ Association tor what department you need to speak to for example: Plan- ning, Parking, Refuse & Recycling, Environmental issues such as Committee report noise or pollution, or Enforcement. For less common issues and more tricky concerns, Councillors A Meeting of the Committee took place on Tuesday, 9th May 2017. In can ask the Council's officers to investigate. However, investiga- addition to Committee members, Councillors Rod Ashford, Bob Gard- tions can sometimes take time to complete because we expect ner & Simon Parnall were in attendance. them to be thorough; which might involve asking follow-up Matters arising questions. The Chairman provided an update on the potential acquisition of a Every-so-often residents may feel that reporting matters directly defibrillator including costing, siting & insurance. to Councillors is the quickest way to get their concerns dealt The Chairman opened a discussion on the Pavilion in the Recreation with. Unfortunately, this is not usually the case, as we effectively Ground and a number of potential issues were identified. become an extra link in the chain. We are not able to short- circuit the system and we have to go through the same reporting Councillor Gardner reported on: system as everyone else; and we are less able to answer supple- A series of recent instances of vandalism – including two separate in- mentary questions without reverting to our residents, and this all stances of damage to the Bowls Club’s shed and another of damage to takes time. the perimeter fence. An addition to the cost of repairing/replacing the shed, the Bowls Club are planning to install CCTV. Ros, Simon and I are always there to assist our residents but we are not a substitute for the Council's reporting systems which The state of the road surface at the Chipstead Lane roundabout was have been especially designed to help deal with the Borough's highlighted and Cllr. Gardner responded that this was scheduled for residents quickly and effectively. resurfacing. Useful contact details: Councillor Ashford reported on: The state of the Recycling Area in Stubbs Lane, which continues to be Reigate & Banstead Borough Council website: www.reigate- misused. He added that discrete CCTV cameras were now in place and banstead.gov.uk these would be used by the JET enforcement team to identify those The Town Hall switchboard telephone number is: 01737-276000 misusing the facility and, where practicable, prosecute offenders. Fly-tipping continues to be a problem particularly in more isolated are- For issues concerning anti-social behaviour, fly-tipping, littering as, both Borough Councillors asked that they and/or the JET enforce- or parking, the Joint Enforcement Team (JET) can be contacted ment team should be notified of any instances of fly-tipping; they added directly on 01737-276300. that any (discretely taken) photographic evidence of the offence taking The Reigate & Banstead Dog Warden can be contacted on: place would be very helpful. 07974-325164. [continued on page 3] Autumn 2017 Page 2 Lower Kingswood Village News Surrey County Council report Dear Residents CAR & VAN PARKING IN LOWER KINGSWOOD Lower Kingswood residents are reporting more vans and cars parked on the footpath and also parked legally but left for days and weeks. You, as the reporting resident, can check vehicles for legality using the DVLA web site: www.gov.uk/check-vehicle-tax and this website provides a link through to the MID (Motor Insur- ance Database). Unfortunately, if the vehicle is legal (in terms of valid tax and insurance) then little can be done to resolve the matter, unless it is totally blocking the footpath, then the Bor- ough Council and County Council can at least issue a warning notice.