News roundup week ending 31 May

What Nikki did next

Our County Councillor has posted another update of her activity for the last week – the next one is promised for two weeks, presumably as this is a holiday week for anyone with school-age children (myself included).

It is the usual staple stuff of local politics – potholes and road repairs – but there is this:

Met with officer responsible for Local Area Committee to discuss how experiences of Haslemere during parking debacle could provide learning for SCC. One positive outcome is that specific training given to Chairs and Vice Chairs of all Local Area Committees. The meeting protocol has also been adapted to allow members of the public the opportunity to speak (albeit with limited rights) during the debate on an agenda item as it happens.

By “members of the public” I assume she means Robert Serman – or perhaps he is an honorary councillor already?  In any case I don’t see how this can work fairly – it opens the door to ranters and ravers and people with something worthwhile to say won’t get a word in edgeways.  Probably best to stick to the formal questions system.

On which note, Mrs B advises that There will be no parking items on the Local Committee agenda until December 2013 in the parking review. Changes in Weydown Road will be reviewed at this time apart from access protection markings which could go ahead before December.  No mention here of Beech Road, take note, although you would expect it to be covered.   If you want to shape that agenda you might want to write in to the local committee with questions for the two meetings preceding then.  These are scheduled for 5 July and 20th September, both Fridays.  The July meeting is apparently due to be held in Upper Hale Rd, Farnham, but you don't have to attend in person to ask a formal written question - these must be submitted to David North at SCC (d.north@surreycc.gov.uk ) at least a week in advance (I assume that means by the preceding Thursday night) and answers are handed out at the meeting, and will later be published on the SCC website.  I believe you get the chance to ask a supplementary question at the meeting if you are present.

With luck by then the schemes will have had a few weeks of operation to provide opportunity for comment and questions, apart of course from Beech Road where perhaps the impact of other schemes may have had some time to make themselves felt in terms of hospital outpatients being displaced by all day parkers moving into the area.  GIven that the news in the Surrey Advertiser is that the inpatients' wards in the hospital are soon due to re-open following their extensive refurbishment, one can imagine that the parking situation in Beech Rd will only get worse - the outpatients arriving for clinics eg blood tests have of course been coming throughout but there will now be additional visitors coming to deliver or collect in-patients, or to visit them on the wards. 

 

In this week’s Herald

Not much really.  There is an article about the Waverley Core Strategy on the front page – this is very dry stuff indeed although it is also very important as it forms the backbone of the planning policy for the next ten years, including how many new houses should be built, and where. There is also an article about the Hospital which, like the Surrey Ad article referred to above, quotes extensively from the League of Friends chairman, Professor Vincent Marks.  It reveals that Professor Marks has annnounced his intention to stand down as chairman of the LoF, for which role I would like to propose a vote of thanks to him and best wishes for the future.  His successor will be Liphook resident and former nurse Rose Parry.

On the letters page, evidently there is no-one who feels strongly that something black should be repainted white, or vice versa, or that zebra crossings should be dug up – purely anecdotally, from my own experience either on foot in town or driving through en route to collect my kids from the tennis club, the new zebra seems to me to be a great success, and has increased the foot traffic across Petworth Road, no doubt to the benefit of the commerces on the southern side – and there is only one letter concerning Haslemere, in the feature spot, from Graeme Spratley, responding to last week’s article referenced in my last post.

 

So, how about a straw poll:  how do you feel about the variety or quality of our local retail offering?  Would you prefer to see more independent retailers, or do you prefer chainstores as Graeme suggests some people do?  Would you, in particular, like to see a Carphone Warehouse/Phones4U, as proposed by Mr Clayton?  How about M&S Food, mooted as the anchor tenant for any retail development built on the old Weyhill Fairground (carpark) site?  Would you like to see, say, a Wagamama or a Nando’s occupying the retail site planned for where the old Arco Felice restaurant used to sit overlooking the Waitrose carpark?  How about a Betfair betting shop – as some rumours have suggested we might get, despite the fact that experience suggests betting shops open close to pockets of deprivation, and while I have no doubt there is some (and a foodbank is therefore necessary) deprivation is not normally the first word that springs to mind when thinking about Haslemere?  How about Robert Dyas takes over the site currently occupied by Miles in West St?  Comments welcome.