Despite the “silly season” now being over, the schools
re-opened and the summer holidays all done, not a great deal is happening in
Haslemere at the moment. In fact, there
was so little happening last week that I didn’t see any point posting at all.
Frack-Free Fernhurst
is planning another protest against the plans by Celtique Energie to apply for
a natural gas fracking licence. Following their demonstration of the
potential impact of heavy lorries passing through the A286 and the
Critchmere/Camelsdale quarters of Haslemere, they now plan to launch a barrage
balloon over the proposed drill site, at the estimate height of the rig, to
show how it will impact the visual amenity of the area.
Apart from this, there was nothing much of note in the Haslemere Herald this week either. There was a slightly cryptic letter from Mrs
Diana Serman about local politicians responding to letters to the editor, and
observing that apparently “at least one borough councillor unashamedly” doesn’t read the Herald
or “cast an eye over social media”.
Whoever could that be, and I wonder why???
There is a small feature buried in the middle of the Herald
this week – an initiative by the County Council for a “Cycle SMART” campaign to
follow the existing “Drive SMART” programme.
The really interesting thing about this however, which seems to pass the
Herald’s newshounds by (perhaps because their general modus operandi is simply
to regurgitate, verbatim, the press releases they receive from various quarters)
is that serious injuries to cyclists have increased from 50 in 2008 to 124 in
2012 – a 150% increase in four years!
A little bit of
journalistic enquiry might then lead them to the discovery that Surrey’s
expenditure on road safety, by any measure, overall, per head of population or
per mile of road – is materially lower than that of Hampshire, and its casualty
toll is, unsurprisingly, materially higher.
The next meeting of the Waverley
Local Committee of Waverley and Surrey councils is to be held next Friday,
20 September, at 1:30pm,, at Cranleigh Village Hall, Village Way, Cranleigh GU6
8AF. I think there is just about enough
time to get in a formal written question for the meeting if you email it to
David North by close of play Monday – email
d.north@surreycc.gov.uk
There is nothing on the agenda specfically relating to
Haslemere, but there is an item on cattle grids on Hindhead Common and these
items concerning a recommendation to reduce the speed limit on the A286 between
Grayswood and Brook from 60mph to 50mph – not before time, in my view. The bend by the railway bridge just south of
Brook Nurseries is notorious.
The next time that Haslemere’s car parking is
due to be discussed is at the meeting on 13 December (venue not yet announced)
when officers are due to report on their technical review of the operation – so
far – of the resident’s parking schemes.
Be sure that the forces of opposition will be active in attempting to
overturn them already – although that is not the intention of this review,
which is confined to dealing with small technical issues with how they work. (For example, to act against dangerous but
not illegal parking on Kings Road in the area of the GPO sorting office and the
Herons, where I believe the yellow lines have now been extended.) If you have
positive evidence of their benefits, this might be the time to let them know – david.curl@surreycc.gov.uk
On the subject of Feedback, if you have not yet completed
the Haslemere Vision Engagement Survey, you might want to do it now. You can do it online, or you can print off
the survey as a document and fill it in to post in
The other quotes from an article on Guardian Online, and to
say that it is selective would not do justice to the term.
Now look at what the gentleman quoted above has to say
immediately before those remarks:
Do you see any reference to parking in his three key
priorities? No? Neither can I. Indeed I would submit, your Honour, that his observation
about small towns having a “niche” relates directly to his three points, and
has no connection with parking. He is
saying, as many others have said, that small town centres need to look at their
offering, and distinguish themselves from the large shopping towns and malls –
something which Haslemere certainly needs to do. In saying this, he is responding to remarks earlier
in the article by “Bill Grimsey, a
businessman and former chief executive of Wickes and Iceland, led the
alternative review into the future of our high streets.” Who is advocating
conversion of unused (and probably now unusable) retail space into residential,
to bring back life to town centres:
“Our high streets are being overwhelmed by structural change. Online
shopping has grown by 222% in the past five years while year on year
bricks-and-mortar growth remains flat. Consumer behaviour is rapidly changing,
and some high streets are never going to survive on a retail-only model.
But that doesn't mean they cannot become vibrant communities once more.
We need to change the perception that the high street is only about shops.
History tells a different story. The best high streets were never just about
shopping; they were about a sense of community.
Many high streets are struggling with declining footfall, and what
better way to start to repopulate town centres than get people living there?
High streets can no longer be seen just as temples of commerce: disruptive
technology has put paid to that. They need to be redesigned to meet community
needs.”
Finally, the resounding silence emanating from Barton Towers
continues for yet another week. Her “Councillor
Update from recent Weeks” was posted on 14 August – a month ago – and there has
been nothing since. That was “recent
weeks” because the preceding post was a full month before that. What happened to her promise to update
fortnightly?
The next Waverley Local Committee meeting is to be held next
Friday, 20 September. There is nothing
on the agenda relating to parking in Haslemere – do you suppose she will be
there? If not, should we now be asking
again – where’s Nikki?
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