Our Liberal Exchange with Antony Hook MEP candidate and Monica Harding Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Esher and Walton last night in Esher was inspiring, encouraging and energising. Thank you both and great to have a good crowd join us. Now we are campaigning across the constituency for all ‘remainers’ to vote for the Liberal Democrats in the European election on 23rd May. We can still stop Brexit!
Category Archives: Events
Liberal Exchange about Euro elections with Antony Hook MEP candidate for the South East and Monica Harding Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Esher and Walton
Having only just ‘wrapped up’ the local Elmbridge election there’s another election looming in a couple of weeks – the European Parliamentary election on 23rd May.
Here’s an opportunity to learn more about European Parliamentary election, Parliament itself, how it works and how our MEPs are contributing.
We are delighted to have Antony Hook, Liberal Democrat MEP candidate for the South East join us this Sunday 12th May at 7pm at King George’s Hall in Esher (opposite the Civic Centre) to tell us more about European Parliament and its role. You’ll be able to put questions to Antony and engage in a discussion about the current state of affairs in Brexit negotiations.
Antony is an international criminal barrister by professional background so he also knows a thing or two about cross border crime, and why European cooperation is essential. But not just in crime, but also in how to tackle climate change and air pollution, transport, research cooperation, agriculture, technical standards and other key areas.
The event will be hosted by Monica Harding, Lib Dem Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Esher and Walton.
You and your friends are warmly welcome on Sunday night (12th May at 7pm) to this free event!
Merry Christmas Weybridge
This Saturday afternoon, Weybridge annual Christmas market and the lighting of the Christmas tree, organised by the Weybridge Town Business Group.
Market – 1pm to 6pm
The artisan, food and craft market will be held in Baker Street. Many popular stallholders from previous market events are returning with their unique Christmas food & gift Ideas. There are new stalls and entertainment.
Visit Father Christmas – 1pm to 6pm
Grotto and Sleigh
Carols 1:15pm
with Oatlands School ChoirCarols 3pm
with St James’s Church Choir
Children’s Parade – 4pm
Children from all five primary schools in Weybridge will take part in the lantern parade – Manby Lodge, Oatlands, St Charles Borromeo, St James, and St Georges Junior.
Lighting Up – 4:45pm
This year the Christmas tree lights will be switched on by Miss Surrey
Carols – 5pm
For everyone to join in – carols around the tree
Brooklands Radio will be providing great music & entertainment.
Stalls
April’s Table, BBQ by Stoneleigh’s, Bee Product Gifts – Weybridge Beekeeping Society, Born to Build, Brooklands College, Brooklands Radio, Cook Weybridge, Cellar One Weybridge, Darcey B’s – Candles & More!, Father Christmas & Sleigh – Rotary Club Woking, Flipping Amazing, Forever Living, Geminera, George Bakes, Grape Outdoors, Hook A Duck Stall, In Love With Macarons, Lesley Blackburn, Love Print Unique, Mark Horner, St James’s Church, Weybridge – Dementia Care, Silent Pool Gin, Simon’s Pies, Stella and Dot, Stoked Pizza, Thru the Eye of a Needle, Tombola by Weybridge Day Centre, Village Maid Cheese, Waffles On A Stick, Willow Bakery, Wendy Foreman
Weybridge town meetings
In my May 2018 election literature I promised to run town meetings, if elected.
My ambition is to try and establish a kind of forum where residents and businesses in Weybridge can come together on a regular basis and talk about the kind of Weybridge we want for the future.
Why did I want to do this?
I am committed to trying to enable generative and creative conversations. Conversations which bring people in at the early stages of developing anything new in the town.
All we need is YOU!
We need your ideas, your input, your voice and your help.
- Shape what happens to the town.
- Influence and support ideas and plans.
- Get support from the others and the council for for your own ideas and projects.
We will talk about:
- The spaces we use.
- How we get about.
- How we support people and keep them safe.
- Our local economy and business.
And we want to know from you:
- What do we love that we want to protect?
- What do we need to make better?
- What would we rather do without?
- What can you do and what help do you need from the council?
Let’s bring the community together and create a future for Weybridge that we all want.
Weybridge Town Meeting
On Monday 2 July, about 60 people met in the Weybridge Centre for our first open town meeting.
The idea behind this meeting was to provide a space where issues, suggestions and improvements to the town could be discussed. And where the agenda was compiled by the participants and not by local politicians or interest groups.
And that’s what happened!
How did it work?
People suggested topics which were captured on a chart: 25 topics in under 5 minutes. Too many for a meeting but there were overlaps and obvious connections. We bundled together similar topics and we got down to six clusters.
What did we discuss?
People formed groups to tackle the topic they were most interested in and the meeting set off to have conversations about:
- Traffic and parking
- The High Street and development
- The Weybridge allotments development proposal
What the groups came up with
Traffic and Parking
Participants described a range of interconnected traffic and parking issues, often differing from road to road:
- residents disrupted by school run traffic and parking
- residents not finding overnight parking in roads with limited capacity
- dangerous rat run traffic through residential roads
- insufficient daytime parking for workers and shoppers
- intrusive town centre through traffic.
The group welcomed the Weybridge Society and WTBG research into worker parking needs. They agreed that it needs to be augmented with traffic flow research to inform conclusions. They felt that more off-street parking is needed, not necessarily multi-storey, and liked the idea of worker park and ride from Brooklands.
Participants agreed that a wider strategic review of parking and traffic is needed. The review must reflect the varying needs of residents in different roads. It must also address the imperative of managing rat run traffic.
Other suggested initiatives included better safer cycle routes and footpaths; schools doing more to encourage children to walk and cycle to school; and creating more pedestrian-friendly areas around the town centre. The end of Baker Street could be pedestrianised, at least at weekends.
The High Street and development
- Baker St pedestrianisation came up in this group and was viewed positively
- the town’s conservation areas are treated inconsistently and Quadrant Green is neglected. Both could be used better and made more attractive.
- the High St could be reshaped to allow for safer cycle passage and a general reduction in speed would enable better flow of pedestrians
- there is a need for more seating in the High Street
- opening up High Street to the park and allotments would link existing amenities and increase use.
The group noted that Weybridge benefits from having most of its public services located in the town centre.
The group also referred to two existing townscape projects. There is the Weybridge Society initiative on the town centre, which is being branded WRAP – Weybridge Rebuild and Advance Project. And there are plans for improvements to pavement and street scene at the east end of the High Street, from Elmgrove Road to Waitrose.
The Weybridge allotments development proposal
- there was general agreement to resist the sale of any part of the allotments by the Weybridge Charity. “When they’re gone they’re gone!”
- the Trustees’ plan for raising funds through sale and development seems to be poorly thought out and there are alternative options which should be considered.
- the allotments need to be better publicised and integrated into town activities.
ACTION: Vicki Macleod to support groups to engage with the Trustees and find an alternative to the proposed sale
We didn’t get around to discussing Policing, residents’ safety, disabled access, or affordable housing as topics in their own right but they were all mentioned in the course of conversations. These will be put back on the table at a follow up meeting in September.
Weybridge Town Meeting
Weybridge is due to hold its first post-election Town Meeting – at the Weybridge Centre for the Community, Churchfield Road on Monday 2nd July at 7.30.
We will look at
- The spaces we use.
- How we get about.
- How we support people and keep them safe.
- Our local economy and business
The goals of this and future meetings is to encourage greater involvement from people in Weybridge with a view to giving them a voice in how the town develops physically and socially. We know many people love our town, but without a proper vision we might not like how it develops in the future. So this is a chance to come together to create our own Better Weybridge.
Resident of Weybridge, all we need is YOU!
We need your ideas, your input, your voice and your help.
- Shape what happens to the town.
- Influence and support ideas and plans.
- Get support from the others and the council for for your own ideas and projects.
This meeting is the realisation of one of Vicki Macleod’s election commitments. Vicki is the newly elected Liberal Democrat Councillor for Weybridge Riverside.
She says “I would like this to be the first of many such meetings where residents and others with an interest in how Weybridge develops come together to share ideas and engage actively with shaping the future of Weybridge.”
Norman Lamb MP visits Walton
Norman Lamb, Liberal Democrat MP for Norfolk North, spoke in Walton on Thames last week about Brexit and the NHS and social care.
BREXIT He started by saying there is hardly any debate on anything other than Brexit going on in Westminster at the moment. He said that he had not known anything like it, it was as if normal service has been suspended.
He said that when the reality of the Brexit deal is determined; sometime in the Autumn, he anticipates strong disquiet in the Conservative ranks and does not believe Jeremy Corbyn is electable. However, he continued, that sadly this has not currently led to a boost to the Lib Dems in the polls. An autumn a political constitutional crisis was likely (note by author : Vince Cable said something similar) but felt it was very hard to predict how this will play out and how Theresa May might navigate her way through it.
HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE “ There was a crisis in the provision of care, we have seen a 15% increase in the need for care of the elderly over the last 10 years, very rapid change.
- 1984 there were 600,000 people in care in the UK,
- 2002 there were 1,300,000
- 2032 there will be 3,100,000
At the moment there are 1.2million people with unmet care needs. Half the population over 75 live on their own, and could become increasingly dependent especially as families have become much more dispersed, making support difficult”.
He posed questions:
- Should young people pay?
- Should most of it be paid by older people?
- Should freebies like winter fuel payments be paid universally?
We don’t yet have fair answers.
He said that traditional party politics are not moving this forward, although the Conservative manifesto proposal of guaranteeing that no one should pay more than £100,000 for their care was a brave initiative. However, it was not well received and was somewhat unfair as it depended on the value of property and on an individual’s wealth as only poorer people would likely have to sell their house.
So how to raise funds fairly? He had been instrumental in bringing together 90 cross party MPs to consider the options as Government is clearly not addressing the issue. It seems that Theresa May is clearly not cable of taking initiative but wonderful at arranging consultations, she was hostage to the right of her party and the Brexit process. The cross party group proposes that there should be a hypothecated charge of say 2% on income tax but it would be separately identified and separately and independently managed and monitored. It could be reviewed from year to year by the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) This idea had been discussed with various civil servants who are supportive.
He went on to talk about the very severe shortage of support for mental health issues especially with young people. When he was in the coalition (2010-2015) he set the first ever target for mentally ill patients to receive attention to be within 2 weeks of it being sought. This has drastically slipped now but it is widely recognised advantageous. If mental health problems can start to be tackled within two weeks the further development of the symptoms and the loss of employment, friends and society links can be substantially avoided leading to earlier recovery.
Thames riverside enhancement and maintenance
Thursday 5th October 7.30 for 8.00
Small Hall St James Church Centre
Come and find out how the Thames Landscape Strategy is working to improve riverbank management and enhance the overall riverside environment along the stretch of the Thames from Weybridge to Kew.
Don’t know anything about the Thames Landscape Strategy? Take a look here
http://thames-landscape-strategy.org.uk/who-we-are/
Jason Debney, Co-ordinator Thames landscape Strategy, will give an overview of TLS projects with local impact, including an update on the proposals for the Weybridge Point car park, a TLS project that secured funding of £70k+ from Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) funds in March this year.
Let’s be sure that proposals do actually enhance the riverside scene. Click on the PPDRA Newsletter below to see how things do not always work out for the best
Doors open at 7.30 pm, with the talk starting at 8.00 pm.