According to the Parish Council’s Agenda for its Extraordinary meeting at 6p.m. tomorrow Thursday – the re-named Cranleigh Village Hospital Trust (CVHT) has now morphed into Cranleigh Village Health Trust (CVHT).

Nothing to get confused about there then? “Change the name but not the letters is a change for worse and not for better,” so the old saying goes.

Fresh from the bruising treatment it received at the hands of Waverley Planners, CVHT (the new model not the old model) has decided to come forward with

‘it has an exciting new vision for healthcare in Cranleigh.’ 

And wants to make a presentation to the parish council  hence an Extraordinary Council Meeting. Let us all hope for the villagers over here that have been waiting for 20 years that the charity can rid itself of an ugly chapter it has contributed to  Cranleigh’s history?

Rather than grizzle over its old model that was well and truly trounced – Power to the people of the eastern villages as they joined Waverley Planners to give a controversial Care Home development the order of the boot.

CVHT is coming up with something new – and is unveiling it FIRST – to its partner – CPC. ‘Followers of the WW need no reminding that the parish council handed over land in a very unequal swap for £1! It believed it was a partner in the scheme to build a replacement for the old cottage hospital. However, it didn’t quite get what it said on the CVHT collecting tins! It actually ended up as an 80 bed-private care home with 20 community beds and some hostel residential accommodation (26 rooms). So its objections came over loud and clear!

But on Thursday evening, the public will be rolling up to hear at first-hand exactly what CVHT is going to provide for the village with the £1.8m it collected from the residents of the eastern villages.

Like everyone else – we can hardly wait!

The meeting is at 6pm in Cranleigh Parish Council’s offices in Village Way.

Changing the name – so what’s the game?

Oh dear! Before the refusal letter has been posted boys toys are flying out of Cranleigh prams?

In the interest of clarity – here are the new Cranleigh Health Trust’s future charitable aims.

https://www.cranleigh-pc.gov.uk/_UserFiles/Files/_Agendas/88881-EGM_Agenda_06_February_2020.pdf

Rumours are rife in the Surrey/Sussex village of Alfold about the former highly popular local Golf Club that went into the rough 4 years ago.

Former owner Edmund O’Reilly Highland sold out to a Jewish Company who ran the club into a very deep bunker – leaving members with an unkempt golf course, and fewer facilities.  

Up for sale for some years, the club was finally sold to a group of foreign investors  who renewed a planning application for a multi-million pounds golf complex, including a hotel and golf lodges. We now understand it wants to add a housing development to that extant permission on the countryside.

However, strangely enough the Wildwood Country Club Limited’s Striking Off Action has been suspended despite no accounts being lodged?

Now residents are asking – what is the future for Wildwood?

Has someone swung a club to pull Alfold’s Wildwood out of the rough?

Has Alfold’s Wildwood Golf Club gone into the rough?

A new era for Wildwood.  

Are there plans afoot to drag Wildwood out of a big hole?

Here’s how a section of the council tax payers’ believe are the priorities for our cash-strapped borough. This was taken from a sample of residents opinions who’re asked to rank services in order of importance. Which from the table below, appears that road verges and grants to voluntary organisations and art centres come bottom. How the survey was conduced is on the bottom of this page. 

This is what the council is considering to – Mind The Gap.

The Tories may think so – but we here at the Waverley are quite simply horrified. Even more so, now that they are being rebranded ‘food redistribution centres,’ as though this is some  official source for food! Before we know it they will have a new tag line like – ‘every little helps?’

And just in case you thought Food Banks were mainly used outside leafy stockbroker belt Surrey – including Waverley. Think again, they are operating all over our borough and the county every day. Should this be happening?

 

Vision Group Calls For Bold Measures To Tackle Guildford’s Traffic Problems

The aptly-named Guildford Vision Group (GVG) has marked the start of the new decade with a far-reaching agenda for comprehensive change in Guildford, starting by encouraging the borough council to consider much bolder initiatives to deal with town centre traffic.

The present layout, it says, produces chronic pollution, congestion and serious accidents, some fatal. And we are facing the impact of the additional 10,000-plus vehicles brought by new homes.

GVG says that over the next 10 to 15 years, about 14,000 home will be built, 80% of them on the fringes of town on green-belt sites. Their 10,000 or more additional cars threaten traffic chaos, unless we adopt efficient and attractively-priced alternative modes of travel.

Some of thr group’s more radical suggestions include people-moving systems not unlike the pods at Heathrow Terminal 5 and trams/tram trains, rail, and autonomous minibuses.

Such mass transit systems are already used elsewhere, especially abroad.

For the past eight years, GVG has put forward its own masterplan, with a key piece of new infrastructure, a new east-west corridor to take traffic away from the heart of Guildford.

Its proposed road layout caters for only a relatively modest growth of 10% or so, in present traffic levels.

The chairman of GVG, Bill Stokoe, said: “With our corridor proposal we simply want to move traffic and the associated pollution away from the heart of our town to allow pedestrians to be centre stage.

“It is a relatively quick and productive solution to allow wider pedestrianisation of the town centre. It delivers exciting public space opportunities, especially along the riversides, and other benefits such as a covered open market.”

GVG believes any short- to medium-term plan for town centre transport must include:

An improved park and ride network, including routes that cross town from one park and ride site to another, more bus lanes, and better use of the rail system, including fast-tracking the proposed new stations.

Better integration of bus and rail services and better interchanges, making public transport easy to use by smart-card ticketing across the rail and bus network and including park and ride.

Using regulation and pricing to help preserve the town. Visitors arriving by road need to be encouraged to use park and ride wherever possible.

Priority should be given to buses.

GVG says the council should not put addressing town centre traffic issues on hold until the A3 improvement through Guildford is completed.

It exhort residents and businesses not to just stand by and see the town centre gradually fade away. The group agrees there must be wide public acceptance that bold measures must be taken and asks if people are prepared to change their habits.

What will change them? Pricing? Law and regulation? Wholehearted acceptance of the climate change case? GVG is calling for ideas from the people, to be emailed to info@guildfordvisiongroup.com

Story based on a press release issued by the Guildford Vision Group.