Bramley Residents and businesses have Suffered enough, say the locals. But ‘Your Waverley is racing to their rescue, and things can only get better. 

The WW can’t help wondering if it was a sensible move to erect school buildings so close to a petrol station

Villagers, particularly businesses, say they are sick and fed up with reading about their petrol blight in local and national newspapers.

Here are just some of their woes…

Lack of usable water, putting up with broken telephones and internet that can’t be fixed until 2025 at the earliest. The danger of underground explosion in the Openreach infrastructure, nasty petrol fumes in the air and cellars in the village, petrol under the village, including the village stream (killing the wildlife), in the tap water, and all the consequential roadworks, road closures, pavement closures, temp traffic lights, traffic queues, fumes, damaging effect on local businesses, inconvenience, financial losses, additional expenses experienced to different degrees by everyone in Bramley over the last nearly two years.

The popular Grocer has packed up and gone to New Zealand; others are considering joining him there. They are sick of the smell of petrol fumes and do not have full phones or internet access.

St Catherine’s School has publicly remained silent about the contaminated drinking water and the petrol seeping underground because it fears parents will pull their children out for health and safety reasons—a double whammy with the VAT reduction on school fees. Its school buildings are adjacent to the contaminated site.

One Bramley resident said:

In response to: Asda Compensation Offer to Bramley Completely Inadequate

We have had no internet for many months, and still, there is no connection in September!

Our landline is not working, and the TV has no signal.

This happened during our children’s exams and when my wife was going through chemotherapy.

The communications breakdown wiped out my Airbnb and travel business because of this foolish petrol leak and the lack of action to preserve the village’s communication links.

They offer excuses for poor health and safety, but surely, they could install some kind of temporary solution.

The situation is absurd and unfair. Those responsible must pay the claims for shops and those in the community who have suffered a lot.

 Asda’sOffer isn’t enough!

Asda’s offer (or, as Asda sometimes prefers to call it, “community scheme”) was a £50,000 pot for the Bramley community and a £25 voucher for each household to spend in the Bramley Asda petrol station shop.

To contextualise the “offer,” £50,000 wouldn’t even cover the costs needed to upgrade the Eastwood Road children’s playground.

There is some good news from Your Waverley in its recent Update.

 Recovery Coordinating Group on 20 September 2024.

Openreach is installing two community hubs in the village using satellite technology.

Asda has reported progress against its road map, with vapour soil extraction going live this week. This means ]it is moving to phase two of the road map and that the boreholes under the petrol station no longer contain floating fuel.

Discussion regarding the Business and Community compensation arrangements from Asda.

• They report that processing the business applications that they have received.
• About the Community fund, they are looking for projects that will benefit the broader community.
• Waverley will contact the Bramley Business Network, Bramley Residents Action Group (BRAG), Borough and Parish Councillors to discuss this further.
• And convene a business, economic, and community recovery group. 

Openreach reported :

• Providing an update on their website on how to access the Community Hubs.
• Continue to prioritise vulnerable people impacted. by the incident
•  send dongles directly to people who have been impacted.

Waverley reported that:

• The Economic Development team has been in Bramley talking to businesses and carrying out their bi-annual vacant property survey. The results will be published on the Business Waverley website. They have also been liaising with Surrey County Council colleagues on other issues impacting the High Street that the business community has made them aware of.
• All Bramley businesses are encouraged to register on the Business Waverley web directory Bramley (businesswaverley.co.uk)
• community team members have been working with Openreach to support vulnerable people impacted by the incident.