Lightwater residents, keen gardeners, and lovely people, Carolyn and Paul Barrow, held a plant sale and garden open day event on Saturday, to raise funds for RSPB and WaterAid.
They are both well-known locally, as Paul was chairman of Lightwater Gardening Club for 24 years. We visited his garden, and I took the opportunity to interview him. Paul is pictured by his treasured Wollemi Pine tree.
Posted in Lightwater | Tags: Gardens
At the Surrey County Council elections count for the Surrey Heath divisions there was palpable tension among candidates and supporters as the count began. Relief arrived only when each division’s result were declared: the winner happy, the losers could do no more, until the next time. See the results.
In all six divisions Conservative candidates were returned. The UKIP candidates performed particularly well, better than many had predicted. While Liberal Democrats suffered drops in their vote. Labour similarly failed to gain much traction with voters, apart from Cllr Rodney Bates, who should be gratified at the extent of his support, a recognition of his effectiveness in support of his community.
I’ve attended a number of election counts held in Camberley Theatre, and this was Surrey Heath Borough Council’s best organised election to date. Great credit should go to the counting assistants – fast and accurate.
Posted in Elections | Tags: Surrey County Council, Surrey Heath Borough Council
Standing alone outside an election polling station allowed me to look skywards, to enjoy the blue sky and to study the clouds. Voter footfall was slow in my periods of telling, so I often had uninterrupted chances to view and photograph the sky.
I enjoyed both activities. There’s much pleasure to be had chatting to people entering and leaving a polling station, especially if you know them, or they know you. Also, you might remember my articles here on clouds – Appreciating clouds, and then Learning a cloudy new skill, so you’ll understand my interest in clouds.
I’m really pleased to report that yesterday in Lightwater we had a day of mainly Mares’ Tails clouds, and lots of less interesting aircraft contrails. Here’s my photo of the Mares’ Tails clouds. They are cirrus clouds, occurring between 20,000 and 40,000 feet. ‘They get their name because they resemble white horses’ tails flying through the air’*. They presage a spell of fine, settled weather.
*Definition from Eyewitness Companions: Weather, published by Dorling Kindersley
Yesterday I chatted with a man happy in his work. Working for Havering Demolition, his job is to operate a big tracked excavator. See him pictured by his ‘big machine’.
The occasion was the demolition of the Silicon Valley building in Lightwater, which is the initial stage in the building, on the site, of a new care home for Hallmark Care Homes.
I asked the excavator operator if he enjoyed his job. “Yes”, he said, “what man wouldn’t enjoy demolishing things for a living. I’m the most important person in the demolition. We agree how we’re going to demolish buildings. But, when I’m in the cab, it’s up to me. Love it, wouldn’t want any other job.”
I also spoke with one of the partners of, Laurence Baker, the company building the new care home. I suggested to him that it wouldn’t take long to demolish the building. “Absolutely not”, he said, “In the past it would all have been completed in two weeks. Now it’ll take six weeks. For example we’ve had to remove each hanging tile by hand, to ensure no bats are disturbed.”
Posted in Lightwater
Here’s what I know about the candidates for Surrey County Council in Surrey Heath. These are local elections, and residency in the ward is one of my judgements in any election, which I’ll be focussing on in this review. Apologies for this being a rather long post.
There are six county council wards in Surrey Heath, two of which have changed significantly. These two new wards for County Council elections are; Lightwater is now part of a new ward comprising Bisley, Lightwater, and West End; while Chobham joins with Bagshot and Windlesham to create the other new ward.
Bagshot, Chobham, and Windlesham: In this ward two candidates are local parish councillors – Ruth Hutchinson [LibDem] and Mike Goodman [Conservative]. Hear Mike being interviewed HERE. Both have strong links into their communities. Robert Shatwell [UKIP] on the other hand is not resident in the ward – living in Woking. I do think ward residency is a requirement in local politics. Richard Wilson [Labour] brings tribal politics to local elections, which I believe is not appreciated by the majority of the local electorate, being more suited to national politics. He’s also given to gratuitous comment on Twitter and elsewhere about local councillors and others, a sure sign of the lack of the necessary ability to work with others to improve our communities.
Posted in Conservatives, Elections, Labour, LibDems, Surrey Heath | Tags: Surrey County Council
Last week I received a pleasant surprise. I was asked to nominate a local charity by Hallmark Care Homes to recognise the start of the building of their new care home in Lightwater.
It’s generous of Hallmark Care Homes to let me choose. My choice was Lightwater Darby & Joan Club, providers of social events for the elderly in Lightwater, to receive a cheque for £250.
On a lovely sunny morning today, myself, representatives of, Hallmark Care Homes, the builders – Laurence Baker, and the officers of Lightwater Darby & Joan, all gathered for photographs at the site of the new care home. The Silicon Valley building in Lightwater Road is in the process of being demolished, which the photographer used as a backdrop to the photos.
Here are a couple of photos. On the left, the photographer asking me to hold a pick axe - the lengths photographers will go to for a photo. The other of people from Hallmark Care Homes and Lightwater Darby & Joan Club [From left in the photo: Hallmark Care Homes, Avnish Goyal - managing director, Sue Earrey - land & development mgr, Brian Barker, secretary, Shirley Hills - treasurer, and Jean Barker - chairwoman of Lightwater Darby & Joan]. More on this event will be appearing on the Surrey Heath Residents Web blog.
Posted in Lightwater
The press and media have variously called Labour leader Ed Miliband’s interview yesterday with Martha Kearney, on BBC Radio 4′s World at One programme, as a car crash, a disaster, and a Milishambles.
When I’ve heard interviews described as such, I’ve rarely found it to be true. Not so with Ed Miliband’s radio interview [Listen to it HERE]. It is exactly that, an absolute disaster. Small errors, misspeaks, or whatever, can be excused. What can’t be excused, and will come back again, and again, to haunt Ed Miliband is an interview such as this. Here’s part of the discussion,
MK: “Let me ask you about one of your policies; the 10p VAT cut, how long would you cut VAT for?”
EM: “For about a year, we’ve said we’ll have a temporary VAT cut …..”
The discussion continues about how to fund a £12 billion cut in VAT and how quickly this will stimulate growth in the economy. It’s up to you to decide to listen or not. It is, though, an instructive interview on determining Labour’s competence in running the economy.
The Fleet News & Mail report that there’s been a major landslide on the Basingstoke Canal in Hampshire, leading to a closure of the towpath. Reading the latest Basingstoke Canal News shows that much maintenance work has been completed. It’s surely a disappointment to them to have to deal with this.
It’s encouraging to read about the reorganisation of the Canal management structure, including the greater involvement of Surrey and Hampshire County Councils. Also, there’s a new Canal Operations Manager in Fiona Shipp.
While the maintenance work to get the canal re-opened is not complete, it does look likely to happen this year. I wish them much success in their on-going endeavours.
Posted in Culture, Surrey Heath | Tags: Basingstoke Canal, Surrey County Council
It’s a busy day in Surrey Heath this Saturday. Notably with the Surrey Heath Show at Frimley Lodge Park. Also on Saturday, Andy Robertshaw hosts a walking tour of the military history in Deepcut, titled, Trenches to Taliban.
Posted in Surrey Heath | Tags: Deepcut, Royal Logistic Corps Museum
Before I tackled the our gardens, I commented on the flowering of plants bought from the Lightwater Gardening Club’s stand at last year’s Windlesham Fête, and how I thought that they needed re-potting. Today I completed that re-potting, into attractive new containers. In doing so I noted the difference in the compost I used and the original compost.
Where’s all this leading? On Saturday 4th May, from 1.00pm to 4.00pm, we’ll be visiting Paul Barrow’s - chairman of Lightwater Gardening Club – garden and plant sale at his home, 1 Wayside, Windermere Road, Lightwater, GU18 5TH.
I’ll be asking Paul if I did Ok with the re-potting of the cacti and succulents. Maybe, I’ll see you there. I imagine I’ll not be able to resist buying some of Paul’s choice plants.
Posted in Lightwater | Tags: Gardens, Lightwater Gardening Club
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