Mount Hermon East
Upgrade to telephone mast at Old Woking Road
I have received a letter on behalf of Vodafone who have said that the mobile telephone mast on the highway land adjacent to the Old Woking Road is due for an upgrade. The station is necessary to provide 3G and 4G mobile coverage in the borough.
As this is an upgrade of an existing mobile phone mast base station, there has not been any requirement on Vodafone to consider or identify alternative sides, and the location complies with the council’s local plan policies as well as the planning requirements set out in the National Planning Policy Framework. I am reassured that there are no health implications for residents, and that all Vodafone installations are compliant with guidelines set out by the appropriate regulatory bodies.
Bus route from Woking to Byfleet through Oriental Road
Arriva, the company which runs Surrey’s bus services, will be making some alterations to the route of service 437, which connects Woking town centre with Byfleet.
Instead of travelling along Oriental Road and Heathside Road, buses travelling towards Woking Station will be rerouted to run via Monument Road and Maybury Road to Broadway. The return schedule to Byfleet will continue to leave Woking by using the existing Heathside and Oriental Road route. The new route will come into effect from next Monday 15th December.
I am told that the change has been made to improve reliability although I fail to see how it will make any significant difference other than to pose an inconvenience to residents at the far end of Oriental Road who use the service to travel into the town centre. I have taken the matter up with the Joint Committee but I am afraid the prospect of securing any change is unlikely in the near term. In the meantime, I would encourage residents with mobility issue wishing to board the service to Woking town centre from Oriental Road to alight the bus on the way to Byfleet, which will then come back to the town centre on its return journey, as inconvenient and time consuming as this might be. Those wishing to complain can make their views known by calling Arriva on 0344 800 4411.
White Rose Lane Nature Reserve
This week I will be presenting a Notice of Motion to full council to try and secure a regular schedule of maintenance at the White Rose Lane Nature Reserve, which runs through the woodland beside the Hoe Stream and connects Woking Park to Hoe Bridge School.
The nature reserve is a site of interest to local walking and rambler groups and is home to a significant variety of wildlife including owls, bats, deer and various species of rare fungi and wild flowers. Over the last few years volunteers have been working to carry out scrub clearance and removal of the invasive Himalayan Baslam, which if left uncontrolled could spread across the site and overwhelm the native flowers and fauna.
My Notice of Motion calls on the council to recognise the potential of the White Rose Lane Nature Reserve to be an important amenity and local attraction in Woking. If the motion is approved, the council will identify options and allocate resources for landscaping and improvement so that the nature reserve can be enjoyed by both residens and visitors to the borough.
Access road to St Dunstan’s from Onslow Crescent
Earlier in the summer a number of residents expressed concern about an application for a fire road across the northern boundary playing field of St Dunstan’s school to provide emergency access from Onslow Crescent. It was felt that the proposed access road will take up an unacceptably large proportion of the main playing field, limiting future recreational activity.
Residents also sought reassurances that the school would limit this road to fire access only. Onslow Crescent is already congested at pick up and drop off times, and there were fears that the proposed new access route could be used as a relief road, further exacerbating the problem.
Following these representations my fellow Mount Hermon East ward councillor, Cllr David Bittleston, raised the matter with planning officers and was able to secure a condition which confirmed that the access road will only be used for fire or emergency access. A series of protective restrictions were also put in place, with the council being required to approve any pruning or removal of trees, to ensure taht there would be no loss of amenity for residents.