Tour de Mytchett, Frimley Green and Deepcut

This morning (2nd June 2024) I put out the following message to the community I represent in Mytchett, Frimley Green and Deepcut:

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Morning all. You might have noticed that I’ve been a bit quiet lately. This is because I’m dealing with some family matters in Manchester, which are taking up quite a lot of my time. Additionally, I am in my busy period at work, which lasts until the end of summer, and there’s also the matter of the General Election.

Firstly, I want to thank everyone who sent flattering messages asking if I will be standing as the Conservative Party candidate in the GE. I can confirm that I will not be doing that. Never say never and all that, but Westminster is not something I’m interested in at this time. My political focus remains on Mytchett, Frimley Green, and Deepcut, and I am fulfilled and enjoying my role at Surrey County Council, representing this great community where my family and I live.

However, I am busy supporting the democratic process, which of course is adding to my workload. I’ve taken a day out today to cycle around Mytchett, Frimley Green, and Deepcut to look at some of the issues people have been reporting to me and to follow up on other matters. I am around this morning. If anyone would like me to pay a visit, please do let me know, and I’ll be happy to swing by. Just drop me a direct message.

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I had a great response and this video is the result of what people reported to me.

Locations:

1. Green Swathe – https://youtu.be/Hb4mc7neC4o?si=rd4SBJ7nEBH0-j74
2. Princess Place – https://youtu.be/Hb4mc7neC4o?si=rDTNFH2p0BywqIKl&t=158
3. Frimley Green Gardens Open Day – https://youtu.be/Hb4mc7neC4o?si=zG7fXCuTneNZDFws&t=251
4. The Hatches/The Green/Bedford Lane – https://youtu.be/Hb4mc7neC4o?si=VXR0CAwuK7SvS98o&t=332
5. Grass Verges in Mytchett, Frimley Green & Deepcut – https://youtu.be/Hb4mc7neC4o?si=stTy34AfBAh1XGgz&t=391
6. Mytchett Road Bollards – https://youtu.be/Hb4mc7neC4o?si=Huu-BRZSnZXCnZIK&t=533
7. Coleford Bridge Road Anti Social Parking – https://youtu.be/Hb4mc7neC4o?si=aGSIOvgVKd_dpETi&t=627
8. Sherrard Way – https://youtu.be/Hb4mc7neC4o?si=dqd3KkG1XWyVvnsr&t=746
9. Coleford Bridge Road – https://youtu.be/Hb4mc7neC4o?si=iI0vUsXR_tNCpXml&t=848
10. Spencer Close – https://youtu.be/Hb4mc7neC4o?si=YcazPJoP64mmje5V&t=874
11. The finish line – https://youtu.be/Hb4mc7neC4o?si=mnK5fivtKRCEWxZO&t=970

this morning I’m going to have a tour around uh Mitch friendly Green and deep cut uh on my bike which you uh might be able to see just in the background there yep and um I’ve been a little bit quiet of late uh I’ve got some family things going on in Manchester which means that I’m having to go there quite regularly uh I’m in a busy period at work uh the summer is always my busy period and uh that started now right till the end of the summer um and of course Rishi sunak decided to call a general election so uh I’m actually quite busy out and about uh supporting the Democratic process uh but nonetheless things still go on in the community and it’s important in my role as County counselor to make sure that I’m on top of everything that’s going on locally so I put out a message this morning asking residents just to let me know uh if there are anything going on in their areas um as I’ll be going out on my bike today and having a look around uh and making sure that uh any issues reported are um are dealt with as as best as I can um so the first one and let me flip my camera around is the green suede which is um a beautiful part of the new Minden Hurst development that has foot paths running um all the way down to the Beijing sto Canal there and um this has been been closed for a long time um even though it’s more or less complete and that’s because there is a legal wrangling let’s say between uh the developer scansa and sah Heath Bar Council now my understanding is having looked into this that it is actually the council’s legal department that holding things up um I have written to uh the head of regulatory at sorry Heath Bar Council to try and see if things can be moved along apparently there was a crunch meeting uh a week or two ago with the developer and sorah Heath Bar Council uh and it would seem things are starting to progress so hopefully this green S as it’s referred as will have all this fencing taken down and will be opened real soon uh and of course I’ll keep residents updated via my email newsletters which you can subscribe to at d. UK that’s d a y UK uh and of course on my Facebook page which uh quite a lot of residents local residents already follow so another um part of the mind and HST development that’s been reported to me is these new lovely foot paths that have um been installed and uh aren’t they wonderful um when all this is finished it’s going to be fantastic all these foot paths linking um all the sangs and the the basing sto Canal but one issue that a resident has raised with me is this um curb here where the foot path um meets the road at Princess Place um and it looks as though that that should be a drop curb and there’s another one a bit further down uh which is the same and my suspicion is that actually this is just an error uh of the um developer so I contacted scansa who um advise me that actually this was Carla Holmes that was responsible for delivering this particular bit so I’ve written to Carla homes I’m waiting for a response to ask them if they’re going to address this uh like I said I do think it is a design or rather a um you know the the the people who built this in um looks like they’ve made a bit of an error which can be easily fixed but that to my mind that needs to be a drop curb in order to um make things easy for people with p chairs Wheelchairs and mobility issues um you know it would make sense that that is a drop curb and the other one a bit further down so uh that’s something else I’m looking into so when I put out my WhatsApp message this morning um I was asked to come and witness this which is the uh sign for the fly green open day which is going up and you can see volunteers there are busy uh getting that sign up to advertise the open day which is on Sunday the 9th uh of June and this is organized by the friendley green Carnival committee who do great work in our community uh the gardens open day will be based here so you’ll be able to buy a program from here um to tell you which Gardens are open in fley green and you can go around and look at some beautiful gardens there’ll also be some displays on the green here uh apparently there’s going to be a beekeeper who’s going to be doing some sort of uh tour on how to uh promote biodiversity in your Gardens and that type of thing the Girl Guides will be here serving uh Refreshments no doubt there’ll be cakes and drinks and and all sorts um so yeah so make sure that you support this fantastic event I’m also told that you’ll be able to buy raffle tickets for the carnival which is in July um so yeah make sure you buy your tickets for the carnival and make sure you support these fantastic local communities events so another thing that uh a resident has asked me to have a look at is the sunken uh part of the road here which is by the green in friendley green and the hatches and this has been a long uh irritation of local residents um there was I think it was a if I remember right temp’s water or one of the water companies anyway had done some work here and they didn’t reinstate it properly and as a result the road is sunken it’s probably a bit difficult to see that in my uh video here but um I had reported it to S County Council highways and asked them to uh speak to the the company utility company and get them to reinstate it properly I’m not sure where that is now um so I need to go back and Chase that up uh so uh thank you to the resident who uh has raised this with me so grass verges is something that’s featured quite highly in the feedback that I’ve received this morning as I’m going around Mitch from the green and deep cut and um here’s a good example of one here where it’s definitely not been cut um now there is a um divide actually in of opinion in respect of of grass verges you know there there is the train of thought that this looks untiy and people would prefer that they are cut uh but also dog walkers feel that um you know uh their dogs uh get ticks when they roll around in this sort of thing um but then again there is another trainer for and it that uh this actually helps to promote biodiversity pollinating insects and that type of thing and there are just as many people who like would like them left uh as they are and to grow wild as there are people who would like to to have them cut I I have a my view my own personal view not that that matters but my own personal view is you know I would like to see more Wildflower uh verges um but I do think that they should cut around the edges when they’ve been left to grow wild so that people know that that’s by Design and that’s on purpose and not that they’ve been forgotten about um but also where sight lines are impeded so people crossing the roads and that sort of thing I think they should be cut um so that people can cross the road safely uh and that sort of thing so anyway I’m going to take this away to the responsible department at at Sur County Council find out why these areas haven’t been cut and that’s right across Mitch flyy Green and deep cut um there are areas that haven’t that have been missed uh and I’ll report back in due course on the grass verges uh so when I got home I looked up the schedule for the grass verges and in Mitch fley Green and deep cut actually the uh grass verges are due to be cut on the 7th of June so just a quick update there following that last segment um 7th of June is or or that week week commencing 7th of June is when they’re meant to be cut so this location on Mitch road is a place that comes up time and time again um these white ballards here are an irritant to local residents my understanding is though that they were installed by the land owner uh which is Potters I believe uh and this uh area here which is all overground overgrown is a burm that was there to deter um unauthorized encampments so uh that’s why it’s there um the highway Authority are not responsible for these uh ballards is my understanding um so there’s not a massive amount I can do about that hopefully we can get the landowner to either take them down um or just tidy up this area but I can get the foliage cut back it’s not too bad at the moment although that is going to get a lot worse as it rains and The Sun Shines and so on um there’s this bit sticking out here here which is very uncomfortable if you you know if you’re a parent walking your child to school especially in the Summer where you’re wearing shorts or uh you know your legs are bare it’s not very nice getting stung by these Nettles and thorns and so on so I will get this looked at uh and chopped back but the longer term issue of these ballards is proving to be a little bit tricky but I will uh revisit that again one of the issues that keep keeps coming up time and time again uh particularly in Mitch but also in other areas that I represent is the um issue of antisocial parking now this is something that I I have raised oh gosh lost count how many times with our MP Michael go or who’s not our MP anymore but uh yeah over the years when Michael was rmp I raised that with him and uh my understanding G is that there was a consultation uh by government to look at the issue of antisocial parking uh um in particular parking on Pavements and um one of the bits of feedback I’ve had today from um a local resident via uh the local WhatsApp group is uh these grass verges on culford Bridge Road and how quite often they have uh Vehicles parked on them which forces uh parents with push Chairs into the road uh and uh other other residents that have disabilities as well and um you know it is unacceptable um but unfortunately is an incredibly difficult issue to resolve because um in order to enforce parking uh issues there’s got to be parking restrictions in place there aren’t here and to be honest I’d be a bit reluctant to um install uh parking restrictions like double yellow lines cuz all that happens is it pushes the problem somewhere else um and I don’t really want to do that where at all possible so um this is a very very tricky issue to deal with in the absence of uh national government legislation on the issue of parking on Pavements and perhaps the next government whoever that is might address that so it’s very hard to tell but this is actually this sherard way in Mitch um you can see that the sign has been completely or almost completely overgrown by foliage here and I have noticed along Cula Bridge Road uh a number of residents had reported that the grass verges uh along some of them haven’t been cut and actually my guess is that these are actually not the responsibility of the highway Authority and probably form part of uh people’s uh boundaries on their properties I’m not 100% sure it’s something I’ll have to check with uh the team at Sur County Council but I suspect that is the case and perhaps in the past the local Authority have um cut these but they’re not doing it now and that might be because they have no responsibility to do that um but like I say I will get that checked but there are there are in any case there are some uh situations like this for instance if this foliage does form part of a property boundary um the highway Authority can uh write to the property owner and ask him to cut it back um if that’s not the case here I think I could probably find some budget to have this address sorry I’m shouting an aircraft has just uh taken off it farra another local issue that uh has people vexed but anyway uh that’s as an aside um yeah but I I might be able to find Budget should this be our the county council’s responsibility to have this cut back so uh I’ll lock into that this was reported to me this morning which is some Patchwork that’s been done on um culer Bridge Road and um it’s all crumbling and coming apart and apparently somebody witnessed a cyclist go over this the other the other day and um it nearly caused an awful accident so I’ll get this locked at so I received a message from a resident um of Spencer close in fley green um regarding this bit of land here that’s overgrown um and that she would like it cut back and the drainage ditches at the back here uh let’s have a look there are some drainage ditches at the back here on this land that could do with clearing out um now this land is owned by Sor Heath Bar Council um some people may recall there was a proposal to have a foot Bridge put here over the railway line um and close the hatches Crossing well that proposal’s been kicked into the long grass now um thanks to uh a local residence campaign and and um the help of my friend Stuart black who used to be the counselor here in fley green so um that’s no longer going to happen but this area here is looking untidy the branches are hanging over properties and um there’s some residents down here would like something done about that so I’m going to write to the bar Council to try and find out who’s responsible for this land here I don’t think think it’s the County Council I don’t think it’s the highway Authority I’m pretty sure it’s the burough Council but I do need to check that and see if we can get them down there to sort it out so I’ve had a great time going around Mitch friendly Green and deep cut on my bike and checking out all the different locations and uh little hot spots of problems and so on um thank you to all the residents who stopped to say hi uh it’s really nice let people come out and chat at and um you know and are just generally supportive which is wonderful such a great Community we live in um so yeah it’s taken me about 2 and 1 half hours to get around on my bike all the different streets and locations I’ve done most of it I can’t claim to have got around 100% in every single street but I reckon I’ve got around most of it certainly all the main roads and uh the bigger streets and so on um so now I’m going to go back to base and follow up on all the different uh issues that have been reported to me and that I’ve uh checked out for myself