About The Egham Residents' Association

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LATEST EGHAM RESIDENTS' ASSOCIATION NEWS BOX UPDATES!
CORRECT AS OF 09 Jun 2022

ERA Photography Contest

The winner of the ERA Photography Contest will be announced by the Mayor of Runnymede at the ERA Stall at 11:30 on Magna Carta Day, Saturday 25 June 2022.

Sam Jenkins wins

Samuel Matthew Geoffrey Jenkins, standing as a part of Runnymede Independent Residents' Group, has been elected as a Councillor to Runnymede Borough for Egham Town. It was a triumph victory for Sam with 55% of the votes with the next nearest candidate getting only 19%. Sam is the youngest person to ever be elected to Runnymede Borough Council as an Independent.
He will work flat out to get more younger residents involved with local issues and this will be his top priority in the weeks and months ahead.

Budgens has reopened in Egham

The new store - on the site of the old one, but substantially bigger - was officially opened on Friday, February 11 by the Mayor of Runnymede, Elaine Gill.
This was a major step towards the completion of the £90m Magna Square complex, which will also have other shops, a cinema (which is due to open in May) and 200 units of accommodation - half of which are for students.
The reopening renews a link between Budgens and Egham that began in the late 1840s when Edward Budgen left his father's grocery shop in Reigate (the first Budgen's store) and established his own shop in our town.

Parliamentary Constituencies - Further Consultation

You will recall that the Boundary Commission for England (BCE) issued its initial proposals last August for revising the Parliamentary constituencies across the country to make them more even in terms of electorates. The initial BCE proposal moved Egham Town (& Egham Hythe) out of the Weybridge & Runnymede Parliamentary constituency and added them to a new Windsor County one.
The BCE has now launched a secondary public consultation on its initially proposed map of constituencies, open now until Monday 4th April 2022. The Commission received over 34,000 responses from the public during its first consultation last year. These comments are now available to view by area, along with the proposals for constituencies, on the consultation website (bcereviews.org.uk). The current review will conclude with our formal report and recommendations in June 2023. Despite responses to date, including ours that it was unworkable, the current BCE proposal still has Egham moved into the Windsor constituency.
Responses can be submitted online, by letter, by email or provided in person at a public hearing. They are holding 32 public hearings across the country during this consultation, where you can have your say in person. In the South East region the hearings will be heard in Crawley (14-15/3), Portsmouth (17-18/3), Reading (21-22/3) & Ashford Kent (24-25/3) - details on the bcereviews.org.uk website. Details on the issue and ERA's response in summer of 2022 can be found at Egham Parliamentary Boundary.

ERA records the death of former Runnymede Mayor John Ashmore

It is with much regret that ERA records the death of former Runnymede Mayor John Ashmore.
John served as an Independent councillor for the Egham Town ward of Runnymede Council from 1991 through to 2019, and was Mayor of the Borough in 2001-2.
In his 28 years on the council he showed himself to be a stalwart champion of the causes of defending the best of Egham and striving to improve upon it.
For much of that time he served on the council's planning committee. He was repeatedly backed by ERA as an Independent candidate.
His accomplishments were achieved despite very serious health issues and the tragic, early loss of his wife Anne.
I counted John as a good friend, and my wife and I had many hours of fun in his and Anne's company. He was very much a local character, and one was never bored in his presence.
He died on December 29th in Newbury at the age of 74.
Chris Fisher
Chairman, ERA

MEMBERS CAN NOW JOIN USING ONLINE PAYMENT

You can now join or renew your membership online.
You will need to complete the new online membership form before paying for your membership. The instructions to follow are on the membership page

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE!

PLAN FOR A NEW STUDENT VILLAGE, AT RUSHAM PARK - HAS BEEN APPROVED!

Runnymede Council has approved plans by Royal Holloway College to build a 'student village', with up to 1400 study bedrooms, on the Rusham Park site formerly occupied by Procter and Gamble in Whitehall Lane. You can find the information at the link below and on the Planning Page - ERA Responses.

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE!

UNITARY AUTHORITY - APPEARS TO BE ABANDONED !

The scheme to scrap Runnymede Borough Council and replace it with a unitary,
all-purpose council covering all or a large part of Surrey appears to have been abandoned.

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE!

SURREY COUNTY COUNCIL UNITARY PROPOSALS!

Independent borough and district councillors in Surrey, including the three Egham Town councillors,
have challenged the case for the establishment of a unitary, all purpose council for the whole of the county.
This would involve the abolition of Runnymede Borough Council.

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE!

A SURREY COUNTY COUNCIL PROPOSAL - TAKE AWAY NECESSARY PARKING !

Surrey CC have put forward a proposal.
They propose to remove parking from the T junction at Hummer Road, and replace this area with wider paving.
This has come about against the COVID-19 Background.
The idea of the scheme is to make walking, passing and waiting on this stretch of pavement safer. But it would involve the loss of car parking spaces, and local traders fear it would cause a further loss of business.

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE!

UNITARY COUNCILS!

WHAT THEY ARE AND HOW THEY MIGHT AFFECT ALL RESIDENTS

A unitary council provides all the local government services for an area.
So a unitary council covering Egham would provide all the services currently supplied by Runnymede Borough Council -
including housing, planning, refuse collection and leisure facilities - plus those supplied by Surrey County Council - including education and social services.
Buckinghamshire has just switched to a unitary system, and now has just one council covering the whole county. Berkshire also went unitary several years ago, but on a different model. It has six unitary councils, including Windsor & Maidenhead, Slough, and Bracknell Forest.

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE!

URGENT REQUEST FOR PPE, FROM SURREY COUNTY COUNCIL!

Following the government announcement on (17 April 2020) that there is now an
extreme shortage of PPE, Surrey County Council is urgently appealing for volunteers to help supply items for Surrey's frontline workers. Anyone willing to volunteer help in making PPE, should email the address below:

Here is the email link: Click Here To Send Email

CLICK ON THE LOGO BELOW, TO FIND OUT MORE!

FOR PATIENTS OF THE RUNNYMEDE MEDICAL PRACTICE!

New regulations have come into effect for patients
Please click on the link below to see the new Practice Regulations during the Covid-19 Pandemic.

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE!

HEATHROW LAYS OUT TIME LINE FOR EXPANSION PLANS!

Heathrow's plans for a third runway are still aiming for a 2028/29 opening as the airport announces an eight-week consultation to run this summer. Heathrow Airport bosses have reiterated their intention to open the London hub's third runway before the end of the decade.
An expansion at Heathrow was approved by the UK Government as the preferred option to increase the UK's air capacity in 2015. Last month, the airport announced its plans to submit a planning application by the end of the year with a view to opening the third runway in 2028 or 2029.
Now an eight-week consultation has been scheduled for this summer to allow local communities to review the expansion proposal and offer feedback. The latest consultation comes as a result of a decision by the Civil Aviation Authority to cap early spending on the project, which led to a "refreshed modelling of key aspects of the plan". According to the latest timeline the consultation will run from April through to June, with a planning application set to be submitted to the Planning Inspectorate towards the end of the year. If the plan is approved by the Secretary of State, the runway will aim to be operational by late 2029 at the latest.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW MORE ABOUT THIS ISSUE!

END OF UPDATES!

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About The Egham Residents' Association

In the early 1980s Runnymede Borough Council proposed to build houses on Manorcroft Playing Field between Egham railway station and Manorcrofts School. Egham residents reacted against the possible loss of this well-used amenity by forming the Manorcroft Field Protection Group. This group became the Egham Residents Association in 1983, when it was agreed that its remit should be widened to work on behalf of all residents in the Egham Town ward.

We support three Runnymede Borough Independent Residents’ Group Councillors that represent Egham Town ward;

We actively seek to protect our local environment (gravel raising, waste management and transport issues e.g. M25, Heathrow expansion, Runnymede roundabout etc);

We keep a watching brief on Egham planning applications & issues (including the impact of the implementation of the RHUL 2013 Masterplan expansion);

We organise public meetings and speakers on issues affecting Egham;

We work on committees to enhance our town (we were prime movers in town centre pedestrianisation in the 1990s (& countering 2015 attempts to remove it)), a contributor to the Magna Carta 800th Anniversary celebrations in 2015 & are currently working with RBC on the Egham Gateway development following the opening of the Waitrose/Travelodge complex);

We support local groups and charities (via an annual Community Fair, Barn Dance and carol singing);

We produce 4 newsletters each year & regular e-mail alerts on urgent issues that arise between newsletters ...