Looking forward to going on safari

Lucy enjoying the 2012 Garden Safari

June is the safari season in Horsell.  Yes, that's right, the village of Horsell hosts its 11th annual Garden Safari on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 June.  

There won't be too many big beasts prowling the streets but there will be 25 gardens to visit over the two days.  

Opening hours and tickets

Gardens are open 11am to 5pm on Saturday and 12pm to 5pm on Sunday.  Buy tickets from Spar, Needle and Thread or Lisa Jones hairdressers in Horsell High Street or at The Lightbox.  Tickets cost £7 per adult (children go free) and include a map of the gardens and details of extras available at each location such as refreshments or plant sales.

The Safari is always a great event with new and old gardens to see, some delicious cakes and even wildlife (usually nothing more vicious than chickens).

Visitors drive, cycle or walk around and you can go to as many or as few gardens as you wish.

Pares Woodland Garden

A special feature of this year's Garden Safari will be the opening of Pares Woodland Garden.  I've blogged here on how the vision of one man and the hard work of the 2nd Thursday club transformed an overgrown piece of land behind the High Street into an inviting woodland garden.  Now you can come and see the finished project for yourself.  Grand opening Saturday 15 June at 10.30 and then open as for the rest of the Safari over the weekend.

Supporting community facilities

Funds raised from the Garden Safari go towards the upkeep of the Village Hall and in recent years has contributed to both new flooring and a new boiler.

Any Questions for a Friday Evening

St John's Church, West Byfleet where
Any Questions was recorded 24/5/13

I had an enjoyable Friday evening as an audience member for Any Questions.  For those unfamiliar with the programme it is a Radio 4 current affairs panel discussion, similar to Question Time on television.  

The Location

This week's edition was recorded at St John's Church in West Byfleet.  I've driven past St John's church many times on my way through West Byfleet.  It is located just past Waitrose, at the traffic light intersection, an area I learnt that was once known as Byfleet corner.

I am not a church goer but I am always interested in, and appreciative of the architecture of ecclesiastical buildings.  St John's is a large church, and we were told in the introduction to the evening that it has a growing congregation.  The church has a huge wooden vaulted barrel roof and walls of Doulting stone. Unusually there is just one stained glass window in the church.  The church celebrated its centenary last year, having been designed by Caroe, a leading light in the Arts and Crafts movement and built by local builders Tarrant in 1912 at a cost of £9,908.  The organ came a year later and cost a massive £1,000.

I digress, but we did spend quite a while sitting around waiting for the recording to start so I had time to take all this in and read the helpfully provided leaflet about St John's.

Any Questions

The evening proper began with a 'warm-up' from a BBC producer, currently with Newsnight but about to move to the Today programme.  He regaled us with some amusing stories and there was an opportunity to ask questions about BBC news.

We had all been invited to submit questions and I put in a few before taking my seat for the evening.  It was to no avail.  Ten questions were selected and the questioners were invited to take seats on the front row - no roving microphone at this recording.  The last question chosen was told it was to be asked first, for the dry run, to check out microphones and sound levels.

Finally to the guests.  

Trevor Kavanagh, former political editor and now Associate Editor of the Sun - I didn't agree with him once all evening.  

Maria Miller, Conservative MP for Basingstoke and Minister for Culture - totally disagree with her on her recent pronouncements on arts making an economic case (typical Tory who knows price of everything and value of nothing) but she was good in defence of government policy on equal marriage.  Less good on taxation where she seemed a little lost.

Sadiq Khan, Labour MP Tooting for and Shadow Lord Chancellor was the only Muslim to have attended Cabinet meetings when he did so in the latter days of the last government.  I had heard him before on television and found him an atypical Labour minister but he is an engaging speaker with a sense of humour and came across well.

Brendan O'Neill is rather an enigma.  He edits a magazine called spiked, writes for the Big Issue and blogs for The Telegraph.  He had some pretty off the wall views on most issues discussed in the evening but I did agree with him when he called Maria Miller a philistine for her view on funding the arts.

I was of course disappointed that there was no Liberal Democrat on the panel.

And the questions.  Predictably we started with the dreadful events in Woolwich on Wednesday.  One questioner asked if the Muslim community could do more to prevent terrorism and another whether governmnet had over-reacted to the incident.  We covered tax avoidance by successful businesses, equal marriage, funding of the arts and "swivel-eyed" loons.

It was an interesting evening and good to be part of something live, with real people in front of you answering questions rather than a television picture or a voice on the radio.

Finally safety works on Arthur's Bridge / Well Lane?

Signs displayed on Well Lane in Horsell suggest that long promised safety work on the junction of Well Lane / Arthur's Bridge and Lockfield Drive may finally be about to happen.

I blogged back in October that this work was imminent.  Despite Surrey County Council announcing the work it didn't happen at that time. No idea why.

Then, Surrey, with their usual forethought, suggested doing the work in January - at the same time as the closure of Triggs Lane.  It was politely suggested this wasn't a good idea.

Finally, I hope, work will start on 22 May.  That will be almost 3 years since I wrote on my blog summarising the issue and highlighting concerns that had already been made many times.

The junction will be closed whilst the work is done so it will be an inconvenience for some days.  i hope it will be worth it for a safer junction in future.

Getting on your bike in Woking

Lots of people get on their bikes on Woking

Figures released recently by the Department of Transport show that 23% of Woking residents get on their bike at least once a month.  This is above the average for both Surrey (20%) and nationally (15%).

Surrey County Council is now offering local companies funding to provide cycle parking and an agreement to match fund any money raised for changing facilities such as showers and lockers at the workplace.

All good stuff but a few road improvements wouldn't go amiss.  I'm still waiting for a re-paint of the white lines that denote a cycle lane that isn't meant to be a cycle lane on Brewery Road in Horsell

Taking the Lead

Cllr.Ann-Marie Barker and Cllr. Will Forster
 Leader & Deputy of Woking Council Lib Dems

I am delighted to have been elected as Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Woking Borough Council.  I will now lead the 15 strong group for the next year.  My Deputy is Will Forster who I know will provide great support throughout the year.

I have worked with Will and other colleagues to put together the team which will provide clear and constructive opposition to our local Conservative run Council.

We will not oppose merely for the sake of it but we will scrutinise council decisions and provide an alternative to the Conservative view.

My first task this week is to propose my colleague Cllr. Anne Roberts as the next Mayor of Woking.

No county seat but still working for you as a borough councillor

No county seat but borough role continues ...

I was unsuccessful in my efforts to get elected to Surrey County Council this week.  The Conservative candidate won the Goldsworth East and Horsell Village division by just 94 votes.

I won't be representing the area on the county council but my work as borough councillor for Horsell West continues.  I will be up for election again next year when my borough seat comes due.

Thank you very much to everyone who gave me their support.  Sorry that we did not make it this year.

Special thanks that to those who made a direct contribution to the election.  Everyone who helped to speak to the electorate, deliver leaflets or who collected voters numbers on polling day is much appreciated.

Goldsworth East and Horsell Village result

Conservative                    1343  36%
Lib Dem Ann-Marie Barker  1249  34%
UKIP                                 681  18%
Labour                              441  12%

Turnout 33%