It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas ...

Christmas season doesn't begin for me until we are in December.  The Woking town centre Christmas lights switch on in late November is an indicator that the season is on the way but I refuse to get into full Christmas mood until at least the first day of December.


Christmas Tree Festival
In the last few years the new Horsell innovation of a Christmas Tree Festival has provided a great opener to the festive season.  The festival is now in its third year and takes place at St Mary's Church on Church Hill.  This year it is on Friday 6 and Saturday 7 December.  


For a small adult entry fee (children free) you can view and vote on your favourites from a huge number of trees on the Christmas theme.  Past entries have included lego trees, a tree of cakes, a balloon tree, light effects and event a tree featuring a toilet.  The impact is a mass of light and colour spread all around the church.  In addition to the trees there are a range of stalls with art and craft activities.  When you have had enough of all the festival has to offer you can relax with a hot drink and a choice of cakes and biscuits.

Visit the Christmas Tree Festival on Friday from 10am until 8pm and on Saturday.






Horsell Christmas Fair
Last year the Horsell Christmas Fair was revived and it's back for 2013. Running in parallel with the Christmas Tree Festival on Friday 6 December it starts at 4pm.  The Mayor of Woking will be turning on the village's Christmas lights, the shops will be open, there will be a range of stalls along Horsell High Street and hot food and drink on offer.  Father Christmas is also likely to make an appearance. 

The Christmas Fair is totally free of charge but there is plenty on offer if you want to spend money when you arrive.

Will street views of McLaren provide another excuse ...?

The McLaren Technology Centre on Chertsey Road, Horsell is now on Google Street View.  You can go to Google Maps, search for the Centre and drop the little yellow character on to McLaren to walk around the heart of McLaren's F1 operation.

Button and Perez with McLaren 2013 car

The Daily Mirror picked up on this and provided the link to some of the views. The shots include racing cars from Button and Perez's 2013 season models right back to 1966 McLaren cars.

I am a little surprised that McLaren has opened up in this way.  One of the many infamous reasons for not opening a visitor centre (as required by the original planning permission) at the Technology Centre  was due to commercial confidentiality.

I do hope this new spirit of openess will not provide another excuse not to provide a visitor facility either on site or within Woking.

Anybody know the way to Rufford House?

Does anybody in Horsell or Woking know the whereabouts of Rufford House?  Residents have reported encountering delivery drivers looking for Rufford House along Brewery Road.

For me Rufford is a Lancashire town, north of Wigan and east of Southport, where a maternal aunt once lived.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that the new WWF offices on Brewery Road in Horsell, which have always been referred to as ‘The Living Planet Centre’, also bear the name ‘Rufford House’.

I was rather puzzled about this name as I couldn’t see any connection between the northern town and the charity’s Woking offices. 

A little online investigation revealed the existence of the Rufford Foundation.  This charity says that it “provides funding for small nature/biodiversity conservation projects and pilot programmes in developing countries”. 

Further searching uncovered that this foundation gave a substantial donation of £4.8M towards the £20M cost of the new WWF offices in 2012. 

Woking Council’s announcement of entering discussions with WWF also refers to a “significant donation” from the Rufford Maurice Laing Foundation.

What is the Rufford Foundation? 

I have learned that it grew from the merger of the Maurice Laing and Rufford foundations.  The Maurice Laing foundation was set up by Maurice Laing, part of the family that owned the Laing construction company.   The Rufford Foundation was subsequently set up by his son John.  The two foundations merged in 2003.

I still have no idea why the foundation bears the name Rufford but the substantial funding support does explain why the Living Planet Centre has this additional name.

I just hope that WWF will provide either some clearer indication of their office address or better directions to delivery drivers to help put Rufford House on the map.

Brewery Road is open ... come on in

As of last Friday (1 November) Brewery Road car park is open and fully available for public use.

WWF has moved into the offices above but, apart from a few disabled spaces, there are no parking spaces for their staff at Brewery Road.  WWF has bought some season tickets for other car parks in the town centre.

Brewery Road is no longer a totally open air car park but it is all on one level.  Space is a bit tighter than in the old car park (there are also fewer spaces overall) but it is still easier to drive around than a multi-storey car park.

Charges are as for other car parks in Woking town centre. Full car park tariffs here.

An Evening with Vince

My evening with Vince Cable

I was delighted to be one of over 70 Liberal Democrats and guests who welcomed Dr Vince Cable to Woking last Saturday. 

Vince told us about departmental achievements including the growing number of apprentices, the setting up of the Green Investment bank and businesses working in partnership with the government. 

Looking forward Vince told us about seeking to make progress on zero hours contracts and the decline in the real value of the minimum wage.

Vince was dismissive of the green credentials of his Conservative coalition partners saying “Cameron now seems to be turning a rather pale shade of green”.  Vince believes that dropping green energy tariffs, which help to fund energy efficiency measures to those who need help to insulate their homes, would be “short-sighted and foolish”.

After taking a wide range of questions Vince was asked what he would do if he wasn't an MP and he had a range of ways to spend his time including dancing, teaching and spending more time with his wife.

It was great to have Vince Cable with us for the evening to hear about some positive achievements on the economy and the environment of Lib Dems in government.