Hambledon Parish Council looks forward to welcoming you to the Annual Parish Assembly from 7.30pm in the village hall. It is an opportunity to hear updates from the Parish Council as well as reports from the many organisations in the village. Also an opportunity to meet and ask questions of our local police team. ALL WELCOME

The agenda is as follows:

Please come along to the Annual Parish Assembly, held in the village hall on Thursday 10th April. It is an informal meeting hosted by the Parish Council which celebrates all the different organisations in the village with representatives from across the community giving a brief report of the last 12 months. Doors open at 7.30pm and there will be a chance to have a drink and a chat before the meeting starts.

Chairman Stewart Payne will open the meeting at 8pm and this year we welcome Surrey Police as speakers. PC Archie Ridley and PCSO John Savage will be holding a Q & A session at the start. The parish clerk asks that questions are sent in advance where possible. If you have any questions you would like to be addressed during the meeting, please get in touch via email (parishclerk@hambledonsurrey.co.uk) by Tuesday 8th April.

This Parish Assembly will be Cllr Stewart Payne’s last as both Chairman and a longstanding Councillor as he will be retiring at the May AGM. This meeting will be an opportunity to thank him for 23 years of service on the Council. If you would like to donate to his retiring collection, there is a collection in the village shop. If you’d prefer to make a bank transfer, please contact the parish clerk for the details.

The annual litter pick which follows the Parish Assembly will take place on Saturday 12th April at 10am. There will be opportunities to sign up at the assembly on the evening or in the village shop after. 

More details of the evening will follow.

An update on Wednesday 12th February: Hambledon Parish Council has had some positive news about the road closure. Surrey County Council believe they have fixed the issue causing the water to pour down the road. SCC’s drainage team have been on site today and cleared a root that had grown into and blocked a drain. Thames Water now has until Friday to backfill the hole and make the road passable.

The advice in the Bernard Cribbins comedy hit song The Hole in the Ground was: “Don’t dig there, dig it elsewhere”.

In Hambledon, as fed-up residents will know, the holes in its roads are no laughing matter. As for where they are being dug, it is not just “there” but “elsewhere” as well.

Hambledon Road at Rock Hill has been blocked since January 29, when Thames Water arrived to fix a recurring water leak. The hole is still there, the road remains impassable, and no one has been on site for a week.

Since then, there have been closures, for different reasons, on Church Lane and Hambledon Road at Hydestile. New Road approaching Witley Station is due to be closed for four days from next Monday, again by Thames Water. All this follows many other closures this winter, leaving villagers fed up and frustrated.

A three bedroom property on the new Livery Close development has become available to rent. Applications are being accepted between Thursday 30th January – Sunday 2nd February. Applicants must be registered for housing with Waverley Borough Council and those with a connection to Hambledon are prioritised. Further details are available via English Rural.

This winter, Hambledon has already experienced disruptive weather, and more is forecast.

Tomorrow (Saturday January 4th), a brief period of heavy snow is predicted for the late afternoon and evening, followed by heavy rain.

It is worth remembering that Hambledon Parish Council has an Emergency Plan in place in the event of severe disruption or health risk and details of this follow.

If you need help, other than that of the Emergency Services, please contact Stewart Payne, chair of the council and he and other volunteers will do their best to lend a hand where needed. Contact details are at the end of this article.

• Despite the problems snow can bring, it also creates beauty, as this photo of Church Lane taken in January 2010 shows.

Hambledon Parish Council has an Emergency Plan procedure in place in the event of harsh winter weather bringing disruption to the village.

However, there are many simple precautions villagers can take to make sure they can cope with cuts to power supplies and phone lines, a problem that has affected Hambledon in the recent past and usually caused by high winds or heavy snow.

A public consultation on the the first draft of Surrey County Council’s Rights of Way Improvement Plan has been published. Surrey County Council would love to hear from you. Back in February 2024, Surrey County Council first asked for input to the plan. The plan helps shape the way local highway authorities identify how to make the rights of way network more useful to the public and gives a strategic approach to managing public access. Many residents took part in the initial survey which will have been used to inform this new plan.

As listed on the Rights of Way website the plan is required to:

• Refer to other relevant plans and strategies that may affect use of the network, including structure plans; local plans; healthy living; leisure; tourism; transport and community strategies
• Assess where the existing rights of way network is considered to be deficient and where it could be changed to better reflect current needs
• Assess the extent to which the rights of way network is accessible to blind and partially sighted people and those with mobility problems
• Indicate how any identified deficiencies could be remedied

The first draft of the plan can be found here. Surrey County Council have asked for feedback via a survey which is available until Sunday 9th February 2025, so there is plenty of time to consider it:

Rights of Way Improvement Plan Statutory Consultation – Surrey County Council – Citizen Space

More information can be found on the main website here.

After many years of campaigning, the whole of Hambledon village is now within an HGV exclusion zone. This means that a driver/owner of a lorry over 7.5 t weight is breaking the law if it enters the zone, unless on a local delivery or operating from a base within the zone.

Emergency and public services vehicles are exempted.

The ban replaces the previous advisory notification, a blue sign largely ignored that simply stated a road was unsuitable for HGVs. Now, all roads at the entrance of the zone have signs with a red diagonal line.

Hambledon resident Paul Osborne, Surrey County Councillor Kevin Deanus and Hambledon Parish Council pressed for a ban repeatedly over the past few years. The exclusion zone required careful consideration to ensure that, in banning HGVs from Hambledon’s narrow lanes, other nearby villages were not blighted. There also had to be a public consultation.

The result is one of the largest HGV exclusion zones in the country and covers not just Hambledon but all adjacent parishes. First time offenders will receive an official warning but repeat offenders can be fined or prosecuted.

Work is well underway to restore Bridleway 186, which runs from beside the Marry Harriers towards Enton and Hambledon Common.

Hambledon Parish Council, supported by residents concerned at the appalling state of this bridleway, successfully lobbied Surrey County Council which, after a visit by a rights of way officer, agreed to prioritise repairs.

Much of the route from Hambledon Road to Hambledon Common had become so waterlogged and muddy that it was almost impossible to walk.

Four years ago, village volunteers had tried, with some success, to improve the state of what otherwise would be a popular walking and riding route. However, it became clear that a lasting solution required major works beyond the skills and budget of villagers.

Surrey County Council agreed to fund this and contracted the work out, with a financial contribution from the Parish Council’s neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL). Hambledon Nursery School kindly agreed to allow the contactors the use of its car park for its machinery during the summer holidays. It will receive some surface repairs in return.