High winds have brought down a tree, completely blocking Salt Lane a short distance from the Hydestile Crossroads. (As of Sunday 12 noon)
This has been reported to Surrey County Council and to the police.
Update: By 1pm the tree had been cleared by a local resident.
Many readers may have seen a vintage bus around the village recently, negotiating the narrow lanes or parked up in the bus stop outside the Merry Harriers.
Its owner Richard Shirley was staying at the pub as he had been hired to take a party of birthday revellers from Busbridge to the Noah’s Ark pub in Lurgashall, with a late-night pick-up.
His bus attracted a lot of attention and Richard was asked if he would be prepared to bring it back next year for the Hambledon Midsummer Festival in June. He agreed and his bus will take part in the classic vehicle rally which will start from the Cricket Green on Sunday June 24 (see earlier news item).
It is hoped that the bus, with villagers aboard, will follow the rally of local classic cars and bikes from the Green, where the fete and ball will have been held the previous day, through local countryside and ending up at the Merry Harriers.
Richard, from Kingston, is a bus enthusiast. His 1953 AEC Regal RF-type single decker was one of 700 built for working in London and the Home Counties. It was retired by London Transport in the early 1970s and, after passing through various ownerships, was eventually acquired for preservation.
Richard, who also owns a red London Transport RT double-decker built in the early 1950s, works in the transport industry. Both his vehicles are inspected and licenced for passenger-carrying service and are maintained in superb condition.
UPDATE to news item below: SSE engineers were able to carry out repairs without any significant disruption to the traffic.
Overnight high winds and torrential rain have dislodged a power line causing it to sag where it crosses Hambledon Road beside the football ground.
Scottish and Southern Electricity has been informed and a police officer is in attendance to ensure high-sided vehicles do not make contact with the live cable. Cars and vans are able to pass underneath but the road may be closed when SSE attend to make repairs.
With 28 power cuts reported across the SSE region following the stormy weather – although none in Hambledon – it is unlikely that engineers will be on site until lunchtime at the earliest. In the meantime the police officer will remain in attendance to supervise traffic.
The power line crosses the Hambledon Road from Hydon Farm Cottages to the field opposite, just before the entrance to the Badger Park Football Ground. If a diversion is necessary it will involve motorists using Station Lane, Rake Lane and Petworth Road.
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 people 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.
If power fails so to do household phones as many cannot function without electricity. As a safeguard, make sure you have a stand-by phone that does not need a power supply. The council has a small supply of such phones and if you require one please leave your details at the village shop.
Mobile phones lines can also fail during severe weather and it is worth remembering that the public phone box outside the village shop does not require electricity and will continue to work unless overhead lines have been brought down. Operator, reverse charge and 999 calls are free but you will need to use a bank card for all other calls.
Keep torches handy and make sure that you have a supply of batteries. A battery-operated radio will also come in useful for listening to local radio bulletins. Tune in to BBC Surrey on 104.6FM or Eagle Radio on 96.4FM.
The village website will also carry updates at www.hambledonsurrey.co.uk.
Please keep an eye on your neighbours, particularly those living alone or infirm, especially during cold spells and weather-related disruption.
If conditions are severe the Emergency Plan volunteers will do their best to assist with any individual issues as well as deal with general problems around the village such as fallen branches/snow blocking roads, paths and drives and maintaining contact with external agencies.
Links to additional Hospital articles are in the menu:
Built by the Metropolitan Asylums Board as a Tuberculosis Isolation Hospital in 1922 (originally known as Highdown Sanatorium), KGV was at the cutting edge of TB research and treatment for forty years. It was instrumental in pioneering development of drug therapy (streptomycin) to combat TB and the manufacture of Iron Lung equipment. KGV had a smaller sister hospital just 2 miles to the west: Milford Hospital ( formerly Milford Sanatorium )
The King George V Hospital was constructed at an initial cost of £215,000 on an open field site surrounded by trees. The land was originally part of the Busbridge Hall estate. Chessums were the builders working under post-war pressure to complete on time and on budget. Original plans intended that the entrance would be from Hambledon Road, with a long drive approaching the star formation building layout. (The route is probably marked by a line of Poplar trees still in evidence between Hares Grove, the Superintendent’s house, and the road. Cost cuts prevented this and the Salt Lane entrance remained the only way in with porter’s gatehouse. Buildings on site included many isolated wards connected by covered open sided paths in a star formation, canteen, chapel, kitchens, pharmacy, Library, X-ray and operating theatre (extended in 1950’s), nurses homes (1940 & 1960’s), admin block, greenhouses, patients leather workshops, snooker room, tuck shop, mortuary, engineering, boiler with chimney for the overhead piped heating.
Most buildings were brick built (pebble-dash rendered) with concrete floors (innovative in their day) under slate roofs. The majority of Wards were single storey with central corridors and glazed pavilion at the end. These were demolished in the 1970’s.
The hospital was only connected to mains drainage in the later years and originally sewage was discharged into the field to the SW of the crossroads (see ornate soil vent pipe at crossroads).
The hospital was also a significant horticultural site, the orchard, extensive range of trees and vegetation being laid out by the first medical superintendent Mr James Watt (an arboriculturist) in the 1920’s. A farm sited at Hydestile crossroads (now mostly demolished) was used for patient rehabilitation.
Many patients were from London and upto the late 50’s it was exclusively male. The long term nature of their incarceration and treatment meant that patients and staff built strong friendships. Most staff and patients speak of their time at Hydestile as being “the best of times”. Indeed many patients came back to work at the hospital.
The site expanded considerably in 1941 with the building of a hutted military hospital on adjacent farmland to the South East. This soon became the home for St. Thomas’ Hospital Lambeth, evacuated from their London site due to extensive bombing. St. Thomas’
The Hospital ceased to be for diseases of the chest in 1969 and adopted a variety of other roles and eventually closed in 1988. The buildings were demolished in 1997, leaving only the gatehouse, Hares Grove (former Superintendents house) and six staff cottages, all now refurbished. Other buildings in the area owned at some time by the Hospital included Ryecroft, Hunt Cottages and Wayside.
This YouTube video was recorded in around 1995. At the time I lived on site in one of the former nurses cottages. The site had been stripped by vandals and used for paintball and general destruction. After many planning battles the site was eventually destined for re-development. The diggers came in and flattened it all. A sad day for the many who’s lives had been touched by their time at Hydestile. I had recorded this on 8mm tape and stumbled upon the tape recently. I dumped it to my Mac and ran a soundtrack underneath, so please excuse the rough quality.
Images from Historic England archive:
Nurses walking to a lecture in the Chapel / Hall at KGV
Medical lectures in the Chapel / Hall at KGV
Head Gardener (left) and patients working the gardens to the West of Nurses’ accommodation.
Patients’ dining hall adjacent the kitchens and admin block.
Nurses posing for photographs in the gardens of Milford Cottage, opposite Secrett’s farm shop in Milford.
The hospital also benefited from celebrity support over the years from Leslie Phillips, James Robertson Justice and Terry Scott, who were regular visitors. As an interesting snapshot of what it was like to be a patient you’d be well directed to view a BBC2 sit-com from the 90’s “Get Well Soon” co-written by Ray Galton. He drew upon his experience as a patient in the nearby Milford Hospital (linked to KGV) during the late 40’s and early 50’s. He met his long time comedy writing partner Alan Simpson there and together they wrote their first comedy radio scripts during their enforced stay in hospital. Within 10 years they were the UK’s foremost comedy writers, famous for Hancock and Steptoe. Their famous Hancock’s Half Hour radio episode “The Sunday Afternoon” is a clever observation of the boredom that must have been repeated often during their many years treatment for TB.
The 52 acre site has now been redeveloped for housing – known as The Hydons, Salt Lane, Hydestile. Little trace remains of the KGV although one of the tennis courts has been refurbished and forms part of one garden. In the woods to the north of the new houses there are traces of the foundations of nurse and doctors accommodation, hidden in the undergrowth. Likewise the steps and footings of 1&2 Salt Lane remain close to the new footpath. These were temporary hut buildings used by the original builders of the Hospital in 1921. No. 1 was demolished after 1945 and number 2 (latterly a shop) in the 1970’s.
My predecessor, Dr James Watt, wrote this article in 1954, (he retired in 1948). I modified it for the issue of August 1957, and here it is again, brought upto date.
The need for sanatoria for London patients was foreseen in 1914, when sufficient land for three hospitals was purchased. Building of King George V Sanatorium, the first of these, started after the First World War, and it was finished and opened in 1922. The two huts still in use are reputed to have housed the workmen! (1 & 2 Salt Lane? sic). The new Hospital was to have been called Highdown Sanatorium, but by command of’ the King, who had been invited to attend the opening but was unable to be present, the name was changed to King George V Sanatorium.
It was administered by the Metropolitan Asylums Board (whose crest is over the entrance to the Administrative Block), until 1929, when the London County Council took over, only to give way in 1948 to the South West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board, With local control vested in the Godalming, Milford and Liphook Group Hospital Management Committee. Recently, this Management Committee area became merged with that of’ Guildford, and the controlling body is now the Guildford and Godalming Hospital Management Committee.
When I wrote in 1957, my thoughts ranged back over the period from 1922 to that year, the period of the modern treatment of tuberculosis, as being mirrored in the story of K.G.V., there were so many changes. Patients, and perhaps even doctors and nurses, entering in this “Anti-biotic Era” – when successful treatment is difficult enough, though usually achieved – know little or nothing of the strenuous methods of treating tuberculosis which preceded it. Surgery played a great part. The first surgeon was appointed in 1929, and the Theatre and X-Ray Department were built in 1934. At one stage fifty per cent of tuberculosis patients had major surgery of the chest, usually very successful; now perhaps only five per cent require it.
The Hospital expanded over the years both staff and buildings. Of the latter I have already mentioned the Theatre Block, the Canteen was built in 1936; an additional Wing to what is now the Nurses’ Home was added in 1945, the Theatre Annexe in 1953, the Respiratory Function Unit in 1955, a new Patients’ Library in 1958, a messroom exterior (now the Domestic Staff sitting room) in 1959, and Nurses’ Home No.3 in 1960.
At one time, what is now the Staff Restaurant was a dining-room for perhaps a hundred up-patients. Gradually, the numbers of these shrank as methods of treatment changed, and patients were discharged earlier, until the present conversion was made two years ago. In the immediate future it is planned to erect a large hut on the rising ground by the main car-park, to be used as a playroom for visitors’ children, and as a Staff’ club room.
But of course the most striking change is in the nature of’ the work carried out in the Hospital. From being a Sanatorium for the tuberculous, it came to treat also non-tuberculous chest conditions, hence the present name: King George V Hospital for Diseases of the Chest; and then some patients with other than chest diseases – a limited number of orthopaedic and geriatric cases – were admitted. There is a lot to be said for this departure from the restricted area of’ our disease, even were there now sufficient tuberculous patients to fill the beds, for variety is a stimulant to the interest and intelligence of doctors and nurses. ‘ It is odd perhaps that not many of our patients come from the immediate neighbourhood, which is catered for by Milford Chest Hospital “down the road”, but from beyond this area, from London, Aldershot and Farnham and sometimes as far away as the South Coast. We have the Respiratory Function (“Puff and Blow”) Unit for this Region, and are also part of the regional Chronic Bronchitic Unit.
I wonder when another revision of this article will be called for, and if I shall write it. It is certain that “K.G.V. ” will go on for many years and probably it will change in many particulars as time goes by. There has always been something human and genuine in the atmosphere of the Hospital; let us hope that nothing changes that!
KGV Gazette Summer 1963
The Highdown Sanatorium which started at Hydestile in 1922 was soon, by gracious permission, allowed to take the name of “King George the Fifth”… However, it is told that his Majesty, when asked if he would condescend to come to the opening {in 1924) said: “Not on your life – visit a T. B. hospital – I might catch it ” – or words to that effect. These fears were felt by dwellers in the locality, even by their G. P. s, who met the choice of site with as much opposition as now would be offered to an aerodrome for jumbo jets. Though the sanatorium was modern for the time (incorporating an early form of re-inforced concrete in its pavilion walls), the money which the authority {then the Metropolitan Asylums Board – crest over the entrance to the administrative block) was prepared to spend on it ran out before the plans could be fulfilled, so that the main entrance was from a narrow lane (Salt Lane) rather than by a more imposing approach from the Hambledon Road.
There are aerial photographs which show the site in the early twenties. Though surrounded apparently by forest (the Hare’s Grove which gave a name to the Medical Superintendent’s house) the actual grounds were quite bare. The beautiful limes and birches and ornamental trees and shrubs may be credited to Dr. James Watt – a canny gardener as well as a towering medical figure – and grew up during his reign. The hospital really was in the country (in 1935 when I first saw it as a member of a visiting D. P. H. class from London, I half wondered if we should ever find our way back) and in its building workmen were accommodated in wooden chalets, used for many years as staff quarters, and plans and materials stored in two wooden huts which still do service though very decrepit.
In 1949 the wards were still without heating, other than the thin pipes under the windows designed, so it was said, to reduce condensation – in itself unlikely since windows had to be kept open. A few years later this was remedied, but the previous absence of heating was symptomatic of an age, the age of the “cure”, based on ‘Sanatorium principles’ of fresh air, good food, rest, graduated exercise. This age lasted into the ‘antibiotic era’ and both were overlapped by that of minor and major surgery. To those who know tuberculosis as a disease fairly easily treated by chemotherapy, the long periods which started perhaps with Hippocrates and died away in the fifties of this century cannot be imagined or fully understood. Artificial pneumothorax, pneumoperitoneum, thoracoplasty and so on seem almost bizarre in retrospect.
Yet the ‘cure’ and the surgery did save lives. And what seemed spartan routine was much more vital and engrossing. Quite apart from the attentions of the doctors and nurses a patient’s week could be filled with: occupational therapy, art therapy, typing, learning a language, woodwork, printing, concerts and whist drives, inter-ward sports – shove-halfpenny, table skittles, croquet, billiards etc. There were a silver shield and two cups to be competed for. When Marcus Patterson devised “graduated exercise ” at Frimley he used baskets of stones of various weights. At K.G.V. there were walks increasing in length and then outdoor tasks. Many a patient must have acquired there a love for gardening or even pigs! “Teebeeland” seemed to be regarded with a wry humour. Perhaps the uni-sexual nature of the sanatorium (women patients came only in the late fifties) was a trial and the outlook of the authorities far too monastic – rather backward looking.
But in other respects, for many years we were in the van of sanatorium work. With its first surgeon – Mr. J. E. H. Roberts, whom I always imagine operating with a Petit Caporal hanging to his lower lip – major surgery in anew theatre started in 1933. K.G.V. took part in all the M.R. C. Trials of the new anti- tuberculous drugs from 1949 onwards. Whilst such units were still rare in the UK a respiratory function laboratory was inaugurated in 1954.The antibiotic era which came with the fifties for some years increased the use of surgery, largely because an umbrella was provided for lung or part-lung removal.
In 1955, of patients admitted with tuberculosis, 58% had a major operation; the figure for 1967 was 3%. However, what was so amazing was the decline in tuberculosis due to anti- tuberculous drugs. The great physicians of the past – Robert Philip, Trudeau, Marcus Patterson – could never have imagined it. K.G.V., like other sanatoria (or Hospital for Diseases of the Chest as it became) began to admit patients with other complaints. Since these stayed a shorter time, the turnover accelerated. In 1951 there were 401 admissions (354 tuberculous), in 1967, 1358 (135 tuberculous).
Starting under the rule of the M.A .B., the hospital became a jewel in the crown of the gargantuan London County Council in 1929, and in 1948 of course entered the National Health Service. These authorities appeared to differ in administrative approach, but of course this depended on other things – the changing conception of disease, uniformity and availability of finance over the country rather than a metropol is and so on.
The War did not alter things very much, -it saw the appearance of an E.M.S. hutted hospital, at first under the aegis of K. G. V., then of the Australian Army Medical Corps, and finally St. Thomas’s Hospital, Westminster. The expatriate staff of the latter organised their lives with the ingenuity and cheerfulness of castaways on a South Sea Island, who know that sooner or later they are bound to be rescued. Every year they expected this to happen and, finally, after twenty-three years, it did.
K.G.V. has seemed to be blessed by the numbers of sterling people who remained on the staff for very long periods, even at this present date in one or two instances going back to the twenties. Perhaps other hospitals have been as fortunate, but I doubt it. Inevitably, sad little ceremonies of farewell have sprinkled later years. Till the middle-fifties a generous and mutually useful policy had meant the recruitment of many excellent nurses – who happened themselves to have had tuberculosis, and to whom a place on the staff was offered for re-habilitation. These were known for some reason as ‘trainees’, presumably because they could complete training in the B.T.A. certificate (though many already had an S.R.N.). In the later years of the hospital, a Pupil-Nurse training school was set up in conjunction with Haslemere General Hospital, and was successful. In our ‘middle period’ a number of decorative, charming and efficient young things were very much appreciated – these were the ‘Tommy Nurses’ seconded for three months at a time to explore the countryside on their bicycles.
The staff has tended to be cosmopolitan. At one Christmas dinner some years ago, I counted nineteen different nationalities. There were cycles of “foreigners” (I refer to those who were not what St. Joan called the ‘Goddam English”): early on Scots and Irish, but mostly Irish, then Italian and Polish or Baltic, then Spanish and Yugo-Slav. (It was touching to see girls from Northern Italy trying to understand the intrcacies of Scottish dancing!) And of course, in the last ten years many men and girls from the Commonwealth, all very welcome.
There were no tremendous events in the history of K.G. V. and smaller happenings it is difficult to select any except at random. The tennis feuds with Milford in which for so long we had an edge. The farewell party to Miss Sheenan in which those still working with her and many who returned for the occasion filled the Large Hall and a large marquee. The annual pantomime devised and written by a select few and performed by a cast which could include a chaplain, a cook or a consultant surgeon, and in which anything might happen – and usually did. The re-union fetes on August Bank Holiday, to which ex-patients returned in large numbers I(Your name escapes me I’m afraid, but I clearly remember your x-ray!’). The weather station – that curious relic of more leisurely days. The night that the safe was stolen from the Hospital Secretary’s office, taken off on a porter’s trolley and abandoned -empty – on Hydon’s Ball. But why recall only these?
Perhaps one of the more important landmarks was when a prefabricated building (The Cedar Hall) was added in 1964 and a thriving staff social club became possible. Swinging Hydestile! Traditionally the hospital had its ties with London and in later years the link was with Aldershot and Farnham through the chest clinics. It was not wholly unregarded, however, in the immediate neighbourhood, and kind and ever present help was found in the W .V .S and its own League of Friends. Nor must we forget the ‘Not Forgotten’ Association, to which successive generations of patients owed much. And, of course, the Red Cross picture library, that opener of windows not made of glass.
I hope that I have recalled something of the forty seven years of a hospital and with little hint of any sadness that they are finished. And the story is not finished – neither of K.G.V. nor Hydestile. The sanatorium may have gone the way of Trudeau and Schatzalp and the National, Ventnor, and many others, but there is still work to be done of another kind.
Good luck to all who remain – or come – to do it in this very pleasant spot.
J V Hurford, Hospital Gazette 1968
The King George V Hospital for Diseases of the Chest closed in Summer 1968. Other medical uses were found for some of the other buildings but within a few years the majority were left to become derelict.
James Watt, for many years medical superintendent of King George V Sanatorium, Godalming, Surrey, and chief medical officer of the London County Council’s medical tuberculosis service, died at the country branch of St. Thomas’s Hospital at Hydestile, Godalming, on October 4. He was within two weeks of his 75th birthday.
Dr. James Watt was born in Aberdeenshire on October 17, 1883, the son of William Watt, J.P., and was educated at Robert Gordon’s College, Aberdeen, and at Aberdeen University, where he graduated M.B., Ch.B., with first-class honours, in 1908. Outstandingly successful as a student, he held the John Murray scholarship in 1908 and the Anderson scholarship in 1909-10. He took the D.P.H. in 1911, and proceeded to the M.D., with highest honours, five years later. After graduation he was an assistant, first, in the department of pathology, and then in the department of medical juris-prudence in Aberdeen University. From 1912 to 1922 he held a number of appointments in different parts of the United Kingdom: as deputy medical officer of health for the City of Aberdeen; senior resident medical officer at the Royal National Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest, Ventnor, Isle of Wight; medical superintendent of the Bradford City Fever and Infectious Diseases Hospital; and medical superintendent of the Downs Sanatorium, Sutton, Surrey. From 1922 to 1948, when he retired, he was medical superintendent of the King George V Sanatorium, Godalming, and chief medical officer of the medical tuberculosis service under the old Metropolitan Asylums Board and subsequently under the London County Council. Dr. Watt was president of the Society of Superintendents of Tuberculosis Institutions in 1924 and 1925 and of the Tuberculosis Society in 1926-1927. A founder-member of the Joint Tuberculosis Council, he later became its chairman. To his widow and family we tender our sympathy.
We are indebted to Dr. G. LIssant Cox for the following appreciation:
The old guard of the original tuberculosis service is thinned again through the death of James Watt, late superintendent of the King George V Sanatorium at Godalming. He was of the pre-1914 vintage, big in body and in mind, contemporary of Ernest Ward, Sir Henry Gauvain, and Jane Walker. Lloyd George’s Insurance Act of 1911, with its special financial arrangements for “sanatorium benefit” and for Exchequer grants for sanatoria and dispensaries, stimulated local authorities to provide buildings and the medical staff to run them. Of those very early in the service, James Watt was one. A brilliant student of the Aberdeen school, he was on the high road to a distinguished academic career when he contracted pulmonary tuberculosis. Fortunately, he made a good recovery, and, like several other medical men and women so affected, obtained, a junior post in a sanatorium and finally emerged as the well known head of the large new London County Council sanatorium which has been visited by nearly all who have come to England in order to see some of the best work in tuberculosis. Watt had a clear, lucid, logical mind, and took a prominent part in tuberculosis affairs. One of the two remaining founder-members of the Joint Tuberculosis Council, he later was one of its outstanding chairmen and did valuable work in the chair and on many committees, work both pioneer and advisory in the tuberculosis field. He was a very keen horticulturist, and this hobby was a real solace and interest in his retirement, especially after a serious motor accident had left him grievously lame, though still cheerful and uncomplaining when I last saw him in London. He was the fortunate possessor of the three important qualities, a clear head, a warm heart, and a stiff back, and he used them to the full.
Dr. G. LIssant Cox
Hambledon Parish Council is to hold talks with Surrey County Council and Waverley Borough Council to press for a review of the way the village bus service operates in the hope it can be made more commercially viable.
Suggestions from villagers would be welcome, either by leaving a website comment on this article or posting suggestions in the Forum section.
The 503 route, which is the only public transport service available to residents, connects the village with Milford, Godalming and Guildford and is especially important to the elderly and infirm wanting to visit shops, banks and surgeries. It is shown here in the picturesque setting of the farm buildings at the Hydestile Crossroads as its leaves the village headed for Milford.
It is operated by Stagecoach but is heavily subsidised by Surrey County Council. Recently it faced the axe, only to be reprieved after the parish council and residents lobbied for it to continue.
The council is keen to see if changes can be made to increase revenue and prevent another cost-cutting exercise threatening its existence the next time SCC reviews its subsidised bus operations.
Currently the 503 operates on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, twice in each direction, beginning at Lane End at 9.15 and 12.15. Although a vital service for older residents its timing and infrequency means it is of no use to school children or commuters, despite its route taking it past Milford Station and local schools.
Surrey County Council has indicated that it is prepared to discuss the route with the parish council and others and it is hoped this will happen soon.
A “new town” of 2,600 houses at Dunsfold Aerodrome is among proposals in the new draft Local Plan to be considered by Waverley Borough Council tonight (Tuesday July 19).
The airfield site is already subject to a planning application for 1,800 homes and this total will inevitably rise if the new Local Plan is adopted. Dunsfold Park, owners of the site, has suggested that eventually up to 3,400 houses could be built.
Hambledon Parish Council has objected to the application and has joined with other parishes in the area in arguing that narrow country lanes will not be able to cope with the additional traffic. The only major road near the site, the A281, is already at a standstill at peak times. To avoid this new home owners will be forced to “rat-run” by using single-track rural roads such as Markwick Lane, Salt Lane and Vann Lane to reach Milford and Witley stations, schools, shops and places of work.
If Waverley adopts the new Local Plan, efforts to fight the Dunsfold Park proposals will be seriously undermined. In 2009 Waverley refused a similar housing application for the site, upheld by a Government inspector on appeal. Today, although reasons for objecting remain the same, Waverley is under central Government pressure to build more than 500 new homes across the borough every year to 2032.
Waverley’s executive has already recommended the new Local Plan be formally published and the full council meets tonight at 7pm to consider endorsing this recommendation. If this happens there will be a minimum six-week for representations before the plan is submitted for examination by a Government Planning Inspector.
Protect Our Waverley, a campaign group set up to fight the proposals, will be staging a demonstration outside Waverley offices before tonight’s meeting.
Surrey County councillors have formally endorsed the recommendation not to withdraw the 503 bus service.
At a meeting of its Cabinet on Tuesday (May 24th) members approved the recommendations arising out of the council’s Local Transport Review, which originally proposed scrapping the 503, Hambledon’s only public transport service.
After public consultation and a campaign by Hambledon Parish Council and supported by residents, the review recommended retaining the 503, which operates three times a week, twice in each direction, and connects Hambledon and Hydestile with banks, surgeries and shops in Milford, Godalming and beyond. The 523 Godalming to Milford Hospital service has also been reprieved.
Both services are operated by Stagecoach but subsidised by Surrey County Council. SCC has been looking to make savings on the money it pays in support of rural bus services and the review has achieved this aim without necessitating the withdrawal of the 503 and 523.
There may be some alterations to the service, subject to further discussion (see earlier news item).
In the meantime the current timetable can be found on this website under the “Home” page link and then clicking on “Travel Info”.
Hambledon’s only bus service, the 503, is set to be reprieved by Surrey County Council, reversing a decision to scrap the route as a cost-cutting measure.
This is a victory for the campaign mounted by Hambledon Parish Council and local residents to save the service.
Following the SCC Local Transport Review earlier this year, aimed at finding savings on council-subsidised rural routes, the 503 was one of a number of services to be scrapped, subject to public consultation.
The parish council vociferously opposed the proposal and many villagers raised objections during the consultation process. SCC has listened, and at a meeting of its Cabinet on May 24th, members are expected to endorse the review team’s recommendation that the 503 continue.
The parish council argued that it was wrong to withdraw the only bus route serving the village, leaving residents without any public transport. The 503 is a lifeline for a number of elderly or infirm residents who rely on the bus to get to shops, supermarkets, banks and surgeries in Milford, Godalming and beyond.
Agenda documents for the May 24th meeting, available on the Surrey County Council website, state that the council recognises “the important role that bus services play for our residents”, adding: “To address some of the concerns expressed during the public consultation exercise it has proven possible to recommend some enhancements to the original proposals.”
These include reversing the decision to scrap the 503. The 523 Milford hospital service from Godalming has also been reprieved.
Currently the 503 operates on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays, twice in each direction, beginning and ending at Lane End. The recommendation is for the service to continue on at least Wednesdays and Fridays and possibly on another day to be determined.
The parish council has asked to meet with SCC planners to discuss ways of increasing passenger numbers, perhaps re-routing the service to take in new areas of development. In the documents the council states that it is “working to stimulate patronage on bus services and reduce the need for council funding.”
The 503 is operated by Stagecoach but subsidised by Surrey County Council. The transport review examined services across the county. Faced with cuts in Central Government funding, SCC is looking save £2 million on its transport budget by next year.
The recommendation to be voted on on May 24th will enable SCC to achieve the required savings needed from the review, documents state.
The annual Parish Assembly, held on Thursday evening at the village hall, was well attended and produced a number of ideas to be included in the proposed new Parish Plan.
The Parish Plan is a formal document taken into account by public authorities such as Waverley Borough Council when considering issues that involve Hambledon, especially planning and highways. It is also a point of reference for Hambledon Parish Council in its work to help fulfill the aims and ambitions of village residents.
Following a report of the parish council’s activities over the past year as well as those of various village organisations, the assembly heard ideas from residents on what they would like to be included in the new Parish Plan.
High on the list was a request, led by Hambletots, for a small play area for children, ideally somewhere close to the village shop. This idea had a lot of support. It was pointed out that play equipment need not be made of intrusive coloured plastics and could be made of wood to suit the rural environment of the shop, pond and cricket green.
Other suggestions included improved drainage for the cricket pitch, a public toilet for the use of visitors to the shop and its cafe and provision of a bike rack, as the shop is regularly used by cyclists. On the issue of cycling, it was pointed out that the village was on the route of many organised cycle events. The poor state of road edges presented a danger. It was suggested that, given the number of events, maybe external funding could be found to carry out improvements.
There was also support for the retention of the 503 bus service, currently under threat (see earlier news items) and concern that car parks at the two nearest railway stations, Witley and Milford, were now at capacity. It was recognised that any new development at the Dunsfold Aerodrome site would only add to the problem, along with associated traffic problems on the narrow, rural village roads.
The Parish Council is currently gathering ideas for the new Parish Plan. It is likely that a steering group made up of councillors and villagers will be established to take the plan forward.
Tomorrow (Saturday) is the annual village clean-up, this year tied in with Clean For The Queen in recognition of Her Majesty’s 90th birthday. Villagers are asked to gather any litter and bring it to a collection point at the shop where, starting at around midday, a free barbecue will be held for volunteer litter pickers.
In the afternoon a jumble sale will be held at the Village Hall to raise funds for its maintenance.
The consultation period ended on March 14 and the county has since contacted the Parish Council to say that it is holding further meetings with Stagecoach and will consider the proposals put forward by Hambledon. A meeting with Hambledon and Busbridge parish councils could follow.
The county has stressed that it must meet its savings target but said: “There may well be ways to mitigate for some of the proposed impacts in certain communities.”
Hambledon Parish Council was thanked for its “positive approach” and told that a meeting could be “useful”.
In the meantime Surrey County Council will examine all the responses to the consultation. On its website it states: “This will be fully analysed and the views of everyone who took part will be taken into account when drawing up the final proposals with bus operators. This will ensure that vital saving will be made whilst maintaining as many of the services as possible which residents rely upon most.”
A summary of the consultation results will be available on the SCC website early next month. Final proposals will be considered by Cabinet, the council’s decision making body, on May 24 and service changes announced in June. Those will come into effect in September.
Hambledon residents have until this weekend to write in support of the village’s threatened bus service, the 503. The consultation period ends on Monday (March 14th) at 9am.
Surrey County Council, which subsidises the 503 and other rural bus routes, wants to hear the views of villagers before making a final decision on the fate of the service. It is reviewing all bus routes in the county as it looks to make cuts to its budget.
Details of the Local Transport Review can be found at https://www.surreysays.co.uk/e-i-directorate-programme-group/ltr
Hambledon Parish Council strongly opposes the proposal to axe the 503. It is asking Surrey County Council to reconsider the issue and perhaps look to amalgamate the service with the 523 Milford Hospital service, which is also under threat. With more than 100 new homes being built beside the hospital, and a proposal to build affordable homes at Lane End, Hambledon, the council believes Surrey County Council should examine how to better integrate the service before making a final decision.
Here is Hambledon Parish Council’s submission to the Surrey County Council review.
As part of the resident-funded installation of broadband to Hydestile, Openreach and their contractors have been working hard this week in Home Farm Road, Busbridge, at the Crossroads and at Hydon Heath.
Technically there have been some challenges in Hambledon Road and an underground duct will need replacing – we are told there will be roadworks next week, and a possibility of emergency road closure of Hambledon Road (north of Clockbarn Lane). This is because of the very narrow parts of Hambledon Road which prevent safe working. The closure will be short notice and hopefully for a short time. We have leveraged our good relationship with Surrey CC Highways to expedite matters and have been negotiating to reduce the inconvenience but safety trumps most arguments. So please be understanding if you should encounter a Road Closed sign – it will be for a very valid reason.
More detail at www.GU8Superfast.co.uk
Update from Webmaster,Superfast broadband should be covering all of Surrey by now – that was the ambition of Surrey County Council back in 2014 – with promises of 99.7% being able to get 15Mbps or above. That promise had a caveat that wasn’t mentioned by Surrey Council… that they aim to enable only cabinets – not all residents‘ homes. Those living more than 2km from a cabinet won’t be getting Superfast. That leaves large numbers of residents of Surrey discovering that they can’t get Superfast broadband and there is no plan for them to be enabled in the immediate future. In our area there are homes to the East (Vann) and North of Hambledon (Merry Harriers area) that are beyond 2km from the cabinet on the Petworth Road – Superfast Surrey (Surrey County Council) say they are reviewing this (see letter below). Areas of Milford are also excluded.
Residents of Feathercombe, Hydestile and Hydon Heath are also too far from their cabinets and specifically excluded from Surrey CC intervention. Those residents have clubbed together to pay Openreach a substantial amount to install new cabinets to bring the promised Superfast to those hamlets… in Spring 2016. Their self-funded superfast project website is here: www.GU8Superfast.co.uk
So the Surrey CC dream is not quite reality. There is a faint glimmer of hope for those left behind. Surrey County Council have announced their OMR (Open Market Review) – a plan to see who is left behind without Superfast capability. One could ask how they commissioned many millions of pounds worth of broadband expenditure without knowing the scope of their intervention.
In response to one of our determined residents, Superfast Surrey sent this letter below. That resident also urges everyone to spend 30 seconds filling in the form to tell Openreach that they haven’t got Superfast capability: http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/faq/contact-us-form.aspx
The GU8 Community Superfast Project has now launched a website to keep residents updated on developments of the broadband project. www.GU8Superfast.co.uk
Updates to the website will chart the progress of Openreach in the privately funded project to build two new fibre broadband cabinets at Hydestile and Hydon Heath. We’ll have some news on Openreach’s next steps in the near future.
The campaign team has also produced a number of viral videos:
SUPERFAST BROADBAND CAMPAIGN – AN UPDATE
Following our Campaign in February, Openreach reversed their decision not to upgrade the street cabinet no.26 next to Milford Station. This cabinet went live last month and is now Fibre enabled. Residents that suffered speeds of less than 3MBps are now enjoying real speeds of upto 70MBps. The campaign success was undoubtedly achieved because of the strong resident support that we received, with over 90% of the 140 Enton/Rake Lane area households and businesses who will now benefit having signed up to our campaign. Community power does work. We are thankful too for support from Peter Martin, Deputy Leader of Surrey County Council.
