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Hambledon power cuts – again

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More than 17,000 customers of Scottish and Southern Energy – including the whole of Hambledon – were left without electricity last night after a major power failure across the Godalming area.

The outage, on one of the coldest nights of the year, happened just after 6pm when many people would have been preparing evening meals. In some areas such as Hydestile power was not restored until around 10.30pm.

In the past SSE has blamed adverse weather but this was not the cause of last night’s failure and an SSE spokesman admitted on BBC Radio Surrey this morning that the cause was still unknown. He said engineers were on site last night and again today looking for the reason.

He apologised for the disruptiuon which occured despite SSE “investing a lot of money in the network to minimise the risk of power cuts.” BBC listeners expressed their anger that power failed again after the major disruptions of last year.

The SSE spokesman said that the company has been in touch with vulnerable customers to ensure that they were OK.

Hambledon Parish Council has expressed its concern to SSE over power failures in the village and was assured of better communication in the future. However, at the time of writing this, SSE had not responded to emails from this website asking for an explanation and the SSE website offers no information to customers, other than advice on how to buy SSE services.

Did anyone in Hambledon receive a call from SSE? What was your experience when you contacted SSE on its emergency number? Did you get helpful information? Please let the website team know by using the forum or the contact section.

In the meantime, if you or anyone you know, needs back-up phones that do not require electricty to work, wind-up torches and other emergency equipment, please contact Hambledon’s emergency planning co-ordinator Stewart Payne on 07831 393561. Please refer to an earlier news item on this website about emergency planning for further details.

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Oakhurst Cottage Features This Week On BBC Radio Surrey

WRITTEN BY STEWART PAYNE | 12 JANUARY 2015 

altOakhurst Cottage, the tiny National Trust-owned 16th Century farm workers cottage on the edge of Cricket Green, Hambledon, is being featured on BBC Radio Surrey this week.

Each evening at around 5.50pm on the Drive at 5 programme, listeners will hear of the restoration currently under way at Oakhurst, in a conversation between presenter Peter Stewart and National Trust regional curator Sarah Woodcock. Each day will feature a different room. BBC Radio Surrey broadcasts on 104.6 FM.

Oakhurst Cottage, which has survived largely unaltered over the centuries, is one of the NTs smallest properties and is open to the public during the summer months thanks to volunteers from the village. Repairs and renovations have been underway since September last year (see earlier news item on this website).

Our sketch of Oakhurst Cottage, below, is the work of Rachael Hockridge.

 

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January 2015 in your Village Shop

Oh I love this time of year.  Delicious seasonal greens, gorgeous cauliflowers and flavourful leeks.  We also herald the start of the “baby” veg season with delightfully colourful beets and carrots.  You will find all of this wonderful veg in our Farm Shop and most importantly all are sourced locally.

Not local I know but equally delicious and in season now is the Seville Orange.  We have them a plenty and preserving sugar too.

Other produce that are at their best now are Mackerel, Mussells, Venison and Wild Duck.

Jo, Village Shop Manager

FOR SOME RECIPIE IDEAS Visit our Recipe Page.

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AFFORDABLE HOUSING – Dates and Developments

WRITTEN BY HAMBLEDON PARISH COUNCIL | 18 DECEMBER 2014 

Most residents will be aware of a proposal by the English Rural Housing Association to build 17 homes – 12 designated as affordable – on land at Orchard Farm, off Wormley Lane (see previous news items).

The village will have a chance to see the ERHA plans when it holds an exhibition of them at the Village Hall between 3pm and 8pm on Thursday January 15.

The Parish Council will then hold an open meeting at the hall on Wednesday January 28, starting at 8 pm, which will provide an opportunity for the whole village to debate the proposals.

ERHA has not yet submitted a planning application to Waverley Borough Council, which will determine the issue, and will not do so until after the village has been consulted.

In the meantime the village and its parish council will need to consider another proposal, just submitted, for four affordable homes and two market price homes on land beside the Merry Harriers car park, on the opposite side of Hambledon Road to the pub. This land is currently used as a campsite.

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Affordable homes

Hambledon Parish Council has been informed that English Rural Housing Association, a not-for-profit provider of affordable homes, has acquired Orchard Farm, a property in nine acres of land off Wormley Lane.

At a parish council meeting held on October 29, attended by many residents who live close to Orchard Farm, Nick Hughes, regional development manager of ERHA, outlined a proposal to build 12 affordable homes, four open market units and the replacement or refurbishment of the existing house.

The entire site is within the Green Belt and the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Mr Hughes said that the proposal would be brought forward under Waverley Borough Council Rural Exceptions Site policies and the affordable homes would be available to local people in housing need. He indicated that land not used for housing – approximately four acres – would be gifted to the village to ensure no further development would take place.

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Superfast Broadband

SUPERFAST BROADBAND CAMPAIGN – AN UPDATE

Enton and Rake Lane now have fibre Broadband

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.

Phase 2 of the campaign

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New Housing Target- Have your Say

Waverley Borough Council has been told by central goverment that it must find space to build 8,500 new homes between 2014 and 2031 and is seeking the views of local people.

The strategy and planning for this is known as a Local Plan and the borough is seeking the views of residents before submitting it.

Hambledon residents should by now have received a special edition of Waverley’s Making Waves publication which contains a feedback form. It should be completed and returned by Friday 17th October.

altWaverley is staging a mobile exhibition of its proposals and this can be seen between 10am and 4pm in The Burys car park, Godalming, on Saturday 4th October and in Haslemere High Street car park the following Saturday (11th) between the same hours.

Although no new housing in proposed for Hambledon itself, sizeable new developments in the region could have a major impact on the village – particularly in terms of increased traffic on local rural lanes and demands on local services such as trains, schools and surgeries.

Waverley has devised four potential housing “scenarios” – three of which envisage major development at Dunsfold Aerodrome, something that had previously been rejected.

All boroughs across the country have been told by central government that they must increase housing targets to meet expected demand for new homes and this will have an impact on the Green Belt and on protected Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The Local Plan, therefore, is likely to affect us all in some way, so it is important that you give your views.

 

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Free WiFi at the shop

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We have free wi-fi available to all our customers and cafe users.  Just settle down with a cup of tea or coffee and your phone, tablet or laptop and catch up with work, emails or internet browsing.  If you need a little help logging on then  please ask Jo or her team and they will do their best to help.

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Household Waste – Surrey County Council Wants Your Views

altSurrey County Council is seeking the views of residents on how it can better manage waste and recycling services.

In a statement it said: “Dealing with the huge amount of waste generated in Surrey homes is the challenging and costly job undertaken by the Surrey Waste Partnership, which is made up of Surrey County Council and the 11 district and borough councils in the county.

Surrey’s Plan For Waste Management outlines what we do with the county’s waste. On a regular basis we take a fresh look at the plan and update it to make sure we’re continuing to manage waste in the best, most cost effective way.

To help with this year’s update we need you to tell us how we can help you reduce, reuse and recycle more of Surrey’s waste.”

To find out more, and to complete the questionnaire (before October 12, 2014) please use the following link:

https://www.surreysays.co.uk/ei-waste-development-team/waste-plan-residents-survey

 

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"Outstanding" Rating For Hambledon Nursery School

Teaching staff at Hambledon Nursery School can enjoy the summer break in the knowledge of a job well done after the government’s inspection body Ofsted awarded it an “outstanding” rating.

All schools are visted periodically by Ofsted inspectors and judged as either Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement or Inadequate. Hambledon Nursery School had been judged as outstanding following previous inspections.

Staff knew that another Ofsted inspection was due but had no advanced knowledge of when it would take place. In the event the inspectors visited in June and the report is now available online at

www.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/CARE/EY472201

Open the page and find the link to a PDF document headed Early Years Register inspection report.

Nicola Collett, head teacher, said that staff and parents were delighted with the outcome. She said the report highlighted the professionalism of teachers and how engaged children were in their learning.

The school was originally the village state primary school. When it closed in the 1980s residents were determined to see it remain at the heart of the community as a place of learning.  A campaign led to the acquisition of the Victorian school house complete with playground and its reopening as a nursery school run as a business by a charitable trust. It caters for children aged 2 to 5 and retains its strong links with the village, the church and the parish council.

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Allotments available in Witley

altWitley Parish Council has several allotments available and has contacted neighbouring parishes, including Hambledon, to say it will consider applications from residents.

Hambledon Parish clerk Jane Woolley has previously had enquiries from local people about allotments. However, there are none within the village.

Witley Parish Council owns two allotment sites, with 80 plots at Enton and 60 at Redgate Farm, Milford. The plots are of various sizes and the annual rent depends on the size, but is between £10 and £20 with a £5 water charge and a one-off £25 administration fee.

Anyone interested in applying is asked to contact Fiona Fox, the Witley clerk, at [email protected] or phone the Witley council office between 9 am and 12 noon weekdays on 01483 422044.

 

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Hambledon Broadband not as far reaching as we were led to believe

Residents with phone: Wormley 01428 …
A number of residents of North Hambledon on the Wormley exchange have contacted me – they should be able to get superfast broadband Infinity now that Wormley upgrade to fibre is complete, as promised by Superfast Surrey (Surrey CC). However residents are gradually discovering, one by one, that they won’t get super fast broadband at all.  This is mainly for people 1.5km beyond cabinet 6 on the Petworth Road on the edge of Hambledon.  This means anyone near the Merry Harriers or North of there, or outlying areas such as Vann will not ever get super fast.

My message to residents in such a situation is to contact me Email me  and I’ll happily put you in contact with others in similar position.  My advice is also to contact the Superfast Surrey Team and ask in strong terms: “where’s my Superfast? – you promised 99.7% of Surrey would be covered?”   The person to contact is the Senior Digital Officer Lucie Glenday.  She will delegate but in my experience all her team are not empowered to answer questions other than the FAQ on their website – which don’t tell us anything new.  They say there is a review going on, but one could ask why they did not anticipate so many people were not covered by their Superfast plans that requires them to have an additional review. (we calculate over 2000 in SE Godalming alone). Their website also says they plan to develop alternative solutions for the excluded residents.   I have yet to get anything tangible from them to qualify exactly what Superfast Surrey consider as an alternative.  As of July, they have no alternative solution.
Contact Surrey CC:    [email protected]

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Something strange in the skies over Hydestile

Please open this link to a You Tube video of a very strange event over Hydestile on Saturday afternoon (June 28)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB3z0J9pwA8

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A mini whirlwind snatched a huge piece of agricultural netting and lifted it into the sky over Hydestile. It was filmed by Hydestile resident Stewart Payne. The netting was swallowed up by the low cloud. The incident was reported to police as a danger to low flying aircraft and officers were sent to look for the netting. It was eventually found on farmland, partially draped over a tree, near Hascombe.

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Video and first photo courtesy of Stewart Payne. Second photo courtesy of Surrey Police

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Roundup of events in Hambledon

A busy week of events in Hambledon, including the fete, mid-summer dance and Viewmap unveiling, has culminated with the opening of the refurbished Almshouse.

One of the pair of almshouses in Malthouse Lane has been extended and modernised. No 2 has a new kitchen, en-suite bathroom, a larger living room, under-floor heating, double-glazing, fire alarm and sprinkler system and insulation.

altThe opening ceremony was performed by Audrey Monk, clerk to The Trustees of the Almshouses, who has written a history of the buildings.  They were built in 1907 and, more than 100 years later,  both were considered to be in need of upgrading to bring them up to 21st Century standards.

No 2 became vacant when John Givens moved out two years ago and Andrew Falk, chairman of the Trustees, launched an ambitious fund-raising scheme to help finance the work, which has cost in the region of £100,000. The majority of the work has been undertaken by local builder Mike Coates.

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