Borough budgets are difficult to follow. However, a practice adopted this year presents to Council committees an overview of budget plans. Without savings being made in the budgets for 2023/2024 onward the Council is predicted to face a loss of £2.6 million by 2025/2026. [Small compared with Woking Borough Council’s Black-Hole of a debt of £2.4 billion – see our report on their debt HERE]

Thursday 27th October’s Licensing Policy and Planning Committee received a report from the Council’s Finance Department. The overview and recommendations provided to the Councillors is helpful and highlights are reprinted with some edits below. Full REPORT HERE (see pages 7 – 10). The recommendation approved by the Committee that “growth items” must be funded from existing budgets means that some items will not grow but will diminish. Cuts might be avoidable if recommended rises in various chargeable services are sufficient to pay.

Report to Councillors:

“The Council is facing a great deal of uncertainty, with sufficient information unlikely to be available to reliably predict the medium-term impact of elevated inflation and the cost-of-living crisis on Council services before the end of 2022. As such, the report to Strategy & Resources Committee modelled 3 scenarios – optimistic, neutral and pessimistic – to forecast the Council’s future budget position.

In the neutral scenario, adopted for financial planning purposes, the Council faces a projected budget deficit of £2.6m by 2025/26.

Budget targets include:

Excluding any new growth in expenditure, a level of savings of £2.6 million is needed to achieve a balanced budget over the next three year financial planning period to 2025/26.

Recommendations:

That estimates be prepared including the delivery of savings already identified in the Financial Plan for 2023/24 totalling £215,000.

That at least £396,000 additional revenue be generated from an increase of 6% on discretionary fees and charges in 2023/24.

That a provision for pay award is made of £524,000 that would allow for a 3% cost of living increase.

That the homelessness service be set a target to reduce net costs by £243,000 per annum.

That any additional new growth items supported by Policy Committees will need to be fully funded from existing budgets.”

Epsom Playhouse‘s capacity audience had patiently waited 12 months after Milton Jones show was postponed in 2022. The King of the One-Liners rewarded their forbearance with his unstoppable flow of puns and word play. “The other day I said to my longstanding girlfriend – sit down”. That sort of thing in isolation is OK but when one of a torrent of double-entendres laughter is irresistible.

Following one of Milton’s many granddads appearing on Zoom, Thomas Houghton provided a creditable and funny warm-up act that was a substantial part of the first half. Not wishing to give too much away in case you wish to catch his show on tour – Mr. Milton made deft use of national flags in holding topical and witty conversations between nations. The EU and Union Jack exchange was the shortest and funniest.

The funny showman has nearby performances coming up in Horsham 29th October, Camberley 2nd November and Farnham 4th November. See: https://miltonjones.com/live-dates/

Epsom and Ewell based charities Love Me Love My Mind and The Friends of Horton Cemetery joined forces with Surrey County Council Youth Workers and others this week. In Epsom Market Square on Saturday 8th October local residents and visitors took part in the “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” Project. This Historic England supported project raises awareness of the Horton Cemetery in Epsom. There are buried 9000 patients of Epsom’s five now closed psychiatric hospitals. The largest asylum cemetery in Europe.

Borough and County Councillor Bernie Muir joined in the Market Square painting of memorial flowers.

The painting continued during a day of reflection and celebration on World Mental Health Day 10th October at St Barnabas Church in Temple Road, Epsom. Activities included a walk to Horton Cemetery beside Hook Road and a song and dance performance by students from Epsom’s Laine Theatre Arts School.

Mayor Clive Woodbridge joined the event and painted a flower. 900 ceramic flowers are being individually painted by young and old throughout the Borough over the year. Workshops will be held to discuss the significance of the Cemetery and the lives of those who ended up in this paupers’ graveyard. The aim is to plant the flowers near the Cemetery on Mental Health Day 2023. The site was sold by the NHS to a property speculator in 1983 and has been neglected ever since.

A derelict site in Ewell is to become a 70-bed care home. The Organ Inn was known to any one of Epsom and Ewell driving to London. Situated prominently on the Ewell-By-Pass at the London Road junction. It last functioned as Jim Thompsons with Thai Cuisine and was also known as The Organ and Dragon. The building was demolished and the ground left derelict for years. Thursday 6th October Epsom and Ewell Borough Council’s Planning Committee granted full permission for the construction of a 70-room retirement care home of four storeys and a basement. Councillor Nigel Colin (RA College Ward) described the site at present as “a blot on the landscape.”

There were two objections registered that were dismissed by the Councillors in the face of a strong application supported by planning officers. The construction of the home will contribute 38 units to the housing targets of the Borough of @ 579 per annum.

A Planning Need Assessment submitted by the applicant from Carterwood, a specialist in health and social care, indicated that there is a net need for 1279 en-suite wetroom bedrooms in the market catchment area (4 miles from the Application Site) and 540 in Epsom and Ewell. In terms of ‘specialist dementia’ care, the Assessment sets out that there is a net need for 529 en-suite wetroom beds in the market catchment area and a net need for 226 en-suite wetroom beds in Epsom and Ewell.

The Council officers reported that the developer applicant does not have experience in care-home provision. Surrey County Council Adult Social Care commented on the application: ” While the Applicant is an organisation with no history of operating care homes itself, there is no reference to a care provider working in partnership with the organisation in the application. There is therefore very little indication of what type of care will be delivered on Site, whether the care home will operate with or without nursing care provision, and no description of exactly how the particular development would benefit local residents or the joint health and social care system. The application therefore suffers by comparison with others, which provide details of future operational plans. Having said this, regrettably, I cannot find anything in the local planning policies which requires clarity on who will operate any future care development, nor any requirement for an operator statement alongside other statements in the application.”

Cllr Alex Coley (RA Ruxley Ward) questioned this inexperience and was advised by officers that the developer will contract with a specialist service provider.

Various conditions must be met by the developer, 65 London Road Limited, a private company under the sole directorship of Kirpal Singh. A company that has declared over £3 million in net assets in its last and only accounts ending 31st March 2021 – in which it declared a trading loss of £2400.

The Council require the company to enter an agreement (known as a section 106) to contribute money to the improvement of bus infrastructure at both the A24 northside bus stop and A24 southside, including shelters and real time passenger information; a Push button controlled pedestrian crossing facilities on London Road and a 3-metre-wide footpath on both the London Road and Ewell Bypass frontages of the Application Site, to be dedicated as public highway.

HOBBLEDOWN NOBBLEDOWN?

This popular leisure destination for a family day out on Horton Lane Epsom had asked the Planning Committee for various permits. Installation of new restroom facilities, new boundary fencing and relocation of entrance gates, new play structures etc.

Tempers were tested somewhat when Cllr Coley stated a flood risk assessment was necessary before proceeding further. Planning officers disagreed. Cllr Kate Chinn (Lab Court Ward) suggested that if the contention had been raised before the meeting the public row could have been avoided. Cllr Steven McCormick (RA Woodcote) brought deliberations to an inconclusive end my proposing a deferment of all of Hobbledown’s requests. A motion passed by all Councillors bar three.

Epsom and Ewell has so far escaped the grant of licences for shale-gas exploration. Other Boroughs in Surrey are targeted. 25th September Business and Energy Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg announced: “In light of Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and weaponisation of energy, strengthening our energy security is an absolute priority, and – as the Prime Minister said – we are going to ensure the UK is a net energy exporter by 2040. To get there we will need to explore all avenues available to us through solar, wind, oil and gas production – so it’s right that we’ve lifted the pause to realise any potential sources of domestic gas.” Including through new oil and gas licences and shale gas extraction.

Friends of the Earth has provided a map and statistics showing the areas and licences for shale-gas exploration in Surrey.

Between now and 2040 will Epsom and Ewell’s natural resources have to play their part in energy self-sufficiency?

Let us know your views.

Both “The Horton” (Arts Centre) and The Horton Cemetery featured on the agenda of the Epsom and Ewell Borough Council’s Strategy and Resources committee Thursday 29th September. For the second time this year discussion on a request to the Council to exercise Compulsory Purchase Order powers over the neglected 9000 body 5-acre cemetery on Hook Road, Epsom, was withdrawn.

As previously reported HERE the bone of contention, between the charity, The Friends of Horton Cemetery and a report to Councillors, concerns the valuation basis for compensation to the property speculator, to whom the intact Cemetery was incongruously sold by the NHS in 1983. Trustee of the Charity Hon. Alderman Alan Carlson stated “We are grateful our request has not been determined by the Strategy and Resources Committee. Our own independent expert and affordable valuations have not been enough to persuade the Council. We will now obtain more. We are also grateful to the many supporters who on short notice of the matter mounted an effective email campaign to Councillors in protest”. He further added: “This 5-acre Cemetery is sacred to a growing number of relatives of the dead. It is a white elephant in the possession of Michael Heighes of Marque Securities, who cannot in a thousand years develop it at all. This is why he has totally neglected the site for 40 years”.

Chairman of the Committee, Councillor Neil Dallen (RA Town Ward), responded to the supporters’ campaign stating the Council will meet the Charity as “aspects of the Council Report have been misunderstood by the Trust”.

The Horton

Just one week after an opening event at The Horton arts and heritage centre, the venue appeared on the agenda of the same meeting of the Strategy and Resources Committee. However, without challenge from any of the 10 Councillors present, the Committee went into secret session to discuss the item. The committee stating that the item concerned the finances of a “third party” and it was not “in the public interest” for them to be disclosed publicly.

Other items:

The committee approved investment in a new gas boiler for the Council’s Community and Wellbeing Centre on Longmead, Epsom. The Council has investigated the efficacy of ground and air heat-pump systems, but the building is not well enough insulated for them to be effective. This prompted Cllr David Gulland (LibDem College Ward) to query whether insulation should be invested in. The officer responded that the Council was reviewing insulation across the Council’s entire estate.

Following the sudden departure of Kathryn Beldon from the top Council post of Chief Executive (reported HERE) the committee agreed to extend the employment of Jackie King as interim Chief Executive pending a permanent posting. The meeting also noted a requirement for the appointment of a chief legal officer. Cllr Kate Chinn (Labour Court Ward) joked she had asked a previous Council law officer Simon Young to return from The Falklands where he had migrated to be the islands’ lead attorney.

The chief IT officer had been lost recently so an Information Technology strategy review was withdrawn from the meeting.

The committee approved the business plan being put this Autumn to a vote of business rate payers in the central Epsom area. This would allow Epsom Bid Ltd (known as Go Epsom) to continue for another 5 years to make improvements to the business zone, funded by an additional levy to business rates. Cllr Eber Kington (RA Ewell Court Ward) expressed enthusiastic support for the recent work of Epsom Bid in the changes and activities it has initiated.

Epsom Strength and Balance is celebrating five years of helping seniors in the local community stay stronger and keep upright longer.  Karen Willson changed career to one in the fitness industry after medically retiring from working at City Hall. She trained thanks to Instructability, which trains disabled people and helped her get a job at a local leisure centre in 2014. Enjoying helping people improve their health, she later trained as a personal trainer and Otago instructor. This allowed her to start Epsom Strength and Balance [ESB] in September 2017. Gradually classes increased in size and more classes were required. Now, after the pandemic, she is rebuilding her business and reconnecting with people in our community.  She just loves to see people ‘stay strong and keep upright longer’.

The ESB community has improved their strength and balance by doing activities in fun weekly group classes. This has improved their posture and mobility, which reduces their risk of tripping and falling.  They learn how to safely get up off the floor and how to recover their balance so they do not fall. This allows us to safely do the things we enjoy. 

We are all getting older each day and we can improve our quality of life during our later life. These weekly classes have helped reduce the severity and number of trips into hospital following a fall. ESB classes are now delivered at home via zoom and as group classes in Ashtead and Epsom.

 Is it time you reduced your risk of falling by improving your posture and mobility?

Some people prefer to move to music. Sit and Stay Fit is a class of gentle movement to music from the 60s and 70s and this can be done sitting down. You’ll be surprised how beneficial it is for the whole body.

Join Karen:

Ashtead St George’s Christian Centre Mondays at 1:45 or

Epsom Methodist Church Wednesdays at 11:30 & 13:30.

Email   Epsomstrengthandbalance@gmail.com  or call Karen on (07771 647132)

Sit and Stay Fit Tuesdays at Epsom Methodist Church 14:00 

email Sitandstayfit@gmail.com or call Karen on (07771 647132

Visit: EpsomStrengthandBalance.com

Vice Lord Lieutenant of Surrey Sir Stephen Lamport came to Epsom Saturday 24th September. Addressing an audience in Epsom Methodist Church he condemned the aggression of Russian President Putin. He welcomed to Surrey those refugees from Ukraine who have come. He applauded the work of local charities, including Surrey Stands With Ukraine.

His speech was followed by 90 minutes of classical music performed by Ukrainian musicians. Sergei Sinkovski and Yevheniia Semydilko played Bartok duets on violins and Vivaldi. Kateryna Bolkunevych sang Casta Diva from Bellini’s opera Norma and Song to the Moon by Dvorak. Her powerful voice filling the vaulted Worship Hall. She was accompanied by pianist Bogdana Ravliuk who played Ukrainian composer Lysenko’s elegy.

Epsom poet Audrey Ardern-Jones, who’s Ukrainian mother fled Kiev in WWII to escape the Nazi occupation read three poems including a haiku. Translated and read in Ukrainian by the evening’s co-presenter Darina Dvorinchenko.

Young star of Surrey’s Yehudi Menuhin School of Music, Vadym Perog, born in Odessa, played a Mozart sonata for violin accompanied on the piano by Svitlana Kosenko.

The evening was crowned by Juliya Komyshan who brought tears from the standing audience with the Ukrainian national anthem. She played and sang other music using the traditional Ukrainian bandura instrument; to the amazement of all.

Following the demise of the public toilets on the B290 up on Epsom Downs, The Epsom and Ewell Times reports on the current Council provision of conveniences for the public:

• Nonsuch Park – open during park opening hours which are usually 6am to ½ hour before sunset.

• Horton Country Park – open during park opening hours as above

• Alexandria Recreational Ground Pavilion – operated by the café during café opening hours

• Auriol Recreation Ground, Stoneleigh – operated by the café during café opening hours

• Epsom Cemetery – open during cemetery opening hours

• Bourne Hall, Ewell – open during centre hours

• Epsom Town Hall – open during operating hours

• Harrier Centre, Poole Road, West Ewell – open during operating hours

In answer to The Epsom and Ewell Times, The Epsom and Ewell Borough Council provided the following information on the costs of spending a penny of those public toilets that are NOT part of a building used for other purposes (e.g., The Town Hall and Bourne Hall etc). To be clear – they are free to use! It won’t cost you a penny except through your Council tax.

Annual Expenditure 2021 to 2022 up to end of March 2022.
Nonsuch public toilets – Cleaning: £14,716.56
We cannot break down the costs for Mechanical &Electrical (M&E) as it comes within the expenditure for
the whole of the Mansion House.
Cemetery – Cleaning £6161.04 and M&E £993.68
Horton Country Park – Cleaning £5555.40 and M&E £741.36
The utility costs are also not broken down for just the toilets and therefore we cannot provide separate
costs.

Contrary to myth a person not patronising a pub does not have a right to use its toilet. London promotes a “Community Toilet Scheme” that encourages businesses to allow non-customers to use their toilets. London’s Railways stations take part. In the Borough of Epsom and Ewell the Ashley Centre would be hard pressed to prevent a member of the public having no intention to spend a penny in its shops from spending a penny in its toilets.

Should Epsom and Ewell have a Community Toilet Scheme? Write to us.

In the heart of Epsom and Ewell, The North-East Surrey College of Technology has a range of activities and courses available to the general public. From theatre hire, Saturday courses, distance learning, osteopathy and beauty…….

An open event for next year’s courses is on Wednesday 28 September (4.30pm – 7.30pm). Register to find out about courses for school leavers, adult part-time, apprenticeships, university-level or FREE distance learning courses.

A gym is fully fitted with a range of cardio and weights for all your workout needs. Instructors are on hand to provide advice to help you achieve your goals. Membership options from £21 per month, no contract. Fitness classes included. Personal training now available. Students get an extra discount. Details HERE.

A professional hair and beauty salon is offering a 10% discount to all new customers on their first visit. Details HERE.

A very popular Day Nursery for children aged 0-5 has recently been extended to alllow for more places. Ofsted rated ‘Good’. Details HERE

Saturday Academies for 13-16 year olds. A new season of popular, fun courses for teenagers starts in November, and they are selling fast. Details HERE

They have excellent grass football pitches for hire (adult and junior). The Sports Centre is available for hire for a range of activities, including badminton, basketball and football. Available for single bookings or block bookings. Details HERE

Any aches and pains? Nescot’s Osteopathy Clinic offers affordable treatment in our modern facility. Concessions available for public and students. Details HERE

NESCOT has small and large rooms for hire, and a 215 seat theatre. Details HERE. The campus and its facilities are available for filming or as a location base. Details HERE

Services for Local Business
NESCOT offers apprenticeship training and they also have students available for industry placement and work experience. They also host business breakfasts at Nescot for local business people to get together. Details HERE. Nescot offers a service providing leaflets, booklets, binding and copying for both businesses and individuals. Details HERE.

Free Level 2 online courses for 19+ in Health, Social Care, Business, Computing, Education and more. See HERE for eligibility.

Nescot. An institution the Borough can be proud of.