Two Surrey Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) staff members set off to Poland yesterday (Thursday 6 October) to donate another 4×4 Land Rover to the Ukrainian Fire and Rescue Service.

This donation is part of the National Fire Chief Council and UK charity FIREAID’s convoy 4. Convoy 3, which was delivered in May this year, also saw a donation of two 4×4 Land Rovers by SFRS.

The vehicles, which have been decommissioned by the service, are typically used for off-road/rural firefighting. The service has worked with its Fire Authority, Surrey County Council, to prepare and release the vehicle.

The two staff members who have volunteered, will meet other UK Fire and Rescue Services who are donating items, they’ll then handover the vehicles in Poland next week.

Acting Chief Fire Officer, Dan Quin, said: “I am proud to be able to continue our support to the people of Ukraine during this incredibly difficult time. Thank you to all organisations who are supporting these efforts and to Chris, who also donated the equipment during the last convoy, and Lee from our Engineering team, who are supporting the delivery. Chris will be taking us on the journey over on our Instagram channel, so please do follow us so you can witness another historic effort from UK Fire and Rescue Services.”

Cabinet Member for Communities and Community Safety (which includes Surrey Fire and Rescue Service), Denise Turner Stewart, said: “Surrey County Council’s priority is to ensure no one is left behind and supporting yet another national convoy does just that. I am so pleased that we are able to support this national effort and we would like to sincerely thank all involved.” Surrey County Council has a lot of information available on surreycc.gov.uk for communities who’d like to support, as well as guidance for Ukrainians coming to Surrey.

Surrey County Council News

The Epsom and Ewell Energy Support Scheme is a plan to offer those running into difficulties immediate help with their bills, and then advice and financial support to improve energy efficiency or reduce energy consumption in their homes and so reduce bills going forward. This might include buying a more efficient appliance for them or helping with improved insulation. The scheme is supported by local MP Chris Grayling

To help support this programme they are asking local households who have less difficulty paying for these higher energy bills to donate their £400 support payments to the fund so that it can be used to help reduce the bills of those who are struggling. If you are able to do this, they would be very grateful, and all other donations are of course also very welcome.

The Scheme is being run jointly by the Good Company, which runs the local food bank, and Citizens Advice Epsom & Ewell helped by local Churches. It will offer both advice sessions to help those who are not sure how to improve their energy efficiency as well as assistance paying for improvements.

To make a donation, please visit the donations page at www.justgiving.com/campaign/epsom-ewell-energy-support-scheme  

Four new trustees have joined Citizens Advice Epsom & Ewell’s (CAEE) Board to guide and lead
the charity as it approaches what will undoubtedly be a very difficult winter.
Peter Edwards, chair of the Trustee Board, said: “I’m delighted to welcome four new and very talented trustees who will strengthen the Board at a challenging time for our charity, as we are already seeing rapidly rising demand for our services, inflationary pressures on costs, and fewer resources. With inflation rising steeply, the cost of living is a major concern for us all, and especially for the people we are here to help. Families on the lowest incomes will be hit hardest by spiraling price increases and our frontline advisers are already supporting people who are finding it difficult to get by.”

Photo from left to right back row: Andrew Heffernan, George Bell, Ian Davison, Shaun Jones, Patrick O’Driscoll. Front row left to right: Fiona Taylor, Lisa Davis, Yvette Ball, Hardik Trivedi and Peter Edwards.

Joining the Board as new trustees are Yvette Ball, Hardik Trivedi, Fiona Taylor and Andrew Heffernan. Yvette’s professional career was with the Probation Service culminating as Chief Officer of the service in Gloucestershire and then Surrey. With retirement her voluntary career has included Chair of Faith in Action Merton Homelessness Project and then of Refugees at Home before joining CAEE. In these roles Yvette led the organisations to achieve success, changing dysfunctional groups into high functioning teams and enabling the charities to thrive. She gained good knowledge of governance from experience as an Honorary Secretary. She understands disadvantage and brings her passion to tackle it as incoming Chair designate.

Hardik is an experienced consultant with Duetsche Bank and has a track record in delivering transformation projects across different industries in government and commercial organisations. Prior to consulting, he was a systems engineer within the UK Ministry of Defence. Hardik holds an MBA from University of Warwick and a MEng in Aerospace Engineering from Queen Mary University of London.

Fiona has 35 years’ experience in the transport industry including 13 years with her current employer, Network Rail, holding a number of director and senior leadership roles. Fiona spent several years as a self-employed consultant, working on a range of transformation, business improvement and commercial bidding assignments.
Andrew started his career in brand marketing for a number of blue-chip organisations, following which he took a break from the corporate world to qualify as a teacher. Andrew then worked for an educational charity before taking on the role of Membership and Marketing Director for a leading membership body in the social care sector.
Those who have departed are Alison Cribbs, vice-chair, who had been a trustee since 2015, Ian Davison who joined the board in October 2016 and chaired the HR committee, Bernie Watson who joined the board in 2018, and Alexis Marz and Hony Premial who both joined in 2017 and sat on the Finance and HR committees respectively.

Citizens Advice is made up of the national charity Citizens Advice; the network of independent local Citizens Advice charities across England and Wales; the Citizens Advice consumer service; and the Witness Service.
Citizens Advice Epsom & Ewell (CAEE) is a small, local charity offering free advice and information for all who live, work and study in the borough of Epsom & Ewell. All advice is free, confidential, impartial and independent.

Each year CAEE helps around 3,000 clients with issues such as benefits, housing, debt, fuel poverty, family issues and much more. Our outcomes are extremely positive not only for the clients we serve, but also for the wider community. During 2020/21 we secured income in excess of £1.2m for our clients. Our added value to society totalled £1.06m in fiscal benefits by reducing health service demand and maintaining employment and housing. The wider economic and social benefit of our work during 2020/21 totalled almost £8m.

As a small charity we are responsible for raising our funds. It costs, on average, £60 for each client that we help. To make a donation please visit www.caee.org.uk/donate/ Just £5 per month could enable us to help another client this year.

To get advice please use our freephone adviceline 0808 278 7963 or visit our website where you can get advice by emails and also find details of our drop in service.

Beavers and adults from 8th/14th Epsom (Air Scouts) and 3rd Epsom (St Martins) joined over 400 Beavers and leaders from other Surrey Scout groups. Beavers Go Wild is an overnight camp which is held at Bentley Copse Activity Centre, south of Guildford, which is owned by Surrey Scouts.

During last weekend over 50 activities were on offer including Zip Line, Go Karts, climbing, caving, bouncy castles, making large bubbles, giant games, target slingshot paintballing, assault course and many more. In addition, young Beavers got to learn about Rail Safety by Network Rail who brought their train set, which is part of giving Scouting “skillsforlife”.

Denise Iverson, Assistant County Commissioner (Beaver Scouts), said: “Fun and Friends, it was great seeing all the children and leaders meeting new and old friends”.

Beaver Scouts are 6–8 years old, the next section on from Squirrels which are 4-6 years old.

Barnaby a Beaver Scout aged 6.5 from Epsom & Ewell, said: “I liked the campfire because it was nice and toasty.” Evelyn a Beaver Scout aged 6 from Farnham, said: “I liked the Zip Line as it feels like you are flying when you are doing it.” Matthew a Beaver Scout aged 7 from Pyford, said: “I liked doing all the activities with my friends.”

Finley a Beaver Scout aged 6.5 from Haslemere, said: “I liked the cave maze because there was lots of different ways out and campfire because there was lots of singing.” Jayden a Beaver Scout aged 7 from Sunbury, said: “I liked the cave maze because I like the dark.” Rory a Beaver Scout aged 7 from Farnham, said: “I liked the rock climbing as it was fun and challenging.” Vivian a Beaver Scout aged 7 from Farnham, said: “I liked the arts and crafts and I made some rope.”

All genders, races and backgrounds are welcome at Scouts. Every week, it gives almost half a million people aged 4-25 the skills they need for school, college, university, the job interview, the important speech, the tricky challenge and the big dreams: the skills they need for life.  

Scouts helps members gain these skills by encouraging them to ask the big questions and listen with wide open minds. It helps them to take a deep breath and speak up, think on their feet, ignore the butterflies and go for it. With Scouts, young people don’t give up – they get back up and try again, often with the support of the friends they’ve made there.  

Scout volunteers contribute more than 50 million hours of voluntary work each year to their local communities.

The Rotary Club of Epsom will mark historic progress toward a polio-free world while urging the community to help end the paralyzing disease. On Saturday 22nd October 2022 Epsom Rotary members are taking action for World Polio Day (24th) to raise awareness, funds, and support to end polio, a vaccine-preventable disease that still threatens children in parts of the world today.

There will be a stand in the Epsom Market Place, by the Clocktower, with members of the Epsom Rotary Club providing information on polio and the work being done to eradicate it. The Epsom Clock tower will be lit-up purple. The colour purple stems from a symbolic purple dot painted on the fingers of children to show they have been vaccinated.

When Rotary and its partners launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988, there were 350,000 cases of polio in 125 countries every year. We’ve made great progress against the disease since then. Today, polio cases have been reduced by 99.9 percent, and just two countries continue to report cases of wild poliovirus: Afghanistan and Pakistan. And we remain committed to the end.

With polio nearly eradicated, Rotary and its partners must sustain this progress and continue to reach every child with the polio vaccine. Without full funding and political commitment, this paralyzing disease could return to polio-free countries, putting children everywhere at risk. Rotary has committed to raising US$50 million each year to support global polio eradication efforts. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged to match that 2-to-1, for a total yearly contribution of $150 million.

Past Epsom Rotary Club President, Veronica Smith, is organizing the event and hopes that members of the local community will come and visit the stand and give support to this very worthy cause.

Rotary has contributed more than $2.2 billion to ending polio since 1985.

About Rotary
Rotary is a global network of 1.2 million neighbours, friends, leaders, and problem-solvers who unite and take action to create lasting change in communities around the globe. For more than 115 years, Rotary’s people of action have used their passion, energy, and intelligence to improve lives through service. From promoting literacy and peace to providing clean water and improving health care, Rotary members are always working to better the world. Visit endpolio.org to learn more about Rotary and the fight to eradicate polio.

Baroness Sheila Hollins has joined Freemen of the Borough, the local MP and others in their Patronage of The Friends of Horton Cemetery. Baroness Hollins is a leading figure nationally and worldwide in the field of psychiatry. A former President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the British Medical Association, she is an adviser to The Pope on the protection of minors and is a cross-bench member of the House of Lords.

The Charity’s 50+ strong research team leader, Kevin McDonnell, said “We are truly honoured that the charity’s objects have Baroness Hollin’s endorsement. Especially as on 6th September we launch our project “Out of Sight, Out of Mind“, supported by Historic England and Kings College London. The story of the Cemetery and the Stories of the lives of those buried there are becoming significant locally, nationally and internationally. We have researchers and followers here, across the United Kingdom and overseas. An extraordinary heritage putting Epsom on the world map.”

Dr Alana Harris, Director of Kings College’s Liberal Arts Department said “The project aims to restore dignity to the 9000 patients buried beside Epsom’s Hook Road, in Europe’s largest asylum cemetery. Our project seeks to recapture these stories and to create a crowd-sourced memorial, overcoming historical amnesia, neglect, and inaction. We are seeking volunteers (who will be trained, and work in pairs) to lead public engagement ‘chat and craft’ workshops, which will discuss the history of the ‘Epsom Asylum’ cluster and its cemetery.”

You can find out more at an information session on Tuesday 6th September 4pm-6pm at St. Barnabas Church, Temple Road, Epsom KT19 8HA and you can contact the Project via www.hortoncemetery.org

Gillian Nichols of Epsom and Ewell Foodbank writes: What price do you put on mental health? Among the people that visit foodbanks, many have severe mental health issues due to traumatic experiences, poor circumstances, and often unaddressed medical issues they’ve faced in their lives. At Epsom Foodbank we have a higher motive than simply feeding the people who need us.

We want to help reduce the need for our Foodbank services through addressing the cause of the problem, not just the problem itself. And we are already doing this very successfully.
Our outstanding counselling service has been sitting alongside the foodbank, working with clients to help them move on from their problems towards independence and work.
It’s hard for many of us to understand the plight of the people we help. It is best described in their own words which you can read at the end of this letter.
To have a qualified Counsellor available at our Foodbank is a huge asset which has changed lives. We really want to do more of this. But we need funding in order to do it. And it doesn’t take a huge amount. In fact, just £50 per month would make all the difference.
A partnership or donation from your company can enable our Counsellor to keep working with people, building their confidence, and helping them escape from dependence by listening, offering therapy services, and having them know someone is there and looking out for them.
Everyone knows the importance of mental health, and how poor mental health lies at the root of so many social issues. If you can help support this incredible life-changing service, contact gillianaudreynichols@gmail.com

Ro Stretton from Epsom has signed up to the Baylis & Harding Free Recycling Programme offered by recycling experts TerraCycle. By sending waste to TerraCycle, Ro also raises money for charities Univida and Christ Church Epsom. Ro also collects other items for recycling including Pringles tubes, cheese packaging, biscuit and snack wrappers and bread bags

Epsom resident, Ro Stretton, has signed up as one of the UK’s first public collection points for recycling used Baylis & Harding products.  The free recycling programme was created by Baylis & Harding in partnership with TerraCycle, the world leaders in recycling “hard-to-recycle” waste.

Ro has set up a publicly accessible drop-off location at her home at 233 The Greenway, Epsom, allowing the whole Epsom community to drop-off items including Baylis & Harding caps, hand and mist pumps, flexible plastic lotion tubes, screw tops and Goodness hand wash refill pouches to be sent to TerraCycle for recycling.

While most Baylis & Harding products can be recycled through traditional methods, unfortunately some products can end up in landfill as local councils simply don’t have the infrastructure to recycle these materials.  By taking their waste to Ro’s location, members of the community can give their Baylis & Harding products a second life.

The collected waste Ro sends in to TerraCycle is recycled by shredding, cleaning and turning into a pellet format which can then be used by manufacturers to create new generic plastic products, reducing the need to extract new resources from the planet.

Ro commented: “Everyone is aware of how important it is to waste less and recycle more, but this can be a challenge when kerbside recycling collections are limited to certain items. TerraCycle’s free programmes are great because they allow whole communities to give a second life to the waste that’s usually destined for landfill or incineration.”

As well as recycling the waste they receive, TerraCycle awards points for each parcel of waste Ro sends in, which can be redeemed as a monetary donation to the causes of their choice – Univida and Christ Church Epsom.

Ro continued: “So far we’ve raised more than £1,500 for charity by sending this waste to TerraCycle. We donate the funds to Univida, which provides education, support, and food to children in Brazilian Favelas, and Christ Church Epsom which provides support to local people in need. The more we collect, the more we can donate, so I’d encourage everyone in the community to get involved.”

As well as collecting Baylis & Harding products, Ro also collects on the Cathedral City Cheese Packaging, pladis (the company behind McVitie’s and Jacob’s) Biscuits and Snacks, Marigold Gloves, Philips Dental Care and Babybel Free Recycling Programmes, among others, enabling the people of Epsom to recycle waste including cheese packaging, biscuit and snack wrappers, dental care products and packaging and more. For a full list of what Ro can accept, visit https://www.facebook.com/greenwayterracycle/.

There are other similar drop off addresses and Epsom and Ewell including one at 72 Hookfield, Epsom and Rymans in Epsom High Street. Go to TerraCycle for details and search locations

About TerraCycle

TerraCycle is an international leader in innovative sustainability solutions, creating and operating first-of-their-kind platforms in recycling, recycled materials, and reuse.  Across 21 countries, TerraCycle is on a mission to rethink waste and develop practical solutions for today’s complex waste challenges. The company engages an expansive multi-stakeholder community across a wide range of accessible programs, from Fortune 500 companies to schools and individuals. An estimated 6.9 million people across the UK have helped us to divert more than 231 million items of packaging waste from landfill while earning over £2,000,000 for schools, charities and non-profit organisations. To learn more about TerraCycle and join them on their journey to move the world from a linear economy to a circular one, please visit www.terracycle.co.uk.

28th July David King and Cynthea Blunden of the Epsom Common Association (ECA) represented Epsom & Ewell at the Green Flag Award ceremony in Lambeth Community Hall. This marked the sixteenth successive year that Epsom Common has received this award, which describes itself as “the international quality mark for parks and green spaces”.
Much of the Common is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England consider all of this land to be in “favourable” condition. Taken together, these points suggest that Epsom and Ewell Borough Council, which owns and manages the Common, is successfully balancing the various and sometimes conflicting demands of a recreational open space and a nationally important nature reserve. The new flag will be flying over Stamford Green just as soon as the flagpole that blew down last winter is replaced.

At 176 hectare, Epsom Common is the largest Local Nature Reserve in Surrey, with habitats including: rough grassland, woodland with veteran oak pollards, remnants of heath, and several ponds. Management is guided by the Council’s One Hundred Year Plan: 2016 to 2116, which has been approved by Natural England. Clearly woodland containing trees aged five hundred years or more takes some time to reach maturity, but even grassland, consisting of short lived plants, takes many years to fully develop its potential range of plants and animals. So planning for the long term is essential.

The ECA was founded by local residents in 1974 to fight a proposed road across the Common. In 1979, in partnership with the Council, the ECA completed the restoration of Great Pond dam, recreating the mediaeval pond that had been drained in the Victorian era. Nowadays the ECA has a membership of around five hundred households, and works closely with the Council’s Countryside Team and the Lower Mole Partnership to protect and improve the Common. After two years with activity limited by the pandemic, the usual programme of events has resumed.

As well as their conservation work, by the end of this year ECA will have: distributed three newsletters; held two public meetings with guest speakers; and arranged several expert led guided walks, looking at birds, butterflies, etc. Every few years they also hold an “Epsom Common Day” on Stamford Green, most recently in 2019.

On Tuesday evenings in summer (until the end of August) the volunteers hand-pull bracken for a couple of
hours, to prevent selected areas of heath or grassland being smothered. Their labours are relieved by a break for homemade sparkling elderflower drink and chocolate brownies. During the autumn ECA will hold the three remaining conservation tasks of the year’s programme of eight. Each task runs for two days, usually the third Sunday of the month and the following Monday. The task programme is guided by the One Hundred Year Plan and agreed with the Council’s Countryside Team. The work typically involves removing scrub and small trees to maintain and improve areas of grass and heath; they have also planted a hazel coppice.

Why is all this management work desirable? Old photographs show that before the Second World War much of the Common was open, with small areas of woodland and some old trees, many of which are still alive. Much of the open land was ploughed for agriculture during and immediately after the war. This ceased around 1955, and most of the Common was then essentially left alone. By the 1980s the previously ploughed area had become an almost impenetrable mass of young trees. This uniformity of age, along with the absence of the animals such as: aurochs (the extinct large wild ancestor of domestic cattle), wild boar, beaver, etc., that once shaped woodland and kept it more open, resulted in a habitat that was neither particularly natural nor rich in variety of
plants or animals. On the Common, grassland and lowland heath were probably manmade habitats, arising from a combination of tree felling and grazing, but they support species not found in woodland. By careful management a mixture of grassland, heath, ponds and varied woodland, can be created and maintained, leading to a much greater range of plants and animals.

During the summer, three areas of the Common are grazed by cattle, this year a total of fourteen animals. The cattle graze the grass and heathland in a way that cannot be replicated by mowing. In recent years the Great Pasture has been extended to include an area of woodland, a habitat in which the cattle’s ancestors would have been at home. Today’s Belted Galloways and Dexters also appear happy to forage amongst the trees, particularly during hot weather. For their health the cattle must be checked every day, as are the fence lines and water troughs. Each week the ECA provides four of the daily checks; without their contribution it is unlikely that grazing could be continued.

Finally, ECA make excellent hardwood charcoal from logs harvested during conservation work. Last year, thanks to a grant from the Council’s Community Infrastructure Levy, they were able to take delivery of a modern charcoal retort. Compared with the conventional ring kilns used previously, the retort greatly reduces the smoke and increases the yield. The charcoal sales help finance ECA’s activities. Volunteers are not paid, but of course they do have to pay for tools, fuel, insurance, etc.

If you would like to find out more about ECA’s efforts to keep the Common special, please visit their
website: epsomcommon.org.uk or our Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/EpsomCommonAssociation

They welcome new members, whether you wish to take part in conservation tasks or simply support their efforts through your membership.

See also press release from Epsom and Ewell Borough Council issued 12th August

Council Pride in Not Uncommon Green Flag

The Epsom Refugee Network has succeeded in securing for 75 students of all young ages a six-week Summer school at St Johns in Leatherhead. With the generous support of the school, 25 teachers, 30 general volunteers and donors the school provides English lessons, playtime and opportunities for refugee children fleeing war zones and persecutions to be “children again” and make friendships. Afghani, Syrian and Ukrainian children mix happily as one together with English and refugee teachers and volunteers.

Chris Grayling, Epsom and Ewell’s MP, visited Tuesday 2nd August and said to Epsom and Ewell Times’ reporter: “Epsom Refugee Network is amazing in what it has done. The school is a fantastic achievement and is making a huge difference”.

Ukrainian volunteer Olha Zyatyk said “It is a great thing really. A huge number of children, 114 have been registered, giving them a possibility to find friends and not feel alone. We learn from each other to understand the cultural differences. All helps make a new life in a new country”.

Helping Ukrainian refugees access work

A group of Epsom & Ewell Refugee Network volunteers are supporting Ukrainian refugees to find suitable employment in the local area.  Many Ukrainian refugees have professional qualifications and significant experience in areas such as: accountancy, medicine & health care, teaching and construction.  In order to secure a job in the UK at the same level they have previously been working at, many have to convert their Ukrainian qualifications into the UK recognised equivalent, an ambition which is both costly and time consuming.     

The Epsom & Ewell Refugee Network work support group is looking for local employers who can utilise the extensive skills and experience that these refugees bring to us now; who can offer jobs that do not require UK professional qualifications as a prerequisite to carry out associated or similar work; recognising that work offered in the UK is unlikely to be at the same level than they have recently been operating at.

If you have a vacancy that may be suitable for a Ukrainian refugee or want to know more please email: epsomrefugeenetwork@gmail.com 

For any further information on local initiatives to support refugees please visit Epsom & Ewell Refugee Networkwww.epsomrefugeenetwork.org