Local Authority

The £600,000 plans to spruce up Ashford, Sunbury Cross and Shepperton are set to include new street furniture, more car parking and the creation of a BMX track or skate park.

At a Surrey county council local committee meeting, held on Monday, March 15, plans were presented which detailed how £200,000 would be spent on each of the towns to rejuvenate them.

The money, is to be spent on Church Road in Ashford, the High Street in Shepperton and the underpass in Sunbury Cross.

Spelthorne's neighbourhood inspector will be returning to the borough after a return of around six months.

Sarah Greenhalgh will return on Sunday March and take over from the acting inspector Rebecca Kempster.

For the past few months PC Greenhalgh has been working on the Operational Policing Review Team at Surrey Police's headquarters, Mount Browne.

Residents of a quiet Ashford road have spoken of their shock after a bungalow has gone up in flames for the second time in two years.

Home-owners living in Ashford Avenue could not get in or out of their road after the bungalow at the end of the road went up in flames at around 3.10pm on Thursday (March 11).

Spelthorne council is one of the 68 local authorities in the country who have microchips installed in their bins.

The news comes after campaign group Big Brother Watch sent a Freedom of Information Request to every council in the country to find out if they micro chipped household collection rubbish bins.

Residents in Spelthorne will face a 0% increase in council tax and staff will forgo any increase in pay or allowances as the budget for 2010/11 was announced on Thursday (24).

In a full council meeting held at the Civic Offices, in Knowle Green, Leader of Spelthorne council John Packman also declared that cuts were to be made to make savings in an effort to balance the budget.

Mr Packman stated that due to the economic downturn the council needed to help residents that were finding times tough.

Parents will be able to get storytelling tips at a library workshop held later this month.

On Thursday March 25 Alex Somerville will host the event where three to five year olds can hear him tell stories, and then give tips to their parents.

The free event is being held between 9.30-11am.

By the end of March new initiatives will have been put in place by Spelthorne council in an attempt to improve public confidence in dealing with crime and anti social behaviour.

A £42,000 grant has been given to the borough council by the Home Office to fund schemes and to buy new equipment which will reduce the amount of crime in Spelthorne.

One of the initiatives to have been given funding, is the Construction Bus scheme, which was put in place last year and teaches children from age 11 basic skills such as carpentry, plumbing and bricklaying.

Spelthorne Council are calling on the National Grid to restore an area of Woodland in Ashford which they left in a 'poor state' after contract work.

Contractors working for the grid removed about 40 mature poplar trees from a piece of land on the A308 near Bronzefield Prison in December to make overhead power lines safe, but they have been accused of 'over-stepping their boundaries' and cutting down more trees than needed and ruining the place.
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An Ashford dad has accused Spelthorne Council's planning department of being corrupt after claiming to exposing cover ups and contradictions during a four-year-long battle.

Kevin Young lives in a bungalow in Staines Road West, and has been fighting the council, two ombudsmen, and a planning inspectorate over a development of flats next to his house since 2006.

A mother who has been without a phone in her house for two months fears for her epileptic daughter's safety because she can't ring 999.

Marie Bone moved into her new flat in St Michael's Road on November 30 last year with her 10-year-old daughter Chloe, who has suffered from epilepsy since last year.