Local people

The re-elected Surrey County councillor for Ashford has created a neighbourhood watch for her area.

Cllr Carol Coleman, of Nelson Road, decided to set it up after a burglary happened in the road in May, and is in the final process of sorting out the paperwork.

The aims are to keep the residents vigilant and make them feel safer by notifying Surrey Police when they see suspicious behaviour.

Tributes have been given for a community midwife who gave her time helping people less fortunate than themselves.

On Monday May 11 a thanksgiving service was held at the Salvation Army Centre in Woodthorpe Road, Ashford, to remember Wendy Howells, who passed away on April 23 of a pulmonary embolism.

Framework, the framing shop in Woodthorpe Road, Ashford, is to close on Saturday, March 14 after 21 years.

Owners Jim and Mary Cowell, who began framing in 1985 in a unit in Tilly's Lane in Staines before moving to Ashford three years later when Two Rivers was built on that site, are retiring when their lease comes up for renewal.

As a new programme hits our screens documenting the toils of working as a medic on Afghanistan's front line, Ed Saunt met one of the men who risked his life to treat the injured.

It is one thing facing a torrent of abuse while picking up the pieces on a Friday night but it is quite another treating a wounded soldier while under enemy fire in Helmand province.

Two years ago it was dubbed 'Trash Tech' but now Thomas Knyvett College has been recognised as one of the most improved schools in the country.

The reputation of the former Ash Technology College and Ashford High School was in tatters when it was relaunched as Thomas Knyvett in 2007 but its remarkable turnaround has culminated in a letter of praise from Schools Minister Jim Knight.

A woman has been robbed as she cycled in Ashford by a "dirty" looking thief who leapt out of a car and snatched her handbag.

The victim was at the junction of Normanhurst Road and Feltham Hill Road when a light green Xantia pulled out in front of her causing her to stop.

Burglars have broken into two Ashford homes and tried to raid several more by reaching through the letterbox to open the front door.

And residents are being warned to lock themselves in at night after intruders got into the homes in Avondale Road and Gordon Road that had not been deadlocked on Friday January 23.

Snow has brought Surrey to a standstill as schools have closed, services have been cancelled and residents have been urged to stay inside.

Surrey County Council closed all schools in the county this morning due to the severe weather conditions.

It was once a bastion of village life but The Feathers pub in Laleham now lies empty with villagers wondering if it has a future.

The pub, which is more than 200 years old, closed last month and is now boarded up and on the market, with its very existence uncertain.

When Ken Willis spotted an 'extremely rare' shrub found in Cornwall being lauded on the BBC, he was shocked to find it was the same plant he had been growing in his Ashford garden for 10 years.

The Colletia Paradoxa - which is known as the Aeroplane or Crucifix Tree because of its shape and extremely sharp thorns - was featured on BBC2's Gardeners' World and in the Daily Mail last month.