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Former Bookham Youth Centre to be re-purposed as a COVID-19 Food Distribution Hub

The Surrey Local Resilience Forum will be re-purposing the former Bookham Youth Centre as a food distribution hub, as part of the their response to COVID-19.The Property Services team at Surrey County Council (SCC) identified the former Bookham Youth Centre site for use as a distribution hub, a suggestion that was ratified by the Strategic Coordinating Group of the LRF on the 17th June. The building is currently having work undertaken to bring it up to specification for use as a food distri...

Local Information Services

There are a number of e-mail information and notification services available from MVDC, the Police etc. that residents may wish to subscribe to.  Clicking on the buttons to the right will take you to the service provider’s sign up page....

Looking After Bookham’s Green Spaces

Later this year the Bookham Youth Centre will be closing but fortunately the BRA Tree Warden team have been able to rescue some of the shrubs and plants and relocated them to the area outside of the library which had become almost devoid of plants as people walked through.Here’s  “before” and “after” photos of the work the Tree Wardens have completed.Excellent!Before:...

Join the Norbury Park Conservation Group!

Are you passionate about Norbury Park? Whether you can spare a full day, half a day or just a few hours volunteering is a chance to make a real difference to local wildlife, while learning useful skills, making new friends and increasing your knowledge of wildlife conservation.The Norbury Park Friday Conservation Group meets on the 3rd Friday of every month work on all aspects of conservation throughout the year. They have a varied programme of work which includes coppicing, hedge laying, s...

Bookham Station Platform One Accessibility

Tunnel Car Park to Platform One Footpath Accessibility: BRA Member Andrew Matthews reports on the options. Bookham Station is Grade II listed, and lies at the North of the Bookham villages. It has long been an issue that the London bound Platform One cannot be accessed by people using wheelchairs or mobility scooters, due to the lack of facilities at the station.The ideal solution is to provide a new footbridge with lifts, designed to be sympathetic to the station architecture, and car...

New Befriending Service for Bookham Residents aged 65+

Click here for more details from The Meeting Place...

Litter Pickers and Tree Wardens busy in Bookham!

On 2nd February the Litter Pickers were out in force with over 30 volunteers working their way around the village. In parallel the Tree Wardens were working on the verges on the A246 at the top of the High Street clearing overgrown bushes and conifer cuttings that had been dumped there. The team also planted some new plants that should soon bring some colour to the top of the High Street improving our village centre.All the litter and green waste was collected by Council contractors on Monday an...

“Wombling” Continues in 2021

Many folk have adopted a road, or two, near where they live, and are Wombling there. They pick up any litter on their “patch” whilst keeping a safe distance from others, in order to keep the area looking pleasant. I have grabs that you could use if you would like to be a Wombler too. Just get in touch with me and let me know which road will be on your “patch” It would be wonderful if we could have every road in the Bookhams covered. You can email me at litterpicking@bookhamresidents.org....

Enjoying the High Street & Church Road Christmas Lights?

Thanks again to Christian Dowse and his team at DCI on Bookham Industrial Estate for his quick work in getting all of the Christmas lights up again especially in this difficult year. Our High Street, Lower Shott and Church Road retailers have added their own displays and it has been good to see so many appreciative comments on the lights on local social media. Unfortunately we still have not managed to get the lights working at St Nicolas but at last we have a detailed plan and if the fundi...

Clarity on Local Government Re-organisation

Message from Matt Blake – Senior Communications Officer MVDCLeaders of Surrey’s District and Borough Councils Welcome Government Clarity on Local Government ReorganisationSurrey Leaders welcome the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s (MHCLG’s) recent announcement and clarity on local government reorganisation. MHCLG makes it clear there is no compulsion for proposals for reform of local government in two tier areas nor a need for structural change, but that any work g...

Claire’s Great Bookham Mask Tree

Bookham resident Claire Ede has been very busy over the last few months creating face coverings for people to use when out and about. So far Claire has made nearly 800 masks.They are made from three layers cotton with a lightweight interfacing or cotton/polycotton filter layer and follow World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines. It takes around 40 minutes to make a mask and Claire makes them in different sizes for adults and children and are machine washable.Each day Claire puts out a new batc...

Future Mole Valley Draft Local Plan Update

Update from Peter Seaward – BRA ChairmanThe BRA has been heavily involved in lobbying the Council to get a fair deal for Bookham from the Future Mole Valley Draft Local Plan. The BRA recognises, and wants the Council to respect, the effort and views expressed by all in the village as part of their engagement.By far the largest number of responses came from Bookham. We have been asking when we can see a summary of the results as MVDC will have to ensure that when this Plan goes to an Inspector ...

Minutes of 2020 BRA AGM

Minutes of the 93rd AGM held on 17th September 2020 and Directors’ Report For Year Ending 2019...

Lavender Catering and Mid Surrey Community Fridges Launch “Outreach Connect”

When local Bookham company, Lavender Catering, experienced a severe reduction in the number of functions they were catering for during the COVID-19 lock down, owner Melanie Williams turned her attention to providing a much needed free meals service to NHS staff at eight local hospitals. The NHS paid for supplies, and Melanie’s team prepared the meals and local volunteers delivered the meals to the hospitals.  As a little “thank you” to the NHS staff she also included some sweet t...

Blue Hearts and Wild Flowers

Restoring native wild flowers and encouraging biodiversity along some grass verges in Surrey is planned as part of Surrey County Council’s climate change initiatives. The Bookhams Residents’ Association is working with SCC to make this happen sympathetically in our area.Whilst most of our residential verges will still be mowed, the aim is to allow wild flowers to bloom and set seed on some wide verges, encouraging a diversity of butterflies and insect pollinators.A swathe along the road edge...

Blue Hearts Have Been Planted!

The first batch of “Blue Hearts”, kindly made and painted by Nick Haynes in Woodlands Road, have been ‘planted’ in the following locationsA246 north side east from Dobbes (3)A246 south side east from Dobbes  (3)A246 south side west from Bocketts roundabout (2)It is great to see that new wildflowers are coming through all the time, as some flower quite late. Over verges are all looking much better for it!What Are Blue Hearts?Restoring native wild flowers and encouraging biodiversity ...

Blue Hearts Update

Further to our previous article on the Blue Heart signs in place on some of the A246 verges which have been left unmown this summer to allow wildflowers to bloom and encourage a diversity of pollinators.The verges on the A246 lived up to our expectations with a variety of wildflowers continuing to flower as the summer progressed. Picture of one of our A246 hearts shared on Facebook got used in a BBC online article about Blue Hearts and their campaign in Leicestershire. Read more on the...

Bookham Community Fridge Has Moved!

Report from Valerie LambertThe Community Fridge is on the move! On Friday 17th July we moved the fridges and freezers and everything connected with the distribution of food to The Bookham Youth Centre.  We have been so grateful to the Baptist Church for being so accommodating and supportive over the last few months as the size of the “operation” grew.   We had to alter our way of working to take food bags of food out to many families and individuals who were affected by the Co...

Control of Dogs on Bookham Common

Little Bookham resident, Kirsten Asmussen, raised an important issue about dogs and some unpleasant and damaging incidents on Bookham Common on social media which created a lot of comments and concerns from residents.As a result, the BRA, Friends of Bookham Common, Bookham Councillors and representatives of the National Trust (NT) have met several times via video conferences to discuss the problems and what could be done to improve the situation. Unfortunately a key NT member, Ian Swinney who is...

465 Kingston via Leatherhead to Dorking: New timetable from 25th April 2020

No change in service provision, but, London United will be the bus operator of the 465 from the 25 April 2020 instead of Quality Line, formerly Epsom Buses. ...

Future Mole Valley Draft Local Plan: BRA Response Submitted

We have finished our response to the Draft Local Mole Valley Local Plan and delivered it to the Council on Monday, 23rd March.I need to thank many people who spent far too many hours of their personal time responding to this weighty document. Also thanks to Richard Davey and Dan Coffin of IliveinBookham Facebook and web sites did so much in providing and encouraging all in the village to respond individually to Mole Valley Council.Les Huett and Carolyn Elson with Dan Coffin and Richard Davey hel...

Middlemead Road Newsletter Issue 22: March 2020

From: Alexandra RobinsClick the button at the bottom of this page for PDF version....

Local Bus Services – Experiencing a Problem?

Should you have a problem with one our bus services please can you contact BRA either on its Helpline 0300 030 9890 or by filling out the online Message form and we will get back to you. The information required, please, is the date and time, the bus route number, the problem experienced at the location and where the bus was going.  There have been many roadworks, plus, flooding in our area that have  been affecting our bus services and it would help us if we can see whe...

The Planter Planted!

Update – 24th January 2020 A big thanks to The Vineries for planting up the new planter in Church Road. It’s been a long haul getting it in place. After receiving the money from Mole Valley Council and permission from Surrey County Council, I ordered a black planter to match the black and gold litter bins. As sod’s law would have it, the bins were changed to green and gold… and when the planter eventually arrived it was white! As there was now no possibility of matching anything, we...

Middlemead Road Resident’s Newsletter – January 2020

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