I am holding a meeting at 1900 hours on Tuesday 21^st August at the United Reform Church. The meeting will be an open forum for residents of Elstead.

The idea of the meeting is for local residents or shop keepers to have a debate about what they consider to be problems within the village. People in attendance will then vote, the problem with the most votes will be the issue that I take away and try to deal with.

The June meeting was my first Parish Council meeting and it was an interesting experience as we were discussing issues affecting everyone living in Elstead. 

We were happy to hear that our new policeman, PC Damion Berridge, has started work and he has already been in touch with a few local organisations. We will be inviting him to attend a Parish Council meeting to talk about his plans for policing Elstead.

Traffic management has long been a concern, and we will soon be having a special meeting with Surrey County Council Highway Engineer Simon Hall to talk about how we can deploy the funds available (£15,000) to best effect.  There are many issues to be discussed, particularly motorists driving over the speed limit along the Milford and Thursley Roads. We are all eager to see the most effective traffic management controls implemented. Watch this space.

Concerns were raised by Councillors about the untidy overgrown grass verges around the village. These come under the jurisdiction of Waverley Borough Council (WBC) and Councillor Bryn Morgan undertook to contact WBC to make sure that these were cut on a more regular basis.

The Thursley Road cemetery also falls under WBC's remit and many villagers have commented on its unkempt state. We will be asking WBC to remedy this situation. While on the subject of cemeteries, Councillor Andrew Jones has conducted a comprehensive overview of the Woolfords Lane cemetery, and his observations will be discussed at the July meeting once all Councillors have had the chance to view the cemetery themselves.

Surrey County Councillor David Harmer gave a fascinating report on issues affecting the local area, including the siting of new landfill sites, the proposed gravel mining near Eashing and the upgrade of community recycling centres. He also announced that he had £3,000 to allocate to capital expenditure projects in Elstead. Councillors will be presenting their ideas on how best to spend this money to benefit the community at the 17^th September meeting.

I was pleased to be nominated for the WBC's Local Strategic Partnership. The way public services work together makes a big difference to their effectiveness and the Partnership, which comprises organisations such as Surrey Police, WBC and the Guildford Primary Care Trust, meets to ensure that groups providing or receiving public services are co-operating and communicating to ensure their efficient operation. The aim is also to find solutions to key problems identified by the public.

The next meeting is at 7.30 pm on 20^th August at the URC Hall, Milford Road, Elstead.

The public is welcome and anyone wishing to raise a matter relating to Council business is able to do so at 8 pm. See you there!