The following email has been received from Robert Evans, a Spelthorne Councillor. It should be read carefully so as to avoid disappointment if the strict rules are not followed:

Opening of Charlton Lane recycling Centre and other Surrey sites.

I have been chasing Surrey to carefully re-open the dump and so I am pleased to confirm that a phased opening of the so called Community Recycling Centre (CRC) from Monday May 11th.The plan has been agreed in accordance with the set of government guiding principles, agreed by Surrey which are set out below in order of importance:

1. The reopening of the CRC sites will not adversely affect kerbside collections

2. Social distancing measures will be in place at each of the CRCs that are opened

3. Queuing to get onto sites will be minimised

We will open in two phases. The objective of Phase 1 is to deal with the initial surge of ‘pent up’ demand by maximising throughput of the sites, whilst maintaining social distancing principles. To enable a high throughput and fast turn-around by visitors, only two materials will be accepted at the sites (green garden waste and black bag residual waste).

The predominant waste type collected at our CRCs at this time of year is green garden waste and we expect this to be the commodity that residents will most wish to dispose of at the CRC. Offering a further service for black bag residual waste will take pressure of the district and borough collection services which are already dealing with increased volumes of waste with people staying at home.

When re-opening the CRCs the need for social distancing will mean that access to a CRC will need to be carefully controlled with restrictions on the number of users on site at any one time and the application of a strict one-in one-out policy, once that limit is reached. The overriding objective is to protect the health and safety of both the SUEZ staff and members of the public.

We are devising highway management plans by site to control the traffic to reduce queuing, this will include the use of traffic marshals at some sites. We are also maximising where we can to accommodate queuing cars on the site.

In phase 1, the majority of residents will have a journey of no more than ten miles although some will unfortunately have to travel up to 13 miles.

We expect phase 1 to continue until we are confident we can move to phase 2 when we will accept more materials. The key is to be flexible for up to a month but it may be shorter or longer depending on the observed level of demand. We will be reviewing regularly. Detailed arrangements for phase 1 operation are set out below.

During phase 1 no vans, trailers will be allowed on the sites and no permit or residents checks will be undertaken to ensure compliance with social distancing requirements. In addition only one person will be permitted to exit the vehicle to load waste into the containers.

Also an important point to note is that there will be no assistance available to help any residents during phase 1 of the reopening plan to comply with the requirements for social distancing.

Phase 1 reopening – detailed plan by site

CRC Opening hours Comments

Shepperton 9:00 – 18:00 This is one of the busiest CRCs in Surrey and is collocated with the Eco Park and bulking transfer facility.

Chertsey (Lyne) 9:00 –18:00 This site has a long internal access road which could accommodate queuing and separate HGV access

The other Surrey sites will either not be re-opening yet or have different times.

It has been reported in the national press that more than 1,700 deaths in the Uk have been avoided in the past month due to lower air pollution during lockdown. The following is an extract from an email received by LOSRA on 30th April from Spelthorne Council's Principal Pollution Control Officer:

We have been starting to look at the impacts of lockdown on local air quality. Spelthorne’s Air Quality consultants, Ricardo, have been analysing the environmental impact of Covid19, which you can read here: https://airqualitynews.com/2020/03/31/ricardo-an-analysis-of-covid-19-lockdown-on-uk-local-air-pollution/.

We have been advised that the analysis for London Harlington will be in the right ball park for Spelthorne. It has been suggested to us by them that Spelthorne will be benefitting from 30-40 per cent reduction of nitrous oxides (NOx). Harlington is downwind of Heathrow so will be more impacted by reductions in airport operations. The Air Quality News website has a number of articles about local air quality during the Covid-19 pandemic.

As said before, weather is a massive factor in air quality. Until yesterday, the weather during lockdown has been warm and settled. This means that emissions do not disperse and hang around and build up in levels. At the start of lock down the wind direction was from the east and so we were getting long-range particulate pollution from Europe. Consequently, due to both these factors there have been a number of regional pollution incidents across Surrey/ the South East since lockdown started: e.g.

• Moderate levels of particles and ozone in late April 2020 (22/04/2020 to 27/04/2020) – this episode was caused by sustained, hot, calm weather preventing dispersion of pollution;
• Moderate levels of particles (PM10 and PM2.5) and ozone during mid-April 2020 (05/04/2020 to 12/04/2020) – this episode was driven by air coming in from the near continent resulting in imported particulate pollution; and
• Moderate levels of particles (PM2.5) and ozone during late March 2020 (25/03/2020 to 27/03/2020) – this episode was also a result of easterly wind directions from Europe and wood burning emissions.

If you have the chance to remind your members about our AirAlert pollution episode alert service to assist those with heart and lung conditions, that would be much appreciated. People can sign up via:

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Website: www.airalert.info/Surrey/
Telephone: 01737 276 403

The following comprehensive press release from our Council (and which has cross party support) was released on 24th April. We are very pleased to reproduce it here and to extend our heartfelt thanks to all the officers and members who have worked so tirelessly on our behalf:

Spelthorne Borough Council is working tirelessly to best support our residents and local businesses throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

Spelthorne Borough Council closed its offices 6 weeks ago in response to Covid19 and rapidly moved to a virtual footing, successfully adapting our services to ensure residents still had access to the support they needed while maintaining  ‘business as usual’ across our remaining services.

Since the crisis began daily conference calls of senior managers have coordinated the provision of services for residents. These have become a vital tool in order to orchestrate immediate support to vulnerable residents in our community and trying to mitigate the impact on businesses in the Borough. Regular engagement with regional and local resilience forums has ensured a coordinated and effective response to this unprecedented situation.

Covid-19 has highlighted extreme challenges for the Council with staff redeployment (roughly a quarter of our workforce have volunteered to be redeployed) a necessity to establish our community hub ‘Support4Spelthorne, support the increasing number of welfare calls to our residents and reassign staff to assist with the customer services team offering financial and housing advice.

A summary of actions taken by the Borough include:

Community Support

• our community hub ‘Support4Spelthorne’ set up to provide food parcels and welfare calls for vulnerable residents.
• 1,883 residents who were identified as the most vulnerable (category A) by the government have been contacted by us to see what support they need and escalated if required
• welfare calls and email checks have been made to an additional 4,000 residents (category B) who we have identified as also being vulnerable
• our community helpline is open 7 days a week, 12 hours a day and the team is making over 150 checks per day
• working with the NHS to ensure patients have somewhere to live and a support network in place after leaving hospital
• local rough sleepers have been identified and placed into accommodation where possible
• assisting Voluntary Support North Surrey which has responded to over 500 requests for volunteers to assist with tasks e.g. shopping and prescription delivery

Food and welfare support

• over 1,000 Meals-on-Wheels are being delivered on a weekly basis to priority residents as well as additional frozen meals and sandwiches
• working alongside the borough’s local food banks who have distributed over 80,000 meals/food parcels since the crisis began
• offering both financial and equipment assistance to our food banks and community groups and brokering major donations and support from MacDonald’s, Primark, BP and London Irish
• Delivery of prescriptions to over 150 households in partnership with voluntary groups.

Neighbourhood services

• providing a full rubbish/recycling collection service. Picture 54 Spelthorne waste trucks on top of each other and that is how much waste our crews have picked up in the last 2 weeks; 717 tonnes of domestic waste, 361 tonnes of recycling, 224 tonnes of garden waste and 108 tonnes of food waste and have also cleared away 77 fly tips
• our ground maintenance teams and street cleansing continue to ensure our parks, cemeteries and streets are maintained and stay clean and safe for the community to use
• all car parks apart from Elmsleigh and Tothill remain open and free parking has been introduced for NHS/Police and social care staff
• working with Surrey Police to ensure anti-social behaviour is being monitored and responded to
• community Safety teams and Enforcement Officers continue to operate across the Borough

Financial support

• over £8m has been paid in business grants (as at end of 23/4/20 600 grants) 
• offering help and advice to residents who are claiming benefits for the first time
• encouraging residents to contact us if they are having problems paying their Council Tax and other bills from the Council
• signposting residents, businesses and the self-employed to the support/grants which are available if they have suffered a loss in income

Environmental health

• the team has visited over 600 businesses to check they are adhering to the closure and social distancing guidelines
• helping residents who are being affected by neighbourhood noise and smoky bonfires
• the team continue to safeguard the public by carrying on with the licencing of taxis, houses in multiple occupation, and animal boarding establishments.  They are also continuing to enforce food hygiene regulations within food retail premises

Communications

In this unprecedented time, it has never been more important for councils to communicate effectively with their community ensuring information is up to date, accurate and accessible.

• Frequent E-News Covid19 Bulletins with all the latest information and support details, register online at; www.spelthorne.gov.uk/enews
• posters and leaflets with advice on how to get support in the community distributed door to door to residents that have assisted waste collections, also available at foodbanks and shared with our charity partners, your elected Councillors , Residents Associations groups and on our community noticeboards
• daily updates on social media pages (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn) , please follow these pages for the latest advice and matters of community interest
• videos from The Leader of the Council, Cllr Ian Harvey on Council activities and messages of support during the pandemic
• dedicated web pages for residents and businesses www.spelthorne.gov.uk/coronavirus
• regular verbal and written updates to all councillors in the Borough

“Our staff have been working hard around the clock to best meet the needs of our community, especially the most vulnerable. Many teams have been re-deployed and are doing a fantastic job in difficult times. We want to assure you that the Council will continue to work tirelessly to offer the essential services that residents in the Borough require. We are also immensely grateful to and proud of all NHS staff, care workers and key workers working on the frontline saving lives and making sure that essential services and care are being provided to those in need.  We are also immensely heartened to see that residents are providing neighbourhood support, are assisting food banks and Voluntary Support North Surrey. While these are difficult times, the fact that our community is helping and supporting those in need shows how caring our Borough is.”

Cllr Ian Harvey

Leader of the Council, Conservatives

Cllr Sandra Dunn

Leader, Liberal Democrats Group

Cllr Jan Doerfel

Leader, Green Party Group

Cllr Veena Siva

Leader, Labour Party Group

Kwasi Kwarteng, MP for Spelthorne, said: “I want to thank all the key workers across the Borough for the work that you continue to do as we get through this coronavirus pandemic together. I pay tribute to all those involved at the Council with establishing our community hub, ‘Support4Spelthorne’. For many this service will offer a lifeline of hope – ensuring we are reaching out to those must vulnerable in our Borough.  Thank you to all the volunteers in Spelthorne, I am so proud to be the MP for Spelthorne. The level of support and generosity shown by people across the constituency wishing to help those self-isolating has been incredible.”

If you need support, please contact the Support4Spelthorne team by email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 01784 446446.

If you would like to volunteer, please visit www.spelthorne.gov.uk/volunteer

The following notice regarding bonfires has been issued by the Council:

We are seeing a sharp rise in the number of complaints about garden bonfires.

Many people are having to stay at home due to the coronavirus (covid-19) (and this includes those who are working, those that do not or are unable to work and/ or those convalescing). This, along with the good weather is drawing people into their gardens. We therefore urge everyone to be considerate towards your neighbours, particularly during this difficult time.

We know that you will have more difficulty disposing of your garden waste at this time (normal refuse collections should not be impacted), but please do not have a bonfire - whether it be an open fire or an incinerator. Not only can it be a nuisance, it can cause distress to your neighbours particularly those suffering from respiratory and/or other medical problems. The smoke caused by a bonfire will make those problems worse.

Instead, if possible, please store what you can until things get back to normal and/or consider composting your waste.

Domestic, trade or building waste should not be burnt.

Any bonfires that the Council considers to be a Statutory Nuisance will be served with an abatement notice. Failure to comply with an abatement notice could result in prosecution and a fine of up to £5,000.

Further information about bonfires can be found here: https://www.spelthorne.gov.uk/article/17865/Bonfires-and-smoke

The Friends of Sunbury Park (FoSP) have discussed with the Council the annual grazing of cattle in Sunbury Park and the impact this year of the Covid19 pandemic.

Both the Council and the grazier agreed that this year, the effects of the coronavirus meant that things would need to be a little different.

Based on the representations put forward by FoSP and others, in the spirit of compromise and maintenance of the council relationship with the grazier; and being seen to do the right thing by the users of Sunbury Park, the arrival of the cows would be delayed at least until the lockdown is over.

The situation will thereafter be revisited to assess whether any grazing is required or warranted for the rest of the season.