Back for its seventh consecutive year, the Spelthorne Business Awards showcase the very best local businesses in the Borough.

The awards offer a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the achievements of Spelthorne's most innovative, inspiring and successful businesses. With categories to suit every enterprise - whether you're a start-up, a thriving small business, or a larger organisation with over 50 employees - there's something for everyone.

The 2025 Spelthorne Business Awards are free to enter and straightforward to apply for. Categories span a wide range of industries and business sectors, culminating in one outstanding business being crowned Spelthorne Best Business of the Year.

Entries are now open until midnight on Monday 30 June, with finalists being announced on Tuesday 15 July. This fabulous event culminates in a special black tie awards ceremony on Friday 3 October at the Holiday Inn, London - Shepperton.

For further information go to: https://www.spelthorne.gov.uk/article/16882/Spelthorne-Business-Awards

The next Music Night at Sunbury Cricket Club is on Friday 14th March and is the Club's now-traditional annual event in aid of The Mayor of Spelthorne’s Charities, featuring their house band THE CHAIN GANG.

This year’s Mayor is Cllr. Med Buck, a councillor for Riverside & Laleham, whose charities are Daybreak Respite Care at St. Peter’s Church, Staines, and the Jasmine Suite, the Ashford & St. Peter’s Breast Cancer Unit.

As ever, the Club has assembled the great and good of a local musicians collective led by Music Night organiser Paul Watts, under their customary name of THE CHAIN GANG in honour of the Mayor’s chain of office, to give their services free to perform what will be a great night of 60s, rock ‘n’ roll, blues, country and rock classics.

This year’s line-up features Karl Green, the former original and long-time bass player in Herman’s Hermits, along with guitarists Gerry Cook from Matrix, Mark Doyle from the Marshall Taylor Band and Tim Renton from 3AM, plus bass players Martin House from Matrix and Roger Harding from the Thames TV Big Band, drummer Stephane Booroff from Sky High and The Escorts, and formerly with Edison Lighthouse, and harmonica wizard Geoff Forester, who has played with numerous blues luminaries.

All proceeds go to the Mayor’s Charities, and the Club looks forward to a bumper crowd for a fun community night to raise as much as we can for two very good causes.

It's £10.00 on the door payable by cash or card. Hot food, prepared by the expert chefs from resident caterers from the community food distribution organisation Surplus To Supper, will be available as usual from about 6.30pm, and the band will be on stage around 8.30-8.45. We look forward to seeing you there.

Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) Sahara Andrews, the officer with specific responsibility for Lower Sunbury, will be giving local residents the opportunity to meet her and discuss their issues outside the Post Office on Avenue Parade on Wednesday 12^th March between 10:00 am and 11:30 am. This is your chance to have a chat with your local PCSO about any issues you may have or ask questions about the safety and security of your local area. Please do go along and say hello – if she gets lots of engagement, she will hopefully come again soon!

We are sad to report the death at the age of 97 of the legendary jazz drummer and bandleader and popular local personality Tony Kinsey. Born in Sutton Coldfield in 1927, he had his first professional engagement as a teenager in the immediate post-war years, before moving to London and subsequently working on Transatlantic liners in “Geraldo’s Navy” so that he could see the top jazzmen in New York.

He was a founder member of the Johnny Dankworth Seven and was one of the pioneering coterie of modern jazz musicians who started Studio 51 in Soho to perform the new music. He accompanied visiting stars like Lena Horne, Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan when they visited the UK, and for 10 years from 1954 into the ‘60s he led his Quartets and Quintets during a long-term residency at The Flamingo Club, where through his astuteness and popularity as a leader most of the luminaries of British modern jazz passed through his ranks, making him one of the most influential and important figures in the genre.   

He recorded prolifically through these years, not only with his bands but playing on sessions with pop artists, appearing in many hits. During the ‘70s he worked on the TV show That’s Life, writing a topical song every week to be performed on the show, and he also began composing library music for use on film and TV, writing a couple of film soundtracks. In recent years he has composed many jazz and classical works, including string quartets and big band suites, which have been performed and recorded. 

He lived in the same house in Lower Sunbury since the 1960s with his wife Pat, who died in 2019 after a near 70-year marriage. He became a popular and much-loved and respected local personality, performing with his bands at St Mary’s Church and Sunbury Cricket Club to raise money for the Embroidery Gallery development, culminating in what was his last show at the Cricket Club in 2016 to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the Gallery’s opening, at which, with his big band, he performed and recorded his composition The Embroidery Suite, along with other works. A CD from that show is available at the Gallery. 

Although he was well aware of his significance, he was always modest and understated, loved and respected as a thoroughly nice man and a true gentleman. He will be remembered not only as brilliant and influential musician, but as a well-liked long-time resident of Lower Sunbury who brought a great deal to village life over the years. On behalf of the community, we would express our sincere condolences to Tony’s family and friends.

The national press recently announced the acquisition of the professional London Irish RFC rights. Since then we have received this letter from Chris Kane, the President of the Amateur Club, LIARFC.

The Jordan Associates website describes the Company: "Jordan Associates is a dynamic venture led by Eddie Jordan, a Formula 1 legend and business strategist, alongside a global network of experts in sport, investment, and brand partnerships. We specialize in identifying undervalued sports assets, unlocking their commercial potential, and driving long-term success through strategic acquisitions, financial structuring, and operational enhancements. With deep industry insight and a hands-on approach, we create transformative opportunities in sport, entertainment, and luxury markets—elevating teams, brands, and investors to new levels of performance and profitability."

Readers will recall that we published an article in LOSRA’s 2025 New Year Newsletter concerning the late removal of the latest BESS application from the agenda of the December Planning Committee meeting, where no reason had been given at the time for this unexpected withdrawal. In an attempt to discover more, prior to the Spelthorne Partnership Assembly (SPA) meeting on 3 February, LOSRA had submitted a written question concerning the ongoing Sunbury BESS planning application as follows:

‘Why was the applicant (Sunbury BESS Limited) for planning application 24/01112/FUL (The construction of and operation of a Battery Energy Storage System…on Land To North East Of Eco Park Charlton Lane Shepperton TW17 8QA) permitted to withdraw the application from the agenda of the 10 December 2024 Planning Committee Meeting, just days beforehand (on the afternoon of Friday 7 December) and after the Planning Officer’s Report, recommending refusal, had already been published?’

 The agenda and documents for the SPA meeting included the following response to our question from the Council’s Planning Development Manager:

‘The applicants advised officers that they wanted to amend the scheme by reducing the size of the development and a plan was submitted to illustrate this. The amendment was in addition to seeking to overcome the objections by the Environment Agency. Legal advice was sought on whether officers should accept this request and officers were advised this should be the course of action. The deferral was sought and agreed by the Planning Committee. The formal amended plans are awaited and once received will be uploaded onto the Council’s website.’

This response is interesting in that it not only confirms that the Environment Agency’s objections were indeed part of the reason why the application was withdrawn from December Planning Committee, but additionally that a smaller BESS development was being considered. However, to date there have been no ‘formal amended plans’ published in the application’s documents list on the Council's website, which shows the revised Agreed Expiry Date of Fri 02 May 2025 for the application. In the meantime we have submitted a further comment on the application to Spelthorne Planning, now published, in the light of January’s significant large-scale BESS fire in California. The text of LOSRA’s latest comment can be found here.