Welcome to the LOSRA Website
Like any local community, the policies and decisions shaping the character and future of Lower Sunbury are influenced by a combination of local and national government initiatives, alongside market forces and vested interests operating within these frameworks. As with many areas, Lower Sunbury faces challenges stemming from an aging infrastructure, rapid urban development, increasing traffic congestion, and other pressures that impact both quality of life and the distinctive character of the neighbourhood.
In collaboration with local authorities, other residents’ associations and amenity groups, LOSRA plays a vital role in addressing fundamental issues that affect its members' lives. This organisation not only engages with broader strategic concerns but also focuses on the everyday matters that shape community well-being.
To stay informed, we encourage you to subscribe to our regular e-bulletins via the link at the top left of this page. Your continued support is essential to our efforts, and we urge you to join or renew your membership. Subscriptions for 2025 are now payable at £5 per household. Donations are also welcome.
BESS Application - Further Developments
Those who have been following the saga of the Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) being proposed for Green Belt land in Sunbury will recall LOSRA’s update article from 19 March on our concerns around Spelthorne BC’s assessment that the application did not require the provision of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Since then a number of new documents have appeared on the application website. These include not just a new EIA Screening Assessment by SBC, but also a ‘PDAS Update Note’ and a ‘Response to Residents Associations’ by the Applicant. SBC has also posted an intriguing consultee response dated 12 February from the Surrey Fire & Rescue Service.
The Standard Consultation Expiry Date was also extended, to the 3 rd May, but we understand that comments will continue to be accepted until the application is decided.
We have also recently had confirmation that the BESS application (24/00017/FUL) has been called in by one of the ward councillors and will therefore be going to a SBC Planning Committee meeting in due course. It is of course only right that this unprecedented (for SBC, at least) scheme should be fully understood and assessed by councillors of the several wards that would be adversely affected by such a very large industrial installation on Green Belt land.
In the meantime we have studied the new documents noted above. As LOSRA we will be posting our comments onto the SBC planning website and we would encourage other residents who feel strongly about this proposal to do likewise, even if they are one of the 271 objectors out of the 278 who have previously submitted comments.
LOSRA’s latest views are included in an article that can be found here
Shepperton and Sunbury Rotary Club 75th Anniversary Celebration
The President of our local Rotary Club has asked LOSRA to announce its 75th Anniversary Celebration and we are to happy oblige.
"We hope that you will join us for our 75th Anniversary Charity Dinner on Saturday 28 June 2024 from 6.30pm until 11.30pm in ‘Storyboard’ at Holiday Inn, Felix Lane, Shepperton, TW17 8NP."
For poster and details, click here
The link for booking: https://forms.office.com/r/Mbvg6VwCLH
Lower Sunbury Hedgehog Project
The Lower Sunbury Hedgehog Project is a campaign initiated by the Lower Sunbury Residents Association in partnership with Friends of Sunbury Park and Spelthorne Borough Council. Our aim is to arrest the decline in our local hedgehog population and if possible improve their numbers.
Hedgehogs are in danger across the UK – the population has declined drastically through loss and fragmentation of habitat, and our situation is no different. We see very few hedgehogs these days compared to 20 years ago. We can all help.
You can access the Project via this QR code which will take you to the Facebook page:
Cows Make Their Annual Return to Sunbury Park
Nine Aberdeen Angus returned to Sunbury Park last week as part of the successful conservation grazing regime.
They help control invasive grassland species and make way for a diversity of wildflowers.
They’ll be there until October/November.
Jump 66 Return to the SCC on 12th April
The next Music Night at Sunbury Cricket Club is on Friday 12th April and features the welcome return of JUMP 66, who have done a couple of fabulous, fun rocking shows for the Club in recent years.
Now sporting a beefed-up six-piece line-up, they play a distinctive good-time mix of retro rhythm & blues, early soul, jumping swing and infectious ska Led by former Commitments member Rhod Davies, they now include the charismatic front man Paul Kissaun (ex-Flying Pickets) and keyboardist Pete Saunders (ex-Dexy’s Midnight Runners).
They regularly appear at the Swanage Blues festival, Wolverton Folk & Blues Festival and the Ealing Blues Festival, and there’s info, music, photos and gig list at www.jump66blues.com.
They’re guaranteed to deliver a fun, rocking night to bring our winter season of Music Nights to a close - this is the Club's last Music Night before they shut down for the cricket season during the summer, so get along and make the most of it.
It's £10.00 on the door payable by cash or card. Hot food will be available as usual from about 6.30pm, and the band will be on stage at 8.30pm or a bit later.
Guitarist, Edison Herbert, Joins the Terence Collie Trio on 7th April at the RAC
Edison is a fine expressive guitarist based in the UK. He has an accessible style with flowing rhythm and melodic lines.
He joins the Terence Collie Trio at the Riverside Arts Centre, Thames Street on Sunday 7th April.
For booking and venue details, click here
More...
Sunbury BESS - An Important Update
Reference is made to previous articles on this site and for those who have been following the progress of the planning application to build a large Battery Energy Storage System {BESS) on Green Belt land adjacent to the Charlton Lane EcoPark should click here to read this important update
The River Thames Scheme (RTS) and its impact on Lower Sunbury
The deadline for submission of responses to the RTS is midnight on Monday, 4th March.Progress of the (paused) Local Plan
An Extraordinary Meeting of the Environment and Sustainability Committee was convened on 29th February to determine options prior to the resumption of the Examination of the Local Plan by the Planning Inspector.
To see the scope of those options, please go here
The outcome which followed the casting vote of the Chairman was as follows:
The Committee resolved to propose to the Inspector to remove all Green Belt allocations from the Local Plan with the exception of the two allocations that meet the need for Gypsy, Traveller and Travelling Showpeople.
The Committee resolved to propose to the Inspector to keep all proposed flood risk sites but remove those at high risk of flooding and move some higher risk sites to later in the Plan period (11-15 years) to allow the River Thames Scheme to be operational and effective, the design code to be completed, and subject to no resolution objection from the Environment Agency.
The Committee resolved to propose to the Inspector to withdraw the Staines Development Framework as a core document.
We will be interested to see how the Planning Inspector reacts to these fundamental changes in policy; and whether he can allow these resolutions as "main modifications". It's also entirely possible that the Minister of State for Housing will have an opinion following the example of his predecessor, Rachel McLean, with whom the Leader of the Council had a difficult exchange of correspondence.
Mayor's Charity Music Night at the SCC on Friday 8th March
The next Music Night at Sunbury Cricket Club is on Friday 8th March and is the now-traditional annual event in aid of The Mayor of Spelthorne’s Charities, featuring the Club's house band, THE CHAIN GANG.
This year’s Mayor is Cllr. Denise Saliagopoulos, 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 our 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 we look 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 will be available as usual from about 6.30pm, and the band will be on stage at 8.30pm.
Riverside Players to Bring Who Killed Elton Jack to the RAC, 12 -13th April
The Riverside Players announce:
After the tremendous success of our murder mystery last spring, we have another one for you wonderful audiences to solve this April. Come and attend the party thrown by billionaire Elton Jack and inspect the evidence to help solve the murder.
Performances:
Friday 12th April at 7.30pm – dinner is included with each ticket
Saturday 13th April at 2.30pm – afternoon tea is included with each ticket
Saturday 13th April at 7.30pm – show only
The Riverside Arts Centre bar will be open for drinks purchases at all performances.
You can book now at: https://
Art Theman, Saxophonist Joins the Terence Collie Trio at the RAC on 3rd March
A fantastically exciting, playful and inventive saxophonist, Art Themen has been a beloved character of the British jazz scene for 60 years, famously combining his role as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon with saxophone duties in the bands of Alexis Korner and Stan Tracey among many others. BESS Company Admits LOSRA Error
As indicated in a previous post on this site, LOSRA was furious that the Planning, Design and Access Statement (PDAS) for the BESS application indicated that our Association was supportive of this ill-conceived enterprise (scroll down to articles of 5th and 8th February). Following our representation to the company, they made the following statement:
“Following submission of the application for Sunbury BESS (Spelthorne planning application reference 24/0017/FUL) the Applicant was made aware of an error in paragraph 1.9 of the Planning, Design and Access Statement (‘PDAS’). The error stated that Lower Sunbury Residents Association had indicated support for the application, which they had not. The Applicant has subsequently updated the PDAS to remove this sentence and resubmitted it to Spelthorne Council, and made the case officer aware.”
Jordan Martin,
Associate at DWD Chartered Surveyors and Town Planners
The River Thames Scheme (RTS) and its impact on Lower Sunbury
The RTS is a major engineering project by the Environment Agency and Surrey County Council to reduce the risk of flooding along the Thames between Egham and Teddington.
In addition to two new channels upstream of Walton, there will be additional weirs downstream, including a large one across Sunbury Lock Ait. This will inevitably damage the view from Kings Lawn.
The principal benefits of the RTS are reduced river levels upstream of Sunbury. These are estimated to be up to 90cm in the area of the two channels - but only 4-8cm downstream of Sunbury Lock. This is a minimal amount given recent river level increases.
The proposals include an “active travel” route between Egham Hythe and Walton, including two new bridges at Chertsey and Desborough Island. However this will be of little benefit to Sunbury residents because the continuation of the active travel route is the tow path on the Walton side of the river.
We believe that incorporating our proposed bridge at Sunbury into the project would provide Sunbury residents with a material benefit from the RTS and we will be lobbying hard for this. Without this benefit there is little, if anything, for Sunbury residents to gain from the RTS.
A “consultation event” is being held at the Hazelwood Centre on Monday 19th February, between 1pm and 7pm. We encourage anyone with an interest in this important subject to attend - and to let the promoters know your views on incorporating a Sunbury bridge and on the new weir.
