At a meeting of full Council on 23 February 2023, Councillors agreed a revenue budget and capital programme for the coming financial year.

For further details, click here

Spelthorne will be holding events in the Borough to help residents apply for their free Voter Authority Certificate (Voter ID) if needed.

The following notice has been issued by the Council

Under the emerging Local Plan the Site on Hazelwood Drive is proposed for removal from the Green Belt and identified as suitable for residential development.

The draft allocation is for approximately 67 residential units (a figure confirmed in the application) and should deliver the dwellings between years 1-5. The Council is therefore reliant on the site being delivered to meet its housing requirement.

Paragraph 48 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) outlines that great weight can be applied to policies where the Council is at an advanced stage in the local plan process.

Given that the Council have published the Pre-Submission version of the Local Plan and this was submitted for Examination in November 2022, weight can be applied to the Site’s draft allocation which identifies this Site for release form the Green Belt to deliver new housing.

For further information and to make representations, click here, quoting application number 23/00070/FUL

The curse of potholes for cyclists and motorists seems to be particularly bad this year.

Beyond grumbling about them, please be sure to send specific details to Surrey County Council who have been very efficient in attending to repairs once reported.

Go to: https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/roads-and-transport

Following resolution of a legal dispute which saw both parties entering into a Settlement Agreement, the County Council’s current waste contractor, SUEZ, will continue to operate the Eco Park in Spelthorne and run a number of waste disposal services across the county until 2029.

Jo Fooks, born in Edinburgh, began learning the saxophone at 15. In 1992 she won 'The Young Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year'. Inspired and encouraged by local Edinburgh musicians, Jo went on to study saxophone at the Guildhall School of music in London (1995-99).

She also studied at the Berklee School of music in Boston after receiving a full fee scholarship for the summer jazz programme.

After recording her debut album "Here and Now!", the legendary British trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton invited her to join his eight-piece band. With whom she toured and performed in some of the most amazing theatres and venues in Britain. Humph's fun filled and melodic approach to music was to be a huge influence. And through performing in his band Jo also recorded and worked with Acker Bilk and played alongside Tina May, Joe Temperley, Scott Hamilton, Elkie Brooks,and many others.

Jo's other influences include Illinois Jacquet, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gorden, Cannonball Adderley and Bill Evans. Her mellow tone is often compared to Stan Getz and Zoot Simms.

Jo began to compose her own music in 2004 after learning and analysing a wide variety of Jazz standards. She currently gigs in and around the London area and her teaching positions have included tutoring the RAF bands men (2000-2006).

For details of band and venue, click here

This will be a dramatic reading of the poetry by six voices, plus piano and flute. The music will include short extracts from Schumann, Chopin, Mendelssohn and Debussy on the piano, and short improvised and original interludes on the flute.

The Four Quartets has been arranged and directed by Rev. Canon Robin Morrison, who is himself a published author and poet.

TS Eliot received the Nobel Prize for poetry in 1948 and it has been said that the Quartets may well include the most profound poetry of the 20 th century.

Peter Ackroyd CBE, FRSL biographer, novelist and cultural critic wrote, "The Four Quartets are poems about a nation and about a culture which is very severely under threat, and in a sense, you could describe them as a poem of memory, but not the memory of one individual but the memory of a whole civilization."

Tickets are £10 and all proceeds will go to the St Saviour’s Community Food Bank. We look forward to seeing you.

This reading is by kind permission of the TS Eliot Estate, via Faber & Faber Limite.

Ticket bookings at www.stmarys-sunbury.org/eliot or by ringing 01932 785448 Tues-Thurs 10.00am – 2.00pm

To see poster, click here

The next Music Night at Sunbury CC is on Friday 10th February, when the Club welcomes THE ROBIN BIBI BAND for the first time, although Robin has played here several times with other bands, most notably The ‘60s All Stars.

Robin is one of the UK’s most respected blues/rock performers, and something of a legend on the club and festival circuit, as a guitarist/singer/songwriter who has played with the likes of The Pretty Things, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and Ben E. King, and has shared the bill with B.B. King, Van Morrison and Chuck Berry. He has released a dozen critically acclaimed albums since 1997, and plays with his band all over Europe, as well as also performing as a member of The ‘60s All Stars and The Eel Pie All Stars.

He is joined for this gig by Tony Marten, formerly with George Michael, on bass, and drummer Wez Johnson, a colleague of contemporary US blues rockers Kirk Fletcher and Ariel Posen. We can guarantee that it will be a top class night of blues/rock in the classic tradition of Sunbury Music Nights.

There’s more information at https://robinbibiband.co.uk/, including links to some great videos on YouTube.

Admission is £10.00 on the door, payable by cash or card. Hot food, prepared by the expert chefs from our resident caterers from the community food distribution organisation Surplus To Supper, will be available from 7pm.

At the end of November, Spelthorne Borough Council invited a team of senior officers and councillors to undertake a comprehensive Local Government Association Corporate Peer Challenge. The team conducted more than 40 meetings involving over 125 people, including a range of Council employees and councillors as well as external stakeholders and partners.

Whilst containing some positive elements it will make uncomfortable reading for some.

To see the report and 12 recommendations, click here

Alban Claret was born in Perpignan (France) in 1987. He took his first guitar lessons at eight years old and discovered his passion and dedication for music making as a teenager which later made him study intensively.

In 2004, he was accepted as a student of the Musicology Faculty at the Conservatoire of Montpellier to broaden his knowledge about music styles. He also studied at the Jazz department of the Conservatoire of Perpignan with the brilliant French Jazz Guitarist Serge Lazarevitch. During this period Alban composed his first music and led several bands and played his first concerts.

Upon his arrival in the Netherlands in 2008, he was accepted in the Jazz department at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague and cooperated with musicians like John Ruocco and Eric Ineke also studying with Martijn van Iterson.

In 2017, Alban decided to move to London and settle as a full time musician and since performed in numerous Jazz clubs in London and the UK.

For booking details and venue, click here