Ghosts at Thorpe Park
Independent / Ghostly surge sees theme park ride moved ~ Workers creating the water ride at Thorpe Park in Surrey for the new season said they started noticing ghostly sightings nearby, including what appeared to be a headless monk.
A paranormal detection agency was called in to carry out tests and found that an ancient burial ground or settlement could have been disturbed.
Forensic geophysicist Peter Masters, of Cranfield University, has since been called in to analyse the site, using deep ground radar. He said: "From the preliminary investigations, we have picked up signatures similar to that of a burial ground - possibly ancient.

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For those who have to use SW Trains...
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/January_2010_Poor_Weather/SW.html

xposted from my journal

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MP Expenses
Runnymede & Weybridge MP Mr Philip Hammond [Con] has the following, according to this BBC table of 07-08 expenses (highest > least). He isn't the most expensive MP (who is Eric Joyce, Falkirk, at £187,334*) nor the least (Philip Hollobone, Kettering, at £47,737) but still.... It is actually the second home allowance that (apparently) is the most fiddled bit of this.

2nd home = 23,075
London supplement = 0
Office = 12,046
Staffing = 78,705
Central stationary = 329
Stationary & Postage = 965
IT provision = 1,261
Staff cover = 0
Communication = 1,530
Travel = 4,675
Total = 122,586

*I have some sympathy for his travel & away from home expenses as Falkirk is in Scotland, but still ~ the MP for Orkney and Shetland only spends £200 more on travel...

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Airtrack: Goverment response to the ePetition
(Crossposted in a couple of places)

EghamCrossings - epetition response

The Government is aware that local residents and authorities have expressed some concerns about the Airtrack proposal being promoted by BAA which would provide for a new direct rail link connecting Heathrow to the existing rail network to the south and west, including Reading, Guildford and London Waterloo.

BAA has acknowledged the potential effect of extra rail services on road users at level crossings, particularly in the Egham area, and has highlighted the issue in its consultation document and at public meetings.

The Government is looking to BAA, as sponsor of the Airtrack project, to continue to work with local authorities, Network Rail and the Office of Rail Regulation to develop, and refine, its proposals, taking into account local issues raised through the consultation process - such as those at level crossings. This will include identifying potential changes to the local road network which could mitigate the impact at level crossings, for example bridges or other works.

The scheme is currently under development and will be subject to approval by the Government under the Transport and Works Act.

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Public meeting (airtrack relevant) on Friday
Surrey County Council’s Local Committee will be meeting on Friday 13th February 2009
at the Hythe Centre, Thorpe Road, Staines, Middlesex TW18 3HD. There will be an open question session from 9:30am to 10:00am where members of the public are invited to ask questions of County Councillors about local county services. The formal meeting begins at 10:00am (members of the public may attend and observe). Written public questions and petitions may also be received during the formal meetings.

Some of the topics under discussion will be:

* Local Highways issues
* Member allocation funding for local groups

* Airtrack

* Petitions

The Committee will discuss written questions from councillors and the public, roads and transport, and allocation of funding for the wellbeing of the area.

If you would like to know more about Local Committee meetings or receive an Agenda, you can call Sylvia Carter on 01932 794081 or see web page Local Committee in Runnymede

The Local Committee comprises six county councillors and four Runnymede borough councillors.

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Plastic recycling in Englefield Green
The banks on St Judes Road outside the cemetery don't take plastic. Or indeed much else. However there is a (hidden) plastic bank very close by. Go down South Road, and from there turn into Highfield Road. The banks are in the first recessed car park (flats 1-7 Odd) to the left.

There is another plastic bank, at the Royal British Legion Club" off Larchwood Drive (at the back end of the loop. They also take cardboard.

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I received a reply from Phllip Hammond M.P.
( A lengthly letterCollapse )

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( To Heathrow Airtrack and cc'd to Phillip Hammond MPCollapse )

Current Mood: defiant

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Heathrow Airtrack, good for the airport, dire for locals
In what looks to be a perfectly acceptable idea Heathrow Airtrak is intended to link Heathrow with the main London-Reading rail line, not just via the Underground.

The issue is that they are not able to expand the lines to increase traffic flow, like on the motor way, and they have looked at the main impacted level crossings and realised that building bridges over them, or tunnels under them, are virtually impossible as the crossings either have buildings very close or major junctions equally close. Therefore no space for up/down ramps, nor for the sideways width needed.

Of the 4 cricially impacted crossings 3 are within a very small area:
~ Thorpe Road, Staines
~ Vicarage Road, Pooley Green,
~ Station Road, Egham

The last is the one that, at peak times, could be closed for 45m out of every hour!

One of the other impacts is the Olympics 2012 ~ Heathrow will be the arrival port of choice for a huge number of visitors and the government doesn't want them on the road.

Part of me feels in a catch-22. It would be good to get people off the road, and to see investment in rail transport. However these plans are going to have a really bad affect not just on locals but anyone who works or travels through the Staines area (e.g. A30), or via Junction 13 of the M25.

So why post here? Well, you may not know about the plans. Maybe you don't care. Fine. But if you do care, and need to use the area you need to know about the plans and what affect this will have on anyone needing to use the roads around that area will be.

I am all for improving the rail network: it should have been done decades ago. But doing so while shrugging collective shoulders over the cost to locals is pretty poor. I don't want to be a NIMBY* but there needs to be a level of realism in their plans!

( Lots of useful links under the cutCollapse )

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SPAM Spam spam spam..
Egham in Surrey get so much junk email that it has been officially named the "Spam capital of Britain".

Internet security company MessageLabs conducted a survey of towns in the country, and discovered which towns bet the most spam. The average business email account in Egham is 189 junk emails a day.

Second was Alton in Hampshire, with 167 spam messages a day. Third was Petersfield, also in Hampshire, with 116 messages. The next worst towns were Sutton Coldfield in the Midlands, Sutton in south London, and then Macclesfield in Cheshire.

Interestingly, none of Britain's largest cities appeared in the top 25. London was 28th, Manchester 81st, Leeds 91st, Liverpool 99th, Newcastle 166th and Bristol 167th.

The town with the least spam is Fareham on the south coast, which gets just two spam messages per week.

Found via QI News links to Guardian story.

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26Jul08: Factory 'unsafe' after huge blaze
A total of 230 firefighters battled to contain the fire at MY Healthcare in the Thorpe Industrial Estate near the M25 motorway at Egham.

At its height, 19 engines and up to 130 firefighters were at the site, but there were no casualties.

BBC News article

This blocked off Thorpe Lea Road for Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning.

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Foot & Mouth update
The long walk going towards the copper horse is blocked with gates & tape.

Runnymede is taped off - you cannot currently visit either memorial, all gates & styes are blocked with tape & gates/boards. There are cattle on the Runnymede fields so this is very understandable.

There were police at the tearoom area, and a sign stating 'entering foot & mouth zone' - oh, and a couple of bus loads of probably irritated tourists!

Best description of location of cattle versus farms (and hence the map confusion of Chertsey versus Egham) is in the Times here:

Some 330 Aberdeen Angus cattle owned by Robert Lawrence, of Hard-wick Park, Farm, Lyne, near Chertsey, were being slaughtered as government vets attempted to track all movements of people, animals and vehicles on his land.
The investigation is complicated because Mr Lawrence owned some land and rented another six parcels of land in the immediate area. The infected cattle were on land known as Mrs Caddy’s Field owned by Milton Park Farm, an estate owned in part by a gravel company and Runnymede Borough Council.

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BBC: Foot & Mouth at Milton Park Farm
Whitehall lane has police tape along the field side. Stroude Road has a police blockade on it.

Foot & Mouth is in our town!

Google Map of area - you may need to zoom in

Update: Link fixed - or use this handy Street map version from jenny_gould

Up-Update Of course themadone posted about it at 11:15 am on this very community here way back when it was suspected... still, I didn't notice.

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Uh-oh

We're in a plague zone!!!!

Suspected case of foot-and-mouth article on the BBC news site

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Road accident outside Royal Holloway
OK, given it is 7:20 I dare say it is a long shot that anyone will be affected, but there has been an obviously nasty accident on Egham Hill (A30) between Royal Holloway gates & the crossroads. The road is closed between those points both ways with several police cars (flashing blues stationary) and an ambulance (also stationary).

No idea what is going on but closing a road is never a good sign, especially a very busy one like that at rush hour.

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Bus vandalism
Three moving buses in Ashford and Sunbury have had windows smashed over the last fortnight. Travel London are trying to deter this by visiting schools. They have alsolaunched a safer travel text-line in Surrey. This enables customers on the bus to text 07624 818332 with any crime and antisocial behaviour they have witnessed.

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Local recycling info
recyclenow.com ~ This website gives a handy look up for the location of your nearest recycling bins are.

Right hand, top corner - type your post code in and voila! a map with the locations marked by bin icons, which also linked to exact location, distance and items you can recycle there, such as:

Sainsbury's Car Park
The Casueway, Egham, TW18 3AP
Waste types:
* Mixed Paper (incl Newspapers, Junkmail, Magazines)
* Shoes
* All Textiles
* Glass Bottles (Green)
* Glass Bottles (Amber)
* Glass Bottles (Clear)
* All Plastic Bottles
* CDs & DVDs
* Mixed Metal Food & Drink Cans

(Crossposted)

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Cross posted for gopher_that
He found the following request for accomadation as follows:

kingseesar (kingseesar) wrote in gothhousing, @ 2007-05-01 17:25:00

Current location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Current mood: excited
Current music: Corvus Corax

Room needed starting in June
Hello all!

I am an ethnomusicology grad student moving from Honolulu, Hawaii to London, England to study Tibetan rock and neo-medievalist goth music at Royal Holloway University of London. I will be getting in around June 13th and I will be needing a place to live. I am looking for the following:

Preferably something in Finnsbury/Harringay, but I will consider almost anything anywhere.
( rest of requestCollapse )

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Egham Monopoly?

They're putting together a UK edition of Monopoly and they're taking votes on which 22 towns/villages/cities are going to appear on it. I wonder whether we could organise enough people to vote and get Egham put on it? :)

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Spice and Grill...

"Crap and ripoff" is a better name for them.

They just charged me 5quid for 2 bottles of coke. The curry is pretty dire too. All greasy and brightly coloured in the way that something full of E-numbers is.

So not going to order from them again.

Current Mood: annoyed

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