Community for Egham types

Ghosts at Thorpe Park

2011-02-11T21:31:28Z

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.

For those who have to use SW Trains...

2010-01-05T20:49:48Z

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/January_2010_Poor_Weather/SW.html

xposted from my journal

MP Expenses

2009-05-18T13:50:02Z

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...

Airtrack: Goverment response to the ePetition

2009-02-28T23:47:03Z

(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.

Public meeting (airtrack relevant) on Friday

2009-02-08T15:27:10Z

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.

Plastic recycling in Englefield Green

2009-01-26T17:36:59Z

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.

I received a reply from Phllip Hammond M.P.

2008-12-21T13:18:56Z

Thank you for your letter. I do share the concerns that you express regarding increased barrier down-time at the level crossings in the Egham area if the Airtrack project goes ahead. I have been involved in discussions about this project and have been working with the local Council's engingeers for several years in respect of it.

My initial reaction, like yours, was that there must be some law that prevents the railway from just closing the level crossing barriers for ever longer periods of time and inconveniencing the majority, who are road users. I have been as incensed as I am sure you have sitting in a traffic jam at the crossing barrier comprised of dozens if not hundreds of cars, waiting for several minutes, only to see a train with three or four passengers on it going through. However, the harsh reality is that the railway controls the operation of level crossings and there is no statutory restriction whatsoever on their ability to close the barriers. I have argued that there should be some kind of forum - perhaps a joint body between the railway operator and the County Council as Highways Authority - which effectively allocates the scares resource of crossing time between road and rail users to try to minimise congestion.

My initial understanding of the Airtrack project was that it would involved a complete re-signalling of the line, which would allow much shorter barrier-down times for each train crossing, although there would be a significantly higher number of trains using the line.

Unfortunately, I subsequently became aware that Network Rail are now saying that it is technically impossible to introduce signalling to this line that would allow shorter barrier down-times and that therefore the introduction of additional train paths would give rise to significantly increased total barrier down-times, although I have never had a satisfactory technical justification for this position. If this were to allowed to happen it would indeed be a disaster for both residents and for businesses in the Egham area.

I have recently had a meeting with Airtrack in which they confirm that they have looked at the possibility for a tunnel at the Pooley Green level crossing and that they are currently seeking to agree a way forward with Surrey County Council as highways authority to addressing the transport issues around the three level crossings in Egham - which, they say, requires an area-wide response that cannot be delivered by the Airtrack project alone. Runnymede Borough Council has made it clear, and I have joined them in this, that support for the Airtrack proposal will only be forthcoming if proper protection of the interests of highway users in the Egham area is incorporated into the scheme. I shall be pursuing this issue with the Surrey County Council.

I can assure you that I will remain vigilent on this issue and my support of the Airtrack scheme will be dependent on concrete assurances being delivered that appropriate arrangements are made for road traffic in Egham and to the other towns affected.

Thank you for writing to me about this matter and please do nit hesitated to contact me again if there is anything further that you feel needs to be drawn to my attention.

Yours sincerely

PHILLIP HAMMOND MP

egham @ 2008-12-14T21:59:00

2008-12-14T22:01:46Z

Dear Sirs,

I am writing to inform you of my opinions concerning the Heathrow Airtrack proposals.

Let me say first of all that I am not in complete opposition to the idea of connecting Heathrow more directly with the rail routes in my area. I can see that it will bring great benefits to rail users.

My concerns are firstly that large swathes of countryside will be excavated for these plans, in an area that has already seen considerable construction - the terminal 5 construction to be exact, and as part of the plans it is proposed to move a natural pond with who knows what damage to the wildlife there.

Of a more pressing concern however is the proposal to run many extra trains through the area, something which in theory I am not averse to, without thought to the traffic congestion that it will cause.

The consultation has already highlighted that all 4 level crossings in the Egham area where I live will see considerable increase in use. I read online that BAA (and by inference Heathrow Airtrack) does not consider it, it's responsibility to do anything about this problem. I would strongly disagree. BAA is promoting and supporting this scheme and hence it is clearly encouraging or providing for these additional trains to be run.

Part of the scheme involves removal of an existing level crossing and replacing it with a bridge (at Moor Lane). If the scheme can do that, then surely it can do something about the level crossings. To put it another way the scheme must ensure that something is done to reduce the impact of the extra trains on the surrounding area.

Whilst this scheme continues to ignore these problems, or rather insist that nothing can be done, then I shall be obliged to object to it. In this regard I am have copied my MP in on this communication.

Regards

James
Resident of Pooley Green, Egham.

Heathrow Airtrack, good for the airport, dire for locals

2008-11-10T12:20:15Z

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!

Staines news report ~ Traffic misery as no bridges / tunnels.
Egham Chamber of commerce Info with links to #10 e-petition, facebook protest etc
Wikipedia entry on Airtrack
Transport consulation info (Cached)
BAA site info (includes consulation meeting details)
Airtrack home page
BAA Consultation brochure

*NIMBY = Not In My Back-Yard

(cross-posted several places)

SPAM Spam spam spam..

2008-09-28T18:21:58Z

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.

26Jul08: Factory 'unsafe' after huge blaze

2008-07-30T14:24:43Z

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.

Foot & Mouth update

2007-09-13T22:10:15Z

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.

BBC: Foot & Mouth at Milton Park Farm

2007-09-12T17:07:33Z

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.

Uh-oh

2007-09-12T10:16:06Z

We're in a plague zone!!!!

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

Road accident outside Royal Holloway

2007-08-09T18:23:05Z

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.

Bus vandalism

2007-05-30T21:01:13Z

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.

Local recycling info

2007-05-13T11:08:07Z

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)

Cross posted for gopher_that

2007-05-02T22:32:10Z

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.

I will need a private room, but I am willing to share other spaces.

I will be coming in and out due to research and fun, so I can't be somewhere that requires a curfew.

I have to get out to Egham once or twice a week, so close to a tube stop is a must (but close is relative, right?)

I prefer gothic types or noise makers of some sort, but as long whomever can deal with me being somewhat of a gothic type and my music, that's great!

I need internet for my school work, so if the flat doesn't have internet, I have to be able to install it.

I expect to be extremely poor, so the lower the rent the better (as I suspect it would be with anyone.) I am not sure what my income will be actually, so I am guessing maybe 300-400 pounds or so a month? I really don't know here. Sorry.

I am a vegitarian, but I don't mind hanging out with carnivores/omnivores. I don't smoke and I have never lived with smokers, but I suspect that i would be quite tolerant of that too. I drink very rarely, but it does happen.

I occasionally watch Neighbours, Mighty Boosh, and Dr. Who. That sometimes entails dark beer, tea, curry eating, and/or sloth-like activities interspersed gasps of excitement. Please be prepared.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions either through Livejournal.com or email me directly at kingseesar@netzero.net . You can find out more about me at my MySpace page located at http://www.myspace.com/kingseesar

Thank you and I hope to hear from you soon!

Will

Egham Monopoly?

2007-05-01T16:28:49Z

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? :)

Spice and Grill...

2007-04-18T18:47:59Z

"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.

Mourning it's loss...

2007-03-08T13:44:50Z

Oh what a tragedy. The fantastic Black Swan (Mucky Duck as was) in Ockham has been bought out and refurbished into a rubbish trendy place.

The 5 most recent reviews here say it all:
Beer in the evening: Black Swan

Does anyone know of another pub in the Egham and surrounding area that is as good as the Black Swan was?

I'm looking for a good range of beers, and fair pub food menu.

FYI

2006-12-17T09:50:12Z

Wants - the hardware store - is closing down. I didn't catch notice of a timeline though or any reason why.

Thai Wok

2006-12-16T16:10:31Z

67 High Street Egham Surrey TW20 9EY [Tel: 01784 438682]

We (Hubbie, Dad & I) went there again last week. It always seems empty during the week nights (haven't been there on a Friday/Saturday) but the food is pretty good, and not that expensive: ~£20/head for 2 courses plus wine and sparkling water.

It is Thai, so some dishes can be hot - I tend to have Chicken Phad Thai which is only mildly spicy.

Village Bar and Grill

2006-12-10T02:08:51Z

Well after the rather poor show from Gourmet Star, I figured I should post something positive.

Just been to the VB+G for the second time and again they have impressed me with the quality of their cuisine. I'm well known for not exactly liking veg, but they seem to be able to cook the stuff so that it actually tastes nice. I don't even know what the green veg I was eating was, but it was pretty good whatever it was :)

Updated Profile Info

2006-12-09T21:43:51Z

I have updated the profile info as per the below - please let me know of any other info that would be useful, and what sort of thing you want to use this community for.

This community is intended for people who live locally, and who know each other (or know someone who knows someone who ...) in real life in Egham, to talk about local news and stuff.

If anyone wants something else out of this - feel free to post and let us know!

Founded 20-Aug-2001 by inquis 20-Aug-2001

Update 08-Dec-06Since the delightful inquis is no longer so very local she has passed on the moderation to me, blue_cat.