Newsletter - Tue 23 Apr, 2024

By David Grantham

Two beer festivals in May

Reigate town centre will host two beer festivals next month.

Reigate Tunnel Beer Festival runs Thursday 16 May to Saturday 18 May in Tunnel Road, Reigate.  The “Ale for Aid” event will raise money for charities including Prostate Cancer and Surrey Air Ambulance.   

More than “40 fine ales” will feature at the event, with entry at £5 per day including a commemorative glass. 

The event, run in association with Redhill Redstone Rotary Club, began in 2016.   

“The generous sponsorship of many local businesses means that the money generated by the sale of every entrance ticket and every drop of beer passes to the two main charities plus many other smaller local good causes,” say the organisers.

More details including drink prices are on the Ale for Aid website (Opens in a new window).

At the end of the month, Reigate Beer Festival runs from Friday 31 May to Sunday 2 June in Priory Park.  Organisers Craft Beer Folk describe it as “an outdoor craft beer festival with live music, quality street food, and great beer”.

“Tickets include a commemorative festival glass and guide along with live music and entertainment.”

Tickets for adults are £10 per day, with other options including ones with beer tokens and family tickets.

Information and booking is on the Reigate Beer Festival website (Opens in a new window).

(Image credit: istock. com /bhofack2)

Volunteer award nominations open

Nominations opened last week for the Reigate and Banstead Volunteer Awards 2024. The annual award scheme, set up more than twenty years ago, is organised by Reigate & Banstead Borough Council in partnership with Voluntary Action Reigate and Banstead.

Cllr Eddy Humphreys, Mayor, said: “It is important that we pay tribute to those in our community, who spend a lot of time making a difference to people’s lives through volunteering. These awards are for us, a way to show these selfless individuals or groups of people that we recognise their great work and appreciate their sacrifice. I call upon everyone to nominate whoever they feel deserves recognition.”

Volunteers can be nominated in five award categories: Young Volunteer, Volunteer, Individual Trustee, Volunteer Team and Long Service.

Award criteria and entry details are on the Reigate & Banstead website (Opens in a new window).  Nominees must live and/or volunteer in the borough, and not receive any remuneration for their time.  They should not be informed of their nomination.  The closing date is Friday 31 May 2024.   

Successful nominees will be invited to a special awards ceremony in July 2024.

Fun Run & Sports Festival

• Photo from RBBC

The annual event that is YMCA’s Fun Run and Reigate & Banstead’s Sports Festival returns to Priory Park on Sunday 5 May.  

The ticketed fun-run has a 1 mile junior race, and a 1 mile and 5 mile course for adults, with t-shirts, and commemorative medals.   Booking in advance is strongly advised.

Over at the sports festival, which is a free event for which no booking is required, there will as usual be tasters from a wide range of local sports clubs as well as arena displays.   

More information about both the fun run and sports festival is on the YMCA East Surrey website (Opens in a new window).

There’s a weekend motorway closure again in May: The M25 will be shut in both directions between junctions 9 (A243 Leatherhead) and 10 (A3 Wisley) from 9pm Friday 10 May to 6am Monday 13 May 2024.   The closure is to allow a new bridge to be installed, as part of the M25/A3 junction upgrade project.  More information including the official diversion route is on the National Highways Junction 10 page (Opens in a new window).

Registration for the Specsaver Surrey Youth Games has opened, giving children aged 7-16 the opportunity to try a new activity for free.  The timetable of weekly activities in Reigate & Banstead runs six to eight weeks. “All the sessions are for beginners and fully inclusive. The aim of the games is to allow children and young people to have a go, learn new skills and boost confidence,” says the borough council.   The programme culminates in the chance to attend a celebratory and family-friendly Games Day with participants from across the county in Guildford in June.  Timetable and booking details are on an RBBC webpage (Opens in a new window).

Surrey Police are still looking for help to identify two men as part of their investigation into a reported robbery at the Jo Malone perfume shop in Reigate High Street on 18 March.   Anyone who recognises the men, or who has information that could help officers locate them, is asked to contact police quoting PR/45240030892, via webchat on the Surrey Police website (Opens in a new window), their online reporting tool (Opens in a new window), or by calling 101.  There’s also independent charity Crimestoppers (Opens in a new window).  Another man, a 38-year-old from London, has been charged with robbery and possession of a class B drug (cannabis).  

• Police would like to identify these two men

Plans for a shared ownership development at the former site of Merstham library have been rejected by Reigate & Banstead’s planning committee.  The scheme by Raven Housing Trust would have created 11 affordable homes.   Councillors heard that the access road, off Weldon Way, would be shared with the nearby football club and an Age Concern centre. The committee rejected the application by 12 votes to 1, as being “a cramped over-development of the site”, with factors including the shared access, layout and dominance of parking and hard landscaping.  The BBC has a news report here (Opens in a new window), and the debate can be watched here (Opens in a new window).  The library moved to the Merstham Community Hub in 2017.

Coroner concerns after hip surgery delay

• (Image credit: SASH)

By Emily Dalton, Local Democracy Reporter

An elderly woman who tragically died after waiting five days for hip surgery prompted a coroner to raise concerns that a hospital is putting patients at risk of an early death. 

Anne Rowland, a care home resident in Oxted, died in East Surrey Hospital after inflammation and infection of the lungs following surgery. 

Ms Rowland broke her hip following a collision and fall with another care home resident who was partially sighted on 27 February, 2023. She was taken to East Surrey Hospital the same day.

Coroner Anna Crawford found there was “no clinical reason” for the surgery not taking place until five days later on 3 March as the patient was “clinically fit”.

She concluded that outstanding infrastructure repairs and the use of different guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) that the Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust was “placing patients at risk of early death”.

NICE guidelines say that hip surgery should take place on the day of the injury or the day after. Early mobilisation is recommended for hip fracture patients to reduce the risk of complications, including pneumonia.

East Surrey Hospital uses a metric of 48 hours within which to conduct such surgery and does not use the NICE timeframe. Although the hospital has a dedicated operating theatre for trauma patients, on some occasions demand outweighs capacity. 

However, the surgery did not take place because “other trauma patients were prioritised ahead of [Mrs Rowland] based upon their relative clinical need”.

Operating theatre capacity at the hospital has on occasion been compromised by infrastructure failings. An entire new surgery unit is being constructed and is anticipated to be completed by 2025 at the latest. The orthopaedic theatres also need new air handling and chillers which is yet to be completed.

The coroner concluded (Opens in a new window) that waiting for her operation “caused” Mrs Rowland to develop dementia and immobility. This “contributed” to her developing aspiration pneumonia following surgery. Mrs Rowland’s condition deteriorated resulting in her death at East Surrey Hospital on 31 March, 2023. 

Ed Cetti, chief medical officer of Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, said: “We are profoundly sorry for the delay in Mrs Rowland’s hip surgery and offer our deepest sympathies to her family during this difficult time.”

The Trust said that in the months since Mrs Rowland’s death, it has “significantly” reduced delays in hip fracture surgery. In November 2023 59 per cent of operations occurred within 36 hours and 91 per cent within 48 hours.

Cetti added: “We always strive to perform surgeries of this nature as soon as possible and monitor our performance against the 36-hour time window identified by NICE guidance. We also monitor against a 48-hour window to ensure any patients that miss the 36-hour target are not waiting longer than 48 hours.

“Recognising that not all patients are medically well enough for surgery within 36 hours, we are working on improving our performance further and reaching the 80 per cent target by the end of 2024/25.”

Officer morale at “all-time low” says Surrey Police Federation

By Emily Dalton, Local Democracy Reporter

Up to 20 per cent of Surrey Police officers want to leave due to low morale and poor pay, according to a new report. 

Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) found that 84 per cent of officers had experienced stress, low mood or anxiety over the studied 12 months. Of 2,276 Surrey police officers, 460 responded to the Pay and Morale Survey (Opens in a new window) from November 2023.

PFEW issued its survey to support its national campaign for fair pay for police officers and an independent pay mechanism. It found nearly 80 per cent of officers said they were unsatisfied with their pay, with 69 per cent saying their workload was ‘too high’.

Tom Arthur, Branch Secretary of Surrey Police Federation, said: “This year shows yet again that officer morale stays at an all-time low, some 90% of those surveyed confirming this – with pay and feeling undervalued by the Government being the main reasons.

“One in five of my colleagues in Surrey are actively seeking alternative employment. Forces and the Government cannot keep ignoring this and making platitudes to the public about how they are serious in dealing with Law and Order.”

Polling 460 officers, 20 per cent of respondents said they intend to resign from Surrey Police either ‘within the next two years’ or ‘as soon as [they] can’. This was slightly lower than the national average (22 per cent) in the PFEW survey. 

Due to the high number of staff leavers Surrey has a group monitoring resignations with leavers’ questionnaires and stay interviews. A recent PEEL inspection into Surrey Police found it still “lacks understanding” why staff or recruits might leave the force. 

Adrian Rutherford, Director of People Services for Surrey Police and Sussex Police said: “We have seen our largest police officer recruitment drive in a decade; welcoming hundreds of new officers into our organisation and onto the streets of our communities.” 

However, 12 per cent of police staff posts were vacant at the end of November 2023, according to a Surrey Police and Crime panel report. Approximately 73 per cent of respondents from Surrey Police said that they would not recommend joining the police to others. 

The report found 85 per cent feel ‘worse off’ financially now than they were five years ago and 16 per cent ‘never’ or ‘almost never’ have enough money to cover all their essentials. Whilst police officers received a 7 per cent pay rise in 2023, they have still seen a 16 per cent real-terms pay cut since 2011. 

Supporting and protecting Surrey’s workforce was found to ‘require improvement’ in the latest PEEL report (Opens in a new window) (December 2023). The force had not completed a well-being survey in three years, or the Bluelight self-assessment to understand what affects good or poor well-being. 

Officers responding to the PFEW survey said they do not feel respected by the Government (95 per cent) and they do not feel valued within the service (65 per cent) and over half (54 per cent) said they were experiencing low morale. 

Surrey Police said it had a wellbeing strategy “which places officer and staff wellbeing at the heart of the organisation”. Indeed, the force’s mental health app, Backup Buddy, won best innovation at the InsideOut Awards 2021. However, according to the survey, morale and pride in the force have dipped since then. 

Rutherford added: “Our police officers undertake a demanding and often dangerous role, ensuring that we keep Surrey safe and protect the most vulnerable from harm. As a force, we are doing all that we can to ensure that we’re alleviating some of the pressures faced by those on the front-line.

“We will be looking closely at the findings of the survey, alongside our recent internal employee opinion survey to look at what we can do to improve matters. We wish to be an employer of choice and will continue to work with our colleagues in the Federation, as well as our own people, to ensure we’re doing all that we can to demonstrate the high value we place on our officers and staff and to be the best employer that we can be.”

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