Newsletter - Tue 23 Jan, 2024

Headlines

• Further review for town centre CCTV

• Gas leak closes A25 between Reigate and Dorking

• Surrey makes more payouts to families over education delays

• Half-term activities from R&Be Active

• Quiz night at town hall in aid of charity

Correction

On Friday (19 Jan) there was a typo that said that any loss to the borough council in relation to Greensand Holdings would logically depend on how assets could be “sued” - this was meant to be “used”. The archive version has been corrected.

Further review for town centre CCTV

CCTV in town centres will be given further thought, after a petition that called for the return of monitored cameras was debated at Reigate & Banstead Borough Council last Thursday (18 Jan).

A council officers’ report (Opens in a new window) on the petition said that in 2020 the borough decided to axe the town centre cameras because Surrey police no longer wanted to monitor them for boroughs and districts, and their reliance on public realm CCTV was “very low”.  Councils had five years from 2018 to make their own arrangements.  

Most images used by police are nowadays from mobile phones and privately owned CCTV, the report said, adding that replacing the ageing cameras would have been “very expensive”, and even more so if local monitoring was done by the council.

But petition founder Liam Castles told Thursday’s meeting that taking out the town centre cameras removed a deterrent and undermined the ability to prosecute perpetrators, and also transferred the responsibility for protecting businesses to local firms themselves, most of which didn’t have the time or money for CCTV.  

He also said the removal of the cameras jeopardised the development of the Redhill night-time economy.  

“The council has a responsibility to keep the residents of Redhill, Reigate, Banstead, Tadworth and Horley safe,” he added.

Mr Castles said the council’s response to the petition made much of the financial implications of CCTV being reinstated “which are understood by myself, but it proposes no viable solution to the concerns being raised”.

The officers’ report revealed that town centre cameras were still being monitored until last October when RAAC material closed the police station’s CCTV control room.

The council then installed local recording into selected cameras in “busy locations”, and will review usage over the next six months before any decommissioning.  

As part of the 2020 decision, the council did decide to improve CCTV in three parks (Priory, Memorial and Lady Neville) and two car parks (Bancroft Road and Clarendon Road), adding local recording: that was done last summer.

Responding to the petition, council leader Cllr Richard Biggs (Conservative) highlighted the new park and car park cameras, which he said had been installed there because of the evidence of value for them and a lack of private CCTV there.

Cllr Biggs also said that in recognition of “significant private CCTV coverage” of public spaces, police have invested in the ‘NICE’ reportng system to allow residents and businesses to upload CCTV images.

He also said that to reinstate monitored CCTV in town centres would be “very expensive” - the report gave a breakdown of £300,000 up front, and £150,000 in ongoing costs, but “likely more”.

The petition also called on the council to insist that Surrey carry out regular patrols around the borough’s town centres: the report said that while the council works with the police, it was not appropriate for the council to seek to direct police resources, as this was a matter for Surrey Police.  

The council  should also set up a “Shop Watch” scheme, involving local businesses to help with detecting and deterring crime, the petition said.  The report said in response that the council is open to discussion with local businesses, guilds and the police.

In his concluding remarks in the debate, Cllr Biggs said he took on board everything that had been said, and that he had spoken to executive members “and we feel that it would be worth exploring it a little bit more and seeing what we can do”.

The meeting, in which other councillors also spoke (webcast here (Opens in a new window)), unanimously voted to refer the petition, signed by 425 people, to the executive for further consideration.

• Image by Mudassar Iqbal (Opens in a new window) via Pixabay

Gas leak closes A25 between Reigate and Dorking

Gas company SGN announced yesterday afternoon (Monday 22 Jan) that it had closed the A25 (Reigate Road) owing to the discovery of a gas leak.

A map of the closure is on the Surrey Highways roadworks map (Opens in a new window).

At the time of writing, SGN’s most recent website update (dated Monday) says:

“To ensure everyone's safety, we've needed to close A25 Reigate Road to motorists in both directions, between its junctions with Laurence Lane and Cliftons Lane.

“A signed diversion is in place for affected motorists via the A217, A240 and the A24.

“Access will be maintained to The Pheasant at Buckland, Squires, Bucklands Nurseries, WSC Bucklands and other local businesses, but only from the Dorking end.

“It's unclear how long it will take to complete our required repairs.”

SGN adds that updates will be available on its website (Opens in a new window).

Surrey makes more payouts to families over education delays

• Image credit: Surrey CC

Surrey County Council has had to make payments to more families of children over delays in additional education support for those who need it.

In recent rulings by the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman, it was agreed that Surrey would pay three families a total of £1,700.

One of the cases involved a failure to provide alternative education while a child was unable to attend school due to being unwell.

The other two were about delays in carrying out assessments for Education, Care and Health Plans (EHCPs).  In one of them, Surrey also has to pay £100 a month until a final care plan is issued, to acknowledge “ongoing uncertainty and distress”.

In the last financial year, April 2022 - March 2023, Surrey paid out more than £250,000 in redress payments for education and children’s services.

Surrey has apologised for the latest cases, and says it has undertaken remedial actions including securing £15 million of funding to increase the capacity of key teams, extending the use of locum and associate educational psychologists, commissioning external providers for support, and increasing advertising to fill positions. 

Surrey says there are national pressures on the Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system, and within the county there has been a 64% increase in assessment requests since 2020.

More on the problem and what Surrey is doing to try to fix it are in a full article (Opens in a new window) by Chris Caulfield, Local Democracy Reporter.

Half-term activities from R&Be Active

The borough council is running a programme of half-term activities for children, Monday 12 - Friday 16 February: “exciting activities from musical theatre and dance to stone age skills and indoor golf”. Details and booking are here (Opens in a new window).

Quiz night at town hall in aid of charity

The mayor of Reigate & Banstead is hosting a quiz night at the town hall on Thursday 22 February, raising money for his nominated charities - the Lucy Rayner Foundation and the Royal British Legion.

Tickets are £15 per head. Door will open at 6.30pm with eight rounds of questions set to start at 7pm. Teams can have up to six people.

Anyone who wants to take part can email the mayor’s office: details here (Opens in a new window).

Refund update

In Friday’s edition I said I was arranging for all readers to receive a month’s refund (£3 on an annual, £4 on a monthly), given recent newsletter disruption. This is still being worked on - it’s simply about identifying the best process, particularly for annual subscribers. I’ve been talking to Steady this week. I should have a plan to share on Friday. David Grantham

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