Newsletter - Tue 6 May, 2025

By David Grantham

Police have hailed efforts to combat shoplifting, gas work continues on the High Street, Reform pushes the Conservatives into third place in a by-election, and planning for local government reorganisation marches on - more below.

Priory Park’s beacon will be lit this Thursday (8 May) as part of the Lamp Lights of Peace Event made up of 1000 beacons across the UK, helping to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day. Reigate & Banstead has now published the lighting time as 9.30pm, with a Facebook post (Abre numa nova janela) also giving details of other events. The borough is also using social media to share stories of residents’ loved ones and others from the area who served.

Work on Rushworth Road that’s been taking place since Thursday has now ended, with all signs and cones removed today (Tuesday). A spokesperson for UK Power Networks said this morning, prior to the work finishing: “Engineers were called to an underground cable fault at 9:23am on [Thursday] 1 May in the Rushworth Road area of Reigate. Power was restored to 46 customers in stages by 8pm. Our engineers worked hard to keep disruption to a minimum and put appropriate traffic management measures in place. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and will return the road to normal as quickly as is safely as possible. ”

Ageing Well: Reigate & Banstead Borough Council is hosting a free event at the town hall on Friday afternoon (9 May) to help people learn more about the services, activities and opportunities available for older residents. Details here (Abre numa nova janela).

Shoplifting ‘a priority for officers’

Tackling shoplifting is a force priority, Surrey Police have said. They’ve published figures showing a four-fold increase in the number of charges for shoplifting across the county, adding up to 800 cases, with the solved outcome rate rising to 23.5% as against roughly 16% this time last year.

Noting that retail crime is not victimless, but affects the whole community, Chief Constable Tim De Meyer said: “Pursuing all appropriate avenues to identify offenders, collect evidence, recover stolen property, ensure witnesses are located and interviewed, and get these crimes to court, is a priority for our officers”.

The force says retail crime often goes unreported, but that it’s important that people do contact the police.

More from Surrey Police on their retail crime strategy (Abre numa nova janela)is here, and there’s also a video (Abre numa nova janela) from the Chief Constable.

Gas work continues on the High Street

Emergency gas work continues on the High Street, closing a lane, and at times leading to significant delays on the one-way system. A spokesperson for SGN said this morning (Tuesday):

“We’re currently investigating gas readings in the High Street, Reigate. For everyone’s safety around our work area, we’ve closed one lane of the High Street between Boots and the clocktower.

“Our engineers worked over the bank holiday weekend to locate the source of the gas readings and we’re making good progress with our repairs.

“We’re sorry for any inconvenience to road users while we carry out our emergency work.”

The work has now extended a bit beyond the “clocktower” (SGN is referring to the old town hall / Caffè Nero), with cones up into the start of Church Street; however that seems to have helped traffic to successfully merge into a single lane before it gets to the interface with Bell Street, at least from this writer’s experience.

SGN may already be on local motorists’ minds due to separate (planned) work which has shut Evesham Road, Beaufort Road and St Albans Road as part of an ongoing mains replacement project (Abre numa nova janela) in the Reigate Hill area.

Residents comfortably hold seat in council by-election, but Reform take second place

Fairly predictably, given their usual winning margins, the Nork and Tattenhams Residents held on to their county council seat in Thursday’s by-election.

Less predictably, as they’ve not contested the Nork & Tattenhams division before, Reform UK grabbed second place, pushing the Conservatives, habitually the runners-up in the seat, into third place.

The contest, perhaps the last for Surrey County Council before it disappears, was triggered by Nick Harrison standing down after 20 years as a county councillor, a decision he took last year and decided to stick to (Abre numa nova janela) when this year’s polls were cancelled because of local government reform. He continues as a Reigate & Banstead borough councillor.

In a short speech after his win, Peter Harp said: “I think you all know I really don't like party politics. The Nork & Tattenhams Resident Associations firmly believe that at local government there is no place for party politics and councillors should all be elected on their own merits. But I thank all of my colleagues, and all my friends in the other parties. It's been a hard campaign but I respect everybody who has campaigned, for whatever their beliefs.”

“And I guess we're all going to have to do this again next year,” he added, a nod to the new unitary elections that are expected to take place next May.

Cllr Harp is also a Reigate & Banstead borough councillor for Nork.

Asked why Reform had done so well in the poll, their candidate, Elizabeth Cooper, said “It's not just national, it's local people starting to talk and wanting real change on ground level. So I think that is the reason that I've done so well, it’s because Reform are now getting a louder voice.”

Although the election was a Surrey County Council one, it was administered by Reigate & Banstead: official results are here (Abre numa nova janela).

Three options still on the table for local government

Full proposals on local government reorganisation have to be submitted to the Government by Friday (9 May), but it looks like three different proposals will be sent in - in line with interim plans put forward in March.