Built in 1901, The Town Hall, is a Grade II listed building and will be open to the general public from 10 am to 1pm . The main rooms are splendid examples of late Victorian grandeur, many containing fine paintings and watercolours, including a collection of paintings by the artist William Tatton Winter.

Heritage Open Days are held annually and gives people free access to historic buildings, many of which are not normally open to the public.

Cllr Adam De Save, Executive Member for Leisure & Wellbeing, said:

“The Heritage Open Days are a great opportunity for people of all ages to explore the wealth of historic, cultural and architectural landmarks such as Barons’ Cave in Reigate. It’s an opportunity not to be missed.”

These events are a collaboration between the Borough Council, the Reigate Society, English Heritage, the owners of various properties, local historians and amenity societies.

For more information on participating venues visit www.reigate-banstead.gov.uk or www.heritageopendays.org.  The full brochure of events and opening times can be viewed here:  hods brochure 2010 10pdf

The biennial awards scheme run by Reigate & Banstead Borough Council celebrates dedicated environmentalists who go the extra mile to help to make the borough a nicer, cleaner and greener place to live and work.

Cllr Julian Ellacott, Executive Member for Environment, said:

“The aim of these awards are to express our thanks to those who really show that they love where they live by selflessly caring for the borough for the benefit of everyone, and to encourage others to join them in making the borough a more attractive place in which to live and work.

“The Council does and will continue to do all we can to maintain and improve our local environment, but the involvement of residents, local businesses and voluntary groups is also crucial and will be even more so in the future. We all have the same goal at heart – improvement of the local area for the benefit of the community.

“The government’s “Big Society” involves similar concepts to our Love Where You Live campaign and I hope that we can find ways to widen the scope of the campaign in future.”

Nominations can be made in two categories: the Love Where You Live Award or the Conservation Group/Project award.

This year, a new Raven ‘Green Award’ will be awarded to a Raven Housing Trust resident or group of residents whose actions at home or in the workplace have had a positive impact on the environment, such as encouraging others to recycle more; joining a local eco team to share ideas on reducing their impact on the environment; helping to reduce litter, dog fouling, graffiti or fly tipping in their local neighbourhood or encouraging colleagues to car share.

The Council will also be making awards to local schools, businesses or organisations and youth and uniform groups that have played an important role in keeping the borough clean and green.

A special recognition award will be chosen by the Council from nominations to the other awards categories.

Awards will be presented by the Mayor at a special ceremony at the Harlequin Theatre in November.

For details of awards categories and to download a nomination form see the Council’s website www.reigate-banstead.gov.uk, or contact Terry Boardman on 01737 276407. Forms are also available from the Council’s Help Shops and Town Hall reception.

The deadline for nominations is Friday 30 September 2010.

In his petition statement he says:

Delabole Road has fallen in to a state of disrepair with many areas having more potholes than clear road. The debris from the crumbling road surface and the large potholes are likely to cause significant damage to vehicles. The quality of this road is particularly important as it is used as a main bus route and by parents of children at Furzefield school. This road has been reported to SCC on several occasions and they respond saying that they will repair it, however 6 months later there is still no sign of this.

The deadline for the petition is the 9th September.

Using Surrey’s e-petition online service to create petitions allows a much wider audience to view petitions and gives the petitioner the opportunity to gather more names to support the petition.

The e-petition can be found on the Surrey County Council website by following the link below:

Resurface Delabore Road in Merstham as a matter of urgency

The Merstham Neighbourhood Panel is your opportunity as residents to meet with your Local Councillors, Safer Neighbourhood Policing Team and other Local Representatives to discuss issues or concerns you may have.

The meeting will be chaired by Cllr Graeme Crome.

Merstham’s Police team also run an open Police Surgeries on the first Tuesday of each month at the Help Shop on Portland Drive Merstham, between 9am and 11am.

Merstham’s councillors also run a monthly open surgery on the 1st Saturday of the month at the Community Facility 44 Portland Drive between 10-12am.

Merstham parents can now submit 2011 school places applications online for Surrey school.

Parents have until the 31 October 2010 to apply for secondary schools places or until the 15 January 2011 for primary, infant and junior schools places.

After an application has been submitted online an email confirmation with a reference number will be sent. Parents are able to change their preferences up to the application closing dates and copies of completed forms can be printed.

Parents should read the school admissions booklets, which are available online to download. Printed booklets and paper application forms can be obtained by emailing schoolbooklets@surreycc.gov.uk or calling 0300 200 1015. All applications will be treated equally regardless of whether they are done on paper or the internet.

Parents who miss the application deadlines reduce their chances of getting one of their three preferred schools because their forms will not be dealt with until after all the other applications have been processed.

Martha Lane Fox, the UK’s digital inclusion champion and co-founder of lastminute.com, has praised Surrey County Council for being among the leading authorities for processing applications for school places online.

Cllr Mark Brunt, Merstham Ward Councillor

I welcome this new initiative and hope that it will make the historically difficult process of completing the schools places application easier for a large number of parents.

While this new process will not eleviate the pressure on the number of available school places locally, I hope that it will enable the education authority to better plan for future.

The monthly surgeries are an opportunity for local residents to meet with their local councillors and discuss local issues. Surgeries take place every month on the 1st Saturday of the month.

Everybody is welcome, no appointments required just pop in for chat and a coffee.

Please contact Cllr Mark Brunt for further details cllr.brunt@reigate-banstead.gov.uk Tel: (01737) 212073.

Surrey County Council leader Dr Andrew Povey has pledged £1 million towards improving the county’s roads in response to residents’ feedback.

Each of the 11 local committees will be asked how and where the extra money should be spent, enabling residents to influence what improvements are carried out in their communities.

Dr Povey said: “It is clear that quality of roads is a prime concern for Surrey residents which is why I am pledging an extra £1 million towards improving them.

“Surrey’s roads are not up to the standard we want them to be at due to a lack of central government investment for more than a decade. This extra £1 million will not solve the problem but it will help and I hope it will show residents that we are serious about getting our roads up to scratch.”

Dr Povey pledged to continue the fight for more investment in Surrey’s roads. Earlier this month he tabled a motion at the Local Government Association’s annual conference in Bournemouth calling for more central government investment in highways.

He argued that national road investment should be concentrated in the South East to boost the regional economy and help businesses prosper. This would provide millions of pounds in extra tax revenue for the Government which could be reinvested elsewhere in the country.

Using the internet to create an e-petition allows a potentially much wider audience to view local  petition and gives residents the opportunity to gather more names to support a petition.

Residents may gather names and addresses in both forms – both a paper version and an online version, although repeat names should be removed by the lead petitioner.

You can submit your petition by post or through using our online petition facility. Anyone who lives, works or studies in Surrey may submit a petition to Surrey County Council.

More information on how to create, review or sign Surrey e-petitions can be found at the following link. Surrey County Council e-petitions

Reigate & Banstead Borough Council will be launching a similar e-petitions service soon, which will give local residents the option of raising petitions, on-line for Reigate & Banstead Council services.

Cllr Mark Brunt – Merstham Ward Councillor

“The e-petitions service encourages residents to get more involved in local democracy and this is a very easy way of people making their views known to the decision-makers on the council. The service will also help the councils to better understand the views of residents, especially around issues effecting individual areas of the borough. ”

The woman and her husband were approached by a man outside their home, on Sunday morning (4 July). The man said he was raising money for the Anthony Nolan Trust as he had a child with leukaemia. The woman handed over a cheque for £10 made out to the charity but was later shocked to receive a call from her bank saying the name and amount on the cheque had been altered.

The bogus charity collector had a sponsorship sheet with a number of names and addresses on it and the police are concerned that he may commit offences elsewhere in the county.

The suspect is described as white, aged 35 to 45 years old, very slim and quite tall, with very short light brown hair. He had a gap in his teeth and spoke with a southern accent.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact Surrey Police on 0845 125 2222 quoting reference GD/10/6794. Alternatively Crimestoppers can be contacted anonymously and free of charge on 0800 555 111.

The Merstham Neighbourhood Panel is your opportunity as residents to meet with your Local Councillors, Safer Neighbourhood Policing Team and other Local Representatives to discuss issues or concerns you may have.

At the last meeting local residents asked if senior officers from the Police and Raven Housing could attend, as they felt that their concerns about the area were not being hear at an ‘organisational’ level.

The meeting will be chaired by Cllr Graeme Crome.

Merstham’s Police team also run an open Police Surgeries on the first Tuesday of each month at the Help Shop on Portland Drive Merstham, between 9am and 11am.

Merstham’s councillors also run a monthly open surgery on the 1st Saturday of the month at the Community Facility 44 Portland Drive between 10-12am.