Horley Town Council
Your Horley

March 2021

eNewsletter

In this edition.........

Co-Option Notice; Horley In Bloom 2021 & Horley in Pictures Photographic Competition; Community Garden Week; Claire Coutinho MP newsletter; Processionary Moths; Meath Green Lane Traffic Proposals; Councillor Profile, Helen Kitajewski; Reigate & Banstead Mayor's Art Competition; Gatwick In Touch Newsletter; Accessible Railways Leaflet; Illegal Pipeline Tapping; Highways Pothole Detection; Registering to Vote; The Great British Spring Clean and finally upcoming meeting dates

Horley Town Council Vacancy - Office of Town Councillor

CO-OPTION NOTICE

HORLEY WEST WARD

The Local Government Act, Section 87 (2), requires a local council to give public notice of casual vacancies to ensure transparency and to attract more candidates.

There is a vacancy on Horley Town Council (Horley West Ward) caused by the recent resignation of a Town Councillor.
The vacancy will be filled by co-option as soon as practicable.
Please contact the Town Council Offices (details below) if you are interested in being considered and would like to receive an Application Form.
All applications must be received in writing by no later than 5.00 pm on Friday, 16 April 2021
General Information:

The functions and responsibilities of Horley Town Council are listed on the main page of the Town Council website. To find out more about the role of a Town Councillor, please refer to the National Association of Local Councils (NALC) website which provides these useful publications:

All about local councils

Power to the People

More general information on local government and elections can also be found at the following websites:

Local Government Association (LGA) website - works with Councils to support, promote and improve Local Government.
Be a councillor website - provides details on undertaking the role of public office as a Councillor.
Paper copies of the above-mentioned documentation is also available on request

Dated: 10 March 2021, Joan Walsh, Town Clerk Horley Town Council,
Council Offices, 92 Albert Road, Horley RH6 7HZ.
Tel: 01293 784765 Email: town.clerk@horleytown.com

Community Garden Week

April 5 -11 is National Community Garden week, so we would like to use this as an excuse to highlight the wonderful work done by the Q Garden volunteers. The community garden located on the corner of The Drive and Russells Crescent is looking beautiful this spring thanks to the help of the volunteers. They meet 10AM the 2nd Saturday of each month. The usual social distancing rules apply, bring your mask and also tools if you have them. Next meet-up date is 10 April

Gatwick In Touch

The latest instalment of Gatwick in Touch is now available to read on our website with news on the grants available from The Gatwick Airport Community Trust; The Northern Runway Project and more.

Oak Tree Processionary Moths

Unfortunately Oak Tree Processionary moths have been spotted in our local area. The caterpillars of oak processionary moth (OPM) are pests of oak trees, and a hazard to human and animal health. OPM was first accidentally introduced to England in 2005, and is subject to a government-led programme of survey and control to minimise its population, spread and impacts.

The Forest Commission have produced an information leaflet. DO NOT:

touch or go near caterpillars or nests
let children or pets go near caterpillars or nests
try to remove nests or caterpillars yourself

Report it to the Forest Commission e-mail it to opm@forestrycommission.gov.uk, or telephone 0300 067 4442

Councillor Profiles

For the next few months the newsletter will be featuring profiles of Horley Town Councillors. This month we feature Cllr Helen Kitajewski

Helen moved to Horley 7 years ago when she bought her first home on The Acres with her now-husband, Adrian, who is also a town councillor. They are soon to be moving to Westvale Park and are really happy to be staying in Horley.

She joined the council in 2015 and really enjoys serving the town and making decisions to make Horley even better for everyone. She is a member of the Conservative group, and has been the Chairman of the Finance and General Purposes committee for the past couple of years. She also sits on the Leisure and Amenities committee.

Helen works as a secondary Science teacher and has worked at Oakwood in Horley for the past 4 years.

Highways Trial New Pot Hole Detection System

Surrey County Council has become one of the first local authorities in the UK to trial the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology to spot potholes.
Computer vision cameras, fitted to dashboards inside council vehicles, spot defects and report their location, height, width and depth, along with information gathered by Highway Safety Inspectors. The software can also track the development of potholes that don’t need immediate attention by taking repeat measurements over time to ensure they are dealt with when needed.

To read more on how it works go to the Surrey County Council Website

Illegal Pipeline Tapping

The issue of illegal tapping into the pipeline is an extremely hazardous activity and has become an increasing problem over the last few years, perpetrated by organised gangs. Esso wish to raise awareness of this and promote the reporting of any suspicious activity.

Anybody inspecting the pipeline should have Fisher German (FG) or Esso identification.
Anyone digging on or within 3m of the pipeline should be supervised by FG staff.
Our FG maintenance personnel and ground patrols have dark blue VW and white Vauxhall Amorok vans which are clearly marked.

Illegal tapping can typically involve a small hole being dug straight down to the pipe, a hose connected to the pipe and then this hose being laid for a significant distance to a point where a vehicle can turn off the road and fill up tanks. The actual tapping and laying the hose is likely to happen at night, with the hole backfilled and the hose neatly buried under the surface of the ground and along hedges and other features.

Should you become aware of any suspicious activity/vehicles please call us on 0800 136 812 or if felt appropriate please dial 999. The pipeline runs under Emlyn Meadows

Please report any suspicious activity near the pipeline.

Community Litter Picking & The Great British Spring Clean

The Great British Spring Clean is back but you don't have to wait until then if you want to do some litter picking sooner.

Email us at town.clerk@horleytown.com to arrange a convenient time to come and collect the special purple litter sacks that Reigate & Banstead Borough Council will collect.

Click here for more info on the Great British Spring Clean

There have been quite a number of litter picking groups recently and we would like to extend our thanks to them all for their superb efforts.

Horley in Bloom 2020 &
Horley In Pictures

We haven't decided on the exact details yet but we are hoping to run both the Horley in Bloom & Horley in Pictures Photographic Competition this year. When we know more we will let you publish details here, our social media channels and on our website

Picture above: Steve Tullet Highly commended in this year's competition

SCAM ALERTS

Did you know that you can forward scam text messages onto 7726 and emails to report@phishing.gov.uk.

This month's Neighbourhood Watch Newsletter has a lot of advice on how to avoid email scams

Reigate & Banstead children invited to take part in The Mayor’s Art Competition

Looking for an activity to keep the kids occupied this Easter? The Mayor of the Borough of Reigate & Banstead is on the lookout for talented young artists to enter an exciting art competition.

Themed ‘Lockdown life – and the future’, the competition encourages children to create a piece of artwork to reflect their experiences of 2020 and/or their hopes for 2021. This can be anything from home schooling to missing friends and family, clapping on doorsteps or celebrating local key workers. It could also portray what they’re most looking forward to in the future, such as hugging their grandparents or going on holiday. It can be created in a variety of mediums, from paints to crayons to collage, and should be A4 in size.

For more information click here

Making Rail Accessible Leaflet

The rail operators in our area, Great Northern, Gatwick Express, Southern and Thameslink have updated their joint Accessible Travel Policy.

The policy is supported by the “Making Rail Accessible” leaflet. This provides practical information for customers on what assistance and support is available, how to access it, what customers should expect on their journey and how to access additional information.

Printed copies are available at Stations but please contact us here at Horley Town Council if you need one printed

Claire Coutinho MP Newsletter

If you would like to read the newsletter from our MP then click here to see it

Traffic Calming Meath Green Lane & Webber Street

Surrey County Council have published their proposals for traffic calming measures around the Meath Green Lane area and the associated link road. Click here to read the proposal and check out the plans

How Will You Vote?

In Person at a Polling Station
By Post - Reigate & Banstead Borough Council will send you a postal voting pack so you can complete your ballot paper at home and return it by post. Apply by 5pm on 20 April for this year's election.
By proxy - appointing a person to vote on your behalf at your polling station. The deadline to apply is 5pm on 27 April

For information on applying for postal and proxy votes click here