Albury (Surrey) Parish Council
Including Albury, Albury Heath, Brook, Farley Green, Little London and Newlands Corner
In accordance with Regulation 14 of the Neighbourhood Planning Regulations, Albury Parish Council is publishing its draft Neighbourhood Plan for formal consultation.
The consultation period runs between 13th July – 31st August.
There will be public meetings in the Library and drop in times at the Memorial Library - for full details, click here.
An exciting opportunity has arisen for a community-minded and motivated person to take on the post of Parish Clerk and potentially Responsible Financial Officer (RFO) supporting Albury Parish Council in all its ventures for the community. The parish is in rural Surrey southeast of Guildford.
The Parish Clerk and RFO is responsible for the administrative and financial management of the Parish Council affairs, ensuring statutory compliance, maintaining accurate financial records, preparing budgets and accounts for annual audit, advising the Parish Council on governance matters and attending Council meetings. The successful candidate will need to be confident in the use of IT and standard Office software, be flexible, forward-thinking, be able to develop ideas but above all be a enthusiastic administrator.
Click here for full details.
The Neighbourhood Steering Group (NPSG) are pleased to be able to share with everyone that the finalised ‘Draft Albury Neighbourhood Plan is now available to view on our website (https://alburyparishneighbourhoodplan.org). The development of this plan has involved a huge effort from a wide number of people, not just the direct Steering Group, so we’d like to acknowledge and thank all those that contributed.
The biggest change to this version of the ANP is the reduction in sites included for the potential development of affordable housing. The rationale for this is advice received from Guildford Borough Council (GBC) Planning suggesting we reduce the number of sites for affordable housing included within the plan.
The next steps for the plan will be a further public consultation with presentation and open forum questions - these will likely take place in July. The ANP will also shared with statutory consultees including GBC Planning, Surrey County Council, Surrey Hills National Landscape to ensure it doesn’t conflict with their policies.
So we’re still in the draft stage albeit, hopefully much closer to the line now.
The dates of the consultation will be shared on the website, social channels and Parish Magazine
This from Surrey County Council
For your information I am writing to advise you of emergency works initiated by Thames Water on Shophouse Lane, Albury.
The works are being carried out under road closure for visible leak .
The expected completion date is 26th February.
The duration for any ‘immediate’ activity, such as a water leak, cannot be initially challenged upon receipt of the permit. However, we do realise unplanned works of this nature can cause inconvenience and our team is liaising with the utilities company for updates on the progress as and when necessary.
We are really pleased to announce that the Albury Cafe will be opening for business again in the Memorial Library from Monday 16th Feb at 10am!!
Really glad to have it back!
Got toys, clothes or bits you no longer love? The Albury Village Hall Committee would be very grateful for donations for their Jumble Sale on 24th January!
Drop-off times:
They are looking for:
Please no bulky furniture, electrical items, or anything broken or soiled.
All proceeds go towards keeping Albury Village Hall open, so every donation makes a real difference.
Have a clear out, make some space, and support your local community at the same time! 
There is an update on the Village Hall which hopefully should be encouraging!
We still plan to go ahead with the meeting at the hall tomorrow. There was some discussion about whether it was still necessary but we didn't want to take the chance of people who hadn't heard turning to an empty hall.
A public meeting has been scheduled to give Parishioners a chance to discuss the decision of the Parish Council to cease its operation of the Village Hall. This will be on Wednesday 5th November at 19.30 in the Village Hall.
The next full council meeting will be held in the Memorial Library at 7.30pm on Monday 3rd November. A copy of the agenda can be found here.
Following the upgrading of the level crossings on the Guildford Reigate line we received some further information which may answers some questions being raised by parishioners - in particular why are the waiting times longer?
Many thanks for your email. I’ve attached the below as a narrative about the level crossing barrier down time at following our recent upgrades on the North Downs Line. Regarding your point about level crossings working in tandem, I can confirm all the crossings on this route operate independently from each other.
Tangley, Brook and Burrows level crossing used to use an Automatic Half Barrier system which operated using 1970s striking point technology. When a train reached a designated point on the railway, an alarm sounds and the barriers (which only cover half the road) were lowered, only rising when the train has cleared the crossing. This process occured without any intervention or visual confirmation by our signallers. These crossings were ranked as some of the riskiest on the Wessex route.
The AHB crossings could not continue to exist in their current form. To prevent Network Rail shutting the crossings entirely, they have been upgraded to either a Manually Controlled Full Barrier Crossing using CCTV in the case of Tangley, or a Manually Controlled Full Barrier Crossing using Obstacle Detection in the case of Brook and Burrows.
Now at Tangley, when a train approaches a new crossing, a signaller in the Guildford Area Signalling Centre will monitor the crossing remotely, lowering the barriers when safe to do so. At Brooks and Burrows, the barriers will begin to close as before, while a radar continuously scans the crossing to make sure nothing has been trapped in between the barriers. All three crossings now have barriers that fully block the road.
The new crossings have been designed to be easier to maintain, and our analysis shows the work will decrease the risk of an incident by 97%.
This operation has led to longer wait times at the crossing, in this case the average barrier time has increased post our commissioning works in September. This new time is in line with our national barrier down time standards. The increased barrier down time is to make sure the crossing is and remains clear during the entirety of its operation. The table below details the changes:
Crossing Existing Down Time Forecast Down Time Tangley (AHB to MCB-CCTV) 45 seconds 155-180 seconds Chilworth (MCB-CCTV to MCB-CCTV) 105-165 seconds 125-165 seconds Brook (AHB to MCB-OD) 40 seconds 149-172 seconds Burrows Lane (AHB to MCB-OD) 40 seconds 110-165 seconds We have a legal responsibility to reduce risk on the railway, this involves upgrading AHB crossings where the risk to all users is at an unacceptable level, and our teams will continue to strike a balance between running the railway and being a responsible neighbour to the local community.
As ever if you have any further questions please do not hesitate to let me know.
Kind regards,
Harry Riley (He/Him/His)
Public Affairs Manager
Southern: Wessex