View of Woking Lightbox from the current canal bridge

The power of protest and e-petitions has forced Woking council to retreat over its proposals for a new bridge over the Basingstoke canal linking the town centre with the Brewery Road car park and the soon-to-be-built UK HQ for the World Wildlife Fund. In  a press release last month the council said it has listened to residents’ concerns and was now promising that the bridge – which it prefers to call the Bedser bridge – would be “significantly lower than the previous proposal, meaning fewer steps and shorter, more compact ramps, while remaining Equality Act and disability compliant.”

The statement added: “Instead of a concrete and galvanised steel structure, the new design features a timber bridge that will be sympathetic to its surrounding area. The Brewery Road side has been reconfigured to improve public access to the bridge by incorporating split-level access to the WWF-UK building. Shorter, curved ramps will now mean that it has been necessary to revise the landscape scheme, which will include planting two native species trees as part of the revised ramps.”

This constitutes a major rethink, and indicates the strength of feeling which the council was forced to take into account.

The tectonic plates at County Hall must be shifting a tad. Thanks to Lib Dem county councillor Diana Smith for passing on the good news that the threat to make Woking’s bigger branch libraries such as Knaphill, and West Byfleet, pictured above, volunteer-run has been lifted.  It’s a reflection of the wave of concern provoked by such proposals, which weren’t even likely to save that much money,  and which had touched even the Conservatives’ own bedrock of support. Meanwhile smaller libraries, such as New Haw, are having raise donations from tokens collected in Waitrose.

David Cameron’s visit to McLaren’s factory last week to open its luxury car plant was aimed at emphasising the importance the government places on what’s left of Britain’s manufacturing industry, with McLaren a shining example of the new, hi-tech way forward for UK firms.  It is in this climate that McLaren has argued that its plan for a new applied technology centre across the road from its existing headquarters, picture above, should be agreed, even though it too is on green belt land. McLaren’s case is persuasive.  Its architecture-award winning, environmentally screened presence on the edge of Woking is a smart, prestigious antidote to the town’s otherwise vaguely naff image.  And in these days of soaring unemployment, an enterprise that talks of 300 construction jobs, 400 direct jobs, and 200 more subsidiary ones, should be encouraged. And yet … the planned new centre is also on green belt land, albeit not particularly attractive, and it will definitely add to traffic congestion in the area, and on a road that has seen two serious water main bursts, road collapses and disruptions in the last few years. One rule for McLaren, another for the rest of us? In this case, it seems, yes. Only the landing site of the Martians on Horsell common, which is of course preserved for the nation, can stop any further green belt encroachment in this area around Woking, I guess.

Woking council has belatedly “extended” the deadline for objections to the proposed new canal bridge linking Horsell and Woking with the new WWF development at Brewery Road to the end of the month, after the outcry about its design. The objections include the height, linked to the WWF building itself which will be erected on stilts above the existing car park, but more specifically the lengths that pushchair, pram and wheelchair users will be forced to go along along the cyclists’ ramp if they choose not to use the lift. There is an online petition about this, with its closing date 21 October.  The row has rather sadly overshadowed the fact the new bridge is intended to be a tribute to Woking’s famous cricketing twins, Eric and Alec Bedser. It is also a shame that the WWF is being cast once more as a villain in this piece, with Woking council being accused of bending over backwards once more to facilitate the WWF’s prestigious arrival in the town. Surely the real reason for the increased height of the bridge has been overlooked: it is to attract larger boats along the Basingstoke canal as Woking seeks to reposition itself as a south-east centre for shipping.

It’s good to see that Woking Lightbox is finally acknowledging Paul Weller’s importance to the town with an exhibition of photographs of the Modfather by Lawrence Watson (on now, until 25 September).  It’s also cool to see the show is titled Town Called Malice, a reference to the storming Jam song about Woking that the modern-day town of soaring office blocks and flats has tried to ignore. It’s a pity of course that the exhibition does not include any pictures of Weller’s early years with the Jam, or indeed hardly any of the Style Council – but then photographer Lawrence did not meet up with Weller until 1988, when the Style Council had almost run its course.  It’s also a shame that the cheapest souvenir of the show seems to be a £30 book of photographs … but this is the modern world.

PS Now that Eric and Alec Bedser are being honoured with statues in Woking , can Weller be far behind?

Woking Library occupies a central position on the town’s main square. Recently Woking councillors approved a planning application, despite some objections, that would allow a restaurant to occupy the library’s front entrance. The argument put forward was that this would put new life into a central area of Woking, as part of council officers’ determined plan to update the town.  But this plan is not yet a done deal – inasmuch as Surrey county council, which owns the library, has not so far agreed to being shunted round to a side entrance.  They may have to redesign the library to accommodate such a switch, and would accordingly require some facilitating money from Woking council, which already has debts of more than £200m.  Watch this space: I may be wrong, but this could develop into quite a row.

First it loses its magistrates court: now Woking is losing its long-running newspaper, the News and Mail.

http://www.woking.co.uk/article/387/After+117+years,+News+%26+Mail+set+to+close

The News and Mail was left and dry when its owner, the Guardian newspaper group, sold off all its other regional titles but was unable to dispose of the News and Mail as well to Trinity Mirror, because of competition rules.  Now, after trying to find another buyer for this isolated title GNM says it will have to close it down.  It’s a great shame. The News and Mail turned into a very good tabloid a few years ago, packed with news, and even when it decamped to Guildford still had its finger on the local pulse. This will also mean the disappearance of the Woking Review freesheet,  which was always a cut above other local giveways. The final edition of the News and Mail contained a report that Woking’s increasingly-autocratic CEO said during a council debate that he was “disgusted” by a Lib Dem councillor’s comment that spending might have to be reined back on the facelift for Wolsey Walk. Rightly or wrongly, the councillor was reflecting a lot of residents’ fears about Woking council’s increasing levels of debt. In my day as a local reporter  - admittedly many, many days ago – it would be unheard for a paid official of the council to talk to an elected representative in such a way. I see that this week the unfeasibly-big Surrey Advertiser – think about turning yourself into a tabloid, chaps, it’s much easier to read – has launched a new Woking area edition. Let’s hope they will continue to report the wit and wisdom of Woking’s council officials as assiduously as the News and Mail did.

The waiting room on platforms 2 and 3 at West Byfleet station is locked, vandalised and crumbling, and has been for many years. Isn’t it odd that when a fortune was spent on building a new footbridge with lifts at West Byfleet a couple of years ago http://heartofsurrey.wordpress.com/2008/11/27/77/ nothing was done about this continuing eyesore – a depressing and frustrating sight for those waiting for trains. Maybe if, as seems likely, there is no intention to spend serious money on it, a little bit of cash can be allocated to just demolishing it and removing this reminder of more civilised days  - when it was open, in good repair, unvandalised, and could provide a refuge for passengers. Days lone gone, I fear.

April 2011 update: It IS going to be demolished and replaced with a new, “vandal-proof” shelter, I understand. The same thing will happen to the shelter that has just disappeared on platform one. A “vandal-proof” shelter is an interesting concept – not least to vandals. But look at all the improvements set in train once Wokingmatters takes up the cudgels!

August 2011: Platform one got an enclosed shelter with seating, platform three got an open shelter with no seating. Preferential treatment for London commuters, you see. But platform three does have the benefit of its unspoilt wildflower meadow. I hope it’s protected by the Nature Conservancy Council, if such a body still exists.

WWF-UK this week at the HG Wells Centre has been putting flesh on its plans to build a new UK HQ on Woking’s Brewery Road car park. The low-rise, open-plan building with a curving roof will be built above the car park, “floated” in the architects’ words, so that few existing car park spaces will be lost – but at the moment there will no longer be any room for coaches, which may turn out to be a snag.  Included in the plans are an education and visitor centre, with the intention of attracting school parties, a public piazza and gardens, the retention of many of the trees around the car park, and re-landscaping of the canalside area. The rickety old bridge over the canal, above, is to be replaced by the council at the same time. WWF, which celebrates its 50th anniversary next year, wants to move from its “clappped-out” current home at Panda House, on an industrial estate in Godalming, and “express itself” in an eye-catching – and they hope, award-winning – green new building. Despite the recession, it has the funds to do it. There were about 100 people at the public presentation I attended on Wednesday afternoon, one of three being staged by WWF.  They were mostly elderly, mostly from Horsell, and mostly hostile – the same sort of people who successfully fought the proposed transfer of Surrey county council’s  HQ from Kingston to Woking a number of years ago. They will no doubt fill the letters pages of local papers with their objections over the next few weeks, even though the Brewery Road site has long been zoned for development. However, one resident who lives close to the canalside had to admit: “This plan is the best I’ve seen so far.”  To find out more about WWF’s intentions, there is a temporary email address:  newhq@wwf.org.uk

February 2011 update:  Good news! Despite the grumbling from Horsell, WWF has gained planning permission for its Woking HQ

http://www.woking.gov.uk/news?item=00004D53C4C9.C0A801BA.00001B72.0003

It seems inconceivable that a town of Woking’s size could lose its magistrates court. But that is what our new coalition government is planning. Has all the crime in Woking gone away?  A Woking Lib Dem councillor claims it is all the fault of the previous Labour government. (As someone who had connections with politicians once said:  ”He would, wouldn’t he?”) http://willforster.mycouncillor.org.uk/2010/06/23/woking-magistrates-court-faces-closure/ For the thinking behind this move, read http://www.economicvoice.com/government-to-close-157-courts/50011298#axzz0sbfWkr18. This issue should provide an excellent early opportunity for Woking’s new Tory MP, Jonathan Lord, to establish his local credentials and lead a campaign to save our court. Has he said anything on the subject yet?

December 2010 update: Oh well. So Jonathan Lord has failed in his first local battle, to save the magistrates court. Its modern facilities are to shut down, and alleged criminals will have to face the music at Guildford or Staines instead.  It is a slap in the face for Woking, no doubt about that.  On the other hand, the Ministry of Justice clearly wants to cash in on the land value, which must say something about the status of the town … And we all know there aren’t that many criminals in Woking, anyway. Well, not compared to Guildford and Staines.