“PopUp Camberley will open on June 5th to a mixture of home-grown and visiting retail start-ups, giving them their first taste of the high street.”

“The pop-up will run for six weeks and every two weeks six new retailers will take space. The shop has the capacity to house six start-ups at a time – so there is a chance for 18 retailers to pop-up.”

Earlier this year, I wrote about this key retail trend in 2013, describing a pop-up shop as one that uses low-cost use retail sales spaces for a temporary period – around six months.

It’s a great initiative for Camberley, which I’ll be visiting to see a PopUp shop in operation.

Choosing a Mayor, Deputy Mayor, committee chairmen, and committee members is by the councillors themselves. It might surprise you to know that there are many different models of organising democratic control over councils – I won’t bore by going into them now – suffice to say that here in Surrey Heath at our annual meeting last night we voted in the new guard.

For this year our mayor is Councillor Beverley Harding, with Cllr Bob Paton as her deputy mayor. Annual council meetings are generally short, it’s the ceremony of the mayor making which is the key focus of the meeting. Here are the pictures of the event, with last year’s mayor Cllr Bruce Mansell, the new mayor, and her deputy. Click on the photo’s to enlarge.

Called Site Allocations, this is the title of the Surrey Heath Borough Council’s paper on the possible development sites to meet its plans for the borough up until 2028.

The public exhibition on site allocations in Bisley, West End and Lightwater is being held on Wednesday 15th May, at the Sports Pavilion, Benner Lane, West End, GU24 3JP from 12.30pm to 8.0pm.

This is the initial stage in a lengthy consultation process that is not due to be completed until early 2015. Without going into the issues involved, here are the sites that have been suggested for development, of one kind or another.

In Bisley:

• F C Brown Ltd [Bisley Office Equipment], potential for 125 homes
• Land at rear of 309-315 Guilford Road, potential for 5 homes
• Peerless site in Queens Road, potential for 9 homes

In West End

• Land west of Fenns Lane, 54 homes
• Land off Beldam Bridge Road, 51 homes
• Land at Pankhurst Farm on Bagshot Road, 26 homes
• Conifers Nursery on Bagshot Road, 24 homes
• West End reserve site [Benner Lane/Beldam Bridge/Kings Rd], 170 homes

Lightwater

• 99-101 Guildford Road, 9 homes
• 94-102a Guildford Road, 8 homes

NOTES:

• While I’ve given the number of homes, some of the sites are potential employment sites.
• The majority of the site are in Camberley, with only Bagshot of the six villages seeing any major potential expansion.
• This is the LAST of the exhibitions. If you’ve missed the earlier exhibitions in the borough; I’d suggest attending this event.

I’ll be at the exhibition, and will hope to see you there in the afternoon, and not in the evening as we have the annual Surrey Heath council meeting in the evening.

I reckon it’s tough. Possibly because I only got 7 out of 10, and I’m pleased I got that many. It was not knowing my gerunds, and the difference between a misplaced modifier and a dangling participle that did for me. Guess it reflects poorly on my concentration in English lessons while at school.

Britain’s electricity is cheaper than Germany, Italy, Denmark, Ireland, Portugal, Sweden and Spain. Who’d have thought it. Not us from reading or listening to our media. Even more surprising is that Britain has by far the lowest tax element in the price. Good job by The Economist for presenting the data.

Haptip: The Economist

Of the 346 boroughs in the survey Surrey Heath are 53rd. Of the nearby boroughs; Wokingham is 4th, Hart is 9th, while Guildford is 154th, Woking is 166th, and Rushmoor 292nd. The lower the number the better. The survey has five groups, Surrey Heath is in the lower group.

The article describes how the ranking is calculated,

“To calculate which are the best and worst areas for families, Savills rated each local authority on three measures: the proportion of pupils who get five or more GCSEs (at a C grade or higher), the crime levels per household and the supply of available family homes. These were added together to give an overall score.”

It’s all a touch artificial, and good PR for the estate agents. Although, it might help those moving the this part of England to choose where to live.

A short talk by Sean McKnight – Director of Studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, preceded moving readings from the book by Ian Cullen. Sean spoke about the WW1 and how Murray’s book is an important addition to the lack of written material recounting actual experiences of the war. The presentation was accompanied by video clips of the war and from noted military historian Chris Pugsley.

In my conversation with Murray, he describes the motivation behind his re-telling of the personal stories and experiences in the First World War of his New Zealand relatives.

Against the increasing volume in the background of Bhangra disco music we discussed the a number of things; the sad state of Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club and our hope for its happier future; the encouraging positive signs of growth in the UK, and in Wolverhampton in particular with the investment of Jaguar Land Rover.

Well done, Carolyn and Paul. Maybe this is the start of a Lightwater Gardens Open day. Something I think I’ll discuss with others.

At Windlesham Fête on Saturday 8th June, Lightwater Gardening Club will be selling plants from their stand. The cacti and succulents collection in pots on our conservatory windowsills are all from the Gardening Club and the Barrow’s. I’ve wanted such a collection for years. Now I’ve got one, I couldn’t be happier, especially as they’re all grown in Lightwater.

Photo is of part of our pots.

Prof Sheffield’s fascinating and entertaining lecture focussed on Winston Churchill’s role in the First World War, where his career included both significant failures and successes. It was Churchill’s role as Minister of Munitions, outside of the War Cabinet, that Prof Sheffield deserves reappraisal, and is the ‘best kept secret’.

Afterwards I asked Prof Sheffield why eminent historians had missed this aspect of Winston’s political career, also his views on protecting military history in the landscape, and of the Royal Logistics Corps Museum.

Professor Sheffield is soon to take up a post as Professor of War Studies at the University of Wolverhampton. Photo courtesy of Alan Meeks.