The Cedar House Open Day in Aid of the Chatterbus originally planned for Saturday 8th July 2017 is to be postponed until Heritage Day which takes place on Saturday 9th September 2017.

More details will appear nearer the time but the Open Day will give people an opportunity to visit this local historic building which overlooks the river opposite the Cobham Mill which will also be open on Heritage Day.

We are delighted to see that work is commencing on Holly Parade at the centre of the High Street, which will bring welcome rejuvenation and added retail space.

Although the whole development is scheduled to complete by December 2018, we anticipate that the ground floor and the overall structure is likely to be established well within that period, with any significant disruption to the High Street largely completed within 2017.

As one of the UK's leading insurers, we've expanded – our new Cobham branch specialises in a bespoke collection of insurances, including High Value Home insurance and Comprehensive Car insurance.

7 empty shops in Holly Parade on the High Street have been empty since January 2016, you will have noticed the loss of parking spaces that were behind the shops.

We have received many questions about parking, closed shops, what is going on and the time taken to 'sort it out' - not necessarily in that order.

A flurry of publicity about proposals for the site and some local meetings to outline and potentally 'reshape' those proposals, may have answered those questions for you.

However, I would like to fill in some details, let you know what the Chamber of Commerce has been doing about the site and, most importantly, encourage you to express your own views to the planning authority - whether supportive of what has been proposed, or against the plans, or even just to make observations and comments.

The more local opinion that is put before Elmbridge BC Planners, the more likely the outcome will reflect local opinion.

Overview

Since January, the Chamber of Commerce has been talking to the freeholder's [Standard Life] representatives and the potential developers to confirm their plans for Holly Parade as an important part of our High Street.

There was potential for the site to be turned into only one or two retail units on the ground floor, replacing the existing 7 smaller units, which would be attractive to a 'national' and M&S was mentioned - as was Tesco's ['Metro']; also, larger non food shops might be interested.

Many people might support this type of develoment for Cobham, but the loss of smaller units that are usually local independent shops, would mean a different feel for Cobham, with less diversity and looser connection to the Cobham community. In times of economic difficulty, local independent shops are more likely to be resilient and less likely to 'cut and run' leaving empty stores.

Also, for community local events, we get good support from independent shops and businesses for Christmas Lights and celebration flags [Remembrance Day, Heritage Day, etc.], Butvery few 'nationals' or larger stores offer any financial support or contribution to local events. In fact, in most cases we cant even identify the right person to contact at national chains.

We believe it is fortunate that a local firm of developers - Levanter - developed proposals for Holly Parade. We have had several meetings with the two principal owners of Levanter, who themselves have lived in the Cobham area for over 50 years between them.
This is an important point, since we are not facing proposals from distant financiers who have no personal 'stake' in our local environment, although it does not necessarily mean that everyone will agree with what they propose or how it appears! Nonetheless, their proposals are attached and we were equally pleased to note that they took community views and interests 'on board' and include 5 retail units rahter than 1 or 2.

Please look at their proposals in detail and consider your own view on them - and make this known to Elmbridge. The formal date for expressing your views was 9th September 2016, but this is likely to go to the Planning Committee, in which case all expressions submitted before the committee date will be included.

The detailed plans can be found at www.elmbridge.gov.uk/planning/find-application/ under planning ref: 2016/2185 or use this link to go direct to the planning application http://bit.ly/2bDlJxm 

You can email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or write to The Planning Officer, Elmbridge Borough Council, Civic Centre, High Street, Esher, KT10 9SD quoting the planning reference shown above and most importantly your Name and Address.

Separately, we were keen for the developers to make use of the premises in the run up to re-development and the units are now being made available for 'pop up' shops to use for 3 months or so over the christmas period - there are already discussions with various shops to take up the opportunity, which will be a welcome sight for a few months to see the shops re-opening.

In the period before demolition work we are also discussing the option to use the car parking spaces, on a temporary basis, and when we have more news on this we will be pleased to let you know.

In the meantime, have a great autumn!

Alistair Mann
Chairman
Cobham Chamnber of Commerce