Peaslake: a village in the Surrey Hills: Information, News and Events.

29th June 2025

This site presents an independent view to maintain the current status of Shere Parish Council, (SPC) with Peaslake as part of it, forever.
The website is independent of SPC, and does not represent SPC, or < any councillor, in any way.
Also not represented are the views of the Peaslake "Community Council" (PCC) which is not a council, but an open forum for local discussion.

The time to write in is now. Today. Only 1 week left to get your views via post to GBC , (and a few extra days if using e mail) . 7th July is the cut-off , at 5 pm, so written letters need to go in by the 3rd July, or use e mail before 5 pm on 7/7. Protect our village, protect our community from unnecessary changes imposed by 'the few' , vote 'NO ' for the proposed change.

Peaslake "community council", (so called,) has been knocking on doors to encourage letters for the change, (even though they can provide no real reason for the change) much like was done for the petition, to persuade you to support their ridiculous view, coupled with quite a bit if mis-information and selective 'facts' - ( eg Farm future, housing future, flooding, costs, and many other claims). They have held 2 coffee mornings, totally one-sided, where little if any opposition or balance to the idea was allowed, by all reports. Their's is a minority view, (other views are available!), and here we encourage you to express your own for the benefit of the whole community. We need to stand up to this nonsense. Please express your own views, after looking at all the facts, a lot of which are on this site. This change if it gets through will wreck and divide Peaslake, and in fact the whole parish, all for absolutely no benefit at all, for anyone. Let's stop this now. ( Ironically, any new Parish council formed in Peaslake would have the effect of shutting down the "community council ", after nearly 80 years! Is this what we really want? )
Reminder: Please remember to write to GBC, before the closing date. If using Royal Mail, make sure it's in the post by the 4th of July. It is , however, vital that this change does not go through. 'No change' is the only real option! So please write or e mail in time. There are 2 sample letters, which can be downloaded and signed 'as is', or to be used as a model, but it's even better if you do your own! If you want to use one of these, print it off, and if you want to use it as a model only, that's fine too .

But please do write in, today, via either means, as asked for, in time! Please be sure to sign, date, and put your address on the letter, if not it might be declared invalid. Note: These letters are not published, but it is important that they are correctly signed etc to avoid multiple letters from the 'same sources', and to be valid.

Editors Ramblings, pt 1

Editors Ramblings, pt 2

Editors Ramblings, pt 3

Point of interest: Costs wasted so far: £6114: This comes our of all our pockets, in the form of precept wasted, and not counting ancillary costs, ie time wasted, envelopes, paper, ink. So thats £6114 of cost that cannot be spent this year, in the parish. Did we really need this? And should this change tqke place, it will cost Peaslake a further £5000 to stage and hold an election. ( This is a fact, thats what an election costs. Total then £11,000 plus.)

Stop the Proposal for a new Parish Council for Peaslake only.

Note: Reason for this site to exist: A request was made to the Peaslake community 'council' to ask if they could publish a 'balance' document stating the case to stay with the current arrangement i.e. to keep Shere Parish Council as it has been for 131 years, so as to provide a balance to their published case for leaving SPC: but they have declined permission to do so. So it leaves little choice but to publish the 'remain' case, here. The lack of 'democracy' is sign of what could happen, should this small group get voted in. New Details and comments to be added, here, daily.

Background:

The 'governance /boundary review' as it is called, is to allow Guildford Borough Council to consider, after a public consultation, the idea to split the parish council, leaving Shere with 2 wards, and to separate Peaslake ward allowing the formation of a new Parish Council to serve Peaslake only, separate from Shere Parish Council. Please note this was brought about by lodging a petition with GBC, driven by a small minority of Peaslake residents, and 2 local parish councillors. Most residents did not want this. This consultation is now under way, with a closing date for public comments on the 7th July, 2025, at 5 pm. So if you do not want this to happen, act soon, please! Please wait for the letter from Shere Parish council, however, which should be with you during the 1st week of June. Many reasons to oppose the idea and details on how to register your view are listed in the sidebar, on the left.

All residents of Shere Parish should have received a consultation letter, inviting comments from the public. This is for ALL residents of Shere Parish, not just residents of Peaslake.

While there may be some reasons for this proposal, there are many more reasons too why it might not be a good idea: The idea of this site is to provide details and points to counter the pressure being brought about to do this, driven by 2 local ward councillors and a minority Peaslake 'community council', despite the latter not being a representative organization within the village. Not even all of the current serving Parish ward councillors support this, and the majority of residents of Peaslake have not publicly expressed any views, as yet, which is the purpose of the current consultation letter sent out by GBC.

The site offers points in favour of the 'status quo'.

The navigation sidebar allows links to various pages, where these details on how to register your view, what its all about, what is entailed. Your comments if you want them known, can be published there too, using the e mail link below.

Please indicate if you want your name published, and give permission to do so. Please note that this site not a public forum, much the same as the 'community council' site is not: the editor reserves the right to moderate or exclude any comments deemed offensive, or not relevant.