Mole Valley District Council

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Traffic congestion in Dorking is "absolute hell" for residents and traders, according to a cafe owner, with roads becoming regularly "gridlocked".

Business owners say HGVs are getting stuck and they are losing trade, while people were recently left "incensed" by roadworks that brought the town centre to a standstill.

The comments were raised at a Surrey County Council (SCC) and Mole Valley District Council (MVDC) local committee meeting this week, which also received a petition calling for parking permits to stop shoppers and office workers from parking in residential streets.

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Raising concerns about HGVs and delivery lorries navigating their way through the town centre, businessman Adam Moreve, who owns Musette Cycle Cafe, told the meeting traffic lights at Pump Corner were becoming a problem.

He said this was highlighted even further when they failed to work for a couple of days and traffic flowed really well.

Presenting the petition, signed by residents in Howard Road and Arundel Road, Patrick Keeble said he and his neighbours were having to use pay and display car parks because of shoppers, office workers, shop workers and pub goers parking for hours at a time outside their homes.

"Our patience is now exhausted," he added.

Highways officers are carrying out an assessment of both roads, while a number of traffic schemes are being considered for Dorking.

Torrential rain and flash flooding is not being helped by a backlog of gullies needing to be cleared, councillors have claimed.

Members of Surrey County Council (SCC) and Mole Valley District Council Local Committee said recent rains were made worse because of blocked drains.

More than 14,000 gullies were cleared in the borough in 2017/18, but 2,017 were not cleaned due to cars parked over the drains.

Speaking at the meeting on Wednesday, committee chairman councillor Tim Hall said he knew it was a problem across the whole county.

He said: "After last week's torrential rain you could have have boated down Kingston Road in Leatherhead."

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Ukip now has no councillors in Surrey after losing their single remaining seats on Mole Valley, and Reigate and Banstead councils.

Correction 13 July 2018: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that UKIP fielded no candidates in either Tandridge, Runnymede, Woking or Elmbridge.

The Conservatives have lost overall control of Mole Valley District Council after only successfully defending five out their six seats up for reselection and thereby losing their one-seat overall majority.

UKIP lost their only representation on the council while the Lib Dems gained one seat.

Woodland Trust

A £9m woodland project to mark the centenary of World War One with a base in the Surrey countryside is nearing the final stages of planning.

The Woodland Trust hopes to attract around 110,000 visitors a year to Langley Vale Wood, near Epsom.

Plans for a visitors' centre, car park, memorial park, playground and paths have been submitted to Mole Valley District Council.

The trust has an ambitious project of planting 200,000 native trees at the 640-acre site including beech, rowan, hawthorn and oak.

Thousands of trees have already been planted by local schoolchildren and residents.

The site contains a significant proportion of ancient woodland in the form of Sheep Walk, Downs View Wood, Gilletts Wood, Little Hurst Wood and Great Hurst Wood, which will be incorporated into the wider Centenary Woodland area.

The trust is creating four World War One Centenary Woods across the UK with Langley Vale being England's centre.

It is hoped three million native trees will be planted across the four sites in memory of the millions of lives lost and affected by the war that lasted from 1914-1918.