Annual General Meeting, 28 October 2025, 8pm, Stoke D’Abernon Village Hall

Invited Guests

Sir Gerry Acher, chair of the Chatterbus; Gary Topp, director of Painshill Park; Robin Southwell OBE, chair of governors, Parkside School; David Lewis, Surrey county councillor; Sue Prentice, chair of ‘Stop the Paddocks’ working group.

Over 80 residents attended the meeting. As usual, attendees were offered a glass of wine before the meeting began. Ian Nelson, the chair of the Stoke D’Abernon Residents’ Association (SDRA), opened the meeting at 8pm.

1 Welcome & introduction

Ian Nelson chaired the meeting and welcomed everyone.

2 Election of Committee

Ian Nelson, Garret Guilfoyle, Alison Kilby, Cliff Simmonds, Rick Daly, Nick Price, Ron West, Lynne Wood, Sue Prentice, Dave Phillips Glenys Layzell, Anne Davidson, Brenda Way, Stuart Brameld, Richard Kirchner, Warwick Hutchinson, Tony Green, Jenny King.

3 Election of officers: chairman, secretary, treasurer  

Ian Nelson, Alison Kilby and Garret Guilfoyle were re-elected.

4 Accounts for year to end September 2025

Treasurer Garret Guilfoyle talked through the accounts for the year to end September 2025. These were divided into two funds – SDRA funds and the Stop the Paddocks campaign funds. Expenditure and costs are under control, with the SDRA fund showing a surplus of £491 and a year-end cash and bank balance of £4,327. Annual subscription income was slightly lower than in 2024. The Stop the Paddocks fund had expenditure totalling £5,198, with the fund balance standing at £6,752. 

5 Church Bell Ringing

Tony Green spoke about the St Mary’s church bell ringing group, which meets every Monday evening to practise. They are always pleased to welcome anyone interested in learning this skill. Ian then handed Tony an envelope, which he opened to reveal the ‘Villager of the Year’ winner to be Julian Ball, the master of the St Mary’s bell ringing group. He received a bottle of wine in recognition of his service to the village.

6 Chatterbus Funding

Sir Gerry Acher, chair of the Chatterbus charity, spoke about their funds, which does not receive Government funding. It is a non-profit-making charity but needs to increase its reserve funds after the introduction of two low-floor electric buses in recent years. The Chatterbus service made 40,000 passenger journeys last year, 15,000 of which were transporting school children. A crowd-funding campaign will be launched soon to raise reserve funds. Ian awarded Gerry a Double Decker chocolate bar to thank him for his service for the Chatterbus.

7 Painshill Park

Gary Topp, the new director of Painshill, spoke engagingly about the creation and restoration of Painshill and reminded us all to treasure what is on our doorstep; Painshill is an extraordinary and world-renowned landscape garden. It is run as a charity and, like the Chatterbus, needs reserves. In 1981 a trust was established to restore the very overgrown gardens. After surviving the Covid years, the focus now is on maintenance and on rethinking things in the light of climate change. Gary honoured Warwick Hutchinson, without whose work, and that of many other volunteers, the Park would not be in its current splendid state.

8 Chair of Governors, Parkside School

Robin Southwell spoke about the challenges facing the private school sector. The trend of families taking children out of private senior schools in their final two years to attend state senior schools is taking off, as state school students seem to have a better chance of success getting into top-tier universities. The VAT on private school fees and National Insurance employment tax, and added costs of Safeguarding, have also increased overheads. This has in part led to Parkside School going co-educational. 

When asked about the breakdown in the relationship between Parkside School and St Mary’s Church, which are close neighbours, Robin said that there had indeed been a disappointing breakdown of trust between the two parties. Lawyers are advising both parties to find a way to exist together as they have done for the past 100 years or so. An apology was given to a member of the audience, who had been asked by a school staff member to turn around and leave the property nine months ago when he drove the Cobham Food Bank van in to make his weekly collection of donations from the church. A church warden spoke at the meeting to thank Mr. Southwell for attending the meeting, and that he hopes for a swift resolution. Local councillor Corinne Sterry also thanked Mr. Southwell and said that she hopes for a swift mediation and a return to good relations between both parties.

9 David Lewis, Surrey County Council

David Lewis spoke about the plans for local government reorganisation in Surrey, announced on the day of the AGM. From April 2027 it is proposed that there will be two unitary councils – West Surrey and East Surrey, replacing the 12 councils. These two councils will be led by an elected Mayor. Administration will be simpler and there will be less confusion about which council is responsible for what.

10 ‘Stop the Paddocks’ Campaign

Sue Prentice, chair of the ‘Stop the Paddocks’ campaign group, thanked residents for their support of this objection to the proposed large housing development on Blundel Lane. 1,076 objections were made to the outline planning application. She also reported that the campaign group were overwhelmed by the £11,950 received in donations to the GoFundMe fund to support the campaign. Some of this money has paid for transport and planning experts to produce detailed reports to support the objection from the SDRA. Other consultees also made objections – Surrey Highways and South Western Railway. The applicant requested an extension to the time given for a decision to be reached, for them to be able to formulate their response to the objections. Their revised plan with amendments is expected by mid-November, ‘at which time the campaign committee will work with their expert consultants to determine next steps. We expect to have three weeks to respond and residents may need to submit further objections, although it was made clear in the meeting that previous objections would not be written-off as these would be amendments to the same planning application. Sue appealed to residents to continue to lobby their councillors about this. Those signed up to email updates will be guided in how to respond once the group has met to decide the best way forward.

[A few days after the AGM, the amended plans were uploaded to the Elmbridge planning portal]. 

11 Christmas Lights event, Daffodil bulbs and the Autumn SDRA newsletter

Ian reminded everyone about the Christmas Lights event on Saturday 6^th December at the Old Plough pub, from 5:30 – 6:15pm. He has managed to secure the Cobham Training Band to come and play Christmas music, as the Reed’s school band was unavailable. 

The recent donation of two large sacks of daffodil bulbs to the SDRA from Squire’s Garden Centre has led to several bulb-planting sessions around the village. 

The Autumn publication of the SDRA newsletter was mentioned; people had very much enjoyed reading it. 

The meeting closed around 9:25pm.