October 2010 Archives

THE first phase of redevelopment at Ottershaw village hall has finally started after fund-raisers collected more than £120,000.

The trustees of the village hall charity collated the money through fund-raising events by local people and businesses as well as grants from Surrey County Council, Runnymede Borough Council and the Chertsey Combined Charity.

The development will see a new toilet block and meeting room built into an extension on the exiting site, in Brox Road.

A grant application is also in for further extension; the result of this is due to be known by the middle of November.

Charity trustee Peter Binns, from Ottershaw, said: "The hall is old and in need of redevelopment and refurbishment that it cannot afford to fund through its own profits.

A cyclist is in hospital with serious head injuries after a collision between riders in an organised race in Chertsey.

The 39-year-old man from London was hurt when several riders collided and fell from their machines during the last half-mile of Sunday's race.

FIRE crews had to cut a person out of his car this morning after a crash on Walton Bridge.

The person was freed after the smash involving three cars and a lorry.

Fire crews attended the scene from Chertsey and Sunbury.

More to follow.

AN exhibition featuring work from one of the region's most celebrated artists alongside one of his most promising amateurs is set to take Chertsey by storm next month.

More than 40 paintings by Edwin Cripps, from Bedfont, near Stanwell, and Jane Hitch, from Ashford, will do on display in the Windsor Street Gallery, from Saturday, October 30.

They will remain in the gallery until Saturday, November 6, and Mr Cripps - the self-titled Artist Of The Absurd - said there was a very special reason behind the exhibition.

He said: "I met Jane at Ashford Art Club and her talent is prodigious.

THE family of a toddler diagnosed with a rare form of childhood cancer have been told his survival chances will now double thanks to a revolutionary treatment in Germany.

Joshua Deller, two, suffers from neuroblastoma, a rare and often fatal form of cancer in his nerve cells.

He was diagnosed on Christmas Eve 2008 and, after attempting to combat the disease with oral chemotherapy in the UK and immunotherapy treatment in the US, will head to Greifswald, in Germany, on Saturday, October 23.

This treatment will see his chances of survival rise from 30 to 60 per cent.

Mum Amy Deller, from Knaphill, said: "We got the go ahead from our consultant on Friday (October 15) that we could go over to Germany for treatment and we are delighted.

THE M3 motorway was closed for two hours on Saturday after a car crash.

The incident happened at 4.40pm on Saturday, October 16 between junction two and junction three.

Three fire engines and a water carrier were deployed by Surrey Fire & Rescue alongside the air ambulance.

More to follow.

A GROUP of thieves stole £150 worth of camping equipment from a shed in Chertsey before setting up tent and staying overnight in Gogmore Farm Park.

The offenders, who are believed to have broken in overnight on Saturday, October 9, took a tent and several sleeping bags from the residential property in St Anne's Road.

They then reportedly walked down a path parallel to Twynersh Avenue to the park, where they set up a camp site for the night. The equipment was found by police alongside a number of empty beer cans.

It was the third shed theft in the past two-and-a-half years at the home of retired firefighter Michael Murphy. In the two previous break ins, more than £4,000 worth of fishing equipment was stolen.

A GROUP of children born within the fallout zone of one of the world's worst ever nuclear disasters visited a luxury health resort in Ottershaw to help boost their immune systems.

The children, from Mogilev, in Belarus, are currently spending four weeks with families in the UK. They visited Foxhills Luxury Hotel & Resort, in Stonehill Road, Ottershaw, as part of a special 'treat day'.

The 15 young people were all born just 250km from the location of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster that killed 28 people in 1986. The fallout later displaced more than 350,000 men, women and children.

Marc Hayton, managing director of Foxhills, said: "It is wonderful to be able to help give these children a great start in life and a chance to have fun.