Cobham Heritage

Feeding the Ducks in Cobham

Please don't feed bread to ducks

Cobham is fortunate to have the river Mole pass close to its High Street and the opportunity it provides to see wildlife close up, especially swans and ducks.

Feeding the ducks is an age-old pastime for families but recent research has concluded that feeding bread (especially in large quantities) is detrimental to the health of the wildfowl. The uneaten bread also affects the river because it goes mouldy and affects fish as well.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and the Canal and River Trust do not recommend feeding bread to ducks as it’s like feeding them junk food.

What do Ducks Really Like?

special wild duck food pellets
sweetcorn (canned, defrosted or fresh)
lettuce torn into small pieces
peas (defrosted, no need to cook)
oats (rolled or instant)
seeds

Duck Food Now Available in Cobham

If you would like to feed the ducks but don’t have any of their favourite food, Cobham Heritage has partnered with the Princess Alice Hospice Charity to provide individual bags of nutritious duck food. The bags can be purchased at the Princess Alice Hospice Charity shop at 52 High Street (just a short walk, 50 metres away) for a £1 donation per bag.

We want families to enjoy the river and to feed the ducks but we would like to encourage everyone to feed them good nutritious food.

Another successful litter pick in Stoke D'Abernon

Cobham Heritage organised another litter pick in the Stoke D'Abernon area on Sunday 6 October 2019 led by Laurence Wells and a team of volunteers.

The weather was kind - contrary to the forecast - and we had another great turn out from Cobham Conservation Heritage Trust members and non-members. Thank you once again to Specsavers, Woking who provided a great deal of support!

A fair amount of litter was collected especially off Stoke Road in Stoke d'Abernon. Woodlands Lane remains a hotspot, a particular fly-tip being just too much for Laurence who already had 4 bags full as well as car debris and a fishing net! The fly-tip has been reported to Elmbridge BC.

In any event, thank you once again to all those who volunteered their time.

We are having regular monthly litter picks to cover different areas of Cobham and the local area. Please consider volunteering and help us to keep Cobham clean and tidy.

The next litter pick will be on:

Sunday 3 November 2019 at 2 pm, meeting by No. 44 Furniture & Fine Things shop on the corner of the Portsmouth Road, Cobham, KT11 1HY and Between Streets.

High Viz vests, litter pickers and rubbish bags will be provided but please bring along your own gloves and wear appropriate clothing.

Cobham Refill - Tackling Plastic Waste

Refill Poster w400 Like almost every part of the U.K., Cobham suffers from packaging convenience at the expense of litter and plastic waste, especially plastic water bottles.

Helping to make the use of a reusable and refillable water bottle the norm, will help tackle plastic waste at source, curb much of the litter and reduce both plastic use and plastic waste.

The Refill initiative encourages consumers to use reusable water bottles and to make it easy to refill the water bottles at participating businesses.

The Refill Scheme

The Refill scheme seeks to publicise where you can get a water refill free of charge. Participating businesses can be found either through the Refill App on your mobile smart phone or by looking out for signs on shop fronts and doors.

The scheme is nationwide and Elmbridge Borough Council are promoting it.

This will help tackle plastic waste at source and will mitigate the fact that 30% of plastic in our oceans are or derive from single use plastic water bottles.

Cobham Refill launch at Energetic Health

How Does it Work

When you are out and your water bottle needs to be refilled, you visit a participating business and a member of the shop's staff will refill it with fresh tap water.

Many businesses have signed up to Cobham Refill

Participating businesses in Cobham include: Costa, Starbucks, Sweaty Betty, Energetic Health, Cobham Yoga, Cobham Pilates, Art of Living, Evie Loves Toast, Jeremy Hobbs, Sally Adams, Travel Professionals and the Old Plough.

Any other interested businesses can contact Laurence Wells via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

For more details about the scheme visit the www.refill.org.uk/refill-cobham website.

Duck Race Results - Heritage Day 2019

Looking for the duck race results for this year's Heritage Day on Saturday 14th September 2019?

Visit our dedicated Heritage Day website page here: hday.cobhamheritage.org.uk/duck-race/duck-race-results

Public meeting about Elmbridge Borough Council’s Local Plan consultation - 19 Sept 2019

Cobham Heritage, Cobham Green Belt Group and its affiliated local groups from Cobham, Oxshott, Downside and Stoke D’Abernon, are pleased to invite the public to a meeting to discuss the Elmbridge Borough Council’s Local Plan consultation on Thursday 19th September 2019 at 7.30pm.

The consultation asks residents to choose between five ‘strategic options’ to help the council draft this Local Plan and is open until 30th September 2019. We will be joined at our meeting by our local councillors led by James Brownewho will be pivotal as this plan develops.

These Options include one that foresees 16,300 new homes in Elmbridge. This would nearly double our local population as our share of these new houses would be both in our further developed urban areas and in two or more large areas of our local Green Belt (see www.cobhamgreenbelt.org.uk for more details).

The meeting will give all local residents an opportunity to hear and discuss these options, and how we may influence the final plan.

The meeting will be held at St. Andrew’s Church, Downside Bridge Road, Cobham KT11 3EJ. There is limited car parking there and on the local streets. Free car parking in the Hollyhedge Road car park is available from 7pmonwards.

We hope you and all your friends and neighbours will be able to join us for this important event.

Elmbridge Borough Council (EBC) Local Plan consultation has begun

The Elmbridge Borough Council (EBC) Local Plan consultation has now begun and will remain open until Mon 30th September 2019.

A number of our Cobham Heritage Trustees are working with other groups as part of the Cobham Green Belt Group. Here is a progress update:-

Consultation Questionnaire Problems

The consultation information and online questionnaire are provided via the EBC consultation website which has had some technical problems, and some have had problems navigating the site and finding the questionnaire itself.

The technical problems seem to have been resolved but some are still having problems navigating the site. In particular, access to the online questionnaire is not obvious as it appears at the foot of the “A New Local Plan: The Options Consultation” page, which is not seen unless you scroll to the very bottom of the page.

Elmbridge Borough Council Public Meetings

The free EBC’s public meeting on the 2nd September 2019 for Cobham, Oxshott, Downside and Stoke D’Abernon is 'Sold Out'.

Despite pressing the council to provide an additional one for Cobham, Oxshott, Downside and Stoke D’Abernon, the council is refusing to either change the venue to one with a larger capacity or add an additional date to cater for the number of residents who wish to attend. Their only suggestion is to attend a meeting for one of the other areas. You can register to attend one of the other meetings (even though their focus will be on a different area of Elmbridge) by selecting one of the alternative dates. The dates of the meetings currently announced are:-

Tuesday 27 August 2019 - Weybridge area
Wednesday 28 August 2019 - Walton-on-Thames and Hersham area
Thursday 29 August 2019 - Molesey area
Monday 2 September 2019 - Cobham, Oxshott and Stoke D'Abernon area – SOLD OUT!
Tuesday 3 September 2019 - The Dittons and Hinchley Wood area
Thursday 5 September 2019 - Esher and Claygate area

You can only attend one of the meetings and you must have a ticket. To obtain your free ticket you must register online via the following link:

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/local-plan-public-meetings-tickets-65086737183

All these meetings will be webcast live so you will be able to attend ‘virtually’ via the following link:

elmbridge.public-i.tv/core/portal/home

Cobham Green Belt Group Public Meeting

The Cobham Green Belt Group (supported by Cobham Heritage and other local organisations) will be having a public meeting in mid-September (venue and date to be confirmed soon) to give residents an opportunity to ask questions about the process and hopefully get answers. Our councillors are being invited to join us at that meeting.

How to Respond to the Consultation

The Cobham Green Belt Group team is analysing the information provided by EBC and will be offering advice and recommendations via the www.cobhamgreenbelt.org.uk website by the 1st September 2019. This will enable our residents to take part before the end of the consultation on Mon 30th September 2019.

In the meantime, do register on the EBC Consultation website at

consult.elmbridge.gov.uk/consult.ti/system/register

and look at the information available.

One of the key EBC documents is “The Options Consultation Document”. For your convenience we have made it available via the following link in case you have difficulty finding it on the Elmbridge Consultation Website: