5 May 2017   Surrey Advertiser   8
Councils reveal
Small is
just the
ticket
on
Little
Street
THE team behind a
Frimley play centre opened
the doors to their new Little
Street branch in West Byfleet
– so we took along our
youngest roving reporter to
look inside.
Elliott Duffell joined other
little ones to discover the joys
of the new little attraction in
the village.
The idea behind the centre
is that young children can
enjoy playing in a realistic
mini street, which includes a
supermarket, a construction
site, a police station and a
medical centre.
A play centre spokesman
7KH8.­V)DPLO\)HVWLYDORI
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I hope the prices are small: Elliott works out if he has enough for the weekly shop as he finds his way around the store
said: “Little Street is a scaled
down version of a typical
town, inspiring children to
explore life in the world
around them.
“We offer
(%%)
$#%'&
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#!)
and, below, play time for Elliott with his mum, reporter Beth Duffell
high quality experience by
operating pre-defined play
sessions and keeping the
numbers attending little.
“At the end of each play
a period we take the time and
the huge cost of
properties bought
for investment
by JOSHUA SMITH
joshua.smith@trinitymirror.com
Twitter: @Joshua_Smith1
Councils in Surrey own at
least £360 million worth of
properties bought purely as
investments.
Estate agent Savills told
The Financial Times last
week that English public sec-
tor investors bought property
valued at £1.2 billion last year
and had spent at least £221m
by the end of March this year.
But on Sunday, former
business secretary Vince
Cable told The Observer that
the strategy is ‘not a wise and
sensible thing to do’.
The same article reported
that authorities were borrow-
ing from the Public Works
Loan Board, a statutory body
that provides loans to public
bodies from the National
Loans Fund, at very low rates
of interest and then using the
money to invest in property.
Get Surrey sent Freedom
of Information (FOI) re-
quests to Surrey County
Council and all of the coun-
ty’s borough and district
councils, asking for a list of
all their investment proper-
ties including the address,
date purchased, price paid
and current value.
Not all councils provided a
current value as well as a
purchase price.
l SURREY COUNTY COUNCIL
The council owns 19 prop-
erties as investments, which
it values at £173,948,900.
In the tax year 2016/17,
Surrey purchased 10 of these
properties for £108,249,000.
Six of these are in the
care to restore Little Street stimulate their curiosity and county, while others current-
ly have tenants that include a
back to its original state so inventiveness.”
B&Q store in Macclesfield
the next group of children Little Street West Byfleet is
and a Stratford-upon-Avon
will enjoy the ‘wow’ factor. open daily, offering four play
“Every prop will be re- sessions a day.
turned to the right place to
Beauty spots blighted by fly-tipping
A MOLE Valley park ranger is
calling for action to stop fly-
50+
tipping after waste was
illegally dumped at an
Abinger beauty spot.
National Trust volunteers
at Abinger Roughs and
Netley Park found piles of
$&7,9 waste at the popular Bishop’s
¬+$9( ,7,(672 Cross memorial near Leasers

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Barn on Friday April 21.
A gate lock had been bro-
&/86, ken, suggesting the fly-tip-
9( pers had broken in. Building
waste was also found on one
of the park’s bridleways.
Rob Hewer, lead ranger of
the Surrey Hills North Downs
West area, said: “It’s now very
gofestUK
@gofestuk
gofestuk
Travelodge, as well as retail
parks in Milton Keynes and
Loughborough.
A response to the FOI re-
quest states: “The key pur-
pose of the county council’s
investment property strategy
is to deliver an ongoing in-
come stream for the council
to fund essential services.
“The investment portfolio
consists of property invest-
ments that either provide a
commercial return or will de-
liver economic regeneration
or meet long-term service
use, while also delivering an
investment return.
“The council is developing
a mixed and diversified port-
folio, across a wide area and
across property sectors, in
order to manage the inherent
risks of property ownership.”
The statement adds:
“Investment property assets
are let to a variety of tenants
in a number of industry sec-
tors and range from local
businesses to large public
limited companies.
“All investments are re-
quired to demonstrate a rev-
enue return in excess of the
cost of funding the purchase
and a robust business case is
always applied to any pro-
posed acquisition.”
l ELMBRIDGE BOROUGH COUNCIL
Elmbridge owns eight
properties as investments,
which were purchased for
£33,165,000; it does not hold
current valuation data on.
Properties owned include
26-38a High Street, Cobham
(purchased for £6.5m), Old
Post Office, 81 High Street,
Esher (£2,080,000), and Units
1-2 Vickers Drive, Weybridge
(£13,810,000).
l EPSOM & EWELL BOROUGH
COUNCIL
Epsom & Ewell owns 45
bad. We are getting really bad
spates almost every week
and something will have to
be done to stop them break-
ing into sensitive sites.
“It makes you very angry. I
was furious when I heard
about this latest act.
“Bishop’s Cross is popular
with tourists and it’s a real
shock for people like volun-
teer Len Merritt to find the
mess when he puts so much
effort into making the site
look beautiful for visitors.”
This is the latest in a recent
rise in fly-tipping incidents,
with two caravans dumped
in the Abinger Roughs car
PRESENTS
properties as investments,
which it values at nearly
£38,399,835.33.
All but two of the proper-
ties were purchased more
than a decade ago, when the
council did not record the
purchase price. Two proper-
ties have been purchased in
the last tax year – 64-74 East
Street, Epsom (purchased for
£5,320,000) and Parkside
House, Ashley Road, Epsom
(£11,775,000).
l GUILDFORD BOROUGH COUNCIL
Guildford owns 158 proper-
ties as investments, bought
for a total of £41,031,302.
The council valued the
properties at November
2015, at £103,825,244.28. In
the tax year 2016/17, it pur-
chased Wey House, Farnham
Road, for £22,650,000.
l MOLE VALLEY DISTRICT
COUNCIL
The council told Get
Surrey that it does not own
any investment properties.
l REIGATE & BANSTEAD
BOROUGH COUNCIL
Reigate & Banstead owns
32 properties as investments,
which it values at
£29,547,900.
These include Warwick
Quadrant (valued at
£10,844,400), Linden House,
51 High Street, Reigate
(£4,192,500) and 18-44 High
Street, Redhill, (£3,435,300).
l RUNNYMEDE BOROUGH
COUNCIL
In response to Get Surrey’s
FOI request, the council stat-
ed: “Runnymede Borough
Council only owns properties
for place shaping or opera-
tional purposes rather than
owning property as pure
investments.”
l SPELTHORNE BOROUGH
COUNCIL
Spelthorne confirmed to
park around five weeks
ago,one filled with rubble. It
cost £800 to dispose of the
rubbish at the trust-owned
site.
Due to the ongoing issues,
staff and volunteers at the
site are working with those at
other beauty spots in Surrey
to document the number of
fly-tipping cases. They hope
to use this to support Surrey
Police in taking more action
against fly-tippers.
Mr Hewer added: “When
people see tipper trucks go-
ing around the Surrey Hills at
night, it should make them
wonder what they are doing.
Get Surrey that it owns BP
Main Campus, Chertsey
Road, Sunbury-on-Thames,
BP South West Corner Site,
Chertsey Road, Sunbury-on-
Thames and Elmbrook
House, 18-19 Station Road,
Sunbury-on-Thames as in-
vestments but gave no fur-
ther information.
l SURREY HEATH BOROUGH
COUNCIL
Surrey Heath stated that it
owns 16 properties as invest-
ments, purchased for a total
of £49,750,600, although it
does not have a record of the
prices paid for all of its
property.
The council purchased
three properties as invest-
ments in the 2016/17 finan-
cial year: House of Fraser/
NatWest building, 45-51 Park
Street (purchased
£17,600,000), Albany Park
for
(£15,250,000) and 123
London Road, Camberley
(£325,000).
l TANDRIDGE DISTRICT COUNCIL
Tandridge told Get Surrey
it does not own any proper-
ties as investments.
l WAVERLEY BOROUGH COUNCIL
Waverley owns 43 proper-
ties as investments, which at
March 31 it considered the
fair value to total £14,667,220.
Properties include Plots 3,
4, 5, 18 and 19 at the
Sainsburys supermarket site,
Farnham (valued at
£7,205,600), plots at Farnham
Trading Estate (total
£2,134,215) and plots at
Guildford Trading Estate,
Farnham (total £2,085,330).
l WOKING BOROUGH COUNCIL
Woking is yet to respond to
Get Surrey’s FOI request, dat-
ed February 27. Publicly-
funded bodies are required
to respond to FOI requests
within 20 working days.
While I don’t recommend
approaching these people, if
you can get the registration of
the vehicle then hopefully it
can be taken further.”
While the staff have said
there are fly-tipping inci-
dents almost weekly, a lot of
the time they can never be
100% sure when an incident
has taken place as it can of-
ten be days before it is re-
ported to the authorities.
The National Trust has ap-
pealed for members of the
public to check that anyone
they employ to dispose of
rubbish has the correct
Waste Carrier Licence.
Driver who
hogged the
middle
lane of M3
pulled over
Police have issued a
warning after they witnessed
a driver ‘hogging the middle
lane’ for more than four
miles.
The driver was stopped
and ‘educated’ by officers
from the Road Policing Unit
on Tuesday and is likely to be
offered a course following
the incident.
The car was pulled over in
the Sunbury area between
junctions one and two of the
Back in 2013, on-the-spot
charges were introduced,
giving the police powers to
YHQXHVSRQVRU issue fixed penalty notices for
careless driving, which in-

SUNSET CINEMA
cluded tailgating or middle
lane hogging.

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The road cops tweeted:
“Be aware and alert of the
route you’re taking and the
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