Other News & Information

HARRIS ACADEMY - SUTTON HOSPITAL SITE

£8m was expended in the purchase of the site for the new school on the site of Sutton Hospital. The school is a 6FE (form of entry) school and may cause traffic congestion, as well as being very out of keeping with the neighbourhood, as can be seen already. The proposed finishes are modern, and below is the latest iteration of the plans.

The CBRA is a contributing member of the local Neighbourhood Forum, and with which the council will be obliged to consult when it is formally registered, but which, disappointingly, has had little influence on the final design. The only alteration made was to reduce the height adjacent to Chiltern Road from 3 stories to an offset 3 stories. However the overall height will effectively be 5 stories, 4 stories plus plant on the roof. As such, it will dwarf an adjacent 3 storey building (Darwin House) and all the nearby residential properties. See the files below, there are 3, NS3update3.pdf, NS3_02-06-16.pdf and Public_Meeting_4_Final_Slides.pdf. The final cost is expected to be £40m, and the Education Finance Act will see SOME of this offset by the Government, but probably not all. It is appears likely that probably 60-70% of the build cost might be recouped (none of the site purchase, although planning costs might be refunded), although those councillors in favour of the site disputed this. It seems that all of us will pay for this despite a lack of support from those who attended the consultation events. It is however, undeniable, that 2 new secondary schools are needed in the borough in the next 2-4 years.


At every consultation attended it was apparent that the councils architects had made up their mind about the plans, and very little changed from inception to completion. A personal opinion, typical of the current council, compare with the consultation over libraries, waste collections. More information on the school and Suttons plans for schools is available from LBS here.

FINALLY

The planning application for the new school can be found here and by entering planning application ID: B2016/76164

Speed Cameras - Old News

Hate them, or suffer them? Surrey County Council have converted the speed cameras on the A217 between the M25 and Banstead to averaging ones. Have a look at this article,as there are a lot of cameras, even apparently between roundabouts! Getsurrey online

The A3 northbound from the M25 towards Tolworth also has a number of these cameras installed, so the days for "boy racers" are numbered.

In addition, the cameras along the Ewell bypass are now averaging, so be warned. And there are lots of them there, so if you accelerate to pass someone, for say 100 yards, you're caught!

 

Computing Advice

It is suggested in many treatises to parents of youngsters (use your own definition) that they should never have unsupervised access to the internet. This can be onerous, and in fact virtually impossible where they have access to a smartphone. But, it is a good idea to keep computers in an area where they can be seen - ie in a family area (not in the childs bedroom). Laptops may pose a problem, but it is possible to weaken the wifi of your broadband router that reaches upstairs rooms.

 

Security software:
Always use an anti-virus product, whatever operating system you use, and there are competent free versions available. You can access these packages either by following the link shown or typing it yourself in your browser. If you know the web site address (URL) it is preferable to type a web site address rather than use a search engine, and subsequently bookmark it. Some search engines (even very well known ones) have been "poisoned" for hackers and you may end up somewhere other than where you wanted to.
  Antivir - http://www.free-av.com/
  AVG - http://www.avg.com/
  Avast - http://www.avast.com/en-us/index/  

  Kaspersky (no free offering)
  Microsoft Security Essentials - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/security-essentials

  Norton (no free offering)

  Bitdefender - http://www.bitdefender.com/solutions/free.html

Reviews rate the free versions of AVG, AVAST, BITDEFENDER very well and MSE well, almost on as good as paid for software. The MS package has a small footprint and is unobtrusive. Paid for versions offer significant additional facilities. Currently (Nov 2016) the best paid for package is Kaspersky.

Never follow a link offered to you from an unsolicited email or web page.

An additional warning, if you receive a phone call from someone suggesting they are a Microsoft partner and telling you your computer is infected, or corrupt, etc, ignore it (although you may want to take advice - but not from them). They wish to plant software that will enable them to access your computer remotely and either steal your financial details, passwords or use your computer to send spam. Their motives will not be in your interest.
If you're feeling neighbourly keep them talking and ask them which computer etc, and should you become bored, you can finally tell them your computer's operating system is Linux, or alternatively that you don't have a computer! 

 

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