The Village Plan - Come and have your say with the Bookham Vision team

The current stage of the Bookham Vision project is a large scale information gathering process.  We are currently at the broad end of the information funnel, gathering the publicly available data about Bookham, speaking to some of the businesses, the council etc.  Very soon we’ll be seeking initial views from residents so that we can narrow down to the key areas that you, the people of Bookham, want us to emphasise in the plan.  On 13^th December you’ll get the first chance to give us your initial views in person at our launch event (more on that below), and also via a small questionnaire we’ll be sending out.

In the mean time we are very pleased to report that we had some great responses from the logo competition.  Three schools contributed  – Eastwick Juniors and Infants, and The Dawnay.  We had a great selection of artwork, and quite enjoyed the difficult task of picking a winner. 

It was a fairly broad brief. The children were asked to come up with something that maybe used the “vision” theme, the “voice” theme, or perhaps a Bookham landmark or one of the topic areas (Economy; Environment; Transport and Access; Social and Community). 

We were so impressed with the entries that we plan to make an exhibition of them at our launch event – in their own sweet way they tell a story of what the younger members of the community think about Bookham.  Please come along and take a look.

The logo you can see here is in fact a combination of two winning entries, both by children from Eastwick Junior School.  Thomas Haylings, from class 4M, gave us a good outline of the church and the crossroads adjacent to it.  The church was quite a common theme.  Mary Barnaville, from class 4W inspired us with the way she had written Bookham Vision with a tick for the V.  Congratulations to both of them, and many many thanks to all the other young artists from Bookham!

Mid November saw our first ‘public outing’ when we attended the Polesden Lacey Infant School Christmas Shopping Evening.  We asked parents there what they liked, disliked and wished to see for children in Bookham.  Among the responses was some positive feedback about the schools, and about parks and playgrounds.  Some of the dislikes focussed on various traffic issues, and the lack of facilities for older children / teenagers.  More cycle ways was one of the items mentioned in the wish list.  - What do you think?

We plan to do the same at the other schools, so please do come and see us and share your views.  Those who do will have more influence than those who don’t.

December sees our launch event, giving you the chance to meet the team, hear what we are about, and, more importantly, give us some input.  We’ll be using a marquee in the car park of the Royal Oak - a lovely central location for you to pop in for a cuppa, take a look at the logo exhibition, and tell us what you think about Bookham.  We need to hear it, so don’t be shy.

We’ll be there on Saturday 13^th December from 10.00 until 4.00 pm, giving a short presentation on the project on the hour every hour – so there’s no excuse, and we look forward to seeing you then.

As ever, if you have any questions or would like to help, please feel free to email or call Trevor Sokell ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 01372 452052) or Nick Applegarth ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 01372 458456)