Molesey Conservatives welcome secondary school plan

Molesey parents may be interested to know that an application has been made a for a new secondary school to serve the needs of our area.

ElmWey Learning Trust, which operates Heathside School in Weybridge, has submitted a bid to the Department for Education for funding to open a free school. If it gets the go ahead, the search would be on for a suitable school location in Molesey or Walton. The school is planned to open with its first 150 students in September 2019.

The Molesey Conservatives have long argued that our town needs its own secondary school to meet the local demand and avoid the need for children to travel by bus or car to Esher or Walton. So we welcome this proposal and look forward to hearing more of the detail and helping to move things in a positive direction as much as possible. Councillors Steve Bax and Peter Szanto recently spoke to the Surrey Comet about the proposals - see here.

Speak up to save Molesey Hospital from closure

Steve Bax & Peter Szanto outside the hospital

As we advised in the October 2015 edition of the Molesey News, the future of Molesey Hospital is hanging by a thread. It is now vital that residents make their voices heard in the consultation process.
Surrey Downs Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has been evaluating the future of our community hospitals. Public consultation is well advanced. It started on 28th January and ends on 5th May.
The consultation is on the four options recommended in their report in September last year. Two of the four options involve the “transfer of Molesey inpatient services to Cobham Hospital and transfer of outpatient services to suitable location(s) within East Elmbridge locality”….ie the closure of the hospital.
Your Molesey local Conservative team has been actively fighting Molesey Hospital’s case. It delivers healthcare and rehabilitation to the people of Molesey on their doorstep, whereas Cobham is not easy to get to by public transport.
Councillor, Dr Peter Szanto (whose wife is a retired doctor) has met with the Director of Clinical Services, visited the hospital and staff, attended the consultation launch event on 2nd February at Molesey Community Centre, provided input to the consultation process and advertised details on Twitter and Facebook.
We have been fighting for the future of in and outpatient services at our hospital, but it will be an uphill battle since Cobham has more beds and is a newer facility. Hence it is vital for you to speak up in the consultation process.

Peter with residents at the consultation event in February

We published the contact details for providing your input back in our October edition; we make no apologies for repeating them again:
You can comment by filling in the online survey at the Surrey Downs CCG website at www.surreydownsccg.nhs.uk/get-informed/our-projects/community-hospital-services/
Or email contactus.surreydownsccg@nhs.net or write to FREEPOST RTEY-LSGG-UHBE, Surrey Downs Clinical Commissioning Group, Cedar Court, Guildford Road, Leatherhead, Surrey, KT22 9AE. Contacting by SMS through textphone on 07912 998809 (please note this is a text only service for the deaf, or hard of hearing).
For 120 years Molesey Hospital has supported and cared for residents in their time of need, now our hospital needs us. Please make your voice heard to keep the hospital open.