Afternoon, Surbiton. No issue Sunday or Monday, and the ballot you were promised for Monday is arriving on Tuesday — both of those are on me. But it is here, it is complete, and yes, McDonald's is on it.
The vote is open
Nominations closed Sunday night. More than two dozen of you sent names, and every one of them is on the ballot — I have not added a single name, and I have not removed one either. Eight categories, 44 names, all of them put there by somebody who lives here.
Vote now — it takes about a minute:
How it works: enter your email once, pick your winners, and each category submits on its own — so you can vote in one category or all eight, and half a ballot still counts. One vote per email address per category, duplicates come out before anything is counted, and your address is used for exactly that and nothing else. Voting closes Sunday night, 23 August. Winners the week after.
Pub. The Grove · The Royal Oak · The Lamb · The Berrylands · The Victoria · The Antelope · The Prince of Wales
Coffee. ICON · Coffee on the Corner · Surbeanton · Moon · McDonald's
Place to eat. The French Table · Positano · Nay Thai · The Italian Taste · Koyal
Takeaway. Ploys · Sushi Hero · Superfish · The Dough Shack · Agra Tandoori
Hairdresser or barber. Metropolis · Shimi · Salon Number 13 · Surbiton Barbers
Tradesperson. Apolo Heating and Plumbing · Callgas · Transgas · Homesafe Glazing and Locks · Smoky Pistols · Paul Colfar · Vic the Plumber · W. Stephens and Sons · Mustoe's Locksmiths
Estate agent. Humphrey & Brand · Seymours · Barnard Marcus · HJC · Matthew James
Dentist. Stedham House · Maple Dental · Family Dental Centre · Surbiton Dental
One reply arrived Monday lunchtime, after the deadline — a takeaway and a second vote for a cafe. Both counted: if the ballot can turn up a day late, so can a nomination. Two spellings are corrected from how they were sent in, against the shops' own websites: it is Surbeanton, and Positano without the s. And Ken's case for the £2 McDonald's coffee stands as made — readers nominate, I do not edit the ballot.
One nomination I could not place. A dentist named Lily Furniss, sent in with no practice attached — and I could not find her at any practice in Surbiton, so I am not going to guess. If you know where she practises, reply, and on she goes.
Ewell Road makes a list nobody wants to be on
The council and Veolia launched a fly-tipping crackdown yesterday — the “Let's SCRAP” campaign — naming five hotspots across the borough, and two of them are ours: Ewell Road and Tolworth Close (the others are Old London Road, Burlington Road and Rayleigh Court). Almost 900 letters have gone to households in those areas, and cleaning crews are now stencilling anti-dumping warnings straight onto the pavement after each clear-up.
One of the five hotspots went from six dumping incidents in June to none in July.
And still no word on the 2am KFC. The licensing committee heard the Chessington application last week and said a decision would follow within days. Nothing published yet. When it lands, you will read it here.
The heat story is over. The yellow alert expired at nine this morning, exactly on schedule, and nothing replaced it — every region in England is back to green. After a week of heat alerts and 36°C afternoons, that is the whole story, and it is a good one.
The rest of today. Grey but dry, about 26°C through the afternoon, easing to the low twenties by ten tonight.
Tomorrow. Cooler, about 23°C, and it starts damp — light drizzle through the morning commute, clearing by mid-morning. It will probably spit again in the early evening. In between, dry and cloudy.
Thursday looks like the wet one — barely 21°C, with rain likely for much of the day.
The weekend, early view. Low twenties both days, mostly dry. Proper late August.
A sinkhole has the K3 off the Claygate loop. TfL's notice this afternoon: a sinkhole at the St Leonards Road junction with Telegraph Lane in Claygate has the K3 on diversion, with no stops served between St Leonards Road and Claygate Village Hall. No end time given yet.
Every other bus is where it should be. K1, K2, K4, 71, 281, 406, 418 and 465 — all on a Good Service as of this afternoon, no diversions. The K4's Ewell Road diversion was due to end Sunday evening, and TfL shows it clean today.
Hook Road, still. One lane closed in both directions between Hook Junction and Bridge Road for UK Power Networks works — and TfL has that running to 18 October. Just up from it, Leatherhead Road has temporary two-way lights at the Bridge Road junction until 16 September. That corner of Hook is going to be slow for a while.
Malden Way. Northbound traffic at the Oxford Crescent junction is being sent along the service road for Thames Water works, until Saturday night.
Rail, this coming weekend. After two straight weekends of Guildford closures, National Rail's page for Surbiton currently lists nothing for Saturday or Sunday — only the standing Berrylands closure. I say “currently” because these have a habit of appearing late in the week; worth a check before any Saturday trip.
Tonight. The men's walk-and-talk meets at the station's Glenbuck Road entrance at 6.30pm, free, back an hour later. It is Tuesday, so the Black Lion has its quiz — and up at the Grey Horse in Kingston, Ram Jam's Super Quiz plays for a £75 bar tab from 8pm.
Friday. Crack Comedy is on at Ram Jam behind the Grey Horse, 8.30pm — Friday only this week, no Sunday show. And at the cornerHOUSE on Douglas Road, the summer-workshop kids stage Trolls The Musical JR at 7pm, with a final performance at 6pm Saturday.
The weekend. The Kingston Street Art Festival takes over the town centre Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 4pm both days, free — live mural painting around town, including at the Rose, and an artists' market on the riverfront under John Lewis. Nearer home, the Tolworth Station community garden has its volunteer morning on Saturday, 10.30am to 1pm, and Surbiton junior parkrun goes at nine on Sunday at Alexandra Rec, as always.
Last fortnight of the holidays. The free multi-sport camp runs Monday to Thursday mornings, 9am to 1pm, at the Burritt Road basketball court in Kingston — and note it does skip Fridays. Surbiton Library on Ewell Road has free Lego crafting on Monday afternoon, 3pm to 5pm, all ages.
Go and vote. Forty-four names, every one of them somebody's answer to “who do you use?”
Back tomorrow,
Mike
Surbiton Daily · a short email every morning about our bit of south west London. Written for the 665 of us who read it. Got something for tomorrow? Reply to this email — every reply reaches a person, not a robot.