Factory Shop, etc.

I see the Factory shop on the old Woolworth's site is open, it appears to be very busy and I hope it continues (I really don't wish any shop ill in the current climate) and with a bit of luck it will be able to co-exist with its neighbour Allsorts (hope I've spelt that correctly) who I have found to be exceptionally useful. I suspect that a lot of families will welcome somewhere other than M&S offering children's clothes and shoes.

A big plus of shops such as these is that they actually attract people into the town and that's desperately important. There is a hard core of locals who love to bang on about the wonderful range of independent shops in Dorking and how vital they are; that's fine and like others I value these independents but I also recognise that unless the number of people using the town increases dramatically these independents will be forced to close...no shoppers, no shops. It's really that simple.

Pepin

Traffic though Dorking

What the heck has happened to the lights on the junction of London Road and High Street? These seem to have been reconfigured early this week and they are now causing chaos in the town. Yesterday, sat in traffic for ages driving Eastwards, I timed the lights (opposite the BP garage, for anyone struggling to think where I mean). They stayed green for 15 seconds, then reverted to red for 1 minute and 10 seconds, then repeated the cycle.

Anyone else noticed this? By the way, once I got across Deepdene roundabout, there was a queue of traffic right back to the rugby club at Brockham.

Is someone doing this on purpose?

Hung council in Mole Valley

I see that following Thursday's elections we not only have a hung parliament, we have a hung council in Mole Valley, the Conservatives have lost control of the council.

It rather looks as though some of their more foolish initiatives such as increased parking charges - that have resulted in a fall in parking income - coupled with the foolish but innovative idea (now being copied by Guildford) of charging for evening car parking at certain car parks, have well and truly come home to roost - no offence to our friend on the roundabout at Deepdene.

Perhaps the LibDem councillors who still control Dorking town centre will now tackle some of the town's serious shortcomings: it's not a perfect economic climate to get started in but it's a job that needs to be done right now.

Pepin.

PS. Please don't forget that next Tuesday (I'm pretty certain it is Tuesday) marks another Farmers' Market in South Street.