January 2009 Archives

A charitable couple have recently returned from a trip to Romania giving out shoe boxes full of useful gifts.

Stephen and Eleanor Shurville, of Ferndale Road, Woking, visited the Eastern European country last month to deliver a portion of 3,500 shoeboxes containing gifts for needy children.

Woking will benefit from a jobs boost with the opening of a new hardware store in the Lion Retail Park.

Focus DIY is due to open on January 21, with a 12,600ft garden centre, and will create 27 new jobs for Woking residents.

Woking PCSO Paul Wallman is never off duty as was demonstrated on January 6 when he was walking to work and spotted a woman who is was wanted by police.

The town centre officer saw 45-year-old Jane Doe from Woking outside the town's rail station in Oriental Road as he was on his way to start his shift just before 10am.

Marks & Spencer has announced plans to close its Woking store claiming it is no longer "commercially viable".

The announcement by M&S chairman Sir Stuart Rose today (January 7) means 35 jobs now hang in the balance at the store in the Peacock Centre and staff consultations are due to begin.

Firefighters spent more than five hours battling a fire at a derelict house in Maybury Road, Woking, on New Year's Day.

The blaze is thought to have started under the stairs at the property just before 5pm, and quickly spread through the semi detached house, destroying the ground floor and a garage.

Children are being warned not to set foot on the frozen Basingstoke Canal no matter how safe it may look.

Ian Brown, director of the Basingstoke Canal Authority, said today (January 7) that the ice is in fact quite thin and cannot take the weight of even a small child.

Woking Borough Council has taken action against over 1,500 households in arrears with their council tax payments since 2003, according to newly released data.

The information appeared in The Times on January 7 along with 171 other council's actions, and showed Woking summoned 1,693 households to court, and sent Bailiffs to houses 771 times to collect tax.