Past Events

2025 AGM and Social Tuesday 11th March 2025

We had a good turnout at this year’s AGM with about 65 people in attendance.
The official business was despatched as efficiently as possible.
The Treasurer reported a healthy balance of £5488, reflecting a net profit for the year of £500.
The Membership Secretary reported that membership had increased from 116 households last year to 341 households this year. Both reports demonstrated that the free membership policy introduced last year has been very successful.
The Secretary then oversaw a change to the OVRA rules to make the Membership Secretary an officer role, (meaning it is a 3 year position), before conducting the re-election of the Committee members. The Committee for 2025-2026 remains unchanged from last year:

Before the Chair gave her report she introduced the committee and publicly thanked them for being such a great team to work with and for all their hard work over the past year which has enabled OVRA to achieve so much.
Jo then outlined all that OVRA did last year as we seek to do our part to Strengthen Community in Onslow Village.
The achievements fall into two categories, Communication and Events.
In order to communicate all the great things going on in the local area OVRA have:

Jo reminded everyone that OVRA would love to do whatever we can to support local events and businesses so if anyone has any event or special offer they want to advertise to the local community they can email OVRA with the details. Events can be included on the website calendar and if details are received before the end of the previous month they will be included on the ‘What’s on in Onslow’ mailings.

Jo then quickly ran through the events OVRA organised last year: Easter Egg Trail, Arboretum Tours, Summer Treasure Trail, Solar Panels Talk, Advent Windows, Community Carol Singing and the Valentines Jazz Night. All the events were extremely enjoyable and well supported. Reports on all these events are below this one.
OVRA also facilitated Resuscitation and Defibrillator Training sessions, and maintained the Centenary Garden.

She then introduced the events coming up this year: Easter Egg Trail, Hedgehog Highways Launch Event, more Defibrillator Training sessions, a Local History talk, Open Gardens event, Summer Treasure Trail, talk about Nature Restoration on the Hamptons Estate, Advent Windows, Community Carol Singing and another OVRA fundraising event in early 2026.

The report finished with an invitation to get involved through various volunteering opportunities:

• Opening your garden as part of the Open Gardens Event on June 8th.
• Helping with magazine deliveries
• Becoming The Village Voice Deliveries Co-ordinator
• Helping with the annual accuracy check of the website
• Designing the occasional poster
• Helping to put up the Christmas lights outside the village hall
• Helping to maintain the Centenary Garden
• Joining the committee in the future

If you could help with any of these things email info@ovra.org.uk

The interval was an opportunity to give feedback on the various OVRA initiatives and to chat to friends and neighbours over complimentary drinks.

In the second part of the evening representatives from 5 local groups that feature on the website under the Local Initiatives menu came to share what they do and let people know how they can get involved.

Jo then thanked everyone for coming and the meeting ended at 9.45pm.

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Valentines Jazz Night Friday 14th February 2025

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Click here to go to the Advent Windows Gallery

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Community Carol Singing and Mulled Wine Friday 13th December 2024

OVRA’s first ever Community Carol Singing and Mulled Wine event was a great success. Over 100 people gathered under the twinkling lights outside the Village Hall for half an hour of enthusiastic carolling. People remembered their mugs for the mulled wine and there were many fine Christmas hats on display!!

Huge thank yous go to Sarah Truman and Katherine Hopwood for leading the singing and putting together the carol sheets. Additional thanks to members of All Saints Choir who provided some oomph to our singing and made us sound rather good!

We will look forward to seeing you all again next year (and we’ll try to work out a more efficient way of serving mulled wine before then!).

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Solar Panels and Heat Pumps Talk Tuesday 17th September 2024

We had a very good attendance at our recent event about Solar Panels and Heat Pumps, which was both informative and interesting.

The Powerpoint slides from the event are available here : Solar Panels and Heat Pumps Talk

Our first speaker was Andy Gaisford from Surrey County Council.  Andy outlined the ways in which Surrey CC are cutting their carbon emissions and, in particular how they are supporting homeowners to make their homes more energy efficient.  These include 3 main schemes:

1.  Solar Together:  This scheme takes some of the risk out of choosing a solar panel provider and also enables homeowners to benefit from a good deal based on a ‘bulk order’.  Surrey CC invites homeowners to apply for the scheme by a certain date.  Once they know the number of interested households, they ask a small number of pre-vetted and trusted installers to bid for the work. Having selected the company offering the best deal each homeowner receives a quote for installation.  They have 4 weeks to decide whether or not to go ahead with the work.  If they want to go ahead the installer takes over and arranges a site survey, installation and follow up.  Unfortunately the date for applying for this year’s Solar Together scheme has already passed but the scheme should be running again next year.

•  Home Energy Advice Team (HEAT): This is a joint project with Zero Carbon Guildford, funded by a government grant.  It is an excellent first step in assessing your home’s energy efficiency.  A local team of ‘Energy Champions’ have been trained up to provide in-person energy advice.  They come to the property and conduct a thermal imaging survey.   This is used to produce a report which gives advice on what actions to prioritise in order to cut energy usage and how to go about making the most effective changes. They may also be able to sign post people to possible grants and schemes to help with funding.  This service is free of charge to eligible households but if there is enough capacity it can be offered to non-eligible households for a small fee.  Click here to apply for a free survey.

Following on from the evening we asked for clarification on the criteria for eligibility.  They are: 

 – Have off-gas main heating
– Have English as a second language in the home
– Identify as an ethnic minority
– Receive disability benefit
– Are struggling to pay energy bills (fuel poor)
– Have an Energy Performance Certificate rating of D-G (or don’t have one at all) – residents can check here: www.gov.uk/find-energy-certificate
– Live in a conservation area

However Andy pointed out that over 90% of homes in the area are eligible so it’s definitely worth applying even if you’re not sure if you’re eligible.

• One Stop Shop :  This is a brand new scheme to be launched imminently by Surrey County Council.  It addresses people’s concerns that the process of becoming energy efficient is ‘just too complicated’.  It offers a service that provides detailed advice on the best way forward for your particular property and a co-ordinator who will work with you to organise the installations you wish to make. Click here to register your interest in this service.

Andy also gave some information about grants which are currently available for eligible households.  Details of those can be found on the power point slides.

Our next speaker was Ash Mills, one of the two founders of Infinity Renewables.  This is the company that has been selected by Surrey County Council for the last 2 years to fulfil their Solar Together commitments.  

Ash gave us some background information about the company and its ethos.  Infinity Renewables have been the installer selected by 16 Solar Together schemes in the south of the UK and have completed over 9000 installations.  

He described the process from the initial survey, through installation, and then the post installation support his company provides.  He explained that solar panels could be positioned on roofs in almost any orientation, but there will often be a minimum number of panels needed.  He also said it was always a good idea to get bird netting fitted for any panels on sloping roofs to stop pigeons nesting under the panels and damaging them.  

Whilst Infinity Renewables specialise in Solar Panels, they also fit heat pumps and are looking to develop relationships with trusted heat pump suppliers in order to expand this side of their business.  Ash generously offered a £100 donation to OVRA for every new customer who approached Infinity Renewables as a result of the evening.

Our third speaker was Damon Hart-Davis, who, after a career in the techy side of finance is now doing a PhD at the University of Surrey Centre for Environment and Sustainability.  Damon discovered a passion for making his home as energy efficient as possible almost 2 decades ago in an attempt to minimise both his bills and his contribution to climate change.  He has been sharing his experiences and discoveries via his website ever since.  His website at www.earth.org.uk  makes fascinating reading!  Amongst other things Damon shared his tips on combining Solar Panels with battery storage systems.  He pointed out that having solar panels is no protection against power cuts if you don’t have a battery with some form of direct plug in capability.  He also encouraged people to ensure the power output from their battery was at least 3kW which is the power required to boil a kettle and to be aware that an average household uses 5 -10 kWh of energy a day. 

Much of his talk was based on experiences in his own home where he has been experimenting with different set ups for many years.  He talked a little about heat pumps but was keen to say that if you have a working  boiler it is far better for the environment to keep it until it needs replacing  rather than replace it with a heat pump while it still works.

The final speaker was our own James Heaphy, an Onslow resident and OVRA committee member. James talked us through his “Journey into Solar”, from his first consideration of the pros and cons, through the installation process with Infinity Renewables, to his satisfaction with the end product.  It was a very useful and reassuring overview of what the process looks like in reality and the costs involved.  James finished with a case study in Canada, illustrating just what can be achieved if you really commit!

The evening finished with a Q&A panel to answer questions from the audience.  There was some discussion between the panel members about the relative efficiency of the new panels versus the old, but agreement that you shouldn’t be replacing old panels for newer ones if they still work (especially if you have a good tariff for selling your electricity back into the grid – which certainly wouldn’t be matched currently).  Another question related to whether you had to get permission to put up solar panels, particularly in a conservation area.  The consensus seemed to be that you didn’t, especially if they were not on the elevation facing the road.

It was a fascinating evening which OVRA hopes will help people along their own energy saving journey.

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Arboretum Walks 11^th May 2024

The Health of the Arboretum

J-P explained some of the challenges facing our Arboretum’s trees. That they need to survive in our climate and on thin chalk soils, despite coming from all over the world. Pollution from the A3 was hard for some of the trees to cope with, while climate change and recent wetter springs suited some trees which were thriving, but were stunting others. Overall, our tree officers think that the Arboretum is due a bit of a refresh, 20 plus years after the original plantings. With some trees needing to come out, as they are in poor health, other new trees being planted and a general tidy up to give the trees the space and air they need to thrive.

The Meadow

Gareth took over at this point and explained what a unique and precious landscape our small patch of meadow was, and how it significantly boosted the biodiversity of Onslow Village. From explaining the difference between Bulbous and Meadow Buttercups, one of which is “a bit of a brute” according to Gareth, to painting a picture of an English countryside that used to look like our meadow, before mechanised farming, fertilisers and the production of silage eradicated nearly all the meadow in the UK.

One of our walkers had completed his Zoology PhD at Surrey University, where he studied the differing levels of plant and invertebrate diversity in the Arboretum and on the manicured grounds of the University. It was no surprise to discover that the biodiversity in the Arboretum was many times higher than the University. Clearly Nature likes to be left alone and doesn’t mind a bit of an unkempt look at times.

Our special thanks go out to J-P and Gareth for sharing their time, knowledge, and enthusiasm with us. It really was a great morning in the sun.

James Heaphy

OVRA Committee Member

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Jubilee/Centennial Garden Working Party
13th April 2024