Guns, drugs and cash were seized in raids across Runnymede yesterday morning (Thursday).

Surrey Police carried out a large scale proactive operation to tackle a sophisticated organised crime group believed to be involved in the supply of class A drugs and money laundering in Runnymede.

Operation Oxygen, which is one of a number of proactive initiatives to target organised crime across the county, involved approximately 200 officers who conducted early morning raids at nine properties in Egham, Lyne, Ottershaw, Chertsey and Shepperton.

CHILDREN from an Egham nursery are holding a sale to raise money.

The children from Manorcroft Nursery will hold the Kidstuff nearly new sale at Egham Leisure Centre on Saturday (March 5) from 10am until 12noon.

The nursery is a registered charity, based in Wesley Drive, and is taking the intiative in the face of widespread funding cuts, to raise money through its own fundraising activities, rather than asking parents to cough up more cash.
The sale will feature items for children from toddler to age five, including baby bits, toys, books and clothing.

Pitches to sell are £10 and must be pre-booked on 07900 564207 - sellers get to keep 100% of their takings on the day.
Admission for visitors is £1.

The project has received the support of Egham Town councillor John Ashmore, and the nursery hopes to have plenty of visitors to the sale this weekend as both buyers and sellers.

Thorpe Players are tapping into the Valentine's Day vibe with their next
production, Some Aspects of Love.

On Friday 18th and Saturday 19th February at 8pm they will be celebrating
the many views of love at Thorpe Village Hall in an evening of words and
music.

There will also be songs from the shows, some familiar, some less so, as
well as sketches and comedy - all about love in some way.

Tickets are £7 each and can be booked on 07923 583295. Some available on
the night.

Today I was asked to sign an on-line 'Save Our Forests' petition, which has already collected 450,000 objections to the proposed government sell-off.

The Forestry Commission manage nearly a million hectares of National forest land and plant around 24 million trees every year. They sustainably harvest almost five million tonnes of wood every year from Britain's public forests. That's around 44 per cent of total domestic production or 300 truckloads every day, from which the revenue is used to offset the cost of woodland management.

So why would a 'Big Society' driven Conservative government focus on selling off our national woodlands? You can't build on a forest and you can't chop it down and sell-off all of the wood. Where is the value to the purchaser?

In may 2010, the Government introduced the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC). A new form of Carbon Tax which requires some businesses to pay £12 / Tonne of CO2 they create. Soon all business will probably have to pay for the energy they uses and pay a separate Tax for the CO2 they create. No doubt that once the Carbon Tax gains traction, 1 Tonne of CO2 will rise to £18, then £24, etc, etc.

I think the real agenda behind the sell-off and privatisation of the nation's forests is to allow private enterprise to cash-in on the future Carbon Offset opportunities.

True Personal Carbon Taxation doesn't yet exist, so the value of a 100 - 300 year old protected mature forest is relatively low but the value of woodland in the future could well increase 100 fold, when it's introduced. Why sell any more woodland when the 'wodland market is low'?. Carbon Trading is already big business and set to grow.

It's also a bit tricky for government to introduce Personal Carbon Taxation when you currently have a stake in 1,000,000 hectares of woodland, funded from taxation.

Surely the 'Big Society' focussed government would seek to preserve your interests in the national carbon-offset assets, rather than sell them for private enterprise to exploit, when future legislation comes into force? Has Thatcher-ism returned?

Firefighters from Egham extinguished a small fire in the basement of a boiler room at Veolia Water on the Causeway at 9.30am on Saturday, January 14.

Crews from Staines and Egham spent about 30 minutes bringing the fire under control.

The Boots Company has applied to replace shop signs on the front of its listed building in the high street.

The pharmaceutical giant has made two separate applications to Runnymede Borough Council, one for the installation of new non-illuminated signage, the other for listed building consent to install the new signs.

The application will come before council planners later this year.

Conservation volunteers will be undertaking maintenance at Butts Pond on Staines Moor on Sunday, February 6 at 10am.

The Egham & Staines Conservation Volunteers will join forces with Spelthorne Natural History Society to do the work at the SSSI site. Meet is at the end of Moor Lane.

For more details call Roy Gyngell on 01784 254904.

A BODY was found in a burned out car at a business address in Egham Hythe.

Fire crews from Egham, Staines and Sunbury were called the Veolia Water site in The Causeway, at around 3.20pm on Sunday, January 9.

The body of a man, believed to be in his fifties, was found in the vehicle, but was pronounced dead at the scene. He is yet to be formally identified.

Detectives from Surrey Police are continuing to make enquiries into this incident but at this stage the fire is not being treated as suspicious and there is no suggestion of any third party involvement.

More news as we get it.

The developers proposing 129 new student bedrooms on a site on Egham Hill are appealing the decision to turn down the application by Runnymede Council's planning committee.

The plans for 61 and 71 Egham Hill, comprised 25 cluster flats and 10 studio flats along with management offices, cycle store and car parking. The application was originally turned down by the planning committee in September last year (2010), citing concerns over traffic access and appearance.

The appeal takes place at the Civic Centre, Addlestone on Tuesday, February 15, at 10am.

Were you against the application? Let us know using the comments button below

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of our visitors on behalf of the Surrey Herald.

Wishing you all a safe, happy and enjoyable holidays.

And we look forward to welcoming you back in 2011.