Staines-upon-Thames & district · Local news you can trust
Comments close 7 October on 507 homes at Sunbury Golf Club, Shepperton. The council's own Green Belt study scored the site 5 out of 5 against merging.
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Spelthorne Council
Spelthorne Free Car Parks: 3 Still Show the Old Charges
Four Spelthorne car parks became free on 8 September. Two days on, three of the four council pages still advertise £2 for two hours and £4 beyond.
Spelthorne
Spelthorne Council Debt £719m, Down £352m in a Year
Spelthorne's borrowing fell £352m to £719m by March, but servicing it still costs three times the council's net income. Councillors see it on 8 September.
Staines-upon-Thames
Kempton Park Fireworks 2026: Sat 7 Nov, £10, Gates 5pm
Kempton Park fireworks are Saturday 7 November 2026: gates 5pm, last entry 7pm, display 7.30pm, funfair to 10pm, £10 advance, and one adult to three under-18s.
Staines-upon-Thames
Staines Christmas Parade: Sun 22 Nov, 10.30am, Movies
Staines starts Christmas with its parade on Sunday 22 November 2026, 10.30am on the High Street, themed Movies. Plus every switch-on across Spelthorne.
Shepperton
Shepperton Big Tree Night: Wed 9 Dec, Santa at 6.30pm
Shepperton Big Tree Night is Wednesday 9 December 2026, 5pm to 8.30pm. Santa and real reindeer at 6.30pm, and the High Street closes to traffic at 4pm.
Sunbury-on-Thames
Kempton Boxing Day Races: 26 and 27 Dec, King George Day
Kempton Park races on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 December 2026: King George VI Chase day, then Kauto Star Chase day. Parking may cost over the festival.
Spelthorne
Spelthorne to Buy 6 Homes, Families In By November
Councillors vote on 8 September on buying six homes in the borough with developer and grant money. Families in nightly-paid rooms could move in from October.
Memorial Gardens
Staines Memorial Gardens Games Area Dropped, 74% Opposed
Officers want the Memorial Gardens ball court scrapped: 74% of 760 consultation replies opposed it. Councillors decide on 10 September, and the money was never there.
Spelthorne Council
Ali G Statue Petition Reaches Staines Councillors on 8 Sep
232 people signed a petition asking Spelthorne to mark the town's Ali G link before the new film lands on 23 October. Councillors consider it on 8 September.
Sunbury-on-Thames
Sunbury Offices Sale: 27 Flats Drawn Up, Vote 8 Sept
All four final bids for the council's Sunbury offices came from housebuilders, and its own sale pack sketches 27 flats. Councillors vote on 8 September.
Local Info
Staines Bin Days: Spelthorne Collects on Bank Holidays
Spelthorne ran every bank holiday Monday round in 2026, only Christmas moves. Garden waste is £80, bulky waste £90, and you get one working day to report a miss
Local Info
Parking in Staines: £1.40 an Hour, and 4 Car Parks Free
The tariffs in force since 8 September: £1.40 an hour short stay, £9 all day long stay, and four car parks now free with an 11 hour maximum stay.
This is Thames-side Surrey, close enough to Heathrow that the flight paths are part of the weather. Staines-upon-Thames, which added the river to its name in 2012, sits at the middle of it, with Ashford, Sunbury-on-Thames and Shepperton downstream, and Egham, Chertsey, Addlestone and Virginia Water the other way, past Runnymede meadow where the Magna Carta memorials stand.
Staines Online covers both sides. They are in two different boroughs, which is why bin days and car park charges differ between towns a few minutes apart, and we name the right authority every time. Everything we publish comes from the councils’ own registers and papers, with a link to the document.
Every fact carries a link to the document behind it.