Guidance For Road Stewards
Ashtead Residents’ Association (ARA) has worked for 70 years to serve the interests of the people of Ashtead. Our objective is to protect and enhance the character and amenities of Ashtead and in this endeavour we are strictly non-party political. Our membership provides us with a strong voice in consultations with, and representations to, Surrey County Council and Mole Valley District Council and other public bodies.
Road Steward's Role
The following guidance is subject to the Covid-19 laws and/or guidelines in place at any given time covering acceptable reasons for leaving your home and personal interaction with people outside your own household or support bubble. Please adhere to the laws and guidelines when carrying out your role as an ARA Road Steward and if the guidelines below cannot be followed then please do not carry them out until the laws and guidelines permit it.
ARA Publications
Twice a year, in early Spring and early Autumn, we publish Ashtead Village News (AVN) and it is this publication that we ask our Road Stewards to deliver to our members. Additionally, in the Spring we also produce The Ashtead Resident, the formal report on the Association’s AGM, for delivery with the AVN. With effect from March 2021 both publications will also be available on ARA’s website.
The magazines for your road/ area will be delivered to you twice a year by your area Distributor along with their contact details should you need more copies of the magazines.
Collection of Annual Subscriptions
The annual subscription is £2.50 per household, payable in the Spring if possible. The subscription can be paid in cash on the doorstep (Covid-19 guidance permitting) but, if you are not comfortable knocking the door or handling cash, payment can also be made by card through the ARA website or via a bank transfer or standing order (details on website).
If you are happy to make personal contact but there is no reply from a member household, we hope you will be able to call back. If there is still no response, you may find it helpful to leave the “Annual Subscription” slip with the magazine – having filled in your contact details at the bottom. This asks the member to contact you but it does not always work; some Road Stewards find it more helpful to leave a note with an envelope asking the member to leave their subscription in the envelope outside the door for you to collect at an agreed time.
Please could you send or deliver collected cash subscriptions to me (contact details below) by cheque, made payable to Ashtead Residents’ Association, or straight into our Membership bank account.
Details are:
Sort code: 30-80-33 Account no. 19412868 Reference: your collection area.
Our Membership Secretary will still need the details sheet from you, of course, so you could scan and email to:
Email Membership Secretary (membsec@ashteadresidents.org.uk)
Recruiting New Members
Our aim is to offer ARA membership to all households in Ashtead as, the greater our membership, the greater our influence in representing the people of Ashtead on local issues. To that end, we hope that you will feel able to call on all households in your road including non-members and new residents.
If you are calling on non-members, it might be helpful to leave an ARA leaflet and membership form with them. I can supply copies of these, if required.
New members joining with delivery of the second magazine of the year in September should pay £2.50. If they join after that, no subscription is payable for that year, but do add their name/s to your list for the following year (and let me know so that they can go on my list as well, please).
Road Lists
Each Road Steward is usually responsible for one road, or part of a road. There is a road list for each road or part-road which lists all the members’ households and the surnames, if known. The list indicates which households are ARA members and the number of adults. If your list is not in the best collecting order for you, please let me know and I will amend it.
We provide two copies of the road list with the Spring issue of AVN:
One copy is for recording Spring subscription collections, comments and changes to surnames or adult member numbers. Please return it to me with the collected funds/cheque.
The second copy is for you to update with any changes and to use when delivering the Autumn AVN.
Please return the second copy of the lists to me, with any subscriptions collected in the autumn and updated with any further changes.
Please use the Comments column to:
- record changes/corrections to the list;
- note the amount of any donations;
- note the reasons for non-membership where possible, e.g. “declined”, “empty house”;
- for houses with names please add the house number if there is one;
- directions for hard-to-find houses are also useful.
Corrections on the Road List may also include inaccuracy in your name and address (we would like to include your first name) and phone number.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
ARA’s position on this new regulation is that only the names of members shall be kept. Membership requires acceptance that basic details (address, surname, and no. of adults) are held electronically for ARA purposes only. ARA’s full Privacy Policy is available to read on the ARA website.
Your email address
It would be helpful for us to be able to contact you by email. Your email address will not be divulged to any other party and will be used solely for ARA use. If we do not already have it, please record it on the road list you return to me, or email to the address below.
If you have to give up being a Road Steward...
...it is a great help if you can find a successor. If not, please give as much notice as possible so that we can advertise in the next AVN and insert a letter of request for a replacement in the last magazine you deliver.
Don’t forget that you can keep up to date with Ashtead and ARA news on our website: www.ashteadresidents.org.uk