THE CREATION OF THE HERSHAM VILLAGE SOCIETY

Following a series of letters that he had been writing to the local press, showing concern about the decline of the Hersham community following the closure of Hersham's two biggest employers, Hackbridges and ABC Motors Roy Green called a meeting of all Hersham residents at Hersham House School with the intention of forming a Hersham Residents Association.

Over 100 people attended includng the local councillors and a steering committee was set-up comprising Roy and Brenda Green, Syd Jackson a former Hersham councillor who was invited to be Chairman, The Head Teacher of the school Jean Hewlett, local businessman James Grimditch and other local people.

The HRA come into being and succesfully become a well established body of people caring about the Hersham community.

After the first year, Syd Jackson, Jean Hewlett and Jim Grimditched retired and a new committee was formed with Roy Green as Chairman.

Unfortunately the Hersham Labour Party started using undue influence on the HRA and telling how to run things, so what had started out as an indendent organisation quickly become a voice for the local political parties.The Chairman Keith Powell was happy for this to happen while the secretary Geoff Barker was a union man so was happy about the labour party having a say.

The HVS decided not to follow in the footsteps of the other residents associations in Elmbridge and sponsor candidates for election to the local authority, no doubt influenced by the pressure of the local political parties who did not wished to be opposed at election time.

Although still a member of the Executive (Treasurer) Roy Green stood for election in 1976 as an independent candidate and although not winning a seat did gain a considerable vote.

Following this success and disagreeing with the fact that the Hersham Labour Party was interferring with the way the HRA was being run, Roy resigned from the organisation that he had created and worked hard for.

He stood for election again in 1978 (1977 being county election year) and increased his share of the vote although not elected.

Roy stood again 1979, the sameday as the national elections which saw Labour booted out and Thatcher elected.

Roy at last won the seat he had been working for since he started attending council meetings since the age of fifteen.

Roy got 1131 nearly two hundred votes in front of the Labour candidate Peter Thorpe who had held the seat for a number of years. Roy had to wait until the Friday morning for the result as they gave priority to the National Election count.

Within hours of being elected Roy had a call from someone in Walton who had a housing problem, this person was the daughter of a Hersham abour supporter who had called Roy a "Young upstart" for having the cheek to oppose usless Labour councillors. She had been trying for months to get something done about rising damp in her council house but her Labour councillors had not bothered to help her despite all the support her father had given to the party.

During the election campaign many people on the doorstep had said how much that they would like an organisation to represent the public on the council other than the national political parties.

So with a few others Roy created the Hersham Indpendents who raised funds and put Bob Mott up as a candidate in 1980 who also received a large vote but not enough to get elected.

After this election it was felt that Hersham deserved an amenity and social organisation worthy of its size to represent it without party political interference so Roy founded the Hersham Village Society in March 1981.

Over the years many candidates have been sponspored by the Society but until the year 2000 when Sam Huntingford (Thompson now) was elected as the second Hersham councillor Roy had been the only succesful candidate for the Society.

Maria Cheyne become the third HVS councillor in 2002. When it was time for Sam (Sandra) to restand she decided that as she lived in Walton it would be best if she stood for the Walton Society (a sister organisation) which she did and successfully got elected for the Walton Ambleside ward and Maria got elected in Hersham north ward.

The Labour Councillor Irene Hamilton lost her seat to Bob Mott in 2003 by a small majority.

Roy was re-elected in 2004 but due to illness and lack of help was unable to canvass when he was due up for re-election in 2008 and so lost the seat to the Conservatives.

Roy bounced back in 2009 when he stood for the county council elections and got 1468 votes just 76 votes behind the seating conservative ccouncillor Margaret Hicks who had held a 625 majority. Labour and Liberal candidates came far, far behind with just a handful of votes between them. At one stage during the count (which went on until 4.00 a.m. due to the Euro Elections being held at the sametime) Margaret Hicks congratulated Roy because she thought that she had lost as the piles of votes seem to be equal.

Roy proved that he was still popular especially as no canvassing was done and his vote was won on personality and a couple of election flyers.

Roy also got his votes without a giant political machine behind him.

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