The new 52-strong Richmond upon Thames Council, elected on May 4th, holds its first business meeting next Thursday night. Cllr John Baker, successor to Mr Harry Hall as Tory leader, will be leading his troops against the Liberal opposition group of 18, led by Cllr David Williams. There are no Labour members on the council and the position of Alderman has been abolished. It will be the first business meeting too for the mayor Cllr George Kenton, who will have the task of identifying many new faces on the council benches.

The panic has now dropped out of the property market in Richmond upon Thames, say estate agents. “This is not to say that properties are not being sold, it just means that houses are not being sold immediately they come onto our books,” said Mr Herbie Gaunt of Taylor Dixon and Porter’s Twickenham office. “There is still a high demand but the panic has gone out of the market.” A proposed industrial development which could mean the building of small workshops and warehouses at the rear of Station Yard, Kew, has so ‘horrified’ residents that 500 of them have signed a petition. The petition was organised by residents of Leybourne Park, where nos 2 to 30 on the right hand side back directly onto the 11,000 sq ft owned by Alpe and Saunders (coach builders ) Ltd.