About Us

Who we are

The Staines Town Society is a (non-political) group of local people, who care about Staines. When the society was founded on 22 September 1972, it was a small group of people, based in and around Church Street, whose main aim was to protect and preserve the Staines Conservation Area and its prime Listed Buildings, Staines Bridge and the much loved Town Hall.

The society started to receive more and more requests for assistance as local people got to hear what had been achieved through an understanding of the planning process and by commenting on planning applications, to achieve a better outcome. It was soon apparent that there was a need for expansion of the boundary beyond Church Street, encompassing all of Staines and again more recently, to include The Hythe (Conservation Area) on the other side of the bridge and Laleham.

What we do

It’s vitally important that an eye is kept on the weekly list of planning applications for the area, especially now that new legislation is in favour of developing bulky, high rise blocks of small flats. The knock on effect of this is more people, more traffic and inevitably if the local infrastructure isn’t keeping up, we end up with insufficient school places, not enough capacity at the local doctors’ surgeries, health centres and permanent traffic jams. New housing is needed for the sons and daughters of local people; the young first time buyers in Spelthorne but they struggle to afford these tiny, new high rise flats.