Epsom Guardian Review of the Year: April to June

Campaigners gained an injunction to stop developers from spraying herbicide and clearing land at the historic Cherkley Court estate near Leatherhead.

Longshot wanted to create a golf course and luxury hotel on the site and threatened to seek damages against campaign group Cherkley Campaign – something campaigners dismissed as “pure puff”.

Tributes poured in for Baroness Thatcher who died this month. Epsom’s MP said the Iron Lady was one of Britain’s greatest prime ministers who “transformed” the country. Banstead MP Crispin Blunt said she “changed the UK and the world for the better”.

Mrs Thatcher at the Pobjoy Mint in Kingswood in 2007

A woman was outraged to find that naturists made use of the swimming pool at LA Fitness in Ewell after hours.

Aline Belisario said she was shocked, angry and did not want to sit where a naked person had been. Both the fitness club and the naturist Noah’s Ark swim and sauna club rejected her complaints as ill-founded.

MAY

Doctors, politicians, patients and this newspaper urged members of Epsom Downs Clinical Commissioning Group (EDCCG) to reject plans by the BSBV hospital review to downgrade Epsom Hospital.

Hundreds of residents turned up to lobby them at Epsom Downs Racecourse when they were supposed to vote on the issue – only to discover that at the last moment they had been instructed to postpone the decision.

Former porn addict Nathan Ferreira and Gerald Coates, team leader at Pioneer Engage Church in Leatherhead are touring the country to promote their book, Sexual Healing – Identity, Sexuality, Calling - that aims to help Christians break from pornography.

Mr Ferreira said the idea for the book was sparked after Mr Coates helped him stop using porn.

Harry Goodwin 22, feared he would be permanently scarred after being bitten in the face by a Rottweiller in the Traditional Barbers in Ewell. Police said they could not take action because the attack took place on private property.

It is understood that the owner decided not to have the dog in the shop in future.

JUNE

The 234th Epsom Derby attracted a crowd of 120,000 people who watched Ruler of the World, ridden by Aidan O’Brien, trounce favourite Dawn Approach, who trailed in last.

Surrey County Council was accused of hypocrisy after it emerged that £12m of its staff pension fund was still invested in tobacco companies, despite taking over responsibility for promoting anti smoking in the county earlier this year.

A meeting of its pension fund board decided its primary duty was getting the maximum return on investments and delegated ethical considerations to external fund managers.

The Ashley Centre got into hot water after announcing it planned to bring in live penguins for an educational event highlighting the dangers of climate change.

It swiftly pulled the plug on the idea following criticism from customers and wildlife campaigners.

Nescot announced that a consortium it leads had won a £75m contract to run the first women-only vocational training centre in Saudi Arabia.

Sunaina Mann from the college, the first Asian college principal in the UK, flew out to Riyadh to seal the deal. Five hundred students were due to start at the centre this autumn.