ROUND UP: Talk on great English composer and pedestrian improvements for blind people praised

Life of great English composer revealed in Surrey

Dame Ethel Smyth, one of the foremost English composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, will be the subject of a talk by Lewis Orchard at Surrey Performing Arts Library in Dorking on Wednesday, February 5 at 9.30pm, tickets £5.

Dame Ethel, a resident of Frimley and Woking, devoted her life to music against the wishes of her father and was a fervent supporter of women’s suffrage. During the First World War she worked as a radiographer at Vichy while still creating music.

Her compositions included one of the very few English operas of the early 20th century, ‘The Wreckers’.

Find more details at the Surrey Council website.

Epsom Station traffic scheme praised by SAVI

Surrey Association for Visual Impairment (SAVI) has endorsed Surrey County Council’s work to make a pedestrian crossing in Station Approach, Epsom easier for blind and partially sighted people to use.

SAVI provides training to partially sighted and blind people to help them navigate town centres and the council consulted the organisation in the development of the scheme.

Through SAVI, the council met a local person with no sight at all, who described the original crossing as a barrier she was completely unable to use. After the modifications, SAVI contacted Surrey to say “a big thank you for the crossing at Epsom station, the layout is so much better and so straightforward” and reported that this lady took to the new design straight away.