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Welcome to the Burney Road residents' hub
BEML owns and looks after Burney Road and its verges. Here you will find the minutes, deeds, licence guidance and contact details for residents and their solicitors, all in one place.
Annual General Meeting, Monday 23 November 2026
8pm at The Stepping Stones. The formal notice goes out by email and by letter, and asks you to confirm your email address.
What do you need to do?
Latest notices
All noticesDocuments
Every governing document, set of minutes, account and guidance note in one list. Items marked "To be added" are on the directors' list to collect.
Plan of the road
A schematic plan of Burney Road, Adlers Lane and the houses that front them. It is not to scale. For the land BEML owns, see the indicative title plan on the last page of the verges memo in Documents.
What BEML is, and who keeps it running
Burney Estate Management Limited is owned by the people who live on Burney Road. It exists to look after the road and verges we all use, and it only works because neighbours give their time.
Its purpose
BEML owns most of Burney Road and its verges, a significant part of Adlers Lane, and the footpath between Burney Road and Pilgrims Close. Its job is to maintain, repair and renew that land, and the services on it, when and where needed.
Each of the 58 properties has a Deed of Grant and Covenant with BEML and is a shareholder. Everyone pays the same annual service charge, and that pays for the upkeep and builds a reserve for resurfacing.
Its role
- Looks after the land. Inspections, drains, gullies, signage, landscaping and the road surface.
- Protects the road. Decides who may do what on the verges through licences, so the look and use of the road stay fair for everyone.
- Handles house sales. Provides information to solicitors and signs buyers up to the Deed.
- Keeps the company in order. Insurance, accounts, the AGM and Companies House filings.
There are no paid staff and no managing agent
The directors and the company secretary are residents who give their time for free. The 2025 accounts record no employees. At the 2025 AGM most responses favoured keeping it that way, rather than hiring a management company, with a modest rise in the annual charge instead.
Every owner signs up as a shareholder in their Deed, so each of us may serve on the board at some point while we own our property. Serving on the board also gives a good understanding of how the company runs and of the diplomacy needed between neighbours.
Volunteers with different skills are welcome, and you can sit in on a board meeting first to see what is involved. Please keep all communication neighbourly and respectful.
What the company secretary does
One volunteer holds this role and agrees the plan and costs with the directors. For any works they obtain and assess three quotes.
| When | What |
|---|---|
| Every quarter | Inspect the estate and arrange any immediate repairs, such as damaged gullies and grates or loose signage. Inspect the property for insurance and record the findings. |
| Every year | Assess surface water drainage and landscaping and arrange contractors. Renew public liability insurance (cover runs 7 April to 6 April, including any legally required employer's liability cover). |
| AGM | Agree the date, venue and agenda with the directors, and send notice to every shareholder by email and by paper copy to two households. Prepare the service charge and budget, present the secretary's report, then write and circulate the minutes. |
| Companies House | File the annual confirmation statement, due 29 March, which mainly updates the shareholder list. Update director and registered office details within 14 days of any change. |
| Every few years | Drain cleansing (currently every two years), tree surgery (about every three years), a review of insurance value for money, and re-dressing the road surface (about every ten years, last done May 2019). |
| When a house is sold | Provide the information pack to the seller's solicitor, answer follow-up questions, and complete the management company enquiry form where asked. Prepare the buyer's Deed of Covenant and Certificate of Compliance for the Land Registry, and a new share certificate, released once the paperwork and payment arrive. Record the change in the shareholder and deed log. |
| As needed | Review shareholders' concerns and requests, agree action with the directors, and keep the company's files, now mostly held electronically. |
How Burney Road came to be
Burney Road is a young road in an old village. Its houses date from the late 1940s, in the years after a large local estate, Camilla Lacey, was broken up, and its name very probably recalls a famous resident of the parish, the novelist Fanny Burney.
An old village, a new road
Westhumble is a small village in the Mole Valley, under Box Hill. Its medieval centre lay around Adlers Lane, where court rolls mention Hadlers Hall, later Audlers Hole, possibly the original manor house, which no longer survives. Over the centuries the village's focus drifted about half a mile east to Westhumble Street, possibly because of the growing importance of the north-south road through the Mole Gap.
Adlers Lane is the one old name on our plan. The road we live on is much newer.
From a great house to a housing estate
In 1816 a new manor house, Camilla Lacey, was built north of Chapel Lane. After the death of its owner, Victor Freeman, the Camilla Lacey estate was broken up and sold in 1932. Much of the modern village dates from the two decades that followed.
Most houses in Pilgrims Way were already built by the outbreak of the Second World War. Burney Road, Adlers Lane and Pilgrims Close came later, with their houses built from the late 1940s. Architectural records place one Burney Road house, Tryfan, which was formerly called South Winds, at around 1946, designed by Horace Farquharson and Donald McMorran. Building was still going on in 1952, when a Neolithic axe turned up in a Burney Road site, the earliest sign of people in the village.
Sources: Wikipedia's Westhumble article, which cites Ronald Shepperd's 1982 book on the Manor of Wistomble, and the UK Modern Houses database.
Fanny Burney and Camilla Cottage
The novelist Fanny Burney (1752 to 1840), later Madame d'Arblay, lived in Westhumble with her husband, the French general Alexandre d'Arblay. They built Camilla Cottage here on the proceeds of her third novel, Camilla (1796), moved in during 1797, and stayed until 1801. A blue plaque on the archway near Westhumble and Box Hill station commemorates them.
Camilla Cottage later became the core of a larger house called Camilla Lacey, and the Camilla Lacey estate was sold off in 1932. The names Camilla Drive and Camilla Lacey, close to our road, echo the same story.
We have not found a source that states where the name Burney Road comes from. With the Camilla names beside it and the road's position by the old estate, it very probably recalls her.
A 2006 newsletter of the Burney Society reports that an earlier house on the Camilla Cottage site burned down in 1919, and that a house called Burney House now stands on a private drive off Chapel Lane. It shows how much of the story is still uncertain, even for specialists.
Read more
Fanny Burney
- Fanny Burney on Wikipedia
- Chronology of her life, The Victorian Web
- Camilla Cottage and the d'Arblays, The Victorian Web
- Camilla Lacey on the Mole Gap Trail, Surrey Hills
- Local writers and poets, Dorking Museum
- Burney Society newsletter, spring 2006, on Burney House
- Her London blue plaque, English Heritage
Westhumble
Do you have photographs or memories of Burney Road?
Old photographs, plans, deeds and recollections would make this page much better. Email the directors and we will add them.
AGM archive
One entry per meeting, newest first, with the papers and the decisions taken. Minutes for earlier years are added as the directors find them.
Legal pack for a sale
BEML owns the road and verges. Every property has a Deed of Grant and Covenant with BEML, so a buyer's solicitor will ask about the deed, the service charge and any works on the verge. Everything they usually need is listed below.
Key facts
- Company
- Burney Estate Management Limited
- Company number
- 04743521 (England and Wales)
- Registered office
- Halfway, Burney Road, Westhumble, Dorking RH5 6AU
- What it owns
- Burney Road and verges (about 3m into most front gardens and drives), part of Adlers Lane, and the footpath between Burney Road and Pilgrims Close
- BEML's land
- Registered at HM Land Registry under title SY19370
- Company year end
- 31 December
- Annual charge
- £180 per property for FY25, payable in arrears by 31 December
- Properties
- 58 (35 outer, 23 inner)
- Licences
- Verge licences are non-assignable, so a buyer needs their own for any new works
What is in the pack
Ready items open from the library. Items still to be added are shown so your solicitor knows what is coming.
What happens on a sale
- The company secretary provides the BEML information pack to the seller's solicitor, completes the management company enquiry form (FME1) where requested, and answers follow-up questions.
- The secretary prepares the buyer's draft Deed of Covenant with BEML and the Certificate of Compliance, both needed by the Land Registry, and a new share certificate for the buyer.
- These are released on receipt of the required documentation and payment, and the change is recorded in the shareholder and deed log.
BEML is run by volunteers, so please allow time for replies and send your request early.
Answers for Form TA6 (property information)
A seller's solicitor usually has to answer questions on roads, charges, rights and disputes. These answers reflect BEML's records at the date of the 2025 accounts. The directors confirm anything specific to one property. This is information from BEML's documents, not legal advice, so check it against your Deed.
| Topic | What BEML's records show |
|---|---|
| Who owns and maintains the road | BEML owns Burney Road and its verges and maintains them. Costs come from the annual service charge. |
| Annual charge | £180 per property for FY25 (£130 before), paid in arrears and due by 31 December. The directors confirm in writing whether a property is paid to date. |
| Other charges | The accounts show a small special service charge (£270 in 2025). Ask the directors whether one applies to the property. |
| Rights and covenants | Deed of Grant and Covenant, redacted specimen copy in the pack. It gives rights to pass over the verges and to lay and repair services, and sets covenants on maintenance, parking and structures. |
| Works on the verge | Driveway works, planting, fences and structures need a licence first. Licences cannot be assigned, so a buyer applies for their own. |
| Future costs | Resurfacing is provisionally planned for 2029 at £45,000 to £50,000, funded from the maintenance reserve. The board is looking at charges for large construction projects, but no proposal has been made. |
| Insurance | BEML holds insurance, with premiums of £268 in 2025. The certificate is to be added to the pack. |
| Disputes and notices | The directors confirm this for each sale. |
Request the pack and a service charge statement
Fill this in and the hub writes the email for you. The directors reply to the shared mailbox.
For the buyer after completion
Send the directors your names, house name and email address so you are added to the shareholder list and receive AGM notices. Residents are shareholders through the Deed.
Works and licences
Most of the verge outside your house belongs to BEML. Anything beyond the rights in your Deed needs a licence first. This is guidance only and does not replace the Deed of Grant.
How to get a licence
- Tell the directors at least 28 days before work startsSend a written summary, a plan (hand drawn is fine in most cases), details of planting, structures or surface materials, and your estimated start and finish dates. Minimum 28 days' notice
- Directors raise questionsThey aim to reply within 7 days, may ask for more detail and may suggest a walk round if it helps everyone.
- Draft licence issuedOnce questions are answered, the directors send a draft with the details of your works and the standard conditions below.
- Sign and return the final licenceThe directors issue the final licence. Sign it and send it back.
- Work startsOnly after you hold the signed licence. Contractors follow the on-site rules further down.
Your Deed already allows
- Passing over and along the BEML verges
- Laying, repairing, replacing and using pipes, cables and drains, including breaking up the verge surface, provided you make it good to BEML's satisfaction and at your own expense. No licence is needed, but BEML asks for advance notice, or notice as soon as practicable in an emergency such as a burst pipe
You must always
- Maintain the verge in front of your property (edgings, grass, hedges) and the construction and surface of your access drive
- Keep utility providers' access clear
- Keep vehicles, caravans, boats and trailers off the verge
You need a licence for
- Driveway replacement or changes
- Planting trees or hedges on BEML land
- Walls, fences or other structures and obstructions
- Any other works on BEML land outside the Deed rights
How the directors decide
- Case by case, in the interests of all residents
- They will not unduly delay or withhold approval
- They can refuse works that are unreasonable for accessing, protecting and maintaining the land
Standard licence conditions
- The verge is reinstated to its condition before the works, or as agreed, and maintained afterwards, at your expense.
- The licence does not override the Deed of Grant. BEML and service providers keep the right to access the land to maintain, repair and renew it and any pipes or cables.
- You protect BEML land from damage and repair any damage to neighbouring BEML land at your expense.
- If repairs or reinstatement are not finished, BEML can arrange them and charge you.
- Licences cannot be assigned to anyone else.
See the standard form of licence in Documents, and the updated verges memo.
Think about scale and surface. If BEML or a utility has to dig up your surface later, you pay to reinstate it, and the new surface may not match.
On site: contractors and skips
- Ask contractors to park considerately so neighbours can always get on and off their drives. This matters most when the house is empty during works.
- Put skips on your own property, off the verge, and have them removed as soon as practical.
- The board has said it will draft a code of conduct to go out with every licence. It is not issued yet.
Start your request
Notices and open matters
What the directors have told residents, newest first, and the items the board is still working on.
Open matters
As recorded at the AGM on 2 December 2025. The board consults residents before it decides on anything that changes the charge or the rules.
Contact the directors
The board is a small group of volunteer neighbours. One shared mailbox reaches all of them, so use that rather than a personal address.
hello@burneyroad.com
Please be neighbourly. The board asked at the 2025 AGM that all communication stays respectful.
Board of directors
Amanda Wadsworth
Director and Company SecretaryRegistered office is at her address. Contact through the mailbox.
James McAllister
DirectorKeeps the service charge record. Contact through the mailbox.
Steve Rzepka
DirectorJoined the board on 2 December 2025. Contact through the mailbox.
What to email about
| You want to | Go to |
|---|---|
| Selling your house | Legal pack for a sale |
| Change your drive, plant or fence on the verge | Works and licences |
| Ask about the service charge | Email the mailbox with your house name |
| Read minutes or accounts | Documents |
| Tell us you have a new email address, or have just bought | Email the mailbox with your names, house name and email address |
| Join the board | Email the mailbox. Volunteers with different skills are welcome, and you are welcome to sit in on a meeting first. |
Company details
- Name
- Burney Estate Management Limited
- Number
- 04743521
- Registered office
- Halfway, Burney Road, Westhumble, Dorking RH5 6AU
- Accountants
- Ellis Atkins LLP, Constable Court, 62 Dene Street, Dorking RH4 2DP
Resident contact list
Names, emails and phone numbers of residents are held by the directors and are not published here. To reach a neighbour, ask the mailbox to pass on a message.
Common questions
Answers come from the Deed guidance memo of February 2025 and the AGM minutes of December 2025.