Local Committee chairman, Cllr. Hamish Pollock reports: “Over seventy local residents came to the recent Carshalton & Clockhouse Local Committee on 15th September, to listen to and discuss ideas for protecting Carshalton’s historic buildings. It proved to be a highly successful event.”
“A local historic buildings expert talked about The Lodge, Stonecourt and The Grove, for which new uses will need to be found, if the Council decides to move staff to the Civic Offices, Sutton in a few years’ time under the One Council, One Roof project.”

Local Committee Vice-Chair Cllr. Jill Whitehead says: “During the summer the Council consulted a number of local groups to seek suggestions as to proposed new uses for these buildings. We talked to The Friends of the Grove, The Friends of Carshalton Park, Friends of The Water Tower, The Friends of Sutton Ecology Centre, Westmead Allotments Association, and also the Carshalton Society.
Two of the groups made presentations at the meeting namely Friends of the Grove and Friends of the Ecology Centre. They were joined by Sutton Council for Voluntary Service who put forward a proposal to use The Grove as a voluntary sector “hub” for local groups, and Eco-Local, a well-known local environmental organisation which proposed using The Lodge and The Old Rectory as a major local centre for environmental research and activity.”

Cllr. Alan Salter adds: “The Council will now take all the ideas forward for further consideration. The Council’s Executive Committee will meet in November to assess if the One Council project should go ahead. If it does, it will be discussed in detail at further Local Committee meetings in December 2011 and April 2012, before any final decisions on buildings uses are made.”