Hamish writes: “The long-awaited Carshalton Pond Railings replacement/rebuilding works are now completed: these had been asked for by local Lib Dem councillors for very many years. Sunday was a lovely and sunny day, and a picture was taken of the completed Pond railings.”

Sutton Council is consulting local residents on plans to expand another five schools in time for a predicted surge in applications in September 2013. Sutton has one of the highest birth rates in London, and over the past four years has seen a dramatic increase in the number of families applying for primary school places in the borough.

Data from the Greater London Assembly suggests this trend is set to continue. In October 2011, 13,927 pupils attended Sutton’s Primary schools. By September 2014 this is predicted to rise to 15,906 and by September 2016 it is expected to reach 16,996. Figures from the Department for Education reveal an additional 100,000 places will be needed across London over the next three years.

Sutton Council anticipated this increase and has been expanding its primary schools for the past three years.

Planning ahead is crucial, so the council wants to know what people think about its most recent plans to make sure there are enough places for the start of the 2013 school year. The schools being considered for expansion are: Amy Johnson Primary School, Avenue Primary School, St Mary’s RC Infant and Junior School off West Street, Carshalton and Dorchester Primary School. Each school would provide one extra form of entry, meaning an extra class of 30 children would be able to start school in September 2013.

Extra places could also be provided at the former Stanley Park High School site, by opening an annexe to another school, possibly Bandon Hill Primary. Residents can have their say on the proposals through an online questionnaire and the expansions will be discussed at local area committee meetings throughout March and April.

Cllr. Kirsty Jerome, Executive Member for Education and Schools at Sutton Council, said: “It’s really important we plan ahead wherever possible, which is why we’re asking people for their thoughts well in advance of when we’re going to need these extra places. “We’ve worked with governors, teachers, parents and pupils to expand primary schools over the last few years and it’s been very successful. The schools tell us the extra children and facilities we’ve been able to provide have enhanced their school communities and they’ve been able to continue to achieve the excellent results which have put Sutton in the top four performing local authorities in the country. “As the number of children applying for school places in Sutton continues to increase we are continuing to lobby the Government for more funding so we can ensure every child has a place at a local school.”

Residents can have their say by filling in an online consultation. Paper copies will be sent to all schools. The closing date for responses is Monday 14th May.

Meetings at all the schools involved are planned:

• Amy Johnson Primary School Tuesday 17 April 3.30pm
• Avenue Primary School Wednesday 18 April 7pm
• St Mary’s RC Infant and Junior School Thursday 19 April 7pm
• Bandon Hill Primary School Tuesday 24 April 7pm
• Dorchester Primary School Tuesday 1 May 7pm

Residents will also be able to find out more about the proposals at local area committee meetings:

• Sutton (for St Mary’s RC Infant and Junior School) Thursday 29 March
• Beddington and Wallington (for Amy Johnson Primary and Bandon Hill Primary) Tuesday 17 April
• Sutton South, Cheam and Belmont (for Avenue Primary) Thursday 19 April
• Cheam North and Worcester Park (for Dorchester Primary) Thursday 26 April
• Carshalton and Clockhouse (for St Mary’s Infant and Junior) Tuesday 24 April.

Carshalton's Old Forge

Jill, Alan and Hamish recently received a letter from the planners at Sutton Council regarding the Local Development Framework’s Site Development Policies Development Plan Document. This will affect how the Council decides on future planning applications in our local area, including of course Carshalton’s various and important Conservation Areas and the old buildings in and around the Village (such as the Old Forge, as illustrated), Carshalton Park and Park Hill.

The letter says:-  “I am pleased to announce that the final version of the Council’s Site Development Policies Development Plan Document (Sites DPD) was adopted by the Council on 5th March 2012.

The Sites DPD supports the Council’s spatial vision, strategic objectives and spatial strategy set out in the adopted Core Planning Strategy (2009), identifying a range of sites to meet the development needs of the Borough and putting forward policies for managing development. It is therefore one of the major tools in facilitating development and renewal and bringing forward sites in the Borough in line with the Vision set out in the Sustainable Community Strategy and the Core Strategy. Together these documents replace the Sutton Unitary Development Plan (2003) and all saved policies. 

The Sites DPD is the second development plan to be found sound and adopted, following the adoption of the Core Strategy in 2009. The South London Waste Plan was also adopted at full Council on 5 March 2012.  This means that Sutton is one of only a small handful of local authorities to have reached this milestone of three adopted DPDs.

Following adoption there is a statutory six week period of legal challenge from the date of adoption (i.e. 5th March to 16th April). Details of possible grounds for a legal challenge are given in the adoption statement.

The Sites DPD, appendices and accompanying documents can be viewed on the website at www.sutton.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4905.  Alternatively a copy of the documents on CD can be provided on request.

If you have any questions regarding the Site DPD please do not hesitate to contact me on 020 8770 6416 or Sally Blomfield on 020 8770 6253.”

Yours sincerely,

Dean James, Planning Officer, Strategic Planning”

Some pictures were kindly received recently from Richard who is a member of the committee of the Friends of Carshalton Park and we are extremely grateful to him for giving us his permission to use his photos on this web site. The results of bulb planting by the Friends of Carshalton Park in recent years are below. Please click on the link for details: http://www.focp.co.uk/

Bulbs in Carshalton Park by the Grotto

Recently the building work has been going on so as to widen the gateway into Carshalton Park at the main Ruskin Road entrance  to help with access for wider vehicles for the big annual events such as the Carnival, Environmental Fair and Firework Display access the park more easily…

Ruskin Road Main Gates widening work

Bulbs on the Canal Embankment

In order to keep the weekly collections and save £1m Sutton Council will be operating a new working pattern. This means that there will be morning and afternoon bin collections, and there is a need to collect bins on Saturdays. The savings come from being able to use fewer waste and recycling trucks more often, which will also enable the Council to retain all our waste collection staff.

Bin collections from Monday to Friday will start at 6am and finish at 8.30pm. Saturday collections will start at 7am and finish at 2.45pm.

 Bin Collection Timetable from 16 April [7Mb]

The new working pattern for bin collections will start on Monday 16 April 2012.

The Council have worked hard to plan the new rounds to make sure they are as efficient as possible. The Council have logged the routes the bin trucks operate using a new computer system, weighed their loads (there are limits to how much waste or recycling a truck is allowed to carry and tip), and organised new routes to make sure they are as efficient as possible using all the data available including local knowledge from our bin crews and management team.

How will you be affected?

About 40 per cent of residents across the borough will have their bins collected on a different day.

Recycling and Garden Waste

Your recycling and garden waste will be collected on the same day as your brown wheeled bin and will continue to be fortnightly.

This year, the Council will start collecting garden waste from Monday 16th April. It will continue until December as usual.

What happens if your bin is missed?

Please don’t be surprised if your bin is not emptied until much later in the day – the rounds may continue until at least 8.30pm in the evening. If you find your bin has not been emptied after 8.30pm, leave it where it is and contact the Council on www.sutton.gov.uk/reportit or 020 8770 5070 as soon as you can. The Council will collect it within two working days.

Blue bins are gone!

Sutton Council notified you in March last year that they would stop emptying blue bins, but that you could hold onto the bin if you wanted to use it for your own purposes. Some people have been continuing to put their glass out for collection in the blue bins. There is no need to do this because all dry recycling materials including glass should all now go in the green wheeled bins.

As a result the Council would like to kindly remind you to stop using your blue bin for your recycling as emptying them slows the bin crews down and costs more money. It will help the Council reach the £1m savings to no longer empty them. The Council are happy for you to keep the blue bins for your own use, but if you don’t want to then please let the Council know by using the ‘Report it’ system on the website and they will collect it from you.

Are you Blueberry Monday or Strawberry Wednesday?

To help you identify which day of the week your bins will be emptied the Council have produced a colour coded map and information to help you.

The map shows which areas of the borough will have their bins collected on which day. The Council have named the days so that they are easy to remember – and because we thought it was more fun! Find out whether you’re Lime Tuesday or Lemon Thursday by checking the colour coded map.

From April 10th you will also be able to use our ‘Find my nearest’ post code checker on the home page of the Council’s website.

So that you know when your bins will be collected we will be providing information in a number of ways:

More information in Sutton Scene, in your council tax booklet, on the waste and recycling trucks and on posters around the borough.

Bin labels to remind you of the day of the week your bins will be collected.

Colour coded calendars to highlight when your waste and recycling/garden waste will be collected throughout the year.

Handy postcode checker which you can access online from 10th April through a computer or mobile phone. Simply type in your postcode into the ‘find my nearest’ section on the home page of our website: www.sutton.gov.uk

Radio ads and twitter feeds to remind you when to put your bin out.

Have you moved into a new or recently refurbished property?

If you should have recently moved into a property that was empty, for example because it has just been built or refurbished, then please fill in the ‘missed bin’ information to let the Council know so that they can start emptying your bins. Contact the Council on www.sutton.gov.uk/reportit

Happy Cycling

The “Go Dutch” campaign seeks to make Greater London as cycle friendly as the Netherlands, while recognising the constraints of our historic road network. Essentially it is calling for the Go Dutch principles to be adopted wherever possible so as to encourage more people to cycle and to make the roads safer for everyone, especially cyclists and pedestrians.

The Times newspaper is currently running a campaign to improve cyclist safety in the UK’s cities, especially London, where one of their journalists was seriously injured in a cycling accident recently.

Sutton Council has done a lot to promote cycling, especially in recent years as part of the Smarter Travel Sutton project, which saw a 75% increase in cycle trips in the borough over three years. However, cycling rates in Sutton remain low (2% of journeys) compared to other European countries such as the Netherlands, where significant investment is made in cycle facilities.

The Go Dutch campaign is aimed primarily at making main roads safer for cycling, so it is essential that Transport for London or TfL also take steps to make their ‘red routes’ safer, together with the council on borough roads. However the Go Dutch principles can also be applied to quieter roads where most of Sutton’s cycle routes are, and to new developments through the planning process. Some of the measures are not necessarily expensive to implement and simply require attention to be given to the needs of cyclists in the design of all traffic schemes and new developments, and changes to be made to the relative priority between motor vehicles and cyclists / pedestrians in order to create more ‘liveable’ streets.

Encouraging and facilitating more cycling (and walking) in the borough will support many of the councils policy objectives, including its new public health responsibilities, as well as the objectives and targets of the Mayor’s Transport Strategy which we are required to meet through our Local Implementation Plan.

It is recommended that some of these principles to promote cycling and walking are incorporated into plans for the next Integrated Transport Package in Worcester Park and North Cheam and also the Hackbridge sustainable suburb Outer London Fund project.  

One of the key demands of The Times’ campaign is for the wider introduction of 20mph zones in cities and urban areas. This is something that is within the council’s control for borough roads. There is also currently a campaign called ‘City of 20’ which is supported by a number of national and regional transport organisations including Sustrans, Living Streets and the London Cycling Campaign, aimed at reducing motor traffic speeds on our streets in order to make them safe, vibrant and social places.  It is calling on boroughs to adopt a borough-wide 20mph limit on residential roads and is also lobbying the future mayor to make London’s streets safer and friendlier. More details can be found at City of 20

Sutton has already introduced quite a few 20mph zones and limits, and large parts of the borough are traffic calmed, so now may be the time to consider ‘joining them up’ to create a borough-wide 20mph zone (on non-classified roads) as other councils such as Islington have done recently.

1951 was the Festival of Britain, a time for celebration as the nation put the years of war and deprivation behind it. That year saw the first Carshalton Carnival and 61 years later it is still going strong. The Carnival Parade, themed this year as “SPIRIT OF THE OLYMPICS”, will start its journey from the Sutton Arena at 12.00 noon working its way down Green Wrythe Lane, past Carshalton College and down North Street. Over the ponds and along the High Street then around to Carshalton Park in Ruskin Road arriving at 1.30pm.   

Carshalton Carnival

The Fete in Carshalton Park opens at 12.00 noon. A licensed bar, hot and cold food and over 50 stalls representing local organisations presenting absolutely everything you can think of by way of entertainment for the family. Entrance to the park is £2.50 for Adults and £1 for Children . The Carnival is run by a committee of dedicated volunteers, supported by Wallington & Carshalton Round Table and Carshalton Rotary Club, for the benefit of the local community and is a not for profit event.

Jill, Alan and Hamish recently took up local residents’ concerns about the considerable difficulties still being encountered in crossing the roads at the “Windsor Castle” junction on the A232 Red Route. This is of course where Park Hill, Carshalton Road, Pound Street and Beynon Road all meet, and we received the following message from the Council’s Highways Officer who has liaisd with Transport for London on this topic for us:-

The Very Expensive New Routemaster

The New Bus for London: This brand new bus for London was initially announced as the replacement for the bendy bus, an updated Routemaster, an “iconic bus London can be proud of”.

Jill, Alan and Hamish have been notified of the need for a traffic closure in Rotherfield Road in connection with the new housing development at “Lakin Close” (cul-de-sac off Rotherfield Road).

The closure is in order to facilitate works to a storm sewer connection in Rotherfield Road, Carshalton, and because of the likelihood of danger to the public arising from the said works, a Temporary Traffic Management Order will be made.

Further information on the temporary restrictions which will come into operation on Monday 26 March 2012 can be obtained from Sutton Council (telephone for details 020 8770 6465, and ask for Mr. David Waugh). The works are expected to take three weeks to complete.