Cllr. Jill Whitehead says “Oakwood Developers have put in a planning application to Sutton Council that will limit access to Shorts Road during certain phases of development at the site at 229-245 Carshalton Rd. She adds: “Oakwood obtained a Temporary  Prohibition of Stopping order from Transport from London (TfL) which runs from 31^st Oct 2011 to 31^st Oct 2012, and which allows the developer to unload heavy items in the bay at Nos. 336-354 Carshalton Rd. However, we are told that certain deliveries will still have to be brought in at the Shorts Road site entrance from Westmead Road, but with NO building contractor access allowed in Alma Road (signage asks contractors to travel via Westmead Road only).”

Cllr. Alan Salter says: “The planning application seeks two road closures in Shorts Road, for firstly 10 working days in May 2012 and then for 8 weeks mostly during the 6 weeks summer holiday period. We are told the developers have agreed this timing with St Philomena’s school, and that they are liaising with the Council’s Highways Dept over this plan.

Cllr.  Hamish Pollock adds: “Meanwhile, following residents’ complaints about delivery of goods during peak hours, backing of vehicles into the site and double parking of lorries etc., the developers have agreed a delivery protocol. No deliveries will be allowed before 10am and after 3pm. Deliveries have to be pre-arranged with the site manager.  Vehicles will need to park in the bay on Carshalton Road unless they have permission to enter Shorts Road. Any contractor that does not do this will be turned away. During loading periods, pedestrians on Carshalton Road will be redirected to alternative crossings.”

Cllr. Jill Whitehead says “The Council received dual planning applications for the demolition of existing old Forge (garage) building in connection with provision for a car wash and also for the erection of a building in its place for use as a car wash with forecourt, three car parking spaces, boundary wall, pillars, two vehicle accesses, pedestrian access and gates up to 1.3 metres in height (applications nos. C2011/65119 and 65120/FUL). The Forge Building is near to the large pharmacy (originally the former post office building) by the High Street Car Park.

The Forge site where clearing up seems on 14th January already to be well-advanced!

Cllr. Alan Salter adds “Residents may wish to inspect and comment upon the plans online at www.sutton.gov.uk or by visiting the council offices at 24 Denmark Road, Carshalton SM5 2JG during normal office hours and/or writing to the planning department at that address.”

Cllr. Hamish Pollock says: “We’re told that although The Forge is within the Carshalton Conservation Area providing some statutory protection, the building is neither Locally nor Nationally Listed.”

As usual we want to hear of residents’ views.  

You may notice some temporary barriers and markings on the ground in Carshalton Park behind the houses in Ruskin Road by the Scout Hut, and a hole in the ground. It is an old war time air raid shelter that has partially collapsed, and we are told the Council’s Park Department will be looking into what can be done to deal with the problem in response over the next few days. More in a future web site posting!

The Temporary Bus Shelter at Corner of Carshalton Road with Shorts Road

Following an exchange of correspondence between the developers and Sutton Council, a temporary bus shelter has been formed by the developer’s contractors at 229-245 Carshalton Road immediately underneath the temporary scaffolding, at the junction with Shorts Road. This will provide more room for school children who gather there waiting for a bus in large numbers in the afternoons.

Scaffolding at 229-245 Carshalton Road as viewed from Shorts Road

Cllr. Jill Whitehead says: “We have also heard that the developer has very recently made an application to the Council to temporarily close off Shorts Road at the junction with Carshalton Road to traffic for two distinct periods of two weeks and eight weeks respectively in order to carry out certain parts of the approved flats scheme.  We are investigating the details at present  and will keep you posted and keep local residents informed.”

View of the Contractor's Site Entrance in Shorts Road

Sale Board

Hamish reports: “Recently I re-visited the new development at 40 Coleridge Avenue, Sutton in a corner of the Poets’ Estate within the Carshalton Central neighbourhood, close to the junction with Shirley Avenue.  The so-called Coleridge Gardens development is nearing completion and the first house of the four that were granted planning permission is apparently already sold/occupied.”

The 40 Coleridge Avenue Site from Shirley Avenue

Hamish continues: “I worked with local residents and my two fellow councillors at the time to resist all the various planning applications on this key site going back several years as we had concerns at the time about the siting of such development particularly so close to other houses; a new road junction close to a tight street corner; back gardens and also there were concerns about building on a potential flooding “problem area”.  Anyway, the development proposals were eventually approved in the teeth of local opposition, and the development went ahead with a number of important planning conditions including an acoustic fence to protect and safeguard the amenity of adjacent occupants by the new road way.”

Typical View of House Frontage

Builders in Your Community is a website, run as a social enterprise, which allows users to share information about builders, plumbers and electricians in the Sutton area. They can read customer reviews, get quotes and recommend tradesmen to other residents from the comfort of their own home.

Sutton Council is supporting the initiative, run by Joe Teakle, of Sutton, and hopes it will complement the information provided by its own Safer Sutton Trader Scheme.

Cllr. Simon Wales, Executive Member for Communities, Transport and Voluntary Sector, said: “Unfortunately rogue traders and doorstep cons are becoming an increasing problem across the country, so we want to do all we can to help stop Sutton residents becoming victims of them. By sharing information about the many skilled, honest and reliable traders working in the borough, residents can help each other and local businesses.

“Builders in Your Community builds on the successful Safer Sutton Trader Scheme, which lists local, approved business, and many of these companies have already signed up to Builders in Your Community.”

The service is free to use for customers and makes a small charge to traders.  Money raised by the scheme will be invested back into the community. 25 per cent of profits will be split between Sutton Education Business Partnership, Sutton Community Fund and Ecolocal.

To find out more about recommended local traders visit www.sutton.gov.uk/safersuttontrader or www.biyc.co.uk.

For advice about rogue traders contact Consumer Direct on 08454 04 05 06.

Carshalton Ponds: centre of Carshalton Central

Jill, Alan and Hamish most sincerely wish a very Happy New Year to all our readers. We will continue to try to do our very best for the residents of Carshalton Central ward.

How you can help, please!

Graffiti blights many of our roads in the borough. However, it isn’t something we have to put up with. There are many simple steps which residents can take to help in the fight against graffiti.

The more of us who report graffiti, the better the chance that it will be cleaned up quickly.

If graffiti appears on their own property, people are often unsure about how to get it removed. You will find details on this factsheet about how Sutton Council can help you get graffiti removed.

Don’t forget, if you leave graffiti it can attract more graffiti, make the area less attractive, have an adverse affect on commerce and property values

Please contact Sutton Council on 020-8770 5070 to let the Council know about a particular graffiti hotspot.

Getting graffiti removed

• Removing graffiti is the responsibility of the person or company on whose property it appears but to support local people and business, Sutton Council will only remove graffiti that is in public view (from the highway or for example, a public right of way) or that is under three metres high.
• You can report any such graffiti on private or commercial property to Sutton Council’s Call Centre on 020-8770 5070
• If you discover graffiti on Council housing property, please contact Sutton Council Customer Services on Freephone 0800 195 5552.
• To assist the Council please state where it is, whether it is abusive or offensive, how much there is (e.g. single word or tag or an entire wall/fence), and what surface it covers (e.g. concrete, brickwork, wooden fence etc).
• The Council does need permission to remove graffiti so will obtain permission from the property owner wherever they can.
• There are number of other organisations responsible for Graffiti removal from their property. The organisations listed have very varying approaches to removing graffiti – some will act very quickly, others can be reluctant to act at all.
• Adshel Bus Shelters 0800 731 3699
• British Telecom 151 (Options 9 *)
• London Buses – Bus Stops 020 7222 1234
• London Underground 0845 330 9880
• National Grid Transco 0800 111999
• Network Rail (Tracks/ stations/ bridges) 08457 114141
• Royal Mail 08457 740740 (Option 4)
• Southern Electric 08457 444555
• Telewest (Street cabinet repairs) 0800 953 2244
• Transport for London Roads 0845 305 1234

Reporting graffiti to the Police

• If you see someone carrying out graffiti ,they are committing criminal damage, so the police advise phoning 999. If there are police nearby they will go to the location. This will, however, be a low priority so get a good description as the perpetrators may be gone by the time they arrive.
• Otherwise, reporting the graffiti incident to the police and getting them to record it will help the situation. It will bring evidence of the full costs and extent of the problem to people’s attention. You can ring Sutton Police on 020 8643 1212 Sutton Borough, 6 Carshalton Road West, Sutton, Surrey, SM1 4RF, open 24 hours a day – 7 days a week

Why remove graffiti quickly?

• Quick removal of graffiti has been shown by studies in the USA to be very discouraging to the vandals. A graffiti artist wants his or her work to be seen by as many people as possible. Removing the work fast frustrates this desire.
• Uncleaned graffiti will attract move graffiti to a wall or surrounding area. Furthermore it is easier to remove graffiti from a surface quickly as paint and pen ink becomes harder to remove as it dries.

Preventing graffiti

Simple design considerations such as:

• Opening areas up so they are overseen by passersby or the property owner
• wooden trellis to break up the outline of a wall
• planting at the base of walls to restrict access
• thinking about lighting if it’s a dark area
• making an area look well cared for and so well used etc.

There are two treatments that can make your life easier if you suffer an attack by graffiti vandals. These are available through Nordic and other suppliers.

• Active surfaces are chemical coatings which are designed to slow the drying times of the spray paint or marker pen used. They are cheap, easy to apply to a wall and usually don’t require specialist equipment. However these surfaces are often known as sacrificial coatings as they dissolve when graffiti remover is applied and must then be recoated.
• Passive surfaces are more robust coatings which do not need to be recoated after an attack. They are more expensive than active surfaces and have the advantage of being available in a variety of colours like paint.

THANK YOU!

Click on the link below to see the historic video made in the Summer. Since the video was made the council have of course decided to not decant staff from buildings in Carshalton into Sutton’s Civic Offices.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqaP5N9jJWY