Westmead Business Centre Planning Application C2011/64032

Westmead Business Centre frontage

Here are the photos of parts of the Westmead Business Centre taken recently of the front from 123 Westmead Road and of the west side from Cowper Avenue on the western fringes of The Poets’ Estate.

Westmead Business Centre from Byron Avenue East

The planning application for “part demolition of existing B1 (office/light industrial) building and erection of four 3 – bedroomed two storey terraced houses fronting Cowper Avenue with two car parking spaces for each dwelling accessed from Byron Avenue East and Cowper Avenue and erection of four 4 – bedroomed two storey semi detached houses and one 4 – bedroomed two storey detached house each with garage and parking bay fronting Kingsley Avenue together with secure cycle parking, refuse and recycling facilities and new vehicular accesses onto Kingsley Avenue, Byron Avenue East and new access road onto Cowper Avenue to provide access to residential parking bays and two additional car parking spaces for existing commercial use on adjoining site” was granted in June 2011.

Westmead Business Centre yard from Cowper Avenue

Xmas Bin Collections and Xmas Tree Collection

A Recyclable Christmas Tree!

Over the Christmas period your waste and recycling bins will be collected by Sutton Council a day later than usual.

If you normally have your bin emptied on a Monday, instead of being collected on Monday, 26th December, it will be collected on Tuesday, 27th December and so on – please refer to the following table:

Normal bin collection day Monday 26 December Tuesday 27 December Wednesday 28 December Thursday 29 December Friday 30 December
Your bins will be collected on Tuesday 27 December Wednesday 28 December Thursday 29 December Friday 30 December Saturday 31 December

There will be no disruption to bin collections over the New Year Holiday as the Council will be collecting on Bank Holiday Monday, 2nd January 2012.

Real Christmas Tree Collections
The Council will be collecting real Christmas trees for recycling from Monday 9th January to Friday 20th January. Please put your real Christmas tree out on the day of your recycling collection.

Sutton's Green Wheelie Bin

A View of St Helier

Hamish reports: “Here’s what I think of as an impressive view taken from the flats at Relko Gardens, Sutton Grove over the weekend of St. Helier Hospital like a great battleship over the huge sea of houses in northern Carshalton and Sutton.  So many residents living in our area obviously were born there or have connections there.”

St. Helier Hospital from Relko Gardens

Carshalton Grove Development

Doric House, Carshalton Grove

The flats at the bottom of Carshalton Grove have recently been completed after a rather delayed start of the building works. In summer 2006, the three local councillors and the Lib Dem FOCUS team worked with local residents and addressed their concerns about the planning application and the impact of the development on the surrounding area at the time, impact on parking and overlooking being obvious concerns.

Carshalton Parish Church

 

Carshalton All Saints' Parish Church

Hamish reports: “I attended Sunday morning service at All Saints’ Church, Carshalton as I do very occasionally after delivering some FOCUS leaflets in the area and as a former resident of the Parish of Carshalton. My deceased wife Josephine (d. 2007) and I were married there in 1991. It is really a fabulous church, particularly the interior which has improved immeasurably under the auspices of the current incumbent Father John Thewlis and his excellent, hard-working team, and I think it is one of the loveliest interiors of any Parish Church. Photographs of the church appear in the newly-published book by Sir John Betjeman on “Best British Churches“. According to a display, the church itself is apprently in need of extra funds and looking to raise at least £50,000 extra per year just to balance the books. Please click on the link to the Carshalton Parish Church on this web page for details. Please give generously to our parish church.”

The Newly-Published Edition of Betjeman's Best British Churches Book featuring Carshalton All Saints' Church

Community Leadership Awards held at Civic Offices, 8th December

 

Local Community Award Winners 2011

Hamish reports: “As Deputy Mayor of the borough, I attended the Community leadership awards ceremony in the Europa Gallery space at the Civic Offices in Sutton on Thursday, 8th December 2011. There was a great buzz at the ceremony as we heard about such wonderful work being done in our borough by both council staff and by volunteers in the community at large, all going far beyond the call of duty. I was genuinely so impressed. It certainly underlined to me how special living in our borough truly it is with its huge network of volunteers. Long may that last.”

Benhill Recreation Ground Improvements

Residents and councillors planting lavender in Benhill Recreation Ground earlier this year

Cllr. Alan Salter reports: it was agreed on Tuesday 6th December the following by five local residents and two local councillors who attended the site visit at Benhill Rec off Harold Road which is a cul-de-sac off Westmead Road that :

a) the proposed new tree seat will be situated in the playground area but not under the willow tree.

b) one of the new seats will be on the bank looking across the London skyline near near Oliver Road, Sutton.

c) the other seat to be placed outside the playground area looking southwards

d) two picnic benches to be placed inside the playground (subject to any available funding)

e) one refuse bin to be placed next to the seat by Oak Apartments (no extra seating near to Harold Road residents houses)

f) a oval shaped lavender flower bed between the willow tree and the existing lavender bed.

g) to pursue the matter regarding proposed fruit bushes in the area between the playground and Lavender Road.

Hopefully the basic ground work  for the extra lavender bed will be completed by end of February 2012 subject to winter weather conditions, then the lavender can be planted in April  for which volunteers wanted.

It’s of course your recreation ground for you all to enjoy – next step is to form a “friends group” to look after it!  Any residents interested in forming the Friends of Benhill Rec are invited to contact Cllr. Alan Salter.

The Playground at Benhill Rec

The Grove (Park) Squirrels: Biting The Hand that feeds…

Jill and Hamish are both Friends of the Grove Park and have attended its regular committee meetings for some years. One of the members of the committee has recently advised us that there have been two recent incidents of injury caused to children because of people feeding squirrels in The Grove Park. We gather that one incident involved a child being bitten to the bone on two fingers and being taken to hospital for treatment, and another involving a squirrel jumping into a pushchair with a child seated in it.  Presumably there are health and safety problems inherent in these incidents (strangely enough the Full Council meeting discussed health and safety on Monday 5th December 2011). We have noticed someone feeding squirrels with bread at the weekend in the park.  There does seem to be an “outbreak” of squirrels this autumn/winter.

We asked the Council’s parks department if some notices could be put up to perhaps deter people feeding the animals in The Grove (obviously this applies to birds as well as squirrels) and if the shops selling feed for squirrels or birds could be warned about its impact. We hear that a shop or two in Carshalton High Street are selling squirrel feed and possibly still be selling old bread.We also have concerns with putting up any kind of signage is that it may make the Council look as if it is spoiling peoples enjoyment of the site as many people go to the park to feed the animals, or that we are demonising squirrels based on one incident of biting that has not been formally reported to the Council.  The parks department tell us that they have spoken to the Council’s Corporate Health and Safety team, their advice was that anyone who is bitten, or is the parent of a child that is bitten should report it formally to the Council. In this way the circumstances can be investigated along with any ways of reducing risk. This information can be logged to see if there are a number of incidents or any trends. But with only one incident reported anecdotally it is difficult to either justify putting up signs or know what to put on signs that would not attract adverse comments.  We know that members of the friends’ group have in the past spoken to local shopkeepers about sale of bread etc. and this has been successful in the past. More in a future posting…

A Hungry Squirrel!

Sutton to get new coach service to Gatwick Airport

A large proportion of residents of the Carshalton Central neighbourhood actually have a Sutton SM1 postal address and many actually live nearer to the Sutton Town Centre than Carshalton Village.

So we’re very pleased that a new direct coach service linking Sutton Town Centre with Gatwick Airport is set to launch in time for the Christmas holidays after a campaign by Sutton borough councillors and residents. National Express will operate the service between Gatwick and Victoria coach station via Sutton, starting on 5 December. The new A3 service will have two stops in Sutton town centre, in Throwley Way / St. Nicholas Way and at Sutton station, and will also call at Belmont. The journey will take just 40 minutes from Sutton to the South Terminal and 55 minutes to the North Terminal. It will run hourly throughout the day and most of the night, catering for late and early flights and provide an alternative to driving, taxi, or the train which requires a change. The service is something that both main political parties on Sutton Council have been calling for over a number of years, since the 420 bus that used to link Sutton to Gatwick was curtailed at Redhill.

Councillor Simon Wales, Lib Dem Executive Member for Communities, Transport and Voluntary Sector, said: “We very much welcome this new service which will provide a direct link to the airport and avoid the need for costly taxis or airport parking, or a change of trains. We hope it will be well used by borough residents as well as attracting more business and leisure travellers to Sutton.

Conservative Councillor Peter Geiringer, who actually lives in Carshalton Central ward and represents Belmont Ward and has been at the forefront of the campaign, added: “We are pleased that this new service will be serving Belmont as it will greatly assist residents in getting to Gatwick, both for business and leisure travel.”   

Andrew Cleaves, Managing Director, National Express coach said, “This new coach service is direct and frequent providing a great new link to both terminals at the airport and into London.  The business has the advantage of being able to respond and offer new and improved routes and services to meet demand.  As such we’re delighted to introduce this new service for the people of Sutton.”

The new route also improves the number of coaches travelling to London Victoria and is an addition to the National Express 025 Gatwick and Brighton service via Wallington. Everybody travelling is guaranteed a seat and there is a large luggage hold underneath the coach.