Environmental Fair, Carshalton Park – August 31st Bank Holiday Monday 2015 – 10.30am-8pm

The Lib Dems will be having our usual second hand bookstall at the Fair. There will be huge number of good quality books at very reasonable prices, also jigsaws, DVDs, CDs etc.  Local councillors Alan, Jill and Hamish will be helping out on the stalls and we hope to see you there!

Tom Brake MP, Caroline Pidgeon AM and Hamish, Jill and Alan by the Ponds in Carshalton

From Caroline Pidgeon AM’s recent news bulletin sent to Sutton councillors…

Caroline Pidgeon AM was delighted to join Carshalton Central’s Cllr Jill Whitehead and the Mayor of London’s Cycling Ambassador Andrew Gilligan at Sutton Council’s cycling summit on Thursday 23rd July.

Caroline spoke about the Council’s draft strategy which has an ambitious target of 4% cycle modal share by 2025 from 1% currently. The strategy also plans to audit the current cycle network and to try to segregate cycle lanes where possible.

Caroline also talked about the work she has done to push the Mayor to spend more money in the Boroughs, especially outer London, to deliver a citywide cycling revolution.

Sutton Council is congratulating pupils and staff in schools across the borough as their GCSE results are once again among the best in the UK.

This year the proportion of Sutton students scoring 5 or more A* to C grades including English and Maths is 76.9%, which is well above last year’s national average of 53.4%. Across the borough, 83.5% of pupils have achieved 5 or more GCSEs. Last year the figure was 84.3%.

Cllr. Wendy Mathys, Chair of the Children, Families and Education Committee, said: “Once again the GCSE results achieved by young people in Sutton’s schools are among the best in the country. I would like to congratulate all the students on their excellent results and also want to pay tribute to the hard work of the teachers, support staff, leaders and governors in our schools. GCSE results day is a big moment in our young people’s lives as they begin to prepare for the future and I hope they will build on their GCSE success whether it’s through training, an apprenticeship or further academic studies. I wish them all the best for what they do next.”   

Good Afternoon,

Please find attached the August 2015 Newsletter for the Living Wandle Landscape Partnership Scheme.
There are plenty of ways in which individuals or groups can get involved with the River Wandle, take a look and see how you can get involved!

There is also WANDLE SEPTEMBER to get excited about (leaflet attached) and the Photographic competition for the Wandle Valley. http://www.wandlephoto.com/

If you would like to have some paper copies of the leaflet or the photographic poster please contact livingwandle@wandsworth.gov.uk   Please feel free to forward this newsletter on, we want to make as many people as possible aware of the Living Wandle Scheme!

If you volunteered in any of the groundwork projects please take a few moments to fill in the questionnaire for our evaluation of the success of both projects. www.surveymonkey.com/r/LivingWandleProj

If you wish to be removed from this mailing list please email livingwandle@Wandsworth.gov.uk

Kind Regards,

The Living Wandle Team, The Old Book Shop, Morden Hall Park, London SM4 5J 

http://www.wandlevalleypark.co.uk/Projects/Living-Wandle

Invasive Species Project: It’s been a bad month for invasive species in the Wandle Valley. Alan, along with an army of volunteers have been pulling pennywort, bashing balsam and injecting Japanese knotweed. The Wandle Trust are looking for River Rangers who will record and monitor invasive species along the Wandle. Training for River Rangers will take place on the 19th or 20th August. Next year, a team will be trained up to manage invasive species and work alongside the River Rangers to control the species recorded. For Information email volunteers@wandletrust.org

Morden Hall Park Wetlands: Plans for the new boardwalk are being finalised, it will allow better views and access to the wetlands. The National Trust (NT) have a wetlands speed volunteering session on 11th October. The NT are looking for Wednesday Wetlands volunteers contact Clare Lanes for more infor-mation. Volunteers and staff have received training to improve the management of the wetlands.

Industrial Heritage: Module 1—Documenting the changes at Merton Priory Groundwork London & Merton Priory Trust have held 4 introductory workshops at the Chapter House (with over 70 people attending). Training volunteers in Multimedia Research will take place on 9th September. To get involved contact Nicky Judd.

Module 2—The Building Exploratory and the dedicated volunteers have recorded more than 50 treasures to date. These will be made available online through the Living Wandle Archive which will be launched in Autumn. They held a celebration event on 6th August where the hand drawn map was unveiled! See the latest blog to see if you recognise any of the treasures!

Merton Priory: Planning permission was approved in May for the installation of a dramatic new glass-fronted entrance and internal facilities to bring the Wandle Valley’s most precious archaeological relic to life! Works will start in October, visit the Merton Priory webpages for more information.

The Chapter House will be open on Saturday 19th & Sunday 20th September (10am– 5pm), the final time before works start.

Social Landlords: Do you live in a vibrant Wandle Estate? Would you like to take part in free nature walks, quizzes or river trips to get to know your local River Wandle. Come and meet us to find out more and talk to us about your river. If you have a meeting place, community space or green space and would like the London Wildlife Trust to run activities with your community, contact Jane Clarke on 07837 576786

London Wildlife Trust will be at the Carshalton (Environmental) Fair (31st August) to talk with residents who live within social housing communities in proximity to the River Wandle. Pop down to the stall.

Wandle Piscators: The Piscators are holding a fishing taster and Riverfly monitoring event as part of Wandle September in Ravensbury Park on 26th, 10am—3pm. They are still working with Wandle Valley School to deliver fishing within the school syllabus.

A message has been received from the council’s highways department today 19th August 2015 about delays to the new pelican crossing in West Street, Carshalton. For the previous posting of 29th July 2015 on this crossing, please click on: http://carshaltoncentral.mycouncillor.org.uk/2015/07/29/west-street-road-closure-from-monday-17th-august-2015-for-road-resurfacing-and-pedestrian-crossing-works/

Dear Councillors

Sutton Council is congratulating pupils and staff in schools across the borough as they celebrate this year’s outstanding A-Level results.

Sutton schools have again maintained and improved their high performance in the examinations, with results consistently above the UK average.  The proportion of students across the borough achieving the highest A-Level A* and B grades is 65.1%. The percentage of students achieving an A-Level pass grade (A* to E) has increased to 99.7% from 98.5% last year. This is above the UK average as, across all UK students, the proportion achieving A* to E is 98.1%.

Cllr Wendy Mathys, Chair of the Children, Family and Education Committee at Sutton Council, said:

“I am delighted that once again the results achieved by young people in Sutton are amongst the best in the country. This is the result of the wonderful support that they have had from their parents and carers and from the excellent schools that we have in Sutton, but most of all it is a tribute to the hard work and ability of the students themselves. I heartily congratulate them.”

Planning on planting a tree soon?

Please click on The Woodland Trust’s web site for their free tree packs http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/plant-trees/in-your-community/.  We have cut and pasted from their web site the following…

School and community tree packs

Stock update
School Packs: Although limited quantities of the 30 and 420 sapling packs are still available, the 105 packs are now out of stock.
Community Tree Packs: Packs of all sizes are still available.

We have 4,750 tree packs to give away to school and community groups for planting this Autumn. We will be delivering the trees from 2-6 November 2015, so have a look at the information below and see if we can help your community.

These have been generously funded by lead partners Sainsbury’s, IKEA FAMILY, Yorkshire Tea, players of People’s Postcode Lottery and Biffa Award; also funded by WHSmith and Wilko.

How does it work?

Communities and schools can apply for our free tree packs twice a year which will be sent out in March and November, available in qualities of 30, 105 or 420.

The packs come in different mixes of tree species so you can choose the best one for your project. We accept applications all year round, but only send trees out twice a year – in March and November – when the trees are dormant and ready to plant.

Free tree pack FAQ (PDF, 2.2MB) – answering your questions about the scheme, including eligibility

Species in the packs (PDF, 0.6MB) – the different variants in the packs we have to offer

How can I get my community tree pack?

Apply for a community tree pack now and follow our step by step instructions below.

How can I get my school tree pack?

Apply for a school tree pack – You will be able to apply for a minimum of 30 trees to plant on your school grounds.

Need more information about school tree packs?

For any school enquiries, please contact learning@woodlandtrust.org.uk.

Further advice and support is also available through our friendly volunteer team of Woodland Creation Champions. If you would like to discuss your planting or tree planting plans, then email us with your name, postcode and phone number and we will arrange for someone to contact you.

The closing date for autumn applications is 3 September 2015, or upon full subscription

We are told that The Woodland Trust are planning to have a stall at the Environmental Fair at Carshalton Park on August Bank Holiday Monday, 31st August 2015.

Caroline Pidgeon, Leader of the Lib Dems on the GLA

Caroline Pidgeon, Lib Dem GLA member reports:

At City Hall, we are leading the campaign to stop the Conservative Government’s plans to see affordable homes sold off. Both council and housing association homes would be lost under forced sales and right to buy plans.

Every housing association home sold in London will require a public subsidy of over £100,000 and the Institute of Fiscal Studies puts the national price tag at almost £12 billion pounds over the next five years. This is money that could instead be used to build new affordable homes.

To make matters even worse, London local authorities are to be forced to sell up to a third of their existing social housing properties as they become vacant to pay for this crazy plan, denying local residents access to much needed council homes.

Only two months ago the London Mayor highlighted that housing associations are private organisations and forcing through right to buy would involve massive subsidies.   Now he has become a loyal Tory MP his priority seems to be defending his Government’s unfunded aspirations.

I am determined that we must lead the campaign against this backwards step. London of all places needs more affordable housing. The Mayor’s number one housing priority should be delivering more affordable homes, not defending ill thought out plans from Conservative central office. You can see the motion that we proposed at City Hall here.

Sutton Council have arranged for litter in the Canal area to be cleared recently as requested by your councillors, Jill, Alan and Hamish.

We are advised that Carshalton Park is litter picked on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, whilst the play facilities are litter picked daily.  The Council have a spare “Bin It” banner which the council will put up at this end of the park as was suggested by Cllr. Jill Whitehead in the coming days, and a spare litter bin that the Council will install prior to the Environmental Fair on August Bank Holiday Monday, 31st August 2015; hopefully this will help to alleviate the littering in this area. We have received confirmation that the grass in the so-called “Hog Pit” will be cut prior to the Environmental Fair.  Our photo shows the  now-dry Hog Pit when filled with water a few months ago!

Please see our recent website posting about the Environmental Fair.