Caroline said: “London’s Mayor should apologise for his foolish decision to purchase water cannon“.

Following this week’s decision by the Home Secretary not to authorise the use of water cannon in England and Wales, Caroline said:
 
“After carefully examining the evidence the Home Secretary has made a wise decision. Water cannon run the risk of innocent people being injured and would certainly undermine policing by public consent.”

Full details of the reasons why the vast majority of London Assembly members have opposed the use of water cannon, and details of the extensive evidence collected by the Home Office, can be seen on the GLA Web site. http://www.london.gov.uk

Sutton Council

Local residents have reported concerns to Alan, Hamish and Jill over the temporary coning off the road sides by the developers of some parts of Wallace Crescent at the southern end. The Council’s highways officer has reported back as follows:-

“This is a private development and the developer needs access to their site for deliveries. The access to the site from both Pound Street (A232) and Beynon Road (B271) can often be difficult for really large vehicles and this is usually as a result of parking by residents on the junctions/bends later in the day. Some developers request the Council for temporary parking restrictions to aid access to their site and this has the advantage that they can be enforced by the Council’s parking section. The Oakwood Group have not done this on this occasion. 

The Highway Code  Cl. 242/3 states that drivers must not park their vehicles where they would cause an obstruction or park within 10 metres of a junction. Unfortunately, some drivers are not abiding by the Code.  From your pictures and from our site visits we have noted that the developer is putting out some small barriers at one of the junctions to help access to the site and that they are not out all the time. We have no issues with this. However, we will be monitoring the situation. 

Please bear in mind that if the developer had chosen to apply for temporary parking restrictions the amount of parking that would have been removed would have been much more, as we would have applied the Highway Code rules fully.

Regards,

Paul

Paul Blunt

Dear Hamish,

Good news – the vote on fox hunting has been postponed.

This is because the SNP signaled that they will vote to uphold the ban. It is however disappointing that it required the intervention of the SNP which had pledged not to vote on matters that did not affect Scotland.

The Tories should never have attempted to scrap the ban in the first place.

Around 150 young Sutton athletes aged between nine and 17 took part in many different sports at the finals weekend of the Balfour Beatty London Youth Games, held at Crystal Palace National Sports on 4 and 5 July.The Sutton athletes joined thousands of other young athletes from all the London boroughs in the annual mini-Olympics-style sports festival.

Sutton’s entry into the competition was co-ordinated by Sutton Council, working in partnership with local schools, club groups and individuals involved in sport across the borough. All the sports teams were managed and trained by an army of volunteer sport coaches from across Sutton’s local sports clubs.

Despite the blistering heat, there were many outstanding team and individual performances by Sutton athletes. Among the highlights for Sutton were the mixed Badminton team, who finally pulled off the amazing victory they have been hoping for, having come second for the past two years. Sutton beat Havering in a very tense final, with the result hinging on the Boys singles match, which lasted over an hour and was won by Sutton by a few close points.

Also victorious was the Sutton Girls Squash team who took home the Girls Squash trophy for a record fourth year in a row. The Boys Squash Team was not far behind, coming away with the bronze team medal, the team’s first-ever medal.

Most of the players in both squash teams are members of Sutton Tennis & Squash Club. Star of the show was Leon Griffiths who helped secured the trophy and gold team medal for the Sutton team by winning his single Badminton match on Saturday, then followed this up on Sunday by helping the Boys Squash bronze medal-winning performance.

Other teams in action included the Netball Team, who matched their best ever performance with a fifth team place. The Girls Athletics Team also matched this sixth place result – a huge 18-place improvement from last year. The mixed Cycling team also fared well by finishing eighth – up 10 places on last year, and finished off with an individual silver medal in the gruelling Road race.

Individual medals were also won by Sutton competitors in the Athletics, Aquathlon, Girls Swimming and Sailing competitions.

The annual London Youth Games competition kicked off in November with the Cross Country event, all the way through to Sunday evening, 5 July – with Sutton finishing in 19^th place in the overall championship, out of all 33 London Boroughs. More than 300 young individual athletes have represented Sutton this year in 29 different sports event across London.

Throughout the year there were weeks and months of open sports trials and training sessions at various venues in Sutton, leading up to the Games’ finals. Last month the Girls Judo team regained the Girls Judo Trophy and other teams who fared well were the Boys Paragames Swimming, who won a whole clutch of individual medals as well as the bronze team medal. 

Cllr Jill Whitehead, Chair of the Environment and Neighbourhood Committee at Sutton Council, said:

“We want to congratulate all of our young athletes who took part in the London Youth Games as well as those who came away with medals. This was a fantastic achievement and one that the borough should be proud of. Sutton is undoubtedly a hotbed of sporting talent and we look forward to further achievements in the coming months.”

Following requests from Alan, Jill and Hamish, new street name plate signs (in some cases replacements of ones that have mysteriously disappeared!) have recently been installed by Sutton Council in a number of locations in Carshalton Central ward:-

1) Alma Road, junction with Shorts Road.

2) Pound Street, at the Windsor Castle junction.

3) Rossdale, at the junction with Westmead Road.

4) Ruskin Road, at the junction with The Park.

Libraries across the borough are encouraging local readers to help break a world record this summer.

A self-employed landscape gardener from Epsom who trades under the name Greenfingers Gardening has pleaded guilty to 12 counts of fraud and money laundering. Benjamin Brown, 62, of 29 Cox Lane, Epsom pleaded guilty at Guildford Crown Court last week to eight counts of Fraud Act offences and four of money-laundering, following a joint prosecution between Surrey County Council and Sutton Trading Standards with Surrey County Council acting as lead prosecutor.

Mr Brown, whose business includes paving and fencing, obtained business by advertising in local newspapers across Surrey and by putting flyers through letterboxes using the trading names Greenfingers and Homecare Property Maintenance. After being approached by elderly people to undertake work in their gardens, he would charge exorbitant prices for work that was frequently not required or requested, with any requests to stop met with threats, verbal abuse and aggression. Sutton Trading Standards prosecuted Mr Brown on two counts of fraud by failing to disclose information under the Fraud Act 2006.

In the first case, in February 2013 a retired woman saw Mr Brown’s newspaper advertisement and telephoned him to contract him to carry out some landscape gardening. She was not given a Notice of Cancellation at the time of agreeing the contract and he began work on a small garden area at the rear of the property. Mr Brown charged £12,000 – later reduced to £11,000 – for work done that he had originally verbally quoted would cost between £4,000 and £6,000.

In the second case Mr Brown was telephoned by an elderly woman to carry out some fence repairs in her garden, again after seeing his advertisement in the local newspaper. While she had no complaint about the quality of his work, she was charged £10,500 for a relatively short run of fence and a gate.

When the fence was completed Mr Brown proceeded to lift the garden patio slabs despite the pensioner’s requests for him to stop. When she felt she had no alternative but to agree for the path to be re-laid, Mr Brown charged her a further £1,500 to do so.

A Proceeds of Crime Act investigation will now take place against Mr Brown to identify whether he has benefited financially from his crimes. Sentencing has been adjourned until 14 August to allow time for probation and medical reports to be prepared.

Cllr Nick Emmerson, Lead Councillor of Trading Standards at Sutton Council, said:

“We want to congratulate Sutton’s Trading Standards team whose work over a considerable period of time has finally stopped this landscape gardener from grossly overcharging for his work and intimidating people. Sutton residents should always consider looking on the Safer Sutton Trader Scheme List on our website when they are considering employing a tradesperson. This list has been vetted by Trading Standards and offers a range of bona fide tradespeople. Residents should always get several quotes before agreeing to employ a tradesperson and remember that they should expect to receive a cancellation notice from the trader and have the opportunity to cancel a contract within 14 days if it is made at home.”

Anyone needing consumer advice and thinking they may be a victim of a rogue trader should call the Citizens Advice consumer helpline on 0345 404 0506.  

Sutton’s Mayor Muhammad Sadiq

The Mayor of Sutton, Cllr Muhammad Sadiq, said:

“Thursday 7 July 2005 began as an ordinary day like any other, but that did not last long. Within the space of an hour during the morning rush hour 52 people lost their lives and more than 700 were injured in explosions set off by suicide bombers at four sites across central London. 

“For those who lost loved ones that day, memories will be particularly painful on this tenth anniversary day. As a nation, we remember all of those who died and were injured that day, as well as their families and friends. This shocking and dreadful act of terrorism was an attempt to fan the flames of hatred and division across our nation. But it failed because instead it brought together people of all faiths and none to stand up to the evil of terrorism in all its guises and not allow themselves to be cowed by it. “I am proud to have represented the borough of Sutton at the service of commemoration at St Paul’s Cathedral as the service was an opportunity to show solidarity with the families of the bereaved and injured, and a chance to reflect on the strengths of living in a truly multicultural society and nation. I am pleased that all staff in all council offices across the borough observed the one minute’s silence too.

“The 7/7 bombing should not have happened. The recent events in Tunisia so close to the tenth anniversary remind us that we must endeavour to ensure that such atrocities never happen again.”

A local photographer’s work brought back to life is the subject of a fascinating talk this month.

Around 1978 a collection of around 11,000 glass plate negatives was discovered in the basement of 18 High Street, Sutton (since lost as a result of the widening of Sutton Court Road). They were made by local photographer David Knights-Whittome (1876-1943) who owned shops in Sutton and Epsom but whose clientele extended far beyond the local population and area.  They were removed to a branch library for sorting then transferred into storage in the Central Library. The Archives Service has been awarded Heritage Lottery Funding to digitise, catalogue and preserve them.

On Thursday, 23 July Kath Shawcross, Borough Archivist and Local Studies Manager, will give a presentation at St Nicholas Church, starting at 8pm. She will talk about David Knights-Whittome as a photographer, his history, etc. He didn’t just photograph people coming through the door; he became known as ‘Photographer to the King’ after he photographed Edward VII, Queen Alexandra and Edward, Prince of Wales. He also photographed stately homes all over the UK and even Europe. As an Edwardian photographer his collection includes many First World War soldiers and nurses.

Kath will also talk about the project and the volunteer base which is doing so much of the work and showing lots of different types of images.

All are welcome and there is no charge.