Controlled crossings will be introduced in Hackbridge after Sutton Council commissioned independent reviews into the Heart of Hackbridge scheme.  Sutton Council has been monitoring the effects of the Greater London Authority funded scheme ever since it was completed last year in the area where London Road and Hackbridge Road meet.

The £1.4m scheme was overseen by the Hackbridge Delivery Board made up of Bioregional, the GLA, Sutton Council, the Hackbridge and Beddington Corner Neighbourhood Planning Group, local businesses and residents. It included making the area more accessible and attractive through measures including wider footways, step free access to shops, new shop fronts, disabled parking bays, stop and shop parking, new benches and seating areas, bike parking, new street trees and landscaping.

It also added a new road layout including informal crossings.

Since September, the council has been monitoring the effects of the new junction. This work has included commissioning a Road Safety Audit, a separate Accessibility Audit and a User Survey. It also took on the views of local residents and disability groups that there was still a need for controlled crossings. The independent User Survey found that 83% of those surveyed believed the scheme has improved their perception of the area; 80% said it had made the area more attractive and appealing and 68% believed it enhanced their satisfaction with the shopping area.

The independent Road Safety Audit and the Accessibility Audit made recommendations to improve the junction which the council is going to act on.

The main changes, which will be subject to design and consultation, will be:

• Controlled crossings (eg zebra or push button) will be put in key locations.
• Removal of the informal crossing closest to the junction on London Road (by the roundabout)
• Drainage investigation to resolve poor surface water drainage between London Road and Mile Road

Councillor Jill Whitehead, Chair of the Environment and Neighbourhood Committee, said:

“The council has a duty to monitor the impact of all new traffic schemes. The independent surveys have told us that while 83% of those surveyed people believe the Heart of Hackbridge scheme has improved their perception of the area, some of the changes to the road layout have led to concerns, particularly because of a lack of controlled crossings. We are going to fix that by following the recommendations of the surveys as well as bringing in other measures including consulting on putting in a 20 mph zone and also extending the use of a lollipop person outside the school until Christmas while the changes bed in. Our changes have been agreed with the Hackbridge Delivery Board and we are going to work with local residents to bring them in.”

Michael Parsons, local resident, guide dog user and Vice Chair of Sutton Vision, said:

“Since the informal ‘courtesy crossings’ have been installed many people with disabilities like me have been unable to visit the area independently or cross the busy roads. The road safety and accessibility audits have demonstrated that these crossings are unsafe and have marginalised sectors of the community. We applaud Sutton Council for undertaking the audits which have shown the need for reinstatement of controlled crossings. We look forward to working with the council to achieve this. A victory for common sense.”

Tracey Collins, Hackbridge resident and road safety campaigner, said:

“From the very beginning of the campaign we said formal crossings needed to be reinstated in Hackbridge. Our vision for Hackbridge was simple… that everyone felt safe going about their daily lives in their community – whether they are going to school, to work, or just to use the local shops. The Heart of Hackbridge project has introduced new seating areas, step free access to local shops and disabled parking which we are sure residents and visitors to Hackbridge have benefitted from. We are pleased to hear that Sutton Council are acting on the recommendations of the Safety & Accessibility Reports.”

Original Scheme

The original Heart of Hackbridge scheme was very modern both in terms of design and how it was led by a delivery group involving several partner organisations and extensive public consultation. Funding was applied for after residents and businesses said the area needed revitalising and that visitors didn’t feel safe because of high vehicle speeds and narrow pavements.Data taken before the work was carried out recorded instances of speeds in excess of 65 mph and recorded 40 near-misses in a six hour period on the original zebra crossings.

Sutton Council Improvements

Since the original scheme was completed in September, Sutton Council has been monitoring the effects of the new junction. The results of an interim safety audit it carried out in the autumn led to changes made in November and December including additional signage, the replacement of a roundel by a mini-roundabout and a road safety campaign to encourage motorists to slow down in the area. The council also commissioned the latest Road Safety Audit, Accessibility Audit and User Survey.

Residents in the area of Colston Avenue and Westmead Allotments holders have expressed concern to Hamish, Alan and Jill about maintaining access to facilities from Colston Avenue during the excavation for and construction of Carshalton Athletic Football Club’s (CAFC) “3G” playing pitch.

The access road to CAFC is being renamed Robin’s Way. “Informal” double yellow lines were put in by the club along the length of Robin’s Way on one side only, but Sutton Council was not consulted about this by the CAFC. As the highways authority, Sutton Council must consult local residents and interested parties about a proposed new entrance scheme which meets everyone’s needs.

Allotments holders say that access to their allotments is being blocked and parking access is being denied them by the CAFC, including to the parking space provided by the Council’s Carshalton Local Committee a few years’ ago, and to the allotments shop.

At the last Carshalton Local Committee held in late April 2015, councillors agreed that the Council should bring forward plans for Robin’s Way to the next meeting on 16^th June 2015, and that these should take into account allotments holders’ views as well as those of local residents.

Meanwhile Sutton Council is meeting local allotments representatives to look at possible options going forward, which can be considered at the next meeting of the Carshalton Local Committee.

The next meeting of the Carshalton Local Committee will be held from 7.30pm on Tuesday 16^th June 2015 at the Clockhouse Community Centre, The Mount, Richlands Road, Coulsdon.

Green-fingered residents – the annual hunt to find Sutton’s best gardens and gardeners is back on.

Occasionally this web site has stories from surrounding parts of the borough.

Many residents of Carshalton Central visit or pass through Wallington Town Centre and here we have some news from hard-working local councillor Jayne McCoy….she ably represents Wallington South ward along with the current Mayor Muhammad Sadiq. There is a vacancy for the third seat formerly represented by Cllr. Colin Hall whose very sad death we reported a few weeks’ ago. The vacancy will be filled in the pending by-election.

Shotfield Zebra Crossing

The new crossing is now in place. However the white paint is already fading so local councillors will be finding out why and asking for it to be addressed.

Wallington Music Festival

Wallington is to hold its first Music Festival on Saturday 27th June. It will take place in the Library Gardens between midday and 4pm with acts largely performing in the new bandstand. There will also be stalls and other entertainment. The festivities will then move on in the evening to the Wallington Arms with more live acts, and also to The Brook in Manor Road.These latter venues have the added benefit of serving alcohol! All of the acts will be local and are from local schools, groups or just talented individuals.

The idea for the festival came from local resident Ric Adams, following on from the success of his efforts to arrange Wallington’s first festive light switch-on. Ric’s insistence is that the festival must be free. Muhammad, Steve and Jayne McCoy are actively involved in making sure the Music Festival goes ahead, as are the owners of The Brook. They are still firming up details but look out for flyers and posters about the event. Please do come along to give your support and enjoy a celebration of music at the centre of our lovely Wallington.

Methodist Church update

Planning permission was reluctantly granted for the replacement of the old Methodist Church in Beddington Gardens to be replaced with a new modern church. Details can be found on Jayne McCoy’s blog here. There is currently a new planning application in. This is an application for outline permission and purely deals with the access road which will serve both the parking for the church and the residential units planned for the rear of the site. The church intends to sell the land to developers for housing as that will fund the building of the new church. More detailed plans will need to be submitted by the developer when the land has been purchased.

Development of Wallington Public Hall site

The council has yet to decide whether it should sell the site to developers or develop it itself for housing. The decision on whether to include part of the car park in the area suitable for development has still to be made by the Council’s Environment and Neighbourhoods committee. The only external interest in the site so far has been from Carew Manor school, however so far this is just tentative inquiries.

Sainsbury’s/Woodcote Road box junction

The Councillors are seeking feasibility study work to review the safety of the box junction near Sainsbury’s. They have had a number of complaints about how the junction operates for cars and there have been some accidents so they want an investigation into how it could be made safer for all.

Old BP Garage site, Stafford Road

This empty site that had the spectre of a huge drive-through McDonalds seen off thanks to local people-power now has the prospect of a more suitable development by the site owners. Talks are ongoing with the council about a potential mixed retail/housing development which sounds much more acceptable to local people. Local councillors will let the immediate neighbours know when a planning application is submitted.

Earlier in the year local residents expressed concern to your Lib Dem councillors about the safety of the zebra crossing in West Street, by The Hope public house/St Mary’s Infants School. Despite West Street being a 20mph zone, motorists often ignore warnings to reduce speed and there was an accident here on 7th May.

We asked Transport for London (TFL), who are responsible for all traffic signals in the borough, if the Zebra crossing could be upgraded to a Pelican style signal controlled crossing to improve safety.

TFL has agreed to our request, and Sutton Council is carrying out a consultation of residents at all properties in the West Street area. Comments should be sent to traffic.postbook@sutton.gov.uk before 18th June 2015.

People in Sutton may be prosecuted for flytipping should they give their household waste to someone who does not dispose of it properly. The warning has been given by Sutton Council after travellers left a site in Hackbridge strewn with tons of waste last week. The site on London Road, adjacent to Bed-Zed and which has been earmarked for a new primary school, was illegally camped on by travellers for several days. When they vacated the land they left it littered with a huge amount of waste materials. A group of caravans and associated vehicles arrived on the Hackbridge site at approximately 4am on Wednesday 13 May. The day the travellers parked on the council-owned education land council workers had been due to start an archaeological dig, a Planning requirement for the new school.

The travellers departed on the evening of Sunday 17 May following welfare and education visits by Sutton Council staff with the support of the Safer Parks Police team.

Since then Sutton Council workers have been securing the site from further intrusion by clearing the dry riverbed, which had been filled in to allow access to heavy plant construction equipment. They have also implemented new security procedures including installing a new security gate, a concrete motorway barrier, concrete bollards and CCTV.

The police are assisting Sutton Council in sifting the rubbish waste to identify where it has come from and pursue prosecutions.

Cllr Jill Whitehead, Chair of Environment and Neighbourhood Committee, said:

“The police believe there are materials within the flytip rubbish that identify who the waste came from. Our environmental health team is at the Hackbridge site sifting through the rubbish to find addresses and identify where the waste came from and we may take a prosecution against the people whose waste it is. Any member of the public who gives their waste to somebody to dispose of and who then does not dispose of it according to the law can be prosecuted. When you are disposing of waste you must check that the person you give it to is licensed to take it. Should they dispose of your waste illegally, you may be prosecuted even though you may have thought you were disposing of rubbish in good faith. If it is your waste, then flytipping is your problem.”

As part of Food Safety Week last week people across Britain are being asked to take the Chicken Challenge and help to halve the number of cases of campylobacter food poisoning in our homes.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is asking people to promise to:

• Bag and store raw chicken separately from other food, covered and chilled on the bottom shelf of the fridge;

• Not wash raw chicken as it splashes germs onto other surfaces;
• Wash everything that has touched raw chicken in soap and water, especially your hands and utensils;
• Check chicken is cooked properly – that there is no pink meat, it is steaming hot and the juices run clear.

The FSA estimates that about 280,000 cases of food poisoning a year can be traced to campylobacter – a germ found mostly on raw chicken. Campylobacter food poisoning usually develops a few days after eating contaminated food. Symptoms include:

• abdominal pain,
• severe diarrhoea and,
• sometimes, vomiting.

Some can have lasting effects, for example, irritable bowel syndrome.

The FSA wants to halve the number of cases of campylobacter poisoning by the end of this year and is calling for everyone – industry and consumers alike – to play their part to make this happen.

Cllr Nick Emmerson, Vice-Chair of the Housing, Economy and Business Committee, said:

“It’s crucial that people take great care when handling raw chicken and ensure that it is well cooked, with no pink meat. This is particularly important when cooking chicken on a barbecue. Don’t be careless and let food poisoning spoil your summer.

“Anyone who thinks they are suffering from food poisoning should see their GP and then contact the London Borough of Sutton’s Regulatory Services Food Team on 020 8770 5070020 8770 5070.”

A recent FSA poll found that 73% of people eat chicken each week in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Nina Purcell, FSA Director, said:

“It’s clear that we all love chicken, we just need to take the time and be even more committed to ensuring we do the little things in the kitchen to keep our loved ones safe.”

The Sutton Council Food Team will be giving out leaflets and answering questions related to campylobacter in a bid to cut the number of confirmed cases within the Borough. The leaflet has been produced in line with the FSA and its awareness programme towards the control of campylobacter.

The team were promoting Food Safety Week and the challenge in Sutton High Street last Tuesday, 19 May and later in the week.

To take the pledge and the chance to win some amazing prizes, visit the website www.food.gov.uk/chickenchallenge.

News just in from Transport for London…

Dear Stakeholder

A232 Carshalton Road junction with Cambridge Road

I would like to let you know that we have appointed EM Highways (EM) to carry out repair works to the drainage system on A232 Carshalton Road junction with Cambridge Road.

Why are we doing this work?

Work on the A232 Carshalton Road junction with Cambridge Road  is part of the Road Modernisation Plan, the biggest investment for a generation consisting of hundreds of projects to transform junctions, bridges, tunnels and pedestrian areas. Working with London’s boroughs it will make our roads safer and more reliable.

The work is aimed at alleviating flooding problems within this area.

Where and when will the work take place?

These works will take place on two consecutive nights outside house numbers 334-336 Carshalton Road, and will start on Thursday 28 May and Friday 29 May 2015.

In agreement with the London Borough of Sutton, the working hours will be from 21:00 to 04:00 on both 28 and 29 May or until the work is completed.

What we would like you to know

During the works, we will put in some traffic management measures such as three way temporary signals, to ensure the safety of road users using the road junction.

We will make every effort to ensure that noisy operations are completed before midnight but we should explain that vehicle reversing warning beepers are essential safety devices to protect those working nearby. Access for emergency services will be maintained at all times during the works.

Keeping London moving

We have worked closely with LoHAC and the London Borough of Sutton, to reduce the impact of these works on road users, local residents and businesses as far as possible. I hope you will appreciate that a certain level of disruption is inevitable, and I apologise in advance for any inconvenience that may be caused as a result of these essential works.

Should you require further information or an update during the delivery of these works, please contact our Customer Services team on 0343 222 1234 or via the web at tfl.gov.uk/contact.

Kind Regards

Mario Constantinou

Consultation Team

Transport for London