Thank you to everyone who supported the Keep Camden Local and Go for Greenshaw campaign.  Despite all the support and the efforts of those involved in the campaign Lord Nash (Education Minister) chose the Harris Federation to be Camden’s sponsor. 

Most parents and local people still believe Greenshaw would be the best sponsor for Camden.  Greenshaw presented a detailed plan to the Department for Education, the consultation overwhelmingly supported Greenshaw.  The campaign also had the support of Headteachers, residents, other stakeholders, our MPs and very many Sutton Councillors.

Camden Junior School, Carshalton

Hundreds of letters were sent to Lord Nash and he received a 1300 signature petition. 

The campaign team will be reviewing the outcome, looking at campaigning next steps and will keep you informed. 

In the meantime, you can follow the news on the local website  keepcamdenlocal.wordpress.com, twitter @keepcamdenlocal or Like Go for Greenshaw on Facebook.

Jill, Alan and Hamish have asked for another meeting with Metropolitan Housing who run the 44 newish flats at the corner of Shorts Road with Carshalton Road (the once-dubbed “Gateway to Carshalton”) called Carter House, Denny House and Jennings House.  We have been alerted to tenants’/residents’ concerns over a number of further “teething troubles” and other matters relating to the management of the new buildings. More in a future posting about the requested meeting date.

Carter House viewed from the east in Carshalton Road

Dear Councillors,

I have received the following response from the Housing Services Manager:

 “Dear Marie

I have forwarded your request to our Customer Care team who are responsible for managing member’s enquiries and any related investigations.  For future reference they can be contacted direct at customercare@metropolitan.org.uk .  We will be happy to respond to members direct should they wish to make use of this facility.

We have also recently been contacted about these issues and Karla is already arranging a  meeting  to discuss these issues with residents and is awaiting a date when our colleagues in our development team can attend.  I will suggest to Karla that members are invited.

Kind regards

Tyson Bunby |  Housing Services Manager | London South

It would seem they are on the case and hopefully the meeting will be held in the not too distant future.

Kind regards

Marie Pagan, Social Inclusion Delivery Manager, LB Sutton

020 8770 5699

marie.pagan@sutton.gov.uk

Jill, Alan and Hamish have received a message/invitation from Carshalton Methodist Church:

Carshalton’s Ritz on the Park – Join us for a wonderful afternoon tea with live music

Everything stops for tea at Carshalton Methodist Church, Ruskin Road on Saturday 7th September 4.00pm – 6.00pm

Full afternoon tea with live string quartet and two pianists. Tickets priced at £15.00 per person

Despite these times of national austerity, have you noticed the growing popularity of the English afternoon tea? An array of interesting sandwiches plus scones and cream with naughty but nice cakes accompanied by speciality teas or coffee is quite definitely on its way back. What makes it so special is the quality of service with fine quality linen table cloths, bone china tea pots and plates and traditional music to create the ambience of an occasion that is essentially English. London’s Ritz Hotel offers a lovely top end setting with five sittings a day and a pianist for celebrating those special events – prices start at £45 per person. London riverboats offer afternoon tea with an hour and a quarter cruise with a single pianist starting at £29.50.

On Saturday 7th September Carshalton Methodist Church brings the Ritz to Carshalton with a special afternoon tea marking the end of the summer break. A lovely full afternoon tea is being prepared by Helen Deards for whom such speciality catering is a long held interest. Helen has run very successful afternoon teas for us on a number of occasions including the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations with the Thames River Pageant showing on our community cinema screen. Live entertainment will be provided by two pianists AND a string quartet. Tickets priced at £15.00 per person are now on sale from our Church Office open Monday to Friday 9.00am – 12.30pm – telephone 020 8669 3676.

We invite you to bring along those people who are special to you and enjoy a most memorable end of summer afternoon. This is a fund raising event which will help our church continue its work in the community. For more details click on this link to our church web site – http://www.carshalton-methodist.org.uk/everything-stops-for-tea/

Community Cinema is on holiday

Following a summer break, our popular community cinema will be back with an autumn film programme on Saturday 28th September. Our opening movie, Quartet, follows the musical theme of Everything stops for Tea with a lovely story about mini politics in a residential home for retired musicians. See our community cinema page on the church web site for more details – http://www.carshalton-methodist.org.uk/cinema-on-your-doorstep/

Wishing you a wonderful summer

Sue and David Forty

Community Cinema Organisers

Alan, Jill and Hamish took up residents’ concerns about the constant problem of speeding traffic in the section of Carshalton Road in our neighbourhood/ward.  The A232 Carshalton Road is under the jurisdiction of Transport for London (and not Sutton Council).  TfL’s response was received recently and is copied as below…

I would like to assure you that we take road safety extremely seriously, and whilst we do not have a responsibility to enforce speed limits, we do work alongside the Metropolitan Police who have the legal powers and the primary responsibility for this function.

We have overseen a widespread programme of safety camera installation in London to improve road safety at accident black spots, by enforcing speed limits where speeding is a factor in people being killed or seriously injured. As a result of this programme, a camera was installed in 2008 on Carshalton Road between Highfield Road and Harrow Road. This has been effective in reducing speeding and collisions involving serious injury since its introduction. A recent 3 year road safety study indicated only one collision was attributed to speeding, with the great majority of collisions occurring between turning vehicles at junctions and resulting in slight injury.

Beyond the use of safety cameras our ability to influence vehicle speeds on the TfL Road Network is limited. We have, however, introduced significant lengths of central-hatch marking on Carshalton Road, as well as a number of new pedestrian islands, and these measures have helped to calm traffic.

We have recently received feedback from the Metropolitan Police indicating that they are not aware of a problem with drivers breaking the speed limit on Carshalton Road, although we do appreciate that some drivers may speed along this stretch of carriageway undetected. We will therefore continue to monitor this issue in conjunction with the Metropolitan Police.

I hope that you find this information useful.

Kind regards

David

David Greaves | Correspondence Officer, Managing Director’s Office

TfL Surface Transport, 11th Floor, Zone R3, Palestra, 197 Blackfriars Road, London, SE1 8NJ

Tel: 020 3054 3622 | Auto: 83622 | Email: DavidGreaves@tfl.gov.uk

Chairman Councillor Hamish Pollock says: “Do come along to our meeting of the Carshalton & Clockhouse Local Committee on Tuesday 10th September 2013 from 7.30pm. We’ll be meeting at Carshalton Beeches Baptist Church, Banstead Road, Carshalton, which is quite near the shopping parades.”

Carshalton Beeches Baptist Church

The agenda items will include:

LOCAL TRAFFIC AND PARKING SCHEMES for Grosvenor Avenue Traffic Calming Measures; Stanley Park Road; Park Lane/Ruskin Road Traffic Lights/Crossing; Woodmansterne Road Pedestrian crossing;  Butter Hill Traffic Management proposals; fBandon Hill Primary Woodfield School Pedestrian Crossing- Stanley Park Road; Woodcote Road/Woodcote Green Traffic Management update for noting

HEALTHWATCH SUTTON: Doris Richards is to introduce the new organisation

PUBLIC HEALTH: Sue Tree, Senior Public Health Commissioning Manager to talk about new local Public Health Functions.

THE WANDLE TRUST: Tim Longstaff, Development Officer to talk about The Wandle Trust’s projects including riverside improvements by Mill Lane etc.

USE OF STANLEY PARK RECREATIONAL GROUND: To note the decision of the Environment and Neighbourhood Committee.

SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT: Councillor Jill Whitehead to give an update on Future Plans for Sustainable Transport in Sutton event.

PUBLIC REALM: There will be an update on Public Realm Projects. Applications for Neighbourhood Grants will also be considered.

SAFER NEIGHBOURHOODS TEAM: There will be a report.

Local MP Tom Brake has expressed his delight at the announcement of the biggest ever rise in the Pupil Premium which will see an extra £888,600 available for primary schools in Carshalton and Wallington.

The Pupil Premium provides schools with extra money to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds. This helps whole classes move forward faster together and helps ensure that more pupils are able to achieve higher standards.

Tom Brake, a long-standing champion for local education, said:

“Every child deserves a fair and decent start in life. The fact that some pupils fall behind, because of social disadvantage, is utterly unacceptable.”

“As an MP I’ve seen firsthand how the Pupil Premium can help to boost attainment across the board, by involving all children, regardless of social background, in enrichment and extension activities.”

“Schools need to ensure that the extra money is spent wisely to effectively tackle disadvantage and provide additional help for vulnerable learners.”

Local school governor Cllr. Alan Salter says: “According to January 2013 census, there were over 2220 pupils in Carshalton and Wallington included in the Deprivation Pupil Premium allocations. The total funding for Pupil Premium will increase from £1,999,350 in 2013-2014 to £2,887,950 in 2014-2015. This constitutes £1,300 per eligible primary school pupil in 2014/15, up from £900 per child this year. Schools will be able to spend this money in ways that they feel help their pupils best.”

We have heard that Greenpeace are currently running a national campaign urging supporters to contact their local councillors regarding the process of ‘fracking’ or Hydraulic Fracturing; also known as shale gas extraction (or in some places it is known as shale oil extraction).

To the best of our knowledge, no company is planning to carry out fracking in the borough of Sutton and no licences have been granted. We will continue to check with the relevant officers, just to make sure.

Personally we would have a number of serious concerns if a company wanted to either conduct tests or actually start fracking operations in the borough including over any possible water pollution, seismic disturbance and how the waste water is disposed of. As we said earlier, we know of no plans for fracking in the borough of Sutton but should a company apply in the future you may wish to visit www.sutton.gov.uk to make your views known or find out more information.

As Liberal Democrats, we want the Government to focus on renewable energy sources and we are pleased to be re-assured that this is a key Lib Dem priority nationally. We support the calls by Liberal Democrats for the Government to deliver enough renewable generation capacity to source 30 per cent of the UK’s electricity from renewables by 2020. We are also keen that we do more to encourage energy efficiency so we reduce the need to use fossil fuels like oil and gas. If you haven’t done so already, you may want to look at the Energy Saving Trust website – www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/ for useful information and tips on how to make your home more energy efficient.

Since 2010, more than one million jobs have been created in the private sector.

We are proud of the role that the Liberal Democrats have played in directing government investment into job creation and training.

We are now focusing our efforts on improving this record and delivering a million more new jobs as we continue to build a stronger economy for the future.

Jobs for Young People

The coalition government has already delivered 1.2 million apprenticeships for young people since 2010. The Liberal Democrats are now campaigning to double the number of apprenticeships being offered.

Jobs in Manufacturing

Manufacturing is the key to a sustainable economic recovery in Britain. Under Vince Cable at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, we have directed an extra investment of over £5.5 billion into high-tech manufacturing, science and renewable energy.

Jobs across the UK

Liberal Democrats have long argued that we need to rebalance the economy away from our reliance on London and South East England. That is why we have also set up the £2.6 billion Regional Growth Fund initiative, to help create businesses, jobs and economic recovery in every part of the country.

Jobs Building Britain

The coalition is using £15.3 billion of investment into our infrastructure to build a stronger economy for the future and to create thousands of jobs in construction right now.
For more information on the Liberal Democrats’ record in creating one million new jobs, and to find out how many new jobs are being created near you, visit the Million Jobs website: http://www.amillionjobs.org

Jill, Alan and Hamish as local councillors have recently received quite a number of letters from residents, as part of a national campaign, raising concerns regarding the local road safety and lollipop ladies and men.

Sutton has a very good record on this subject. In Sutton, we currently have 13 School Crossing Patrol Officers employed at 12 sites in the Borough.  One of these is a job share which is vacant but we plan to recruit in time for the start of term in September.  The Council have no plans to reduce or stop any of our patrols. Only one post has been lost in recent years, at St Dunstan’s school when Transport For London installed a Pelican crossing at the site.

Sutton Council has been very pro-active in seeking funds for school crossings from Transport for London (TFL) at a number of sites in the Borough.  Bids are made once a year for TFL funding for road schemes by Councillors in discussion with community representatives and residents, and these include road safety projects.

In fact Sutton’s roads were recently acknowledged as being the safest in London in a report that examined accident rates, casualties and road conditions.  The report identified that drivers in Sutton have 4 accidents per 1,000 vehicles, which is well below the Greater London average of 8.1. However, even this low number of casualties is too many and we are working with TFL to make our roads safer for everyone.

The Council is about to publish a Road Safety Guide for Parents, covering many aspects of Road Safety including information on School Crossing Patrols, travelling to school, and roadside behaviour when walking, driving or cycling.”

Our lollipop ladies and men provide an excellent service, keeping our roads safe and there are no plans to withdraw any posts in Sutton.