Local Cllrs. Jill Whitehead and Hamish Pollock undertook a street care survey of some roads on Friday morning, 28th June 2013 and we have reported the following matters:-

Cllr. Jill Whitehead at the Kings Lane south bridge where the pavement was widened by Sutton Council recently

1) Waterloo Road, Sutton:  Yellow lines very worn at junction with Sutton Grove and white parking bay lines very worn outside 20-22 Waterloo Road.

2) Junction of Waterloo Road and Sutton Grove: the white lines and Give Way signs painted on road are very worn.

3) Kings Lane bridge (north) asked that the council clear weeds on the east side near Weihurst Gardens junction.

4) Kings Lane bridge (south) to clear weeds and renew double yellow lines worn on both sides approaching bridge from the Warren Park side.

5) Kings Lane southbound lane heading towards the south bridge a “SLOW” sign is required on road. We observed speeding cars at this point.

6) Next to no. 19 Kings Lane by the alleyway entrance the “No cycling” sign is very worn away and the supporting pole is very rusted away – could this be replaced?

7) Hawthorn Road: Lots of weeds in the gutter outside no. 24.

8) Harrow Road: we noted lots of excessive basal growth to street trees outside numbers 54/56 and 58/60, and also outside 62/64. We asked the council to please try to keep hollyhocks at the latter location!

9) The junction of Harrow Road on the west side junction with Carshalton Road. Could the area by the advert sign be tidied- TfL responsibility perhaps? Lots of long grass and weeds which are very unsightly!

10) Ringstead Road: Please could the broken kerb be mended by the street tree near to 14 Ringstead Road, north of the junction with Croft Road.

 11) Outside no. 75 Westmead Road lots of weeds noted on pavement outside the QVS depot/yard entrance.

12) Harold Road: The hedge by the pavement on the west side of road leading to Benhill Recreation Ground needs clipping back to the chain link fence line.  

On Friday afternoon, Cllrs. Jill Whitehead and Hamish Pollock and some other local councillors, as well as constituency office workers, met briefly with the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg in Carshalton at the offices of our Carshalton & Wallington MP Tom Brake.

The informal discussions with Nick Clegg included developments in the government policies towards local councils, funding for major transport and infrastructure projects and council services.

Butter Hill bridge on a sunny day…!

Alan, Jill and Hamish recently received the following update from the Wandle Trust about the on-going road silt trap works in Butter Hill (where there are roadworks affecting Mill Lane and Denmark Road flows of traffic and temporary traffic lights). The works are designed to improve the water quality of the River Wandle and the river environment.

Cllr. Hamish Pollock attended the meeting of the council’s development control committee on Wednesday, 26th June 2013 at the Civic Offices and addressed the committee on behalf of the local residents attending in respect of the planning application for Units A and B, Beacon Grove, High Street, Carshalton. Hamish asked that in the event that the committee gave planning consent, then the planning conditions would be tightened regarding both opening hours and delivery hours.

The representative from Costa Coffee said that he had no problems with agreeing to these requests.  The daily opening hours were reduced from 7am-8pm by one hour to 7am-7pm and deliveries would be contained within the same time slot. 

The development control committee gave planning consent on this basis along with other conditions contained within the planning officers’ report.

There were no sustainable planning reasons for preventing a “chain” coffee shop such as Costa Coffee from having planning consent and no grounds for refusal of permission could be found by the committee.  Planning legislation set down by Parliament encourages competition within local shopping centres through planning law, even though there are already a number of independent coffee shops in Carshalton High Street and environs.

A message is in from the highways engineers about the improvements for pedestrian crossing facilities at the busy Ruskin Road/Park Lane junction in Carshalton.

Dear Councillors

I am pleased to say that TfL have confirmed that they are happy with the proposed junction signal modifications with pedestrian phase.  They have advised that they will be looking to install pedestrian countdown units as part of this scheme, which is also good news. 

TfL must still confirm a date when they will be carrying out the signal modification works on site, but it is anticipated to be September 2013.  We will be programming a Contractor to start on site in advance of this date (2-3 weeks) to carry out the required civils works (kerbs, tactile paving, ducting etc.).

To improve visibility at the pedestrian crossing points north and south of junction with Ruskin Road and to prevent obstructive parking which may occur after removal of refuge island on south side of Park Lane, I am proposing Double Yellow Line ‘At Any Time’ waiting restrictions on the east side of Park Lane.  I would like to proceed with the Statutory Consultation for this Double Yellow Line proposal next week.  Could you please let me know, as soon as you can, if you have any concerns/objections to this proposal before the Statutory Consultation begins?

Any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Kind Regards

David Waugh

Project Engineer, LB Sutton Tel: 020 8770 6431 Mobile: 079 2836 9752

 

Your local FOCUS team does try to keep you the residents informed about all major applications and to represent local residents when applications are likely come to the development control committee, usually if they are deemed to be “major” applications or if there have been at least 10 letters of objection from local residents. 

Cllr. Hamish Pollock says: “Sutton Council has recently received a planning application for a house at  the land to the side of number 1 Byron Gardens, in the Poets’ Estate, Sutton”. 

Cllr. Jill Whitehead says: “The application is for the erection of a part one part two storey 4 – bedroomed end of terrace house together with two car parking spaces and widening of existing access. You can view all the details and comment upon the plans on line by clicking on:

http://5.150.92.212/FASTWEB/detail.asp?AltRef=C2013/67421&ApplicationNumber=&AddressPrefix=1+Byron+Gardens&submit1=Go

Cllr. Alan Salter says: “You can also write to the council’s planners at 24 Denmark Road, Carshalton SM5 2jG quoting the planning application number C2013/67421.

The main grounds on which you can object to this development are:

–       Over-development/over-intensity of building

–       Development on back garden land

–       Overlooking neighbours and blocking their light

–       Building not in keeping with other homes

–       Parking problems/safety

–       Removal of street or garden trees

You cannot object on house value grounds, and as each application is taken on its own merit, you cannot compare it to any other local planning application. Precedent is also not a valid planning objection for the same reason.”

Cllr. Jill Whitehead reports: “Parents are fighting plans for a primary school in special measures to become a Harris academy. Camden Junior School, in Carshalton, has been told by the Department for Education it must become an academy – with the preferred sponsor being the Harris Federation.”

However, Sutton Council, the Carshalton & Wallington MP Tom Brake, and multiple parents are backing local Greenshaw High School, also an academy, as the preferred sponsor for Camden. A consultation is currently taking place on the proposals to become an academy. The Harris Federation is a charity with a record of improving struggling schools in London however campaigners are concerned it would be damaging to the school.

When Camden Juniors was put in to special measures the headteacher of Victor Seymour Infants School, Helen Matt, took over Camden. After seeing the improvements she has brought in many parents want her to continue and fear that if the Harris Federation took over she would be lost.  The Harris Federation has already advertised for a new headteacher at the school, closing applications for the £65,000-£100,000 job on May 10, in order to make sure they have a headteacher in time if they are chosen as the sponsor.

Sir Robin Bosher, who leads primary education for the Harris Federation, said: “We agreed to the Department for Education’s request that we become their preferred sponsor of Camden because we believe we can provide it with the support needed for teaching, pastoral care and the school as a whole to become good and then outstanding. We know that staff at Camden Junior School have worked hard under challenging circumstances, and we look forward to supporting them if the school becomes a Harris Academy.”

Please see the twitter link: http://mobile.twitter.com/KeepCamdenLocal

Political geeks/addicts etc. may be interested in the history of Sutton Liberal Democrats – A Flagship Borough: 25 Years of a Liberal Democrat Sutton Council – so very welcome.

Here, in this 317 page book, are remembered and preserved the names and deeds of numerous vital volunteers from over the decades. Indeed Carshalton Central ward had a pivotal role in 1986 when the Lib Dems (or more strictly Lib/SDP Alliance) won their first seat in the ward for the first time, the other was Conservative at that time.

The overall result of the council was in that year Alliance 28 seats balanced by 21 Tories and 7 Labour. Since then the Labour party’s councillor presence in Sutton seems to have withered away – they only have one seat now.

Many people have contributed to the awesome electoral and political record of success that is Sutton Liberal Democrats: winning election after election as they have been at the cutting edge of both green policies and local campaign tactics.

Thanks to the book, many of them are now rightly honoured in print. Recorded too are the sorts of stories that entertain many a political reminiscence, such as the vomiting doll dressed as a superhero which a Conservative councillor brought to one meeting. (See page 77 to find the full story!)

The book takes a fairly conventional narrative approach from the 1970s through to the current day, emphasising recording events over analysis. That makes it a comprehensive work, if at times a little bit of a dry read as one issue after another is briskly recounted.

It also means that by the end of it the reader has some clues as to how Sutton has been so successful for so long, yet little in the way of direct analysis to tease out the lessons that could be applied elsewhere. Having a talented and successful team clearly helped. How much was that luck and how much was that due to measures which could be copied elsewhere?

Moreover, having taken over from a very low-spending Conservative regime, even the increases in spending introduced by the Liberal Democrats left overall spending levels low in many areas compared to other councils. Yet the Liberal Democrat council managed to win widespread public support the quality of its public services. High quality, popular services despite relatively low spending levels is a combination many Liberal Democrats would like to be able to copy in all sorts of places – including Whitehall! Again there is a hint of an answer – consult, consult, consult – though I suspect many readers will be left wanting to know more about quite how this combination was pulled off.

Those, however, are topics that can be picked up in training sessions and talks. What the book does, which neither of those can, is to preserve the memories of Sutton Liberal Democrats and many of the thousands of helpers who in their own ways were crucial to it – from running the printing machine through the night through to regularly delivering leaflets in the apparently most unpromising of territory. It makes it a great book to have produced and a very enjoyable one to read.

Carshalton Village Market looking from the Grove Park entrance gates

Cllr. Hamish Pollock trotted along to the inaugural Carshalton Village Market today 22nd June 2013.

It was quite well supported and the nearby Antique Shop in the High Street (known as Carshalton Galleries) also spread itself onto the little yard by the side of the shop.