Cllr. Jill Whitehead says: “We are pleased to report that the council have recently installed double yellow lines along the east side of Shorts Road by the high brick wall surrounding St. Philomena’s School. This is in response to various complaints from local residents and the fire brigade about the road being blocked by inconsiderate parking, leading to angry exchanges between some local residents and other difficulties.”

Cllr. Hamish Pollock says: “This double yellow line installation work follows some discussion of the issues at our recent meeting of the Council’s Carshalton & Clockhouse Local Committee. Hopefully there should be far fewer blockages in Shorts Road. I took the photos below after the work… In the event that there is another blockage, please do let one of your councillors know.”

Shorts Road at the southern end as viewed on 24th May 2013

Shorts Road by the middle gate to St. Philomena’s (there are three lots of school gates on Shorts Road)

The Council have recently published a notice that Byron Avenue East in the Poets’ Estate, Sutton (in Carshalton Central ward) will be closed for a Big Lunch Street Party on 2nd June 2013, to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Coronation of HM The Queen. For details of how to have a Big Lunch, please click on….

http://www.thebiglunch.com/join-in/join-the-big-lunch-2013.php

Gardeners – you may wish put down your trowels and pick up your pens – it’s time to enter Sutton in Bloom.

The best of the winning entries will go on to represent the borough at the prestigious London in Bloom awards in September where Sutton’s green-fingered residents have traditionally done very well.

Sutton In Bloom – a winning entry

There are five different categories, so eager horticulturalists will all be able to find some way to show off their gardening skills.

• Best front garden: Sponsored by Times Square. Judges are looking for any attractive layout. Entries must be visible to passers-by. Winner – Engraved trophy and £50 garden voucher. Runner-up – £25 garden voucher
• Best business frontage: Sponsored by The House of Flowers. Owners of business premises can show off their eye-catching creations. Winner – £50 garden voucher
• Best allotment garden: Sponsored by Recognition Awards. This category aims to celebrate hard-working growers with excellent plots. Winner – £50 garden voucher. Runner-up – £25 garden voucher
• Best school garden: Sponsored by Woodcote Green Garden Centre and Nurseries. This category aims to encourage youngsters to plant and maintain a school garden. Winner – Engraved trophy and £50 garden voucher. Runner-up £25 garden voucher
• Best community garden: Sponsored by the Sutton Guardian. Awarded to either a group of gardens, frontages of buildings or areas of ground where displays are created specifically for shared benefit. Winner – £50 garden voucher.

Cllr Jill Whitehead, Chair of Sutton’s Environment and Neighbourhoods Committee, said: “Our borough is one of the greenest and most beautiful in London and that is in large part due to the hard work of our residents

“I know that we have some very, very talented gardeners in the borough and I look forward to seeing the results of all their hard work.”

Last year the borough as a whole received a prestigious Silver Gilt rating in the London in Bloom awards and Audrey and Michael Fawcett, of Carshalton won a fantastic overall second place in the front garden category to add to their victory in 2009.

Entries must be in by Friday 21 June. Entry forms are available from libraries, council offices or downloaded from www.sutton.gov.uk.

Ecology Centre Building

Local councillor Hamish Pollock has asked if some repairs can be made at the Ecology Centre Building (Old Rectory). Jill, Alan and Hamish have since been told that a stock condition survey of the Ecology Centre was carried out in 2011 (they are done on a 5-year cycle).

The overall comment on the condition was that it was satisfactory but certain works were identified to the building. Overall these would cost around £32K, and are primarily work to the roof gutters, flashings, external walls and windows and internal decorations. About a third of the costs were associated with the internal decorations.

The regime for the maintenance of Council buildings generally is firstly to carry out works that ensure the health and safety of users and occupiers. This is carried out on both a proactive and reactive basis, depending on severity of the problem. However, every building has as a minimum, a scheduled annual inspection and service visit to service all mechanical and electrical installations that require it. For larger pieces of work, there is a capital budget – currently £800k, for all operational buildings to carry out planned maintenance work. The current year’s budget was agreed by the S & R committee on the 18 March.

Unfortunately, the relatively small size of the budget means that higher priority work are the ones that are funded from this budget, and looking at our forward plan, the Ecology Centre is not on the projects scheduled over the next 4 years. However, the property department of the council will ask for the building to re-inspected by staff to ascertain whether the condition has deteriorated significantly since the stock condition survey was carried out to warrant it being placed on a higher priority. 

The Ecology Centre itself does not have a dedicated responsive repairs budget but any such works are paid for by the Environmental Sustainability Team, and last year, around £2.5k of responsive repairs was carried out to the building. 

Council officers are not aware of any bids for external funding for repair work to the building. From their experience, they tell us that funding is hardly ever provided by bodies like the Heritage Lottery Fund to Local Authorities for the type of work required to the Ecology Centre.

Cllr. Hamish Pollock is currently liaising with the committee of the Friends of Sutton Ecology Centre as to any issues that can be sorted out with regards to maintenance and management of the Ecology Centre Grounds.

Festival Walk between West Street and Honeywood Walk

A pleasanter spot you would be hard pushed to find anywhere in suburbia.   

This is a picture of the western end of Festival Walk which runs past the south side of the Ecology Centre building (Old Rectory) and the side of the Heritage Centre (Honeywood Museum). Festival Walk is at the western end of Honeywood Walk and can be approached also from West Street opposite the Carshalton Water Tower.

Supermarkets in Carshalton

Signs of the times. Two local supermarkets in Carshalton and now five in Wallington…

2012 Paralympic Games champion David Weir met Cllr. Jill Whitehead recently at the renaming on Thursday 16th May 2013 of the Sutton Arena as the David Weir Leisure Centre.

Jill is chair of the Sutton Council’s Environment and Neighbourhoods Committee that oversees the running of all the municipal leisure centres in the borough.

Carshalton’s War Memorial Gardens get resurfaced

Councillors Jill Whitehead, Alan Salter and Hamish Pollock asked the council to carry out repairs to worn out tarmac surfaces a while ago.

We are pleased that the council have very recently resurfaced the tarmacked paths in Carshalton’s War Memorial Gardens off Honeywood Walk. The gardens were created we believe in the aftermath of World War One. They are part of Carshalton’s Conservation Area, the first created in the borough in the late 1960s.

New Greengrocers & Fruiterers Opens in Carshalton High Street

Rhubarb and Bramley, the new Greengrocers & Fruiterers opened recently in Carshalton High Street.  This is a very welcome development and Alan, Jill and Hamish wish the owners well with their enterprise.

Costa Coffee’s two planning applications for the site of the two empty shops to the left of the new greengrocers have yet to be determined by Sutton Council.  The empty shops were formerly occupied by Johnsons the dry cleaners and the Country Harvest (greengrocers).

For previous postings on this topic, please click on:-

http://carshaltoncentral.mycouncillor.org.uk/2013/03/26/planning-application-for-costa-coffee-beacon-grove-high-street/

For updates you can click on the council’s own web site:

www.sutton.gov.uk and review the planning applications register. The two relevant planning applications numbers 67056 and 67100 are as listed in our web posting.

Local ward councillors Alan, Jill and Hamish will do our best to ensure that local residents’ views are taken into account should this planning application come to the Council’s development control committee – it meets every fortnight or so for a decision.  The “trigger” for planning officers to place the application on the list of those applications coming to the committee is usually about 10 letters or more of objection. We are not sure how many letters of objection there have been, but Alan, Jill and Hamish have seen several dozen to date.