Councillors Jill Whitehead and Hamish Pollock attended the Friends of The Grove Park AGM today, Saturday, 20th April 2013 at the wonderful Water Tower, West Street. We’re a small friendly and approachable group of interested citizens keen to keep The Grove Park in as tip-top a condition as is humanly possible and subject to the funds being available! 

Hamish was re-elected as Chair of the Friends. Jill a former Chair was re-elected as committee member. If you are interested in joining the Friends do get in touch with one of us!

At the meeting, we heard from Tansy Honey from Eco-Local about plans for a new Carshalton Village Market possibly being founded on Saturday, 25th May 2013 for the very first time. The market is likely to be held on the driveway to the east side of the east pond (near the old Lloyds Bank building) subject to the usual licensing issues being sorted out.

Chair of Carshalton & Clockhouse local committee Councillor Hamish Pollock reports:

“Approval of the scheme by the local branch of the Royal British Legion has been confirmed of the council’s scheme for the WW2 memorial for Carshalton. Council officers are progressing with the tender process and are liaising with the Council’s Borough Archivist and Local Studies Manager and a local historian to confirm the names for inscription. The new second World War memorial, which will be housed in the war memorial gardens opposite the first World War memorial, should be completed by November 2013”.

Mrs. Thatcher’s funeral was of course held yesterday at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, and this was attended by Her Majesty The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. 

Mrs. Thatcher was our longest serving Prime Minister in the last century serving for 11 and half years between 1979-1990, and of course our first woman prime minister. 

She became Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven after stepping down as prime minister. Kesteven is the name of the part of Lincolnshire containing Grantham, her home town.

Following concerns raised by local residents, your local councillors have received confirmation that an application has been received by the Council’s Building Control department for ‘Conversion to provide 2 flats with dormer’ and the necessary regular inspections are ongoing at this property.

Cllr. Jill Whitehead says: “In response to residents’ recent concerns about congestion in Shorts Road owing to inconsiderate parking, the Council’s Carshalton & Clockhouse Local Committee agreed to go ahead with the proposed double yellow lines at its meeting held on Tuesday evening, 16th April 2013. These double yellow lines will complete the run of yellow lines running along the east side of the road in Shorts Road adjacent to the St. Philomena’s School high wall.

Shorts Road looking northwards toward the wall by St. Philomena’s School

The local committee chair, Cllr. Hamish Pollock says: “The council will therefore go now through the usual legal procedures, and the double yellow lines will be installed as soon as can be achieved.”

Cllr. Sean Brennan wants to use the next year in office to continue his work from last year when he becomes the borough’s first Mayor to serve for a third time!   Sutton Borough Council will announce proposals to retain Cllr. Brennan as the borough’s Mayor at its council meeting at the end of April (Monday 29th April).  The nomination comes as recognition of the good work Cllr. Brennan has done over the years for Sutton and represents a first in the borough’s history.

Sean now retired, he has held various positions at the council including becoming the Leader of the Council between 2002 and 2012 and has sat on numerous committees over the years, most recently being the Sutton Local Committee. Upon being made the Mayor for a third time, Cllr Brennan said: “This is a tremendous honour and a real privilege to be named the borough’s first citizen for a third time. I was delighted to be awarded the role last year and words can’t describe how pleased I am to get a second year in a row.”

Last year the Cllr Brennan received an honorary O.B.E. from the Queen.

Take advantage of Oyster online – Oyster card users can now receive journey statements by email and request refunds online.

Oyster card users can now receive journey statements by email and request refunds online.

More than 600,000 people with online Oyster accounts are already finding it easier to keep track of their top-ups and payments thanks to the new journey statements.

It also means people can ensure they always pay the cheapest fares by receiving alerts when they are eligible for a refund following an ‘incomplete journey’ charge. This usually happens when pay as you go customers fail to swipe their cards at the end of a Tube or rail journey.

Passengers just have to enter details of where their journey started or ended to make their online claim.

Shashi Verma, Transport for London’s (TfL’s) director of Customer Experience, said: ‘Making it easier for customers to do business with us is at the heart of all we do and providing more online and interactive options demonstrates our priority of putting customers first.

‘The feedback we have already received on the improvements is encouraging and helps us to identify more areas we can focus on to make travelling around London an easier and more pleasant experience.’

Later this year TfL will launch its new-look website, making it easier for their customers looking to plan their journeys or calculate their fares.

Police discovered a cannabis factory when they carried out an early morning drugs raid on a three-bed terraced house in Mill Lane, Carshalton, on Wednesday 10th April.

Officers knocked on the door and entered to find 29 cannabis plants growing under heat and light systems in a front bedroom. Bags of suspected drugs were also found in another bedroom and in the living room. A 52-year-old man and a 21-year-old woman, who were both inside the property at the time, were both arrested on drugs related offences. Officers were acting on information received from the local community and from information gathered during police patrols in the area.

The drugs warrant was executed by neighbourhood police officers led by PC Richard Mehrotra, of Carshalton Central Safer Neighbourhoods Team. Officials from the energy company were on hand to make safe the electricity supply.

The raid was part of Operation Hawk, a Met-wide initiative to encourage information from local communities to help crackdown on local criminals.

A Crimestoppers initiative launched in March 2013 encourages residents to report cannabis cultivation in their neighbourhoods anonymously to Crimestoppers – an independent charity – on 0800 555 111.

Tell-tale signs of a cannabis factory include:

– strong, sickly smell given off by cannabis plants
– cannabis growing equipment being taken into a house, such as lighting and ventilation equipment
– constantly covered or blocked-off windows
– unsociable coming and going at all hours including lots of different people visiting the property
– strong and constant lighting day and night
– high levels of heat and condensation
– constant buzz of ventilation
– lots of power cables being installed to by-pass metered electricity supply

Safer Neighbourhoods Inspector Neil Tyre said police want residents to speak out if they suspect that an address in their neighbourhood may be being used as a cannabis factory. “The cultivation of drugs is illegal and could fund other criminal activities. Residents should not have to suffer in silence. Please report any addresses you suspect are being used for growing drugs – and we will put a stop to it.”

Call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 to report a cannabis factory in your area. For further information visit:www.crimestoppers-uk.org

Crimestoppers is a charity and independent of the police.

Cllr. Hamish Pollock, chair of the Council’s Carshalton & Clockhouse Local Committee says: “Our next meeting takes place next Tuesday, 16th April from 7.30 pm at the Clockhouse Community Hall, 42 Fryston Avenue, The Mount, Coulsdon, CR5 2PT.”

“We will be discussing:

• the various public realm projects in the Carshalton Central and Carshalton South & Clockhouse wards,
• the current use of Stanley Park by a football club, and its imapct on local roads/parking,
• the current situation of school places in the borough and Carshalton in particular,
• updates on no less than 8 traffic and parking schemes in our area,
• hanging baskets, and several other matters of local interest.

There will be the opportunity from time to time to ask questions of council officers and indeed of the six councillors on this committee. We hope to see you there!”

Clockhouse Community Hall “A” marks the spot….

 If you click on the map you should be able to view it in greater detail on most computer screens.