Sutton South Councillors were concerned to learn about changes proposed to the organisation of the Police Cadets, who meet at a school in our ward. Currently there are over 120 cadets. However, the decision has been made to close junior cadets and cut the remaining senior cadets to just 46. Their future programme is also being severely curtailed. This will have a major impact on the youth of this borough who will no longer have the opportunity to participate in activities such as camps, parades and Duke of Edinburgh awards.
Councillor Louise Phelan, whose son has been a Cadet, commented “I’ve seen first-hand the benefits of being part of police cadets. They learn valuable life skills, and gain self confidence. They also support the local community and get to take part in things they wouldn’t otherwise have had the opportunity to do. For many this is a stepping stone into a career within the police force, for others the Cadets help to keep them on the right path and make better life decisions. I am incredibly concerned others will now not get these opportunities.”
Richard has been trying to get Network Rail to cut back the vegetation on the railway bank adjacent to the southern bridge in Kings Lane as it obscures sight lines for motorists. Every autumn, after the vegetation on the railway bank has grown up, he has this correspondence with Network Rail. They have now cut back the undergrowth sufficiently for cars to be able to see if there are vehicles coming towards them across the bridge.
The police met residents of Sutton South Ward again on the evening of 25 September 2024, at Devonshire Avenue school. There are open, public meetings held quarterly at which the police discuss the policing of the Ward with local residents. We were addressed by our Ward Constable, Constable Robyn Skivens, who went through the crime statistics for the Ward. Sutton has a lower crime rate than most outer London boroughs and our Ward has one of the lowest crime rates in Sutton. However, crime always has a significant impact on the victim and public concern remains high. The draft minutes of the meeting are as below.
SUTTON SOUTH WARD COMMUNITY/POLICE MEETING – WEDNESDAY 25 SEPTEMBER 2024
Held at Devonshire Avenue primary school
Constable Skivens gave an update on crime in the Ward since the last meeting, which was on 26 June 2024.
Burglaries: There had been 8 burglaries. Several were burglaries of garages but there had been some of houses and of commercial premises. There was a gang of four people who were now well known in the borough who had been behind a number of burglaries.
Motor Vehicle Crime: 11 crimes were reported – 3 of theft of cars (in Ambleside Gardens, Albion Road, Farm Close). The other offences were thefts from, damage to or interference with cars. There were again no catalytic converter thefts.
Drug offences: 5 crimes were reported, one of possession of cannabis and one of possession with intent to supply. The other offences were importation of drugs intercepted by Border Force where a local address was given for the consignment. Ward police would then have to visit the address but usually this was a fictitious or convenience address.
Violence against women and girls: 4 cases. These included a man exposing himself on a bus and cases of women being followed.
Major crimes: This is a broad category. There were 4 cases – two robberies, one attempted robbery, one case of a threat to kill.
Other crimes: There were 11 in this miscellaneous category, including:
2 of shoplifting from the BP service station
2 pedal cycles stolen
A woman who had an epileptic fit outside Sutton station had her bag stolen
A “street drinker” at the station had vapes stolen from him
A handbag was left on a bus and stolen, and efforts were made to use the bank cards
The theft of a wedding ring through distraction techniques (engaging in conversation to distract),
Staffing: Although Sutton South has a cadre of 3 officers – Constable Skivens, a second Constable and a PCSO – Constable Skivens was currently on her own. The other Constable is on restricted duties due to a hamstring injury and the PCSO has an injured knee. Constable Skivens spends about half her time on “extractions”, usually to the Response Team, to undertake other duties outside the Ward. The meeting expressed concern at the staffing level.
The meeting discussed a variety of issues raised by residents:
The success of Operation Nightingale in reducing crime in Sutton by monitoring and patrolling selected crime hotspots
The reduction of crime at Sutton station by closing the side entrance at certain times
The knife amnesty, and its success
Drug dealing, including at Sutton Court and Beauclere House
Concerns about “street drinkers” at Sutton station
Fire safety, including the threat posed by batteries on scooters and electric bikes
The importance of reporting crime (it was pointed out that reports via Crimestoppers are anonymous)
Keyless cars: the need to keep keys in a tin
The police speed traps in Chalgrove Road, including on 5 June
The cuts to the police cadets, which meet at Overton Grange school, and the reasons for this action. Councillor Clifton mentioned that the Councillors with the local MP were planning to take this up with the Metropolitan police at a more senior level.
The date of the next meeting was set as Wednesday 15 January, at Devonshire Avenue primary school. There was a discussion of what could be done to better publicise the meeting and get a better attendance.
The meeting thanked Constable Skivens for her work and for coming in on her day off to present her report to us, and Devonshire Avenue school for hosting the meeting.
Constable Skivens, Louise, Trish and Richard with other Ward police officers at the Sutton South Hello Christmas party
In the General Election held on 4 July 2024 our Liberal Democrat candidates won convincing victories in the two Parliamentary constituencies that make up the London borough of Sutton. Our candidates – Luke Taylor in Sutton and Cheam and Bobby Dean in Carshalton and Wallington – recorded significant victories to take the two seats from the Conservatives. Trish, Louise and Richard were part of the team working for Luke in the period leading up to the election. Luke and Bobby are among 72 Liberal Democrat candidates elected to the new House of Commons.
Luke’s victory means that for the first time, here in Sutton South Ward, we have three Liberal Democrat Councillors and a Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament, serving our residents. Luke made an excellent maiden speech in the House on 8 October, taking the opportunity to emphasise what a great place Sutton is.
This success followed on from some remarkable victories for Liberal Democrat candidates in the local elections held nationwide on 2 May 2024. Across England, Liberal Democrats won 521 Council seats, more than the Tories, with a net gain of 104 seats.
Trish stood as our candidate in the Greater London Authority constituency elections. Our constituency covered Croydon as well as Sutton so this was not a winnable seat for the Liberal Democrats. However, Trish performed remarkably well. She pushed our share of the vote up from 14.4% to 15.8%. We were one of only five constituencies where we beat both the Greens and Reform, taking third place in the constituency member vote.
Trish was our candidate for the Sutton and Croydon GLA constituency. Here she is with Richard and our Mayoral candidate, Rob Blackie, outside Sutton train station
In the Mayoral election our candidate, Rob Blackie, performed well. Sadiq Khan won the Mayoralty despite the unpopularity locally of ULEZ, a policy we have opposed. Our views on ULEZ are set out in articles further down. Below is a photo of our visit to City Hall, the HQ of the Mayor of London, on 30 June 2023 to present the petition expressing opposition to ULEZ signed by over 10 000 Sutton residents.
Louise, Trish and Richard at City Hall to present to the Mayor of London the petition opposing ULEZ signed by over 10 000 Sutton residents
On 30 November Richard and Trish sat as members of the Council’s Planning Committee, with Richard chairing the meeting, to consider the fate of the B and Q site in central Sutton. This is just outside our Ward. B and Q plan to close the store next June. Richard commented that, though he is no do-it-yourself fanatic, he regretted the closure of the store, but B and Q say it no longer makes them money and they have decided to close.
It is inevitable that the site will be developed as housing. There is no demand for new office space (more people work at home) or new shops (more people shop using the internet) but there is a housing crisis. On the day of the discussion 970 Sutton families were homeless and living in bed and breakfast accommodation, at the expense of the Council and thus our Council tax payers. More homes are desperately needed. The philosophy in the Sutton local plan is to meet our housing targets partly through a more intensive area of development close to the town centre and near the railway station. As public transport links are good in this area it is possible to envisage a car free or “car light” development – if you have to provide a parking space for every house many fewer homes can be built. This reduces development pressure on the borough’s suburban heartland and Green Belt areas. Planning Committee often considers proposals to build on the Green Belt which we resist, but the new homes must go somewhere. The more intensive development in the town centre will inevitably include some tall buildings, and there is a cluster close to the railway station.
Evidence was presented to the committee on action taken to deal with some of the consequences of this development, such as a need for places in local schools, demands on health services and additional strain on water and sewage systems. Richard commented that there were attractive features to the proposed development, 60% of which would be open space, including an area of public parkland, a water feature, an amphitheatre and terraced roof gardens. The most important aspect, though, was the plan for 337 “affordable” homes where Sutton Council can place the most deserving of the 2 600 families on the housing register. This will include families that are homeless or those we meet, in our Ward, who are living in dreadful housing circumstances – sometimes families with three or four children living together in tiny flats.
The planning application was approved. Initially all that local people will observe is the closure of the store, hoardings put up round the site and the store demolished. Then there will be building work but it will be several years before anyone moves in. Eventually, it will be an attractive, landscaped site. On the website
As local Councillors, we responded to the consultation exercise on the closure of ticket offices in local train stations. The closure of the ticket office at Sutton station, which is in our Ward, was threatened. We responded to the consultation opposing this move.
We drew attention to instances where family members were able to get a cheaper deal on tickets than they could have got buying tickets over the internet by getting the advice of the staff at the ticket office. Having staffed ticket offices is essential to giving people advice on travel. People need advice on travel when they arrive at the station. Having these staff wandering around the station means you will not find them when you arrive at the station. There are particular difficulties for those who are partially sighted or disabled.
The consultation was, after an outcry over the limited nature of the consultation proposals, extended to 1 September. The decision has now been taken not to proceed with the closure plan but we will monitor the situation as effective closure of the ticket office by stealth, in particular the progreesive reduction of the hours of opening, is entirely possible.
The owner of Chelsea Court, 54 Mulgrave Road has had planning permission to extend the building – in effect adding two extra floors to the block of flats – refused by Sutton Council. This was the latest in a series of applications in our Ward where owners of blocks of flats have sought to extend the building upwards.
As local Councillors, we were concerned about these proposals. While there is a need for more accommodation, the changes to the building would in our view make it look incongruous, not good enough for Sutton. The block is an attractive architect-designed building (see photo), one of the more attractive blocks in Mulgrave Road, and the proposed changes would destroy the symmetry of the building. The Planning Department at Sutton Council agreed with our objections. The changes would also have involved building work that would greatly disturb the current residents of the block.
The owners used a mechanism called “prior approval” when submitting their planning application. This mechanism, in our view, was introduced by the Government to undermine the planning system. As a result, we could take the application to the Council’s Planning Committee, which Richard chairs, for decision by Councillors. We may still not be able to stop these changes taking place given the powers of the remote Planning Inspectorate based in Bristol to over-ride local decisions.
We always seek to ensure in such cases that a number of conditions are stipulated in any planning permission, if one is ever granted, to try to protect the peace and quiet of the building during construction work. These include that access to the roof should be via an external hoist with all materials for work on the roof transported to the roof by an external hoist and not brought up via the well of the building. The interior of the building should not be a storage area or building site. There should be a construction management plan to minimize disruption to existing residents and ensure there are controls on dust and noise, and on hours of work. The contractors should join the Considerate Contractors’ Scheme. There should be a liaison officer that residents can contact if they observe poor behaviour. If scaffolding is erected outside residents’ windows it should only be erected when needed and removed as soon as it is not needed.
We have successfully opposed this development but wait to see if the developer will appeal to the Planning Inspectorate against the decision of the Council.
Louise, Richard and Trish travelled to City Hall, the HQ of London Mayor Sadiq Khan, on 30 June to join other Sutton Liberal Democrat Councillors in presenting a petition to the Mayor. The petition, signed by over 10 000 Sutton residents, expressed our opposition to the extension of the ULEZ zone to outer London boroughs. Our views on why we opposed the extension of ULEZ can be found in posts further down this site.
Despite our opposition, ULEZ has now been extended by the London Mayor to outer London.
We are again involved in arguments over proposals to add extra storeys the top of Northumberland House.
Northumberland House is the tower block at the corner of Brighton Road and Wellesley Road, about 200 yards along Brighton Road if you turn left when coming out of Sutton station.
Criterion Capital, the owners of Northumberland House, are again seeking planning permission to add two storeys to the top of the building. The owners are again seeking to extend the building, creating a further 29 flats by adding two extra storeys on the top of the ten storey part of the building and an extra storey on the lower part, with some additional flats in the “undercroft” above the parking area. Some of the current parking spaces would be lost.
An earlier similar application was not supported by Sutton Council on the basis of design of the proposed tower extension and issues about the alignment of the windows. Planning law allows developers to seek to over-ride the decisions of local Councillors by appealing to the remote Bristol-based Planning Inspectorate, whose decision is final. The developers went to appeal, to the Planning Inspectorate, and on 5 October Richard and Louise attended and spoke on behalf of residents at a hearing organised by the Planning Inspectorate.
We had noted that there would be some positives, such as the creation of a community amenity and play space on the tarmaced area at ground floor level. However, while there is a shortage of accommodation in London and more housing is needed, we were concerned that the building work had the potential to be extremely disruptive to the lives of current residents. And an extra two storeys on the top of the building looks incongruous and out of keeping with the design of the rest of the building. Richard told the Inspector the design “looked like a couple of portacabins had been dumped on the top of the building.” At the hearing we told the Planning Inspector that residents of Northumberland House are concerned about the likely disruption involved in this proposed work, and have long standing concerns about frequent lift breakdowns in the building and the general standard of housekeeping, particularly in the bin area. We pressed the Inspector to impose conditions, if he were to agree to the scheme, to protect the interests of residents, and include these conditions in any planning permission they eventually obtained. We asked that access to the roof areas would be only by external hoists, and that the peace and quiet of the interior of the building would not be disturbed or the interior turned into a storage area, or building site. We sought controls on scaffolding to ensure any scaffolding that is required is removed as soon as the requirement has passed. We insisted there must be a construction management plan to control hours of work and control noise and dust nuisance. We asked that the contractor joins the “Considerate Contractors Scheme”, which provides a route for residents to raise concerns if they observe poor behaviour. We were pleased that the developers indicated they would accept all these conditions.
The Inspector supported our views and commented that the proposed building looks “incongruous” – the exact wording Richard had used at the hearing. He turned down the application and also refused the application for costs.
The owners have now submitted a further, similar application. Residents can see the proposals via the Council’s website (go to the section on planning and follow leads to get to comment on planning applications). It is application DM2023/00796. We are keen to learn of the views of residents on this matter, particularly those who live in Northumberland House. Do contact us at the email addresses given in the first post on this site.
This picture shows Louise and Trish cleaning off the graffiti we found in the area outside Northumberland House in Brighton Road. We want residents to report to us instances of graffiti, which is one of the scourges of our times, worldwide. In general, the Council has a good record in cleaning off graffiti quickly. A difficulty is when the graffiti is on private property and the owners of the property have responsibility.
Here is an example of graffiti we got cleaned off, on the bridge at Kings Lane.
