Heather visited the Viridor Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) in Lakeland near Sough yesterday, 29th February, with Councillor Mary Burstow.
Their aim was to observe at first hand the operation of an ERF similar to that proposed on land currently used as the Beddington landfill site. This is particularly important given their roles as Vice Chair and Chair of Sutton’s Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee.
For more information on future plans for the Beddington site visit: http://www.slwp.org.uk/
Sutton Council has now completed the first stage of the programme we have been spearheading for improvements to the Devonshire Avenue Nature Area.
We have taken forward this programme with Council officers, closely involving the South Sutton Neighbourhood Association. We have promoted the case for the installation of a small piece of play equipment, shown above, suitable for children aged up to 7, to enable better use to be made of the area while not removing its central purpose as a nature area, home to the rare small blue butterfly. A further programme is underway to tidy the area and lay out paths. The nature area is the only open space in our Ward. It is in a part of our Ward where many children live in small flats without access to a garden, as a study conducted by Devonshire Avenue school has shown. We are pleased with the progress of this project and see it as a significant achievement.
Trees were planted on 26th March at 10 am with children from Devonshire School (plus Heather and Richard) taking part.
Further steps include the following:
* the back wall was removed at the beginning of January and the area levelled. The contractor has put a
formal path through the woodland.
• The area will be reseeded. This needs temporary fencing.
• A nature nature trail will be installed.
• Mary from the Council’s biodiversity team is working on the signs, to guide the nature trail.
• There will be a number of carefully positioned benches installed
• There will be another nature trail for children when the weather is warmer. The last was hugely
popular and we have found that children who took part in last June’s Nature Trail are still fascinated
by butterflies.
Residents will have noticed that the demolition of 39A Eaton Road has taken place.
Sutton Council consistently rejected planning applications involving the demolition of this house. The reason why demolition is now taking place is that the Planning Inspectorate, based in Bristol, over-ruled your local Council when an appeal was made.
Richard spoke against the application when it came to the Council’s Development Control Committee, and helped persuade the Committee to throw the application out. But we cannot overturn a decision by the Planning Inspectorate, whose decisions have been – in our view – inconsistent and unhelpful to planning policies in our area.
We remain concerned that the continuing demolition of family houses and their replacement by small blocks of small flats without gardens is leading to an unbalanced housing stock in the area, and we will continue to oppose this trend in dealing with planning applications. There is more information on our position on the page on planning on this site.
The bridge as it was.
We are pleased to report success in our campaign to improve pedestrian safety at the Grange Vale bridge.
Action has been taken to improve the safety of pedestrians who pass under the railway bridge in Grange Vale. Grange Vale is a one-way street and the traffic passes in the direction that is away from you as you look at the bridge in these photographs.
There is a very narrow pavement where Grange Vale passes under the railway bridge on the Sutton to Epsom Downs line. As Grange Vale is a one-way street, cars roar round the corner from the Brighton Road end and under the bridge, the driver only seeing a pedestrian on the pavement (or in the road, the pavement being so narrow) under the bridge at the last moment. It is a particular problem for parents with buggies or small children passing under the bridge.
A bid was submitted to Transport for London for the installation of a pedestrian-operated traffic light system, so the pedestrian can stop the traffic while passing under the bridge. Transport for London, led by Tory Mayor Boris Johnson, did not support the proposal, as not meeting their normal criteria for such a development. Your local LibDem Councillors have looked at alternative methods of improving the safety of the road for pedestrians.
The action taken has been to build out the pavement on the right just in front of the bridge as you look at it in these photographs, with posts at the edge of the pavement, to slow the speed of the traffic as cars have to align themselves more carefully before entering under the bridge.
We have campaigned for this improvement since we were elected and are pleased that we have got action.
Measuring our success at the bridge
Because of the dip in the road, the road can be flooded during the leaf fall season, as there are a lot of trees nearby including those next to the railway line. We have got the response team to agree to treat Grange Vale as a priority during the leaf fall season. Nevertheless, last year the road was briefly flooded due to leaf fall blocking the drains and Richard himself cleared the drains.
The drains after Richard cleared them.
“As Vice Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Committee and one of two Sutton Council representatives on the SW London Health Scrutiny Committee, I will be following very closely the implications for the residents of Sutton South of the decision by St George’s Healthcare Trust not to proceed with the merger with St Helier Hospital. Please see the press release below.”
Cllr Heather Honour
St George’s decide not to proceed with merger process
St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust have informed us and our strategic authority, NHS London, that they cannot proceed with their bid to merge with St Helier and Sutton hospitals.
Throughout the process St George’s have been very positive about the strategic opportunity to merge and the benefits this could bring to patients.
However, due to the financial challenges facing hospitals in south west London and the inability to pre-empt the outcome of the Better Services Better Value review, which is looking at how NHS services are provided across south west London, they do not feel able to proceed at this time.
This is because the review, which will be open to public consultation, could have a significant impact on the financial income of all hospitals involved.
St George’s have however expressed a full commitment to working closely with St Helier and Sutton hospitals in the future.
Jan Sawkins is the Independent Chair of the special Board set up to help St Helier, Sutton and Epsom hospitals to achieve foundation trust status. She said: “Whilst we have always been aware that a bidder could withdraw during the process, at this stage in the transaction it is obviously very disappointing news.
“The Transaction Board has a meeting scheduled next week (7 February 2012) and we will use this to consider the options and agree a way forward. This may include re-opening tenders for St Helier and Sutton hospitals.”
Matthew Hopkins, Trust Chief Executive said: “This is disappointing news, but St George’s have been clear to us that their decision is not based on our staff, nor the quality of the services we provide at St Helier and Sutton hospitals.
“As you would expect, the Trust Board and those working on the transaction have been looking at other options in case this happened and we look forward to discussing these with the Transaction Board next week.
“Whilst we are making decisions about the long-term future of our hospitals, our priority will – as ever – continue to be ensuring our patients and local people receive the very best services.”
Asked what this means for Epsom Hospital, Jan added: “It is the current belief that, subject to Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust being confirmed as the Preferred Partner for Epsom Hospital, the de-merger could continue whilst we make alternative arrangements for St Helier and Sutton.
“Whilst this would, of course, need further investigation and approval by the Transaction Board, the Trust Board and others, it is felt that this would be in the best interest of Epsom Hospital, its patients, staff and local people.
“However, I would emphasise that the priority remains to secure the future of Epsom, St Helier and Sutton hospitals.”
For more information about the work of the Trust visit our website: www.epsom-sthelier.nhs.uk. You can also follow us on Twitter (twitter.com/epsom_sthelier) or find us on Facebook (facebook.com/epsomsthelier).
This is what St Georges said in their press release:
St George’s media statement
St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust submitted a bid for a potential merger with St Helier Hospital in November 2011.
The board is clear that a merger between St George’s Healthcare and St Helier would be an excellent strategic opportunity, with the potential to bring significant improvements to the care of patients across southwest London and beyond.
After careful consideration the board has reached the conclusion that the current terms of the merger prevent us from proceeding further at this time.
The level of financial challenge facing hospitals in south west London, combined with the inability to pre-empt the outcome of a public consultation around the Better Services Better Value (BSBV) review, means this is not the right time for us to progress with the transaction.
We want to continue to build on the existing links that are in place for clinical services. We have identified a number of the potential benefits to patients that would occur from an acquisition which could also be delivered if the organisations remained separate legal entities which we shall continue to pursue.
We are particularly keen to develop the clinical and academic networks that span St George’s Healthcare and St Helier, and explore opportunities to establish new networks across services, to the benefit of patients.
A key priority for the trust is to achieve Foundation Trust (FT) status by 2014, and we will focus our efforts on achieving this. The board feels strongly that achieving FT status will strengthen the opportunities for St. George’s Healthcare and St Helier to work together in the future.
This is what Ashford and St Peters have had to say:
Statement re Epsom Hospital
Chief Executive at Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Andrew Liles, said:
“The decision made by St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust not to pursue their bid for St Helier and Sutton hospitals has not changed our position regarding Epsom and we will continue to progress our plans to acquire Epsom hospital (through merger) in line with the process set out by the Transaction Board. Of course this is still subject to approval by the Transaction Board, Epsom and St Helier, the local health authorities and others and by our own Board, who will need to be assured that any final decision is in the best interests of both the Epsom and Ashford and St Peter’s catchment populations.
As a Foundation Trust already we feel we are in a strong position strategically to pursue these plans and we know they have already passed through the first stage of the process successfully, meeting the criteria set by local people, stakeholders and staff. These include new and innovative partnerships – with The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, Central Surrey Health and Surrey and Sussex Partnership NHS Trust – to create an integrated healthcare campus at Epsom Hospital, bringing additional services and added benefits to local patients and staff. Our plans are also made more straightforward by the fact that Epsom hospital is not part of the Better Services Better Value review in South West London.
We have also had positive initial discussions regarding financial and commissioning support for our plans, although of course final decisions regarding the preferred provider and agreement of financial support are still to be made.”
For more information please call the Press Office on: 01932 722163
Sutton Council held its annual event for Holocaust Memorial Day on Friday 27th January 2012 in the Europa Gallery in Sutton Central Library. We both attended. The theme of this year’s event was ‘Speak Up, Speak Out’ and had the aim of encouraging people to challenge injustice and hatred, thus creating a safer, better future. There were speeches from the Mayor of Sutton, Councillor Gerry Jerome, Holocaust survivor Marcel Ladenheim, Mr. Meddie Kakyama-Mayanja, who spoke on the African genocides, and Reverend Meir Lev, Minister of Sutton and District Synagogue. There were references to local experiences of hate crime in Sutton, along with a stall from the Safer Sutton Partnership on reporting hate crime, to bring a local perspective to the theme of ‘Speak Up, Speak Out’. There was also an exhibition with information and photographs on the theme.
Richard organised a meeting with residents in Blackbush Close on 25 January, attended by Councillors and Council officials. Residents want to increase parking in Blackbush Close, as there is a shortage of parking spaces for those living in the blocks in Bonchurch Close and Blackbush Close. It was agreed that proposals to remove yellow lines on one side of the road over a part of Blackbush Close will be actively examined. An alternative would be to extend the parking controls in the adjacent Controlled Parking Zone to the road. Richard will get back to residents as this proposal progresses.
We are grateful to residents of Westmoreland Drive who contacted us following our letter to residents on the subject of proposals for yellow lines controlling parking in the road. Last September The Council consulted residents on proposals for yellow lines in Westmoreland Drive, responding to concerns about access for emergency vehicles following a fire in which a resident died. The clear majority view of residents was that the initial proposals were not acceptable due to the reduction in parking spaces.
As local Councillors, we discussed with Council officers how to meet the wishes of residents. A reduced proposal is to free up one side of the road by removing all the proposed yellow lines on the left hand side as you walk from Ventnor Road down Westmoreland Drive but retaining those on the right. This should maintain access but meet concerns about the number of parking spaces available to residents, by reducing the restrictions on parking.
The Fire Service have been consulted, to be sure they will be able to gain access in an emergency when the reduced scheme is implemented. This scheme appears acceptable to a majority of residents and if it meets the concerns for emergency access it will in due course be implemented.
Blackbush Close: where residents would like more parking to be available. The proposal is to remove the yellow line on the left but make the yellow line on the right a double yellow line for part of the road, a little beyond where this photo was taken. Alternatively, bring the road within the Controlled Parking Zone.
Every two years Sutton Council has commissioned the polling organisation MORI to undertake an independent in-depth research survey into the attitudes of people who live in Sutton, to help us understand what people like and dislike, and thus improve services.
The full results will appear soon on the Council’s website (www.sutton.gov.uk) but we have seen a digest of the results and would welcome any feedback from local residents on your reactions.
The results that particularly struck us are:
* Sutton residents have a high level of satisfaction with Sutton as a place to live, 91% being satisfied (11 points higher than the national average), with the proportion “very satisfied” increasing from 25% to 36% since the last survey in 2009. This is in line with recent surveys that concluded that Sutton is the best place in London to bring up children, taking account of factors such as our good schools, good transport links and low crime rate
* the issues that most concern residents in Sutton are parking, dog fouling and speeding traffic, these scoring above issues such as litter, vandalism and graffiti. There is sharply increasing concern about dog fouling, which reflects our experience in terms of issues residents raise with us as Councillors. Parking is also an issue of concern though these concerns take different forms – in roads like Eastleigh Close and Bonchurch Close it concerns difficulty in finding a parking space nearby for one’s own car, in some other roads it is a concern about commuter parking in the road. In Sutton South Ward, there is definately a concern about litter, but vandalism and graffiti are less of a problem locally
* almost three in four (73%) are satisfied with the services of Sutton Council, higher than the national figure. There appears to be a strongly positive attitude to services such as parks and open spaces, street lighting, street cleaning, refuse collection and playgrounds, less strongly positive (though still positive) attitudes to pavement and road maintenance, and to parking services
* a concern emerges from the survey about how well Sutton Council keeps people informed
* although Sutton is a low crime area compared to other parts of London and 96% of residents feel safe walking outside in their neighbourhood alone during the day, this proportion drops to 62% after dark, and residents are increasingly concerned about anti-social behaviour and burglary or theft
* a quarter of Sutton’s residents volunteer regularly and 81% think Sutton is an area where people from different backgrounds get on well together.
It should be noted is that, overall, people feel less well-off than when the survey was last undertaken two years ago, with 45% saying their personal financial circumstances have got worse in the last year, as the recession has bitten.
We are interested in the views of local people on these issues and would welcome it if readers of this article want to give us their opinion.
Matters that clearly require attention include:
– there is a finding that people are less satisfied than one might expect with the information received from the Council. How can we improve on this ?
– dog fouling has got worse. The problem is a small minority of dog owners. Most are very responsible. Is there any solution ?
A further study of our local area (covering three Wards – Sutton South, Belmont and Cheam) will be available shortly. The sample size is too small to give results just for Sutton South Ward.
Sutton is famous for its avenues of street trees, and our Ward has many fine examples.
There are over 21 00 street trees in Sutton and their maintenance is sometimes a headache. While we all love the trees, they drop leaves and sap, block light and disturb pavements and front gardens with their roots. A balance has to be struck in keeping their height down, since heavy pollarding of lime trees (for example) leads to them developing many more branches that grow back quickly with larger leaves. Tree pruning policy is governed by a British Standard, and needs to take account of the shaping of the tree. Changes to the Standard in the 1980’s led to some changes in tree pruning policy involving less severe pruning.
In 2011 an exercise was carried out to deal with basal growth and low level branches. A more severe pruning programme occurs on a four yearly basis. Richard and Heather were able to get the programme changed so that the pruning programme began in the Ward in November 2011. It is due to conclude by February 2012. It has involved identifying any trees that are diseased and 16 have been taken out. The locations are noted and replacement trees will be provided in due course, but there is a waiting list. The rest are subject to the pruning programme.
Before the programme began Richard met Ben Morris, the Council’s Chief arborculturalist, in Sutton South Ward, to discuss the programme. They called on a number of residents who have particular issues with street trees.
Richard comments “We all love the trees and Sutton is rightly regarded as a green and pleasant Borough. I was pleased we were able to get the pruning programme brought forward. Inevitably the decisions taken by the arborculturalists leave some people complaining that trees near them should be pruned harder or less hard, and in a few locations trees that twere declining or diseased have been lost. But overall this is a programme to maintain the trees that are such an attractive aspect of South Sutton Ward.”
We appreciate the trees in The Ridgway, which have been severely lopped.
Sutton has been rated the best place in London to bring up children.
Researchers looked at more than 60 indicators – both positive and negative – in 2,400 postcode areas in England and Wales to draw up the list of “family-friendly hotspots”.
Sutton, which has over 1,500 acres of parks and open spaces, topped the London list ahead of Redbridge and Teddington.
The average value of a two-bedroom property in Sutton was found to be £190,582, higher than the £167,659 national average, but “affordable” by London standards – enabling families to get on the housing ladder.
The schools in the borough are some of the highest achieving in the UK, with Sutton’s primaries recently achieving the third highest SATS results in the country.
Sutton is also the borough with the highest percentage of employed residents in the capital. According to the Office for National Statistics, 78 per cent of Sutton’s working-age population has a job.
These are really interesting results and show how Sutton is a good place to live.
As local Councillors, we are delighted but not surprised our Borough has topped the league. We’ve got some of the best schools in the UK , it’s a very safe area and we’re one of the greenest parts of London – and there’s a real community here which makes it a great place to live and grow up.
SOME DETAILED RESULTS
The research was conducted by Calnea Analytics in July for the Family Friendly Hotspots Report.
Top of the England and Wales list was Devon village, Winkleigh, closely followed by South Petherton in Somerset , and Galgate in Lancashire . Sutton was 20th in the England and Wales list.
London top 10
1 Sutton
2 Redbridge
3 Teddington
4 Hutton
5 East Sheen
6 Banstead
7 Bushey
8 Havering
9 Rickmansworth
10 Buckhurst Hill
To see the report, go to: www.familyinvestments.co.uk/hotspots
