Are car clubs part of the solution?

Residents of Sutton South Ward have been consulted on problems and solutions concerning parking in the Ward. There has been a high response and the timetable for future action has been spelt out.

All residents received a consultation letter from Sutton Council relating to the parking issues in our Ward. When the Council’s Environment and Neighbourhoods Committee adopted the parking strategy in late 2016, involving a programme of consultation with residents over a period of time, we were pleased at the programme of consultation proposed but unhappy with the timescales. To undertake consultation in a way the traffic engineers could cope with, action in our area would not start till well into 2018. Following our campaign, this first stage has now been brought forward.

The consultation document recognises that there is a high demand for commuter parking near to Sutton train station and the town centre, in our Ward. The fact that part of our area is just outside the Sutton Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) means that there is more pressure on local roads, leading to parking problems being moved onto neighbouring streets.

The consultation will gather feedback from local residents in respect of parking pressures, issues and the days/times these are occurring to feed into wider analysis and development of options to progress to statutory consultation to address these issues.

The consultation ran until early January and response was via postage paid return envelope. Responses will be collated and analysed, the results to be fed back to consult on next steps. The timetable has now been spelt out and will involve analysis of responses and road-by-road results in the Spring, consultation on proposed options over the summer. If a clear consensus emerges there could be statutory consultation in the autumn and implementation by November.

There is more information at

www.sutton.gov.uk/parkingstrategy

The Council have pruned the cotoneasters at the triangle where Mayfield Road and The Ridgway join Farm Road. Periodic pruning is an essential part of the maintenance programme for these shrubs, and if they grow too high it affects visibility for motorists. The pruning always looks severe and has a stark impact, but these shrubs are robust and grow again quickly. The snow on the day they were pruned makes the impact look particularly severe – contrast these pictures of the triangle on the day after the pruning and the triangle last summer.

Jack has the speed gun

Cedar Road has a 20 mph limit but drivers often exceed it. On the last day of February Richard joined local police officers and Jack Hamilton, the former chair of the South Sutton Neighbourhood Association, in checking speeds with a “speed gun.” Those exceeding the speed limit will get a warning letter and action will escalate if they are caught again.

The latest planning application for 7-9 Cavendish Road, for demolition of the building and erection of a block of 16 flats, was turned down by the Council. The Planning Inspectorate, on appeal, has overturned the Council’s decision.

The main objection was that the design of the building – with sixteen small flats crammed in – was unsympathetic to the pleasant, green, suburban character of the road.

The developers appealed to the Planning Inspectorate in Bristol against the decision. On 9 January Richard attended a hearing on the appeal conducted by the Planning Inspectorate, and spoke up for the interests of local residents. Richard helped the previous owner get permission for the change of use of the building from being a care home, when the care home closed, to being a residential property, as the owner said she intended to live in it. He also helped her get Sutton Housing Partnership to repair the fence at the back.

We regret that the national planning system allows developers to bypass local democracy and appeal to this remote body, whose decision is final. 

The normal pattern of waste collection resumes on Tuesday 9 January (food, recycling (cans, glass, plastics, cartons), rubbish)

From Monday 8 January to Saturday 20 January 2018, we will be collecting real Christmas trees from the kerbside for composting.

Place it out for collection by 6am on the same day that your non-recyclable waste is collected, that is Tuesday 9 January. Please remove all decorations and pots and place your tree out for collection by 6am.

If you live in a flat and use communal bins please leave your tree next to the bin store and this will be collected. Please do not place your Christmas tree inside the bin store as this may prevent other residents accessing the bins.

If you prefer, you can take your tree free of charge to the Recycling Centre at Kimpton Park Way.

Happy New Year

On 20 November Sutton Council debated the subject of homelessness.

This is the text of Richard’s speech.

“During my year as Mayor I was continually struck with admiration for the massive contribution to Sutton made by volunteers. Volunteers for a great range of organisations, and in particular volunteers for organisations like Nightwatch, like the Street Pastors, like Sutton Community Works,  and like the food banks, all of whom are dedicated to helping the poorest and most dispossessed in our society.

But I could never escape from a feeling that in a rational and caring society organisations like the food banks and those providing in effect soup kitchens and advice for rough sleepers and those with no resources, like Nightwatch, would not exist. They would have no clients. How is it that in an affluent society like Britain we are such an unequal society that we have people in such poverty that they need food banks to feed themselves and they lose the roof over their heads, reduced at worst to rough sleeping, at best to the local authority finding them emergency bed and breakfast accommodation probably some miles from Sutton.

This would be an entirely academic observation were it not for the fact that this problem is not diminishing, it is increasing. Not just in Sutton, but nationally.

The statistics for Sutton show that in April of 2015 the number of homeless households the Council had placed in temporary accommodation stood at 280, a year later it was 411, last week it stood at 581. But it is not a Sutton problem, it is a national problem. It is everywhere.

As a Councillor I have found increasing casework concerning families given notice to quit and that the Council then has to place in emergency accommodation often miles from their roots, miles from the schools their children attend, miles from their employment in Sutton. In one recent case I dealt with this eviction appeared to be largely because the family had complained to the landlord about the all pervading damp in the flat.

What can be done to turn the tide ? What local authorities and volunteers like Nightwatch can do is no more than picking up the pieces. The Council has the difficult task of finding accommodation. When I was Chair of Planning Committee three years ago one of the decisions we took, controversial at the time and I recollect it was not without opposition, was to convert the Oakleigh home to be a hostel for families in need of emergency accommodation. But we would need many more Oakleighs now just to meet the increase in that need since that time.

The failure here, leading to the problem escalating, is a failure of policy. It is the welfare and housing policies of central Government that are failing to address the problem and leading to its escalation.

I could spend a long time detailing these failures – the bearing down on those already in poverty through the benefits freeze and through changes to support of those unable to work due to disability and illness, the introduction of Universal Credit in a way that is most concerned to save money, the loss of the Council’s stock of social housing due to the right to buy, the decline nationally in the construction of new Council houses and affordable homes, which we are trying to address here in Sutton with our ambitious programme to build the first new Council homes in 30 years. Changes to the Local Housing Allowance. The loopholes in planning law that enable developers such as those who refurbished Northumberland House in my Ward to evade requirements to provide any affordable homes atall. The list goes on. It is part of a war on what my generation cherished as the welfare state.

My colleague Councillor Fivey, who sadly cannot be here tonight, has had discussions with Nightwatch since the organisation was formed and assisted in their obtaining £586.13 from the Council through the Neighbourhood Grant programme to pay for the tent, a gazebo, from which they operate three nights a week in our Ward, providing food and help to rough sleepers and others without resources. Current discussions about the best practical further help for Nightwatch, and other organisations, will continue.

We all support the work of Nightwatch but there is no logic in expressing our support for organisations like Nightwatch while not mentioning what should be done to stop these problems occurring in the first place, which is to change Government policy.”