IS THE TRAIN SERVICE DETERIORATING ?

tunnel train

Many Sutton South residents commute into London for work so the quality of the train service is vital to us.

Work continues to improve Sutton station, with the new side entrance now
to be opened for longer hours and the Sutton Gateway project improving the
look of the front of the station. But residents in Sutton South Ward who
commute into London tell us that the quality of the train service has deteriorated in the past 6 months. Just two years ago our campaign to
preserve the Thameslink route from Sutton through to north London was
successful, but now the quality of service
has fallen. Paul Burstow, Trish and Richard have started a new campaign to fight for better rail services. We have been handing out surveys at Sutton train station to get residents’ views. If you have an experience to share, get in touch – specific examples will help the campaign

THE BEST RESTAURANT IN A HALF MILE RADIUS OF OUR WARD

On 6 January (Twelfth Night) Richard and his wife Gloria had lunch at “The Clink” restaurant which is in Her Majesty’s Prison High Down, in Banstead. Richard now regards this as the best restaurant within a half mile radius of Sutton South Ward.

Negotiating the website and the security checks to get a booking at this restaurant is a challenge. We tried to go before Christmas but it was full. Today the restaurant, which can seat about 60, was fairly empty. You have to turn up early, bring lots of photo ID, not have a mobile phone on you, and be prepared to pay by cheque. It is a bit of a walk from the reception area to the main gate of the prison, where, accompanied by a warder, you are taken through numerous gates that are opened before you and locked behind you, and across various internal courtyards. When you reach the restaurant it has the ambience of a good central London restaurant, and the food is superb.

The restaurant is run as a training restaurant and the prisoners so trained are helped to find jobs in catering after they leave the high security prison. Richard had a Caesar salad, some duck, and a peach desert. Gloria had soup, some beautifully presented fish, and the peach desert. No alcohol of course. All for a little over £50 for two, with an option to leave a donation for the charity, devoted to the rehabilitation of offenders.

The restaurant can be found, and a booking made, at  this address (click on “at”).

OVER 14 000 RESIDENTS SIGN UP TO GREEN GARDEN WASTE SCHEME

quadrant bins

10,000 people needed to sign up by the 15th February 2015 to make the proposed service viable. By the middle of January over 8 000 residents had signed up and by the due date it was over 12 000. We are there!

Now, those who have signed up need to make sure they make the necessary payment, and you can do this via the Sutton website. 

 

Stopping the free service will save the Council £736,000 a year, a contribution to the £40 million needed as a result of Government cuts.

Sutton Council will begin charging for Green Garden Waste Collection from July 2015.

Residents had until 15th February 2015 to sign up for the service. They can still sign up and make the required payment, either online by visiting

www.sutton.gov.uk/ggw

or by returning the form received in the post to the Council.

A 240 litre bin will be charged at £59 annually with an early bird discount rate of £49 offered to people who signed up before the 15th February 2015. That’s cheaper than neighbouring boroughs of Kingston (£71), Merton (£65) and Richmond (£60). This decision was taken by the Environment and Neighbourhood’s Committee after almost 2,000 people had their say on the future of the service. The consultation was part of the Council’s “Sutton’s Future” campaign which encourages residents to help the Council achieve £40m of savings from its annual budget by 2019. The savings are being forced by unprecedented government reductions to funding and growing demand for Council services.

Residents were given the option of the current free service becoming a charged for service, or being stopped completely. The paid for service will start on 1 July, 2015. The Borough-wide consultation included a telephone survey representative of the Borough, an online survey on the Sutton’s Future website and three ‘Have Your Say’ events where residents could give their views in person and ask questions. In the telephone survey, 79% of those surveyed had a garden and 74% of these used the current service. Out of the 1,002 people surveyed, 32% were in favour of charging for the service and 42% supported it being stopped. In the online survey, out of the 892 people that took part, 69% favoured the chargeable service and 60% said they intended to subscribe, while 11% said they supported the service stopping. In the three ‘Have Your Say’ events, the preferred option among the 92 attendees was to charge for the service.

STREET TREE PRUNING PROGRAMME ABOUT TO BEGIN

Residents often ask treeResidents often ask us about the street trees in their road.

There are over a thousand street trees in the Ward, and they are an important contribution to the pleasant, green, suburban character of Sutton which we all cherish. Unfortunately at this time of year they drop a lot of leaves, and these are being progressively cleared up. Trees are selectively pruned on a four year cycle. A survey of the trees in Sutton South Ward has recently been completed by trained arborculturalists and a programme of tree pruning and felling will be completed in the Ward between the end of December 2014 and March 2015. The arborculturalists have carried out a full health and condition survey and the pruning recommended is to remove or minimise the potential for the trees to cause harm to people or property. Unfortunately the programme will involve the loss of a few trees, nineteen in all. We are only taking down trees which are dead, or dying, or diseased, and dangerous.

Our contractor City Suburban Tree Surgeons will begin the work shortly and expect it will be completed by the end of March 2015. If a tree near you is felled and, after it is felled, you would like the Council to consider a replacement, let us know. The tree planting budget is, like all Council budgets, under some pressure. Residents and residents’ organisation sometimes fund planting and this is always possible.

CAROLS AT THE FRIENDS’ MEETING HOUSE

friday band

The band at rehearsal

On 13 December Richard played the trumpet at the annual event he helps organise, always on the second Saturday in December, at the Friends’ Meeting House in Cedar Road. There is a tea for elderly local residents each month on the second Saturday organised by our good friends the Quakers. Every December the afternoon tea is given over to a carol concert and Richard’s band – the Phoenix Concert Band – provides musicians. This year we again had a dozen players on brass, saxophones flutes and clarinets. The band played some arrangements of Christmas music and some popular carols, including Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Silent Night and O Little Town of Bethlehem.

The band playing last year

The band playing last year

 

FREE GRIT PROGRAMME AGAIN A GREAT SUCCESS

SNOW

Free Grit for residents and local businesses

Sutton Council again provided masses of free grit to our residents and local businesses, to get ready for snowy and icy conditions. There could be snow by Christmas.

Each household or local business was able to collect 10kg of free grit courtesy of Sutton Council to use on footpaths, pavements or roads in front of homes or business premises.

Many residents collected grit for themselves and for elderly friends and neighbours or for residents and local businesses who do not have a car. We are delighted this scheme, which has been so successful, has been repeated despite the massive pressure on Sutton Council due to Government cuts in funding.

PADDY ASHDOWN INSPIRES US

ashdown

There was an inspiring address from former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown at the Sutton party’s annual general meeting, held at the Salvation Army centre on 24 November. There was a good turnout of Sutton South Ward members for what was a packed meeting.

Paddy accepted that we live in difficult times but stressed that we must hold on to our liberal values. In a wide ranging discussion following his address members stressed that given the result of the 2010 election, with a hung Parliament, it was the responsible thing for the Liberal Democrats to enter a coalition. We had taken the edge off what would otherwise have been more extreme Tory policies, and there were benefits. Members stressed the need to maintain our concern, as Liberal Democrats, for equality, diversity, internationalism, multi-culturalism and helping the less fortunate. We must lead the struggle against the messages of UKIP, which were of separatism and isolation, and a desire to return to a model of England in the 1950’s.

We have two excellent local Members of Parliament in Tom Brake and Paul Burstow, and need to do all that is required to get them re-elected in May.

Ruth Dombey reminded the meeting of how successful we had been last May, winning 45 of the 54 seats on Sutton Council, holding all our seats and winning two more from the Tories – in Worcester Park and Nonsuch Wards. This on a day that had not been propitious for the Liberal Democrats elsewhere. We need to keep up that momentum to win the Parliamentary seats next May.

A GOOD DISPLAY NEXT SPRING: WE PLANT BULBS IN OVERTON PARK

Perhaps it was appropriate that on Armistice Day, 11 November, Trish and Richard, with our MP Paul Burstow, after attending the short Armistice Day service in Sutton town centre, went to Overton Park where, with the help of local people and some Liberal Democrats from Paul’s office, planted 500 daffodil bulbs. It will make a great display next Spring.

bulb planting mediumIn the picture you can see, from the left, Councillor Samantha Bourne (Worcester Park Ward Councillor who is also Richard’s vice-chair on the Planning Committee), Trish, Richard, our MP Paul Burstow and other local helpers. Richard’s wife Gloria is fourth from the right.

PETITION ACTED ON

One of our other benches, in Cedar Road

One of our other benches, in Cedar Road

At lunchtime on 9 October Trish and Richard went to see residents at Thomas House in Grange Road. At the Council meeting on 21 July we presented the petition from residents of Thomas House seeking a bench on the pavement outside Thomas House, which is sheltered accommodation for the elderly. We have obtained funding for the bench. We met residents and the Council officer in charge of sorting out the bench. We agreed where the bench should go. It will take a few weeks to install it. Residents will then be able to sit down while waiting for the bus. We had previously got a bench installed on the pavement opposite.

CRIME STAYS LOW IN SUTTON SOUTH

Sutton police station

Sutton police station

Crime remains low in Sutton South. This was the conclusion of the consultative police Ward panel meeting attended by Trish and Richard at Sutton police station on 2  October. Sutton is in fact a Borough with one of the lowest crime rates in London and Sutton South is a Ward with a low crime rate even by Sutton’s standards.

This was not a well attended meeting. We spent part of the time discussing the recent changes to consultation arrangements introduced by the Tory Mayor. They are not popular, and have led to the demise of the popular local Borough-wide consultative group. We discussed how we might meet in public in the future. The crime statistics presented by the police continue to show the Ward has low crime levels, with theft from vehicles one of the most common offences. Agreed priorities are burglary, theft from motor vehicles and anti-social behaviour.

This followed on from the first meeting since the election of the Ward police panel on 9 July at Sutton police station, a meeting Richard and Trish attended. We are considering the mechanics of making this meeting open to the public, or combining its meetings with those of the local committee, to make the meetings open.