by Paul Scully | May 5, 2014 | News |
After six weeks of voting, I’ve had around 1,500 go online or write on a competition beermat to vote for their favourite pub. The clear winner was The Nightingale on the corner of Carshalton Road and Lind Road in Sutton. It’s been a fun competition to organise with a number of pubs getting into the spirit of the awards, encouraging their regulars and visitors alike to get on their smartphones or putting a beermat and pen in front of them. Following on from my Shop of the Year award last year, it’s important to continue promoting great local businesses.
Thanks to all who voted. I’ll be picking one lucky voter at random shortly to win £100 to spend in the Nightingale.
A special thank you to the landlords, managers and staff who worked hard to build up support for their pub. We’ve got some great pubs and bars in Sutton, Cheam and Worcester Park. It’s taken me a while to work through the handwriting on some of the beermats and scrapping some of the duplicates but the final results are now in. There can be only one winner but the top ten deserve a special mention, so here’s the run down.
- The Nightingale, Carshalton Road, Sutton
- The Robin Hood, West Street, Sutton
- The Old Bank, Brighton Road, Sutton
- The Lord Nelson, London Road, North Cheam
- The Gander Inn, St Dunstan’s Hill, Cheam
- Ivory Lounge, High Street, Sutton
- The Cock & Bull, High Street, Sutton
- The Railway, Station Way, Cheam
- Ye Olde Red Lion, Park Road, Cheam
- The Nonsuch Inn, North Cheam
Corinne Ellerington, who has run the Nightingale since 2011 said: “We pride ourselves on creating a homely and welcoming environment. We have a loyal group of regulars but we also have a lot of visitors coming in at weekends.
“One of the things that makes the pub so popular is our range of entertainment, we have something going on most days.
“It’s wonderful to be rewarded for our efforts and recognised as one of the best in the area.”
by Paul Scully | Feb 28, 2014 | News |
The review into whether St Helier’s A&E and Maternity Services should be moved to St Georges’ Hospital in Tooting has been scrapped. After Epsom Hospital pulled out of the Better Services, Better Value review which covered St Georges’, Croydon, Kingston, St Helier and Epsom Hospitals, Sutton’s Clinical Commissioning Group of GPs have decided not to go ahead with the unpopular proposals.
I am glad that the clinicians that led the ill-fated BSBV review have realised the depth of feeling of local people. Now we need stability. Scrapping the review is an important step but we need to find a way to ensure that the hospital gets on a secure financial footing and continues to improve on its vital services for local residents.
The Sutton Guardian reports that the £219m earmarked to redevelop the hospital will not be spent on St Helier and the banner on the front of the hospital is to be taken down. It is regrettable that we won’t see the benefit of the much-needed investment, though it was always clear to most that nothing could be built until the clinicians could agree on what kind of hospital they actually wanted to see on the site. I can only imagine the conversations in the Treasury and Department of Health at the squabbling in South London when other hospitals were crying out for funding. We have to come up with a plan that is acceptable to clinicians, local elected representatives and GPs to provide effective local healthcare and make a solid business case for the funding that might be needed rather than the piecemeal reviews and political posturing that has dogged the hospital for the last 15 years or so.
by Paul Scully | Feb 4, 2014 | News |
As a season ticket holder and sponsor at Sutton United, I was pleased to bring Maria Miller, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport down to the club to show her what Sutton United were planning for children’s football in Collingwood Rec’, next door to their Gander Green Lane home.
Having secured a lease from the council, John James from the club’s Supporters Trust was able to share their plans for developing the club in order to make the most of their huge site. Away from the homes on Gander Green Lane, they are looking at renewing some of the old buildings on the ground with a seated North stand and building a pavilion for use by both the club and players on Collingwood Rec. At the moment, Sutton United take it upon themselves to look after much of the Rec to ensure that it is a pleasant place for residents to use. The club is doing well in the league at the moment. It is nice to see them doing well in the community as well.
I had also invited representatives of a few local sports clubs such as West Sutton Little League, Sutton Tennis & Squash Club and The Sports Village. It was interesting to see how many of the issues raised in our discussion about grassroots sports in the Borough centred around dealings with Sutton Council and concerns about how the relationship was not as strong as it might be.
Strengthening existing local networks here in Sutton will provide more of a long – lasting benefit than writing £60,000 cheques for Chelsea FC as Sutton Council did last year. The Minister and I saw the dedication of some superb grassroots volunteers and we should do more to nurture and support their work.
by Paul Scully | Feb 4, 2014 | News |
The second half of my time spent with Government Cabinet Member, Theresa Villiers, was at Age UK Sutton. We met users of their Information and Advisory Service who told us how valued their contact was at a time that they most needed it. Chief Executive Marion Harper and her colleagues discussed how they were tackling loneliness among the elderly and helping with the transition between leaving hospital after an extended stay and the return to living independently at home.
This is a huge issue with hospital beds often being hard to come by when patients are not discharged because of the difficulties of a return home rather than for clinical reasons. The more that organisations like Age UK can do to act in this area, the better for the smooth running of the NHS and the local authority’s Adult Social Services and of course, reducing the significant costs involved in ‘bed blocking.’
by Paul Scully | Feb 4, 2014 | News |
I was pleased to welcome Rt Hon Theresa Villiers MP to Worcester Park. As Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, we didn’t discuss too much related to her main brief apart from her security detail that is required due to the ongoing situation across the Irish Sea. However as a member of the Cabinet and a former Transport Minister, Theresa was an excellent person to bring to meet shop owners in Central Road. She was very willing to listen to their concerns and I know that she will take those views back to the heart of government. Theresa used to be one of our MEPs so knows Sutton and Worcester Park well.
From the government side, we discussed how the cuts in National Insurance and Business Rates Relief for small businesses would help small businesses. The branch manager of Haart told us how his new branch had settled in well since opening with the housing market doing well. He agreed that having trains stop at Worcester Park as part of the proposed Crossrail 2 project would be a boost for house prices in the area.
Representatives of the Worcester Park Traders Forum told us about the good and bad in Central Road. There are clearly differing priorities depending on where shops are located along the stretch with retailers closest to Waitrose benefiting most from shoppers using the free car park. Traders further up the slope didn’t get quite as much passing trade. The recent investment in Worcester Park wasn’t universally celebrated, not that one could guess from the council press releases. The attention was certainly welcomed but some traders believed that consultation consisted of presenting a series of options, none of which were ideal, rather than bringing people in right at the beginning of the process. I’ve said before that I would always trust shopkeepers over politicians to know what a High Street needs and what customers want.
