by Paul Scully | Jan 5, 2010 | News |
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We seem to be in for another heavy snow storm with 10 inches or so reported to be falling in London suburbs tonight and tomorrow. There is a list of grit bins on the Sutton website. Local resident Adrian Short has done a great job in mapping them on Google Maps. The Council website also has the latest news on school opening.
However, the list and map does highlight a significant gap in emergency planning. The Council lists 150 grit bins available for a population of over 180,000 residents. This means that there is, on average, only one grit bin for every 1200 residents. To add insult to injury, some areas have only one grit bin available to local residents whereas others have over thirty. The list on the council website demonstrates that the grit bin situation has not been reviewed for at least 7 years with one described as being outside Tesco on Sutton High Street, which was closed in 2003 to make way for Asda.
The recent cold spell has exposed Sutton Council’s weaknesses in winter road maintenance, causing outrage with local taxpayers after poor gritting efforts left many residents stranded in their own homes because roads and pavements turned into untackled ice rinks. Many residents who were willing to grit their own roads – out of necessity – were dismayed to find grit bins either empty or unavailable in their area.
Google Maps shows that access to gritting bins varies significantly from Ward to Ward. For example, the Carshalton South and Clockhouse Ward is well serviced with 33 gritting bins whereas the Wallington North, Wandle Valley and Nonsuch Wards languish with only one gritting bin each. Conservatives are now calling for an end to Sutton’s ‘post code lottery’ access to grit bins and for better preparation for icy road conditions in the future.
This is not the first time that the Liberal Democrat-run Council has provoked controversy over its winter highways policies. Last year the ruling Liberal Democrats slashed the winter highways maintenance budget by £20,000 in March only to later spend £16,000 on a state-of-the-art air conditioning system for the Council Leader’s Office in July.
The past month has shown how woefully ill-prepared Sutton Council is for icy and snowy conditions. I don’t blame our hardworking gritting teams, I blame the political leadership of the Liberal Democrats for short-sighted cuts to the highways budget.
by Paul Scully | Jan 4, 2010 | News |
Recently, I promised that I would report back from my recent walk around Carshalton Village with Council officers. To their credit, most issues were tackled straight away: to my shame, it’s taken me a while to report back. I’m still waiting to hear about Scawen Wall and fees in the local car parks but here’s the rest:
- Loading Bays in Carshalton High Street – The Council have asked TfL to look into making this mixed use, both loading and short stay parking.
- Planting in the High Street – The Council have asked TfL if they would support a community-led replanting and tidy up of the planters in front of the shops on Beacon Grove.
- Promoting Business in the Village – The new ‘Core Planning Strategy’ adopted by the Council on 7th December identifies Carshalton High Street as a ‘district’ centre. This gives us the ability to promote the development of Carshalton Village and support proposals which consolidate its role as a shopping centre. Now we just need the political leadership to go out and do the promoting.
- Blocked Drains – The drains in Talbot Road and Seymour Road were passed on to be cleaned and an additional gully put in opposite 36 Carshalton Place to avoid a pool forming at the crossing point.
- Railing Replacement at the corner of the High Street and The Square – TfL have been notified of the incorrect replacement outside the Coach & Horses.
- Lime Trees in The Square – These trees are to be pruned to reduce their width and overhang to gardens. They will also be thinned out to let more light through. The Council doesn’t plan to reduce them in height as Officers are concerned this will cause them to bush out in all directions, with loads of soft sappy growth that will produce even more sticky deposits.
- Mill Lane – The cobbled area is adopted highway rather than part of the new development so allowing for some tree planting pits to help ‘green up’ the area. This would be considered as part of the public realm money that is allocated to each area in the Borough for distribution by councillors, the earliest being 2011.
- Junctions with Carshalton Road – Officers agree that junction such as Cambridge Road are hazardous and would benefit from the short stretch of single red line that goes up these side roads to be upgraded to double red lines, thus removing parked cars from the end of the roads. TfL have been informed as roads with red lines are their responsibility.
- Yellow Lines around Ringstead Road, Croft Road, Meadow Road – This is not considered to be a high enough priority. We’ll keep on pushing for better sight lines in this area.
- Colston Avenue – This is being dealt with as part of a much larger batch of projects. Objections to the schemes in this wider area are being examined with any changes to the original plans to be made by February. Any work will start in February/March.
- Yellow Lines at junction of Blakehall/Salisbury Road – Again, this is being looked at as part of a batch, with consultation ending anytime now and implementation early January.
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by Paul Scully | Dec 24, 2009 | News |
I’ve just been informed by Steve O’Connell, our local Greater London Assembly member, that there will be emergency utility works on the A232 Croydon Road, commencing on 4th January for about 6 weeks. This is to repair an Extra High Voltage cable located beneath Croydon Road at the junction with Cedars Road.
Working hours will be 8am-8pm Monday to Friday with weekend working as required. The first few days of work will be noisy. Traffic Management utilising two way temporary traffic signals will be set up.
We all know how busy this road can be so the early warning is welcome. No doubt it’ll affect the Beddington Lane junction at peak times so it might be advisable to stay clear as much as possible.
![Council’s Winter Cuts Add To Icy Chaos]()
by Paul Scully | Dec 23, 2009 | News |
Angry residents have been hitting the phones this week with complaints to the Council reaching levels last seen when a £35 per bag charge was slapped on green garden waste collections. When the first snow arrived this week, the main roads were navigable as the gritting teams had enough warning to cover the ground. Side roads were a mixed bag.
Tuesday saw rain which had cleared much of the snow, suddenly freeze after a rapid drop in temperature. This caused chaos across the Borough with the main east-west A232 at a total standstill. People reported 2 hour journeys to get from Cheam to Carshalton. Side roads were treacherous.
Now, no gritting effort is going to remove every flake of snow and trace of ice from the highways but people have got every right to be angry when the short-sighted LibDem administration slashed the winter road maintenance budget by £20,000 AFTER last February’s snowfall which had a bigger effect than Copenhagen on people’s driving habits, as shown in the photo. This cut was made as £16,000 of taxpayers’ cash was spent on upgrading the air conditioning in the Council leader’s office.
A mere ten months later, snow returns, everywhere grinds to a halt. The gritting team have been working hard throughout. Theirs is a thankless task, working around the clock to cope and keep us moving but there is more that we can do. There are plenty of residents who would be prepared to help grit their pavements. How many grit bins would £20,000 have paid for. Whether emergency bins are put out when the warnings come or permanent ones are opened ahead of the snowfall, I don’t know. However if we are to trust people more rather than run everything from the warm and climate-controlled Council office, then we should help people to help themselves as well. Alternatively the LibDems could watch the roads freeze whilst they freeze the Council Tax just ahead of a difficult election campaign. Oh wait…!
