People on Facebook are keeping themselves in good cheer by learning how to start each morning with a positive outlook:
Tomorrow, try Peter Mandleson. Mac users might need to make up their own fun.
A number of street lights in the following roads in the ward are to be replaced in January:
Sutton Grove, Carshalton Grove, Cross Road, Waterloo Road, Croft Road, Meadow Road, Corrib Drive, Byron Avenue, Florian Avenue, Orchard Way, Byron Avenue East, Cowper Avenue, Kingsley Avenue, Byron Gardens, Brookfield Avenue, Milton Avenue.
If you are affected, the contractor will be dropping a letter off to your home to let you have more details. I’ve reprinted the letter below for reference.
Dear Resident
Sutton has a rolling relighting programme to replace all the old and life-expired columns in the Borough and we replace some 300 columns each year to ensure that the street lighting stock is kept in good condition. The columns in your road are very old and have been identified as requiring replacement.
In most cases this work will involve removing all the existing columns in a street and replacing them with new steel columns, fitted with new lanterns. At the same time, we will upgrade the lighting to meet the current standards for the lighting of residential roads.
You may notice a few differences when the work is completed:
• The light itself will have a natural white glow rather than a yellow one, enabling objects and surroundings to be better seen.
• All new columns will be steel and their height will increase from five to six metres. The columns will be painted holly green, which is the standard Sutton colour.
• Wherever possible new columns will be placed alongside the old columns, but this may not always be possible due to lighting design requirements.
Once the work has been completed I hope you will feel that the street environment has improved and is a safer place to walk, cycle or drive along.
Progress of the works
Our company Cartledge is the Council’s street lighting contractor and we will be organising the installation of the street lights. Work is due to commence on ******** and will start with the erection of the new columns and fitting the lanterns together with the associated wiring and painting. This will take place over a two week period and the old columns will remain working. The next phase will involve the local electricity company, EDF, who will provide electrical connections to the new and disconnections to the existing columns so that there will always be adequate lighting in the road. There may be gap of between 6 and 8 weeks before EDF start their element of the works. The final stage will involve our work crews removing all the old columns and ensuring that all pavement surfaces have been correctly reinstated.
May I ask you to help us make the works run smoothly:
Please,
1. Do not park along the road where the contractor is working,
2. Do not park where there are ‘No Waiting’ cones or signs and
3. Move your vehicle if requested.
Common questions from residents:
Question The new lighting column has been put in a place that makes it difficult for me to drive in and out of my property. Can you do something about this?
Answer In most cases we can move a column one to two metres without affecting the lighting design, although this may be more difficult if it is on a property boundary or near a road junction. However, in most cases we can make minor adjustments.
Question I am concerned that the new column will flood my bedroom with unwanted light. Can you prevent this?
Answer The new lighting units will be designed to direct light out and downwards so light pollution should not be a major problem. However, if there is a problem once the lighting is in full working order, we can fit a shield to help prevent any unwanted light spillage.
Please accept in advance my apologies for any inconvenience that this work causes you. Should you have any special access needs or if you require any more information please contact me at the numbers above.
Last Wednesday, I hosted a conference for the voluntary sector alongside Philippa Stroud, parliamentary candidate for Sutton & Cheam and Director of the Centre for Social Justice. Our aim was to share the knowledge and experience of friends and colleagues of ours and to listen to the concerns and views of those people who give their time so freely to help those in our society with greatest need. A wide range of organisations were represented from Citizens’ Advice Bureau through to the Cassandra Learning Centre, a family-run organisation which tackles domestic violence, established after the tragic death of the daughter of the founder.
The first session was about working with the media. Many organisations hide their light under a bushel, often because they are spending the vast amount of their time working providing services and support that promotion and awareness is the first to go. However, with funding ever harder to find, a degree of promotion is important to compete against the larger better organised operations. Attracting new volunteers is only possible if people know that you are there. As well as talking through the basics of press releases and media management, we discussed other possibilities such as groups sharing someone that can do the odd press release from home that may not be able or willing to get involved in any other way. Similarly I would encourage asking for help from bigger partners such as the Sutton Centre for the Voluntary Sector (SCVS) and the Council itself.
Following on from this, Jo Hillier, head of Social Action for the Conservative Party and formerly Saatchi’s, talked about raising profiles and brand management. Drawing on examples of big companies such as British Airways and Marks and Spencers, Jo told us how to spend a few moments reconsidering what our brands are. The message was clear, you do not have to be a multinational to do this. A short time on this will help work out where your support may lie for funding and volunteering, how to improve applying for tenders from the Council and other bodies and how to attract service users to your organisation if applicable.
Finally Debbie Pippard and Shaun Walsh from the Big Lottery Fund came to talk about fundraising. It’s not often that a big agency like this comes into town and says that they have funds and they want to give more cash to Sutton. They already fund organisations in Sutton including SCVS but their new “Awards for All” fund is open for direct bids and they encouraged the groups present to come forward with their bids.
Philippa Stroud brought her considerable experience to bear when she spoke about the challenges that the sector face including “mission creep” as the government and commissioning organisations like the Council and PCT move smaller partners towards the direction that they want and away from the core approach that the voluntary group was set up for. I hopefully got across the point that councillors from both parties in Sutton value the work that the voluntary sector do and that the Conservatives want to build on the strong partnership that exists, sharing more skills, resources and experiences to learn from each other.
The delegates had the floor for the second half of the afternoon. Breaking up into 4 groups they discussed their concerns and then shared them with me, Philippa and Baroness Warsi, Shadow Minister for Community Cohesion and Social Action.I asked them three questions looking over the next few years and the feedback had a high degree of consistency across the four groups that they were split into:
1. What are your main challenges at the moment?
2. Where do you see your organisation and the voluntary sector in 5 years?
3. What can the Council and Government do to help?
The last point reflected the massively positive feedback that we had from the event. I was a little surprised to hear that this was the first time that many had had the benefit of such an event. The Council have good intentions towards the voluntary sector and clear channels to engage with their partners in this area but it is often too easy to rely solely on partnership boards and panels rather than chatting informally or engaging in a different way to get a true reflection of concerns. I was delighted to be able to offer something that people found genuinely interesting and useful and to meet such a dedicated bunch of people. Like them, I look forward to the next one.
When I have a chance to catch up, the paperwork and summaries from each of the presentations will be made available to all. I’ll post them here as well.
I have received a list of action points from council officers who are looking into the points raised at our recent walk around Carshalton village.
As ever, when the answers start to come back, they will be available to see here first.
Last night, I was delighted to be able to go along to the Sutton Staff Awards which celebrated the work of the many people that work hard to provide residents with services.
I presented Kate Evans with the Employee of the Year award for Children, Young People and Learning Services. Kate manages several teams tackling School Improvement. All of the nominees deserved an award.
Rick Mayne was nominated for an award. Earlier this year, I went along to Oakleigh, the centre providing care for vulnerable older people suffering from dementia. Rick is doing phenomenal work finding unusual but simple methods for connecting with people that other centres merely manage.
The START team who work to help people remain independent in their homes was another revelation when I visited in the summer. They fully deserved their award as overall Team of the Year in the Council.
The evening was sponsored so allowing the staff to celebrate their acheivements without recourse to the taxpayer. The organisers who put in effort above and beyond, deserve a thank you too. Politicians get it in the neck when things go wrong and jump on the glory when things go well. Sutton’s 3,500 council employees keep on, head down to make things work regardless.
Complete List of Winners:
Adult Social Services & Housing:
Employee of the Year: Hazel Payne
Team of the Year: Shared Lives
Children, Young People & Learning Services:
Employee of the Year: Kate Evans
Team of the Year: Family Information Service
Environment & Leisure:
Employee of the Year: Sally Blomfield
Team of the Year: The Gritting Team
Resources & Chief Executive’s Group:
Employee of the Year: Neil Talbot
Team of the Year: The HR & Payroll Project for the Learning Disabilities TUPE Transfer
Environment Champion: Ben Morris
Customer Services Champion: Ania Wright
Community Engagement Champion: Richard Radford
Value for Money Champion: Emily Fahey
Life Long Learning Champion: Bill Cody