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.
by Paul Scully | Jan 15, 2014 | News |
A group of local housing experts had the opportunity to discuss their ambitions and concerns with the Housing Minister, Kris Hopkins MP. I was delighted to be able to welcome the Minister to Sutton to hear about the demand for new homes across Sutton and the state of the housing market. Metro Bank on Sutton High Street hosted representatives from Haxted Estates, a local property developer, Burn & Warne, a Sutton Estate Agent and a private rental landlord who works closely with the council. The main concern that came across was that Sutton council were slow to respond to demand in comparison with other boroughs such as Croydon.
When I see places like Victoria House, Sutherland House and the old Burger King site across the constituency remaining derelict after so many years, I remind myself that whereas most councils have a Planning Committee, whereas we have a Development Control Committee. That may sound like semantics but seeking to control planning centrally is not the same as sensible forward planning. The number of times that I sat on said Development Control Committee as a councillor to be told that there was nothing that we could do to amend an application to make it more acceptable and that we had to deal with the case in front of us. The officers were right, it was too late, but there is little scope for members and local residents to get involved at an earlier stage, thus leaving planning meetings as the only way to vent frustration. Other boroughs have Strategic Planning Committees where developers can showcase their ideas and receive comprehensive feedback before submitting their applications. In Croydon the make up of that committee is the same as the people who will eventually decide on the final application.
Of course we do not want developers to rule the roost and change the borough beyond recognition without some semblance of control. However working with the right people we can offer some sensitive development in return for cheap or free facilities, or perhaps breathing new life into old buildings. I’ve spoken for sometime for the need to get the council to ask residents what they want to see in their local area and then go out and find the people to make this happen rather than wait for someone to come along with a proposal that isn’t suitable and then make do. We do need more homes in Sutton. Working out plans in the urban centres to meet this demand will help better protect the parts of the borough that have a special character from over-development. This will also help reinvigorate our local retail areas with more people walking to them as their primary shops.
One such development that should help give a boost to the town centre is Sutton Point. I took the Minister up to the site where CNM Estates are planning 322 residential units, a hotel, offices and shops. Once this is built, it will fill the site that has laid empty on the one-way system for years. One of my first tasks as a councillor was to give the original scheme by its former owners planning permission. That was back in 2006. Eight years later, I am finally optimistic that we will see action.
I was pleased to be able to introduce the Minister to Andrew Taylor, Chief Executive of Sutton Housing Partnership who looks after the borough’s housing stock. He has a challenging job to improve the standard of social housing across the borough. This work has progressed well over the last four years after starting from the point where Sutton’s homes were ranked as second worst in London after Tower Hamlets. He is ambitious for the borough, wanting to build 100 new council homes and asked to increase the debt cap so that the council can borrow to build. Although the Minister believed that the Treasury would be reluctant for debt to be increased at a time that the country is struggling to pay its bills, he was keen to help and explained how the council is now able to keep more of the rent received from tenants to invest in new homes.
All in all, a good day with lively discussion. It is clear that there are companies like Haxted Estates who are keen to invest in Sutton and agents like Burn & Warne who can match up land and home buyers to help this investment along. If we can get a local authority who can move from the hackneyed phrase “Sutton is open for business” to taking real action beyond the appropriate start that they have made with Opportunity Sutton, we can get this borough moving again.
by Paul Scully | Jan 12, 2014 | News |
On Wednesday, Sutton Council approved controversial plans to relocate a GPs’ surgery at the former Henderson Hospital site on Belmont Heights. Two hundred or so angry residents booed and jeered after the proposal was voted through by five votes to one at the Council’s Development Control Committee. The lone voice on the panel against the development was Conservative councillor, Tony Shields. Like so many of the nearby residents, Tony understood the need for a new, larger surgery but believed that this site was the wrong location. Lack of parking, increased traffic in a residential cul-de-sac and packing too much onto the site were the key reasons for Tony to vote against.
Despite some of the five Liberal Democrat councillors arguing on much the same ground as Cllr Shields, when they were asked to decide, they voted en masse in favour of granting the former Liberal Democrat Mayor, Dr Brendan Hudson and his colleagues the ability to move his surgery from Mulgrave Road in Sutton to Belmont.
Many people have long argued that Sutton Hospital would be the better and more obvious site to locate such a surgery, with better transport links and more space to plan parking and easy access. Although the Chairman of the Development Control Committee made the assumption that Sutton Hospital would not be up for redevelopment for six years or so, it transpires that significant parts of the sites are being vacated within a matter of months and the Epsom & St Helier Hospital Trust who own that land have said that they will review the situation for healthcare on that site. The GPs affected have been looking for a suitable site for ten years. Cllr Shields made the point that a few more months for the best site would not make much difference. On Monday I will be presenting a petition to a full meeting of the Council on behalf of many of the people who attended the planning committee asking that the council do not sell the part of the Henderson Hospital site that remains under their ownership until they have undertaken a meaningful consultation with local residents. It’s a long shot admittedly but when the council makes the wrong decision due to lack of organisation between three public sector bodies and sheer intransigence, we need to keep plugging away. I’ll report back as to how I get on.
by Paul Scully | Oct 28, 2013 | News |
I was delighted to welcome William Hague to Sutton on Friday. The Foreign Secretary met a number of representatives from Sutton businesses both big and small to discuss how we can attract global businesses to Sutton whilst maintaining our identity with a rich selection of small, local shops and businesses. We were hosted by HH Global, a local success story. This company started off as a local printers expanding quickly after moving into outsourcing the entire management of printing and brand development for several big companies. Now HH Global operates in more than 50 countries around the world with a turnover of some £1oo m.
We were joined by giants like Reed Elsevier, Subsea 7, G4S and Crown Agents, all global businesses with a significant HQ in Sutton. However we also had smaller start-ups like Sense Communications who have 5 employees looking after some significant PR contracts after only a couple of years trading and I was delighted that Kate and Mary from Precision Chiropractic were able to join us as one of the representatives of small High Street businesses. The timing was perfect for them to receive their certificate from the former Conservative Party Leader having just been named as the Sutton, Cheam & Worcester Park Shop of the Year 2013.
William and I then dropped in on the Sports Village near Rosehill to see another hidden jewel in Sutton’s crown. Keith and James Sohl and colleagues have done an excellent job of building a sports facility that has a global reach. Their tennis facilities are used by several players in the build up to Wimbledon and there are ties with a number of local schools. Budding young players from countries like China are able to study and practice at the Village bringing a significant boost to the local economy including hotels and our shops. It’s only a shame that the council have seen fit to drop on them a 400% rate increase, having previously relocated the teaching of citizenship classes from their to the controversial £8.5m Sutton Life Centre. Local authorities have to ensure that businesses sit well with residents’ priorities but they also need to allow business people to do what they do best, respond to need and demand.
by Paul Scully | Oct 28, 2013 | News |
The Sutton, Cheam & Worcester Park Shop of the Year Award 2013 has now finished. 107 individual shops across Sutton attracted support from regular customers and the top four showed the diverse make up of businesses on our High Streets.
Winner
Precision Chiropractic in Cheam
Runner Up
Woodward Bros Butchers in Worcester Park
3rd Place
John Fraser Jenkins Hair Salon in Cheam
4th Place
Alan Greenwood & Sons Funeral Directors in North Cheam
Thank you to everyone who took the time to vote in the competition. Your support makes a difference to these businesses without which our local shopping centres would merely be identikit High Streets. Their feedback has been positive illustrated by a couple of quotes below.
“Thanks for organising, it has made a great difference to staff morale, and team spirit and client feedback and support…It has also made us think about choosing local independent business to business support.”
“It has definitely lead to more interaction, improved relationships with people, and encouraged referrals. I hope all business in the area have found the same as we are big believers in local shopping.”
I am also grateful for the suggestions about how to improve your local shopping areas which I will be working through over the next couple of weeks. I’ll report back on this in the future. You can also see how the Sutton Guardian covered the competition:
