by Paul Scully | Apr 11, 2007 | News |
Just returned from a Development Control Committee meeting. Two items of note. Firstly we rejected a back garden infill development that followed the “John West” school of design, ie squeezed in like sardines. It was proposed that two houses shared a single parking space! Hmm.
The second item was for two totem poles to be erected either side of the St Helier Open Space. Yes, totem poles. I applaud the overall initiative of Groundwork Merton who have worked with residents in St Helier to improve the open spaces in the area. The new skateboard park will be well received. However, I still ask myself, when funding comes from the EU, why do the ensuing projects have to be accompanied by odd pieces of abstract art. Strange sculptures litter the roadsides of France, Belgium and Holland. Now we are to have two poles apropos of nothing. Several councillors tonight asked the rather relevant question as to what thought had been given to the risk of fire. The answer was given that the sculptures were designed with vandalism in mind. I hope that the unfortunate reply isn’t prophetic. They might just present a new challenge to the antisocial element. The design in the photo isn’t from St Helier, although CCTV in the eyes and a loud speaker in the mouth might just run alongside Government thinking to ward off those seeking a fresh pyromaniacal challenge.
Others will judge whether I am a Philistine. I’ll just keep asking how much the poles cost to erect and maintain.
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by Paul Scully | Apr 6, 2007 | News |
The Sutton Guardian has covered a vital issue that we raised
last year. The LibDem Council has in their wisdom scrapped the Parks’ Police in order to make sufficient cuts to limit the increase in Council Tax to only the second highest in London!
In doing so, they neglected the fact that the replacement units supplied by the Met wouldn’t be up and running for six months whilst training is completed. This leaves the parks unpoliced throughout the summer when the majority of the trouble occurs.
Eric and Barry Russell have tackled the Lead Councillor Graham Tope about this, predicting problems with the introduction of a new scheme only to be told that there was nothing to worry about. Their fears have proved to be correct. I’m sure that there isn’t a single resident in the Borough that would mind saving money if the parks are policed effectively. It was not clear exactly how the savings would stack up. I guess that scrapping the service entirely for half the financial year is clear enough.
Leave a comment here to share your thoughts but also let others know. Why not respond to the article in the Guardian by
emailing them?
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by Paul Scully | Apr 6, 2007 | News |
We’ve being getting it wrong all of these years. It’s not more bobbies on the beat that is required, just fewer LibDems on the streets. Not long to go before you have an opportunity to put that right!
Hat-tip: Tory Radio
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by Paul Scully | Dec 17, 2006 | News |
As the annual horse-trading starts, when the LibDems give us their list of proposed cuts, ready to come in claiming to save the day in March when the council tax increase in announced, here is the first in an occasional series where you can judge whether your taxes were used well or not.
An eagle-eyed constituent took a photo of this 55ft cycle lane. Not sure if Ken Livingstone had this in mind to encourage more cycling. The lane also seems to end just in time to bring cyclists back amongst the traffic on a blind bend.
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by Paul Scully | Dec 17, 2006 | Carshalton Central, News |
The second plan rejected by councillors to demolish four houses next to All Saints School in Rotherfield Road and replace them with nineteen flats for sheltered accommodation was allowed on appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.
I was a member of the committee that rejected this application. Four attractive houses are going to be torn down to be replaced by a soulless development in an area that suffers from parking and traffic problems with the school and High Street putting pressure on the surrounding roads. We have pushed to get Rotherfield Road included in the conservation area but to no avail and so the well organised residents’ committee (CRAG) who have battled to protect their road have to suffer the thin end of the wedge as the first development of this kind comes to this part of the village. The residents are looking to fight on and I wish them the best. With a lack of support coming from planning policy in this council, from the Mayor and certainly from national government, it is up to local residents to stand up to these pressures and ensure that they can continue to live in the area that they want to live in rather than being dictated to from a distance.
