Here are some of the things we have been doing recently:

Sam attended the August Planning Committee where the application for Greenshaw High School was considered. The application was a part demolition and construction of two new 3 storey buildings with temporary buildings installed during its construction. Sam noted a small loss of a tree and pushed for these to be replaced to ensure biodiversity net gain and noted that the buildings would “neaten” the overall site which would replace the previous extensions added on in the past. The application was granted and work is expected to start soon.

In September, Sam and Ruth attended the Sutton North Safer Neighbourhood Team ward panel and raised the issue of speeding on certain roads and asked for more Speedwatch sessions. Only the police can issue fines against speeding but more constables have now been trained so more sessions can be arranged. It was good to hear that overall crime is down in the area compared to last year. Theft from a motor vehicle is down by 41% and theft of motor vehicle is down by 22%. Many thefts happen because the vehicle is left unlocked so please make sure to keep your vehicles secure. Sadly burglaries have increased over the last three months so the police will be focusing their efforts on combating this crime.

In September, Ruth helped out at the Friends of Rosehill Parks’ Family Fun Day at the Hook a Duck stall. Thank you to those who came along. It was such a wonderful day! Congratulations to the Friends of Rosehill Parks for all their hard work to make the day such a success. If you would like to get involved, you can find them on Facebook.

In October, Sam helped at the Friends of Sutton litter pick and thanked them for the hard work they are doing. Sam also attended the Sutton African Caribbean Cultural Organisation (SACCO) Black History Month Finale event. Ruth attended a wonderful Autumn Festival organised by our Hong Kong community. She also met up with a group of young people during Hate Crime Awareness week to listen to their concerns and how best to resolve them.

Ruth successfully managed to persuade the owners of Helena House to put up hoardings around the building to stop the terrible littering and unauthorised parking that has been taking place. The developers of Helena House continue to submit further planning applications to try and increase the height and number of flats which is really frustrating, given there is already one approved application. The Council can’t stop them doing this but we all want to see an end to this horrible eyesore.

At Full Council on Monday 30 October, the council passed a motion titled Tackling the Temporary Accommodation Crisis which includes calls for: 

• Government to support Councils to buy land for affordable housing developments based on current use 
• Local Housing Allowance to be urgently increased 
• Strengthening rights for renters. The full motion can be found here.

You can read Sam’s thoughts supporting the motion here.