Tooting and Graveney News

Council Turns Down Spring Clean Request

Wandsworth's Tory Council has turned down a request by Graveney councillors for a ‘Spring Clean’ of Tooting. In previous years the council has declared a charges amnesty for residents who wanted to clear way bulky items, but this year they have refused. The council claims that flytipping has fallen by 20%, so there is no need for a special collection. However, the council’s own research shows that Graveney and Tooting are amongst the most deprived wards in Wandsworth and census data shows 40% of people here do not have access to a car to take rubbish to the dump. When we call on residents they tell us there is still more to be done about flytipping, although they recognise that we have had some success in tackling the problem. We will continue to campaign for a cleaner Tooting.

Tooting Town Centre - Planning For The Future

We have contacted council managers about planning applications that would provide some extra retail floorspace in Tooting. For example, there is the former Geyfords car showroom site on the corner of Trevelyan Road, and the old assembly rooms next to the Long Room bar on Mitcham Road. In addition the owner of the old Co-op building on Upper Tooting Road is intending to put in a planning application. Finally, there are the markets and their under-used potential. We have asked Tooting’s Town Centre Manager to review all the planning applications that have been granted to sites in the town centre and start to build up a portfolio of larger sites into an attractive package to present to the executives of the big high street stores.

The Council is also proposing the sale of an unused building it owns behind the Natwest Bank, next to the Castle pub on Tooting High Street. As a condition of the sale the buyer would have to be prepared to develop it, along with other nearby properties, to improve the range of shops in Tooting and provide parking space for shoppers.

Let us know what you think about Tooting by e-mailing us at graveney@tootinglabour.org.uk

Sure Start Has Closed The Gap - Why Do The Tories Want To Scrap It?

From an original article by Stuart King, Labour Parliamentary candidate for Putney, Roehampton and Southfields.

This is one of those really important stories that the media simply won't report. SureStart, the Labour Government initiative to help children and young families in our least affluent areas has succeeded in eradicating the gap between how children in its catchment area develop educationally compared to affluent areas. This straightforward chart shows the impact SureStart's had in Roehampton.

Let me just explain what the jargon means. There are two key measures for assessing how children are "developing": PSE stands for Personal, Social and Emotional development - in other words how children interact with each other, cope spending time on their own, and their relationships with their parents. CLL is Communications, Language and Literacy - ie how a child is developing educationally.

What is interesting about this graph is it shows the gap between deprived children and others closing, but attainment rising for all children. Council officers attribute this to the beneficial effect that Sure Start, as a universal service, has had for all Wandsworth’s children.

There are two questions that need to be answered now. First, isn't this more Labour-generated propaganda? The answer to that is no - I took these tables from a report written by the Conservative-run council last week; which is available here. In fact, Councillor Kathy Tracey, the Conservative Cabinet member for Children's Services in Wandsworth attended the Roehampton Partnership on Friday endorsing the successes the report highlights. Second, the cynics will question whether this has anything to do with SureStart rather than general factors. In response to that, it's really interesting that there are two other "big" SureStart schemes in the borough: one in Battersea and one in Tooting. Both started after Roehampton's - Battersea came next and Tooting was much more recent.

The same charts for each show lags in children's development - more in Tooting than Battersea and both behind Roehampton. The principal difference between them is the length of time Roehampton SureStart's been running - and it certainly isn't comparative deprivation: Roehampton is far more disadvantaged than Tooting, for example (Which is why Roehampton's SureStart got set up first).

Actually, there's a third question - and it's one that Wandsworth's Conservatives have to answer. It's simply this: SureStart works and here's the proof - so why is your party, the Conservative Party, planning to abolish SureStart if you get into power?

Cllr. Andy Gibbons

Labour Speaker Children and Young People

Osiers Gate development - too large, too high, too expensive?

January 7, Wandsworth's Planning Application Meeting

The Committee considered an application for the development of 8 blocks varying between 2 and 21 storeys in height in the Wandle delta. The developers' own publicity material includes the artist's impressions you can see above. The top three pictures show a view from the Wandle and the and the bottom half is the view from the other side of the Thames.

The planning officers' report stated that the development was of a very high density and that the public transport links are amongst the worst in the Borough with the nearest bus stop being half a mile away and with Wandsworth Town station being a notoriously and dangerously over-crowded mainline station.

Despite these reservations and the written objections from local Tory councillor Jim Madden, all the Tory councillors on the Committee voted for the application but without having much to say in support of it. One of them said that it would be "good" for the Government's healthy living programme if residents had to walk that distance for the crowded 220 bus!

Labour's Billi Randall and Tony Belton opposed the application as being out of scale, over density, too large for the current infrastructure of community facilities (in other words too large for the transport links) as did the Wandsworth Society. But the application was passed almost without debate.

It seems like the Wandsworth riverfront has become a developers' delight. But these tower blocks are NOT the answer to the housing needs of London. Many of the new flats are empty and almost none sustain a real community - they are expensive dormitories with little life and no established community.

We think that this craze for expensive, high rise flats on the river-side has gone far too far. Tell us what you think. We are really interested to know your thoughts.

Eliminate Child Poverty: Labour's Mission Impossible?

By Cllr. Andy Gibbons (from a speech to Wandsworth Council)

As 2010 dawns some of us may be reflecting on the last ten years of Labour Government. It is a mixed record, but the biggest task lies ahead: Labour’s commitment to eliminate child poverty by 2020.

The Government’s Child Poverty Bill is designed to eradicate child poverty over the next ten years. A monumental task, but - if achieved - surely the major British social reform of the first century of the new millennium. Just to get some idea of how child poverty affects Wandsworth, 30% of local children live in some degree of poverty with 25% of these living in families dependent on workless benefits. On a wider scale a staggering 55% of the Borough’s children are in families which receive Working Tax Credit or Child Tax Credit. And 74 out of 174 areas in Wandsworth are amongst the 25% most deprived in the country.

This Government has already taken steps to get Local Authorities to produce a Child Poverty Strategy – Wandsworth’s will be published in spring of 2010. At a national level support for the policy to date falls into four areas: improving employment prospects and incomes; providing financial support for those in low-paid jobs and for those who cannot work; creating safe and sustainable communities and improving opportunities through the Every Child Matters agenda.

The principles of the Bill are to provide access to resources such as training and services as well as money. Significantly Labour wants decent services - not just a bare minimum or safety net as the Tories’ social policy dictates - with standards assessed relative to the wealth of our society. The means by which much of this is to be achieved is by bringing together services around the child – “joined up thinking” as we have come to know it.

The implications are far reaching. Poor children live in poor families and if the strategy is to succeed, they have to be lifted out of poverty. So it will require funding – you can’t cure poverty without spending money. Wandsworth Council will need to become an enabling and proactive council within a state which intervenes for the good of its citizens. (The economic shocks of the last couple of years show that the people’s appetite for government to be active is undiminished despite the small-state visions of Conservative ideologues.) It also implies a commitment to something close to full employment, as unemployment and poverty go hand in hand.

Yet all this is at risk: the Bill is not yet law and the next election approaches. Would a Conservative government have the ambition to match Labour’s aspirations for our society? The Tories are busy sharpening their knives to slash public sector spending – a round of cuts which could trigger another recession in the British economy. There are those amongst Wandsworth’s Conservatives who doubt the value of Sure Start, one of Labour’s most successful initiatives for improving the prospects of the young. And the Wandsworth Tory reaction to Labour’s plan to extend free child care to two year olds is to threaten to scrap it.

Wandsworth’s mantra is value for money. Interestingly the Council’s own paper concludes: ‘Expenditure on the alleviation of child poverty should theoretically produce long term savings…breaking the cyclical nature of poverty within family groups, reducing dependency on benefits and decreasing the level of family breakdown…’ The Tories talk the talk but do they have the will to make it happen? Labour’s vision is about long term value. We may feel pessimism of the spirit but we should have optimism of the will over the next year.

Regeneration & Community Safety Committee Report

By Cllr. Billi Randall

Regeneration of Roehampton

The Tories have completely scrapped their plans to demolish sites in the centre of Roehampton. They claim that the project was only ever marginally viable, and given the current recession, it is no longer viable. Residents will feel relieved at this news, as they had been waiting for more than a year for the planning permission to be sorted out, leaving their homes blighted and local residents in a complete state of limbo.

Labour had severe doubts about the nature of this development. It would have involved decanting families from homes in the centre of Roehampton. Once the redevelopment had taken place, any resident who wished to return would no longer be Council tenants, but would have become Housing Association tenants. Also, the Council had only carried out the most cursory of consultation with local residents when they called in the estate agents Saville’s to draw up the planning application and they came up with the full demolition plan.

We welcome the withdrawal of the planning application, but remain committed to seeing the centre of Roehampton regenerated with the full involvement of local residents. Questions must now be asked about how much all this has cost the Council.

Reviewing Safer Neighbourhood Teams

The Council is going to review how the ward panels are communicating with local residents, with each other and how SNTs communicate with the Council and how they engage local businesses. We supported this initiative, as there is currently too much variation in the quality of the ward panels and of communication with local residents.

Crime in Battersea

Crime is higher in Battersea than in any of the other police sectors in Wandsworth. Overall crime has risen in Battersea over the last few months – although this is not the pattern for all crime types. Criminal damage and motor vehicle crime have remained fairly static. The report we received claimed that the recession was responsible for increases in crime, but the committee felt a good deal of scepticism about this, and did not feel that the evidence was really there to support this idea. I suspect that future reports about crime levels might make the situation clearer.

Drinking Banning Orders

These orders allow local authorities to act against individuals who misuse alcohol in public. Wandsworth Council has agreed to use these orders if they feel that they are useful where there is alcohol related anti-social behaviour and has delegated the power to make applications for these orders to the Director of Technical Services. However, these are likely to be used very rarely.

Environment and Leisure Committee Report

by Cllr. Rex Osborn

Importance of Bees to Local Ecosystems

We had a report to committee looking at the alarming fall in the UK’s bee population and the implications for varieties of bee peculiar to the Wandsworth area. There is growing recognition that a reduction in the bee population is a serious threat to our environment posing dangers for agriculture, horticulture and industry - honey and wax.

This report looked at what Wandsworth, with its unusually large inner city green spaces, can do to help the bee population recover. The Council parks and allotments team will seek to increase beehives in the borough. Rex Osborn, the Labour speaker on the committee asked officers to prepare a feasibility study for the planting of dramatically large quantities of lavender, a plant favoured by bees, in Lavender Hill, on public and private land. This scheme would be aimed at sustainable support for bees, creating a local feature with tourism potential and reinforcing Lavender Hill’s links with its historic lavender industry (for example bees decorate the Battersea Arts Centre).

Wandsworth Ban on use of Non-Domestic Animals in Circuses

The committee heard representations from organisations for and against this ban. It became clear that the term non-domesticated is a bit clumsy and that exotic animals might be a better term. Nevertheless such an important issue demands action and the committee went along with the terminology.

I, along with other members of committee argued that circuses may once perhaps have provided the public with a degree of informed insight into the nature of animals, that they would otherwise never have seen. But I also noted how in this age of sophisticated zoos and high quality, informative, compassionate media (e.g. Life on Earth), it is no longer appropriate for such animals to be paraded around circuses in an undignified manner. The ban was supported unanimously.

Annual Report of the Energy Management Team

The Council is now coming up to speed on its preparations for the forthcoming Carbon Reduction Commitment scheme and has successfully pursued an application for the Standard which is promoted by the Carbon Trust. Both developments have been pursued by Labour’s environment speakers in full council meetings and a glance at the minutes of these will show how initially unenthusiastic Wandsworth was about both schemes. Happily Labour’s pressure has borne fruit and the borough has gotten in line with other local authorities.

Tooting Library - Opening Hours

Opening hours at the newly refurbished Tooting Library will be reviewed as the library re-opens. I have argued for some time that 7 day opening in, at least, the town centre libraries across Wandsworth is not just desirable but possible. Battersea library has achieved 7 day opening, in part, through trimming slightly the opening and closing times. Now new technology is being rolled out across Wandsworth libraries, which saves many hours of staff time. Surely a combination of these factors must make more days of opening possible. Labour is keeping a close eye on this review.

Labour Forces Tories To Invest In Tooting Town Centre

Labour Councillors in Tooting have been credited by a former Conservative councillor with pushing Wandsworth Council to improve Tooting town centre.

In a speech last week Cllr. Susan John-Richards, who sits as an independent after resigning from the Conservative group, admitted that she and fellow Tory councillors had no success with her own party in getting resources for Tooting town centre. She told a Council meeting that it was only when Labour made it a key political issue that the ruling Conservative group began to put money into improvements.

Labour’s demands for Tooting are:

1. More frequent street cleaning, and bring back pavement washing and chewing gum removal.
2. Abolish charges for the removal of bulky items and garden waste to reduce fly tipping.
3. Use Brightside to inform people about days and times for rubbish collections.
4. Use CCTV more effectively to catch fly-tippers.
5. Install more gates on alleyways to reduce fly-tipping and tackle anti-social behaviour.
6. Take away clutter from the town centre streets and pavements.
7. Begin doorstep collection of food and garden waste to increase re-cycling levels.
8. Promote Tooting as a good place for major stores to do business.
9. Make the town centre feel safer for shoppers and residents.
10. Improve parking for shoppers.


Since we have campaigned to raise the profile of Tooting the Council has:

* Introduced time banding so shops can only leave rubbish out a certain times. This has improved the look of the streets and is being rolled out across Wandsworth.
* Gated alleys to reduce crime and dumping of rubbish.
* Conducted a town centre survey to help promote Tooting to retail chains.
* Introduced CCTV to monitor fly-tipping and security on Church lane and parts of the Totterdown Estate.
* Re-introduced a Safer Neighbourhood Team to patrol the town centre.
* Proposed relocation of bus stops and removal of unnecessary signs and street furniture to make the streets less congested.
* Provided free Saturday Parking on Franciscan Road in the professional centre

Cllr. Nick Bowes, Labour’s councillor in Tooting Ward said: ‘There is still much to be done to make sure Tooting is firmly on the Council’s map but we have made progress.’

Rex Osborn, Labour Councillor for Graveney Ward said ‘This shows what a small but determined Labour Group can achieve. Without an effective opposition Wandsworth Conservatives would neglect the less well-off areas of the borough’