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’

Graveney and Furzedown councillors under the Tooting Christmas Tree

Graveney and Furzedown Labour Councillors joined local residents to sing carols and watch the lighting up of the Tooting Christmas tree on Tuesday.

The annual event was hosted by St. Nicholas' Church and Tooting Town Centre Partnership.

Carols were sung by a choir from Sellincourt School and afterwards we all enjoyed a hot drink and a mince pie!

Tooting Town Centre Survey

Since 2006 we have been pushing for a better deal for Tooting from Wandsworth's Tory Council. At last the council has conducted a survey of shopping patterns in the area with the aim of boosting the local economy and bringing a wider range of shops to the town centre.

The results show there is a need for Tooting shops to ‘liberate consumers’ spend’. Sainsbury’s is a big draw at the weekend for shoppers but Croydon is the main competing centre and therefore the biggest challenge to Tooting. Top requests are for women’s fashion, bookstores, electrical goods and toys/games/hobbies.

800 people were surveyed throughout the town centre at different days and times; 50% of people questioned were from within 1 mile of the Town Centre. During the week, Tooting is a very localised centre with 50% of shoppers living within 0.9 mile and 80% within a 2.8 mile radius. - most shoppers is use Tooting for convenience goods, but go elsewhere for more expensive items.

The ‘Urban Intelligence’ group makes up 44% of Tooting’s catchment population; this group is made up of 25-34 year old young singles, degree-educated, with high disposable income. One third of visitors are from a further ‘Ties of Community’ group – longer term residents of the area; Tooting is also popular with ‘Welfare Borderline’ and ‘Twilight Subsistence’ groups with lower disposable incomes. However, 66% of the residents in the catchment are from the ABC1 socioeconomic groups.

A key finding is that ‘Parking is a prohibitive factor to people using the centre’. The lack of large units of floorspace is a further problem for big retailers so the Council’s property team is investigating land ownership of sites in Tooting.

The Future for Tooting

Labour's three key points for Tooting are:

• 
  The Council needs to be proactive, using the information from the survey to sell Tooting to retail chains.


• 
  We need to build on the cultural and social diversity which makes Tooting a unique area.


• 
  Timing is vital – as the country emerges from the recession we need to catch the wave as retailers look to expand.