Paul Johnston

To all readers I wish a very happy and healthy 2008.

My 2008 has got off to a roaring start with seasonal phone calls about abuse of Council-leased property in my ward. To give you a flavour here's an extract:-

Dog kennel door hanging off

Kennel still has dogs mess on floor

Empty dog food tins( a lot of them )at the bottom of the garden

Rubbish out of shed on garden and has been there some time

Transit roof rack and expensive wheels with new tyres on them

Chemical drums but do not know what of

Orange cylinder under window

Smashed glass under other window

Tenants are believed not to be in full residency as the children are not living there

There are old trainers by the front door

Tenant has been seen climbing in through the side window.

Shoukld be enough to keep me busy for a bit!

These pictures are of accidents on Ewell Road in Surbiton in the first half of 2007. The walls are those of gardens in Iris Close. The junction is that with Kingsdowne Road. The accidents occurred to cars travelling northbound from Tolworth towards Kingston. There is a very slight bend to the right yet one car has come off the road in broad daylight with sufficient force to demolish a garden wall and another has turned itself completely over - also in broad daylight - having hit a lamppost. Fortunately I do not believe anyone was killed in these accidents, though it isn't very long since the former chairman of Surbiton Coservative Club was fatally injured when crossing Ewell Road at night just a few yards from the scene of both these accidents.

According to figures reported in the Surrey Comet Ewell Road has become the worst road in Kingston for accidents. It is difficult to say why, though one theory is that some drivers accelerate on approach to avoid being held up by the array of traffic lights put at the Kingsdowne Road junction some years ago to make it safer.

Whatever.....I have taken the issue up with Kingston Traffic Engineers several times since February and they have promised to take it up with Transport for London. I hope they have done so. However I fear that this issue may be too small for such a mighty organisation to take notice of. City Hall is so far away and has so much else on its mind. This 'remote control' is just one aspect of the system introduced by Blair to appease the hankerers after the good old days of County Hall and the GLC.

I am really glad that the stance taken by Southborough Residents against the plan by Sunrise Senior Living to build a 70 bed 3 storey care home on the site of 4 houses and gardens has been vindicated by the Planning Inspectorate. Congratulations to all involved - the thing would have been a massively intrusive buidling, completely dwarfing its near neighbours. Personally I believe it would have been a disaster from the ecological viewpoint; the four houses have substantial and well established gardens with good stands of perfectly healthy trees, many of which would have been felled.

Thanks are due to the Residents committee, to Kingston Planning officers and to the Development Control Committee for backing the ward councillors' and Neighbourhood Committee's view.

There's a link to the decision itself on http://www.surbhillcllr.wordpress.com.

"On Tuesday 28 August 2007 at Brighton Road (A243) about 25 metres south of the junction with Victoria Road, Surbiton, Thames Water will installing a Sahara Pit.

The junction will be controlled by three way temporary signals reducing traffic to a single alternative traffic flow.

The work is programmed to last 7 days."

Delays expected

I attended the first three days of the appeal enquiry held at Shrewsbury House School last month and was allowed to address the enquiry on the third morning. Janet Bowen-Hitchings was there for pretty well all of the second, third and fourth days and briefly on the first morning.

Opposing the appeal I said that,

"If allowed, the appeal would lead to the replacement of four serviceable family homes and gardens with what would amount to the biggest building in Surbiton Hill ward.

"I also drew attention to earlier infrastructure problems in the area, where Victorian drains have given problems in the past and pointed out that the Sunrise development would involve a substantial increase in the number of toilets, baths, washbasins and kitchen sinks discharging into the system. 

"The question had also been raised as to whether the home if built would constitute a ‘home for life' for the residents. It would be expensive to live there and nursing care was not envisaged in the plans. It would follow that residents could well become a burden on the already overstretched resources of Kingston Social Services and the heavily indebted Primary Care Trust."

The case for the Council was very ably presented by Mr. Morgan QC supported by officers led by Paul Bradbury, and the Southborough Residents Association team was very effective in its contributions. I feel it is a priviledge to work alongside residents of the calibre and expertise of the team fielded by SRA. I hope Southborough residents know how truly lucky they are to have benefited for so long from the selfless efforts and sheer expertise of these and other SRA committee members.

The outcome of the appeal is expected next month.