Snowy Standstill in Sutton

First the news. I've had an update from the Council about various services.

51 schools are definitely closed. The remaining 9 are being contacted.

Staff in Adult Social Services are prioritising the most vulnerable and are ringing around and visiting where possible.

Waste and Recycling Services have been cancelled today. Staff who would have been collecting rubbish have been reassigned to clear the worst of the snow.

Gritters are on the main roads and were out last night. There seems to be different levels of success around the area. Carshalton High Street is passable whereas nearby Brookside is knee deep. The Brighton Road in Sutton was ungritted as of 8.30am and reports have come in about 14in of snow on the roads near Cuddington.

Parking enforcement has been lifted. The reason that we were told was worry for the safety of traffic wardens. I would have thought helping residents in a difficult time would have been up there in priorities and the small matter of yellow lines being buried under a foot of snow. Anyway, the advice is not to travel unless you really have to...but you'll be able to park when you get there.

I walked around Carshalton this morning. People were walking along the side roads with very few cars on the roads. I was amazed how many people were out and about enjoying the snow and delighting in the peaceful beauty around Carshalton Ponds. The atmosphere was of another age gone by. One of the ponds was frozen over which meant that the birds, swans and ducks all crowded into the other pond. Children have been using lengths of guttering for skis, plastic bags for toboggans and snowballs for ...well, weapons.

Latest weather forecast
Frequent snow showers this morning with a longer period of snow this afternoon and at first this
evening. Further falls of 5 to 10 cm are possible with a risk of isolated falls of up to 15 cm. The snow may turn more sleety later this evening before dying out. Frosty overnight with widespread ice.

For tomorrow -
Icy at first. Risk of sleet or snow showers later in the morning and through the afternoon. These should die out overnight. Frosty again with a risk of icy patches.

Keep an eye on the Sutton Council website for further updates on Council Services

Who needs Snow Ploughs?

A near-neigbour sent me a message earlier today having seen a beat sweeper armed with a brush, tackling a road in Carshalton. Not unreasonably he and I question why someone has been sent out on a normal sweeping round to clean a road buried under 6 inches of snow and ice.

The photo is of a barrow belonging to a council employee who was clearing snow from the main roads in the Village. I don't suppose the brush was our friend's weapon of choice which begs the question why he was sent out in the first place.

Update: Just to clarify, the barrow pictured above was elsewhere in Carshalton. I have had the technique used to clear snow from pavements explained to me. The shovel is used to break up the snow. Grit is also contained in the front compartment. The sweepers then use the back of their brush to push the slush and ice to the side.

Council's Winter Cuts Add To Icy Chaos

Angry residents have been hitting the phones this week with complaints to the Council reaching levels last seen when a £35 per bag charge was slapped on green garden waste collections. When the first snow arrived this week, the main roads were navigable as the gritting teams had enough warning to cover the ground. Side roads were a mixed bag.

Tuesday saw rain which had cleared much of the snow, suddenly freeze after a rapid drop in temperature. This caused chaos across the Borough with the main east-west A232 at a total standstill. People reported 2 hour journeys to get from Cheam to Carshalton. Side roads were treacherous.

Now, no gritting effort is going to remove every flake of snow and trace of ice from the highways but people have got every right to be angry when the short-sighted LibDem administration slashed the winter road maintenance budget by £20,000 AFTER last February's snowfall which had a bigger effect than Copenhagen on people's driving habits, as shown in the photo. This cut was made as £16,000 of taxpayers' cash was spent on upgrading the air conditioning in the Council leader's office.

A mere ten months later, snow returns, everywhere grinds to a halt. The gritting team have been working hard throughout. Theirs is a thankless task, working around the clock to cope and keep us moving but there is more that we can do. There are plenty of residents who would be prepared to help grit their pavements. How many grit bins would £20,000 have paid for. Whether emergency bins are put out when the warnings come or permanent ones are opened ahead of the snowfall, I don't know. However if we are to trust people more rather than run everything from the warm and climate-controlled Council office, then we should help people to help themselves as well. Alternatively the LibDems could watch the roads freeze whilst they freeze the Council Tax just ahead of a difficult election campaign. Oh wait...!

Snow Chance of Stopping Meals

The extreme weather conditions hitting Sutton may be the worst for 18 years but we have to do what we can to minimise incovenience and in particular, suffering. I joined Councillor Tony Shields and Philippa Stroud in a dash around town to get hot meals to the elderly and vulnerable. The heavy snowfall meant that ‘Meals on Wheels’ could not be delivered to the distribution centre at Sutton Lodge in Brighton Road from Wallington.

Parliamentary candidate Philippa Stroud, Tony and I helped to deliver about twenty ‘Meals on Wheels’ to volunteers for distribution to vulnerable residents and then helped to get the delivery van moving after it got caught in the snow and ice.

Sutton Meals on Wheels operates daily with approximately 30 staff, mostly volunteers, to deliver meals to elderly and vulnerable residents. They also keep an eye on residents to call in medical help and other services if needed. Without the help of volunteers the service could not function.

Philippa Stroud said, “I’m just glad we could be of help. We were worried that the van couldn’t get off the ice at Sutton Lodge to deliver meals to residents’ homes. It looked as though the road had not been gritted properly. But after a lot of pushing and shoving we finally got in moving. It was relief to know that it would be delivering hot dinners on a bitterly cold day like today.

“It was great to see such community spirit with the volunteers. Meals on Wheels is an initiative which Sutton’s community can be really proud of.”

Our effort in collecting the hot meals from Wallington Church Hall for delivery to Sutton Lodge is small in comparison with the people who give their time freely every day to ensure that those that are housebound can retain a degree of independence in their own home. Despite the freezing temperatures and snow drifts over a foot deep volunteers were still out, braving the elements, to keep an eye on vulnerable residents. This service can be a lifeline for many local people, particularly in these harsh weather conditions. We are keen to support it in whatever way we can.

LibDems to Cut Snow Clearing

I was amazed at one entry in the budget report that was released recently. £20,000 is to be cut from Winter Highways Maintenance with the explanation, “Based on the experience of the last few years, reduce the provision for highways winter maintenance without having any adverse impact on the service provided.”

This decision was confirmed by leading LibDem councillors on Friday morning whilst sitting about 10 feet away from the entrance of the Civic Offices with people slipping and sliding into the building. As we recover from the worst snow in 18 years, it is incredulous that they can prove themselves so out of touch that they can draw up proposals to reduce the upkeep of our roads during winter.

Meanwhile a constituent has sent me this photo of litter picking in Blakehall Road whilst a lady tiptoes through the snow and a Mini crawls over the ice.

Boris' Cold Logic

Sutton has not been extraordinary in the effect that the snow has had. The centre of London was badly hit, with the entire bus network being withdrawn for the first time in living memory.

Boris' response whilst announcing the suspension of the Congestion Charge gives me a chance to show another photo of a snow-clad Carshalton landmark.

"This is the right kind of snow, it's just the wrong kind of quantities."

Who could possibly argue against that?

Councillor Cliff Gets Snow Damage Fixed

Recently, I wrote about the LibDem's frankly odd response to the snow when they cut £20k from the Winter Highways Maintenance Budget, whilst looking out of the window at people sliding around on the ice outside the Civic Offices.


At their Cabinet meeting a few days later, the Lead Councillor scoffed at the Evening Standard and others who had commented on this blinkered approach.


It took a question by Councillor Cliff Carter to finally shame the LibDems into realising that Sutton's roads had more holes than a slice of Emmenthal. We've already got the raised obstructions in speed bumps, the potholes that have formed after the frozen conditions are a result of nature's way of evening things up a bit. The LibDems were forced into an emergency change in their budget, taking £250k from their contingency fund to fill some of the holes.

Interestingly they have spent all of their contingency in this current year. They haven't identified any more cash, so watch this space to see if they can last the coming year without scratching around raiding another pot of cash. Either way, it was good work by Cliff to get across the clear message that residents have been saying for the last few weeks.

More Snow Predicted for London

We're being warned that there is a 60 per cent likelihood of snowfall in London overnight being as severe as it was on Sunday night/Monday morning. There is also the prospect of very bad weather sustaining into the weekend.

The areas that are most likely to be affected are north and north-west London so we may escape the worst but do keep an eye out on the Sutton website and school websites if the snow comes again.

There is a co-ordinated action to ensure that all London Boroughs have enough grit to cover the main roads. That is co-ordinated by everyone except Whitehall. According to the Daily Express, Councils have been forced to relinquish their supplies to the Highways Agency. Hounslow reports that they have been ordered to hand over 300 tonnes of grit. I notice that one wag left a comment after the article to point out that the country had run out of true grit many years ago.

LibDem Council Chief's Half-Dozen Grit Bin Stash

Sutton Council’s Leader, Liberal Democrat councillor Sean Brennan, has no chance of being given the slip coming in and out of his office this winter due to an excellent service of no less than six grit bins less than 50 metres of his council office.

Last week’s Sutton Local Committee, scheduled to meet on Thursday in the Civic Offices, was called off by its Liberal Democrat chairman due to ‘weather conditions’ despite rapidly thawing snow and an elite phalanx of grit bins forming a vanguard for ease of access. Only two days before, 80 doughty residents of Carshalton came to the Baptist Church in Banstead Road to air their views and concerns at the Carshalton and Clockhouse Local Committee.

Discovery of the Leader’s grit reserve will rub salt into the wounds of residents who were left stranded in their homes due to ungritted roads. Residents were shocked to discover that the Council provides a mere one grit bin per 1200 residents.

Following news that Sutton has been reliant on borrowed grit due to diminishing stocks, and with snow predicted for later today, I am sure that Councillor Brennan could surrender some of his private grit reserves to needy areas in the Borough, for example council wards like Wandle Valley and Wallington North which have been left to cope each with one grit bin for an average population of 10,000 residents.

Sutton Council’s Liberal Democrat leader is very fortunate to have a crack squad of no less than six grit bins within a few yards of his office. And that’s not counting the two bins across the way outside the Holiday Inn showing that even his reserves have reserves!

Weather reports do not rule out more snowy and icy conditions, if the Council’s political leadership have not learnt their lesson from short-term cuts to the gritting budget, under provision of grit bins and lorries, Councillor Brennan should dip into his own stock to help residents out.

Whilst we cannot guarantee a platinum service matching the Council Leader’s, an incoming Conservative-run Sutton Council will substantially increase the number of grit bins across the Borough to ensure that residents can at least help themselves in treacherous icy conditions.”

End The Gritting Postcode Lottery

View Larger Map

We seem to be in for another heavy snow storm with 10 inches or so reported to be falling in London suburbs tonight and tomorrow. There is a list of grit bins on the Sutton website. Local resident Adrian Short has done a great job in mapping them on Google Maps. The Council website also has the latest news on school opening.

However, the list and map does highlight a significant gap in emergency planning. The Council lists 150 grit bins available for a population of over 180,000 residents. This means that there is, on average, only one grit bin for every 1200 residents. To add insult to injury, some areas have only one grit bin available to local residents whereas others have over thirty. The list on the council website demonstrates that the grit bin situation has not been reviewed for at least 7 years with one described as being outside Tesco on Sutton High Street, which was closed in 2003 to make way for Asda.

The recent cold spell has exposed Sutton Council’s weaknesses in winter road maintenance, causing outrage with local taxpayers after poor gritting efforts left many residents stranded in their own homes because roads and pavements turned into untackled ice rinks. Many residents who were willing to grit their own roads – out of necessity - were dismayed to find grit bins either empty or unavailable in their area.

Google Maps shows that access to gritting bins varies significantly from Ward to Ward. For example, the Carshalton South and Clockhouse Ward is well serviced with 33 gritting bins whereas the Wallington North, Wandle Valley and Nonsuch Wards languish with only one gritting bin each. Conservatives are now calling for an end to Sutton’s ‘post code lottery’ access to grit bins and for better preparation for icy road conditions in the future.

This is not the first time that the Liberal Democrat-run Council has provoked controversy over its winter highways policies. Last year the ruling Liberal Democrats slashed the winter highways maintenance budget by £20,000 in March only to later spend £16,000 on a state-of-the-art air conditioning system for the Council Leader’s Office in July.

The past month has shown how woefully ill-prepared Sutton Council is for icy and snowy conditions. I don’t blame our hardworking gritting teams, I blame the political leadership of the Liberal Democrats for short-sighted cuts to the highways budget.

Just A Bit Of Fun

It looks as though the two local MPs and the Leader of the Council have been looking at the same ward breakdown of the London election results that I have.

The results that are the best indicator of the local situation in Sutton are those for the London Assembly candidate. The Conservatives won fourteen of the eighteen wards in the Borough and won the popular vote in both Parliamentary constituencies. If this was reflected in the General and Local elections, the three LibDem politicians would have failed in their quest to "Save Our Seats".

These breakdowns are only indicative of voting trends and it is difficult to translate this to national and local politics but they are useful. The variations between elections can be seen by the ballot where people had to tick which party they supported. Before postal votes were redistributed, the Conservatives won every single ward in the Borough. It would be rather Mugabe-esque to believe that this was anything else but, as Peter Snow would have said, "Just a bit of fun."

We've got a lot of work to continue over the next couple of years to clearly demonstrate the ever decreasing returns that residents in Sutton get from their LibDem politicians. What may have started as a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed administration in the 1980s has become a tired one, with few new ideas coming from the elected leaders themselves.

We will also be setting out our positive vision for Sutton. Negative politics may be effective in getting people elected. It has no place in running a Borough. Instead only innovation, inspiration and hard work will see better value for money and the very best services. Don't forget you can help us with this by going to www.changesutton.org.uk and letting us know what you think.

Boris in Sutton

A few weeks before his trip to Carshalton, Boris timed a walkabout up Sutton High Street perfectly, missing the snow flurries that gusted down the hill. The response from members of the public was phenomenal with people coming to shake his hand, have a picture taken and wish him well. He is a celebrity without doubt, but remember he is still a politician, so this treatment is testament to the refreshing approach that he takes; a sensible appraisal of the problems that Londoners face with a cheeky smirk sufficiently visible to remind us of someone that does not take himself too seriously, unlike the incumbent who has finally begun to believe his own propaganda.

The highlight for me was the impromptu ska anthem by local band the Dualers. Whilst the lyrics "New Mayor of London, Boris Johnson" won't be winning any BRIT awards any time soon, the sheer spontaeity of the occasion was excellent.

You can see this on the video which I have only managed to lay my hands on a couple of days ago, hence the delayed post. It's a little rough and ready but, like Boris, not everything needs to be perfectly polished to be effective.

No Joined Up Thinking in Sutton

Apparently Sutton's gully cleaning machine has just gone past my house. The drips of water on the road demonstrate the problem of lack of preparation as they show that the machine is spending more time cleaning the white lines in the middle of the road than it is the gullies.

In another move, the Council are looking to introduce a Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) around Carshalton Beeches Station, including Salisbury Road where I live. Now, either the Council believe there is a parking issue in the area, in which case it would have been sensible to have given advanced notice to ask people to move their cars, or they don't in which case, why waste money on a consultation about a CPZ? We live in austere times and this is one small example where smarter working would give residents more for less. The process would have cost less and the gullies would have been cleaner.

You may wonder why there is a picture of a big cat here? It is a Snow Leopard, a rare animal that has never been filmed until recently. It took David Attenborough's team three years to get a glimpse. Still, it's easier to get a picture of this than it is of Sutton's solitary gully cleaner.

Pledge No. 1 - More Grit Bins

There will be plenty of information over the next four months about our manifesto, detailing the pledges that we are making to Sutton residents to make the Borough a better place to live and work. The snow has brought forward our first:

We will substantially increase the number of grit bins to ensure that residents have reasonable access to help themselves.

Stonecot resident Adrian Short has done a great service in mapping the bins across the borough. Thanks to Adrian, as well as making it easier for us to get the grit we need for our own roads, we are able to see the gaps in provision. Hackbridge, the planned sustainable jewel in Sutton's crown, has absolutely no grit bins. Worcester Park and North Cheam have been largely forgotten. This is nothing new with some of the roads in Nonsuch ward being the worst maintained in Sutton.

Grit bins cost £90 each and the grit to fill each bin costs £9. Sutton has been in the same difficult position as all councils in London, stretched to capacity to cope with the conditions. The gritting teams, the customer service department and other areas of service who have needed to help the most vulnerable, have worked hard and managed well. However, more direction from the political leadership and a little more investment not less, would help residents help themselves.

Going Potty Over Potholes

The BBC reports that a Parish Council in Essex has asked that potholes be left unfilled for a while longer in an unusual bid to slow traffic. Representatives of the village of Navestock claim that they are the original traffic calming measure and so want to leave them unfilled for a year.

They seem to have read the first chapter from LibDem Sutton's book on traffic management where the winter maintenance budget has been cut and speed humps sprout like wrinkles in Nora Batty's stockings. However they haven't got to the bit where Conservative Councillor Cliff Carter led the calls for potholes to be tackled and secures £250,000 of funding to tackle the worst ravages of the recent snow and ice.

I seem to remember the pothole theory being tried before somewhere in the South West but have not heard any recent updates where it has been rolled out across the UK with a fanfare so I guess it wasn't so popular. Not all of the village are in agreement with a local retired police officer saying that 'it beggars belief'. Essex County Council agree with the copper and are bringing in the tarmac as I write. The potholes may calm the traffic but I doubt if they have the same effect on the drivers.