Last night's Putney Society meeting & a Plan for Putney

Wandsworth Council has published draft new plans to guide future planning applications and redevelopments across the borough. The plans are out for consultation, and as part of this, Martin Howell, from the Council?s planning department, delivered a presentation at last night?s meeting of the Putney Society. Given the concern caused over the past few years by a string of inappropriate development applications ? some of which have been agreed by the Council in the face of fierce opposition from local residents ? the meeting was extremely well attended.

Along with the Putney Society I have been urging the council to produce a town centre plan for Putney for some time now, the absence of which has been a key factor in the propensity of developers to ?try their luck? with hugely inappropriate tall buildings proposals like Putney Place and Tileman House on Upper Richmond Road.

The Wandsworth Local Development Document comprises the Development Management Policies Document and the Site-Specific Allocations Document - Preferred Options. They can be viewed on the council's website: www.wandsworth.gov.uk/planning. I encourage you not to be put off by the somewhat impenetrable jargon and lengthy nature of the documents. By all means attempt to respond on the full range of issues being consulted upon; but I urge you to ensure that you definitely send in your comments on specific sites such as Tileman House, Capsticks and Putney Place ? stating the upper height limit you think would be appropriate.

The mood of last night?s meeting seemed clear to me: there was a definite consensus that the proposed upper height limit for tall buildings on certain sites was too high. For example, the council seems to think that a 15 storey tower would be appropriate on the Capsticks site. This for me continues to be too tall for this site and it would have a hugely detrimental impact on neighbouring residential properties. Other proposed heights are also alarming. I urge you to make sure your voice is heard, and take part in this crucial process.

I intend to submit my response to the consultation ahead of next Friday?s deadline. I?ll also post more on the council?s proposed plans once I have had a chance to go through it in more detail.

Council-sponsored vandalism

This rubble is all that's left of the lovely - if neglected - tudor lodges on Upper Richmond Road by Putney Park Lane.

Despite strong opposition from residents and the Putney Society, the Conservative council felt that this part of Putney's heritage wasn't worth saving - and in a few months' time we'll have yet another bland block of flats instead. After all, we don't have enough of those do we - especially when compared with the abundance of tudor lodges throughout the constituency.

Forgive my sarcasm but this is a dreadful decision that is irrevocable. It appals me that the Conservatives keep dancing to the developers' tune, whether it's building huge tower blocks no one wants, or allowing buildings that they should have listed and defended to be smashed to pieces.

If this makes you angry too, please don't just sit on your hands. Vote for change.

Local NHS shelves plans to redevelop Putney Hospital site

Last night I attended a meeting at which a senior director from Wandsworth Primary Care Trust announced that the board would be asked to shelve plans to redevelop the Putney Hospital site next Wednesday.

Putney Hospital closed in 1999 and, as a result of complex legal issues relating to the development of common land, it has taken the best part of ten years for a development proposal to come to the table.

However, in June this year NHS London effectively vetoed the proposal - which was to relocate some central Putney GP services and the work of the Eileen Lecky clinic onto the hospital site. NHS London acted out of a concern that the proposal did not reflect value for money, was not environmentally sustainable and - critically in my view - was too difficult to get to for many of the patients who would transfer to it.

The main issue here is the need to find new premises for a number of local GP practices where the lead GP is intending to retire soon. The PCT has decided to recommend that new GP services are relocated to other non-NHS-owned properties in Putney. Five commercial sites in central Putney have been identified, although the locations have not been made public while the PCT negotiates with the owners.

I would like to see the detail of the report that is going to the PCT Board next week before making any detailed pronouncements but I believe that the PCT has a moral obligation to residents to deal once and for all with the derelict site on Putney Common which has already absorbed over a million pounds of taxpayers money in planning and costs thousands every year to secure.

Yesterday's meeting - which was attended by around 60 residents - was organised by the Putney Society, of which I am a member. The Putney Society continues to be a welcome and strong voice on this issue and, given that I was a local council I look forward to working alongside them - and others, including my political opponents - to secure an outcome that meets the needs of local patients and residents.

English Heritage says East Putney under threat

English Heritage, the body with responsibility for all aspects of protecting and promoting the historic environment in England, has named three areas of our borough - including the East Putney conservation area - as under threat in a nationwide survey.

East Putney is the part of our area that is under greatest threat from overdevelopment: there are at least three local sites: Putney Place, Capsticks/Carlton Place and Tileman House that developers want to pile-up huge towerblocks on. One of the other borough sites English Heritage have highlighted is Clapham Junction - again, under threat from massive overdevelopment.

I do find it remarkable that there is such a widespread coalition against overdevelopment - one that includes the Putney Society and English Heritage as well, of course, as myself and local residents. The only people who just don't get this are the Conservatives, who at best can be described as dithering over this issue - and at worst are complicit in creating the overdevelopment problems we're battling against.

You can download a whole range of information about the English Heritage campaign.

And here's how the Wandsworth Guardian is covering this story - focussing on Clapham Junction.

Putney Society look set to oppose Tileman House

Last night, while Justine Greening was representing the Conservative Party on the Question Time panel in Bath, I was representing the concerns of St John's Avenue residents - and others -at the Putney Society's Buildings Panel meeting.

The proposed development of Tileman House dominated proceedings. Not a single person spoke in favour of the application and it was clear from the discussion that Putney Society members have a raft of concerns about the application, ranging from height & light, density, overdevelopment and the loss of office space. The other big concern expressed - and one which I have talked about in great detail - is the precedent that the approval of this application will set for other applications along the Upper Richmond Road. I was pleased at how unequivocally the Buildings panel was in calling for this application to be rejected.

The panel's recommendation will be debated at next week's meeting of the Society's executive committee, but all present - including the chairman - seemed confident that the committee would endorse the panel's view. This is an important achievement in the campaign to stop this overdevelopment.

Putney Society NHS meeting

The Putney Society is hosting a meeting open to all on local health service provision on Thursday 22 January from 7.30pm at St Mary's Church, Putney Bridge.

Our NHS has improved massively over the last decade or so: a brand new Queen Mary's Hospital, waiting times cut hugely, more doctors, dentists, nurses and midwives employed. More change is on the way with work underway on replacing Putney Hospital and changes to GP services which will lead to much more convenient surgery hours and one-stop healthcare. You can find out more about all the plans, question the experts and have your say on 22 January.

Speakers:

- Dr Sian Job, Chair of Wandsworth Local Medical Committee
- Dr Peter Ilves, Senior Partner at Danebury Surgery, Roehampton
- Nicola Theron, SW Health Partnerships [Putney Hospital site]

Sharing The Road: What Cycling Can Do For Putney

The Putney Society, Hotham Primary School and Wandsworth Cycling Campaign (WCC) have got together to organise a series of events on the weekend of 18th and 19th October.

Saturday 18th October; 10.30am-12.30pm
Brewer Building, St Mary's Church, Putney

• Video presentation on WCC's award-winning Movers and Shakers project

Saturday 18th October 1-5pm
Cycling Events for all at Hotham Primary School, Charlwood Road, featuring:

• Lunch and Afternoon Refreshments from Hotham's Global Kitchen - Delicious home cooking from around the world (hot dogs for the less adventurous!)
• Tea, coffee and homemade cakes available all afternoon
• Dr Bike session by WCC & Putney Cycles - let them check your shed-bound bicycle for roadworthiness
• Putney Cycles and Go-Pedal on hand with adult bikes for free tryouts and hire for Sunday rides
• Thamesfield Safer Neighbourhood Police Team
• Stalls with cycling info, fun cycling activities for children, help with route planning, bicycle security marking etc.
• 1.45pm Display of cycling skills by Hotham School children
• 2.30pm & 3.30pm Cycle Training UK will run two sessions in the playground on basic cycle skills. The one-hour sessions must be pre-booked by calling 07989 974406 or emailing info@wandsworthcyclists.org.uk Cost £5, payable on the day.

Sunday 19th October, 11am
WCC guided rides around Putney

Starting at St Mary's Square at 11am, short guided rides for all ages will demonstrate how easy it is to get around Putney by bicycle. Bring your own bike, or arrange to hire one for 24 hours at a reduced rate on Saturday, to be returned on Sunday. Riders can join in with one or more of the short rides to enjoy local shared paths and the new sculpture trail.

First ride to the Wandle Delta along the riverside.
Second ride to Barnes Wetlands Centre along the riverside (ride timings to be confirmed)

For more details, visit http://www.wandsworthcyclists.org.uk/

Tonight's Putney Place meeting

I'm just back from the Putney Society-organised meeting between residents and the developers at St Mary's Church which I was able to address briefly.

Over 300 people turned up - as you can see from the photo below the hall was packed - as was the upstairs gallery. It's really pleasing that so many turned up over what is such an important issue; though I'm a little surprised at how few Putney councillors bothered to attend.

I'll write more about my thoughts on the meeting in the next few days but I don't think the developers' team had a good night. In all likelihood they were never going to - this is a massively unpopular plan and deservedly so. But they did themselves no favours by arguing that white was black: that the plans were not intrusive, that they would not overshadow, that public transport capacity could accommodate them, that the towers were just what Putney needed.

I think one resident summed the scheme up perfectly when they said that this was a plan to win architecture prizes for daring, not a plan for the people. And the presentation was pitched at architects rather than local residents: it was a very, very poor show and I wonder why the public relations person present hadn't sat them down and gone through it with them before they spoke.

I've had almost 300 surveys back so far, and I can tell you that just 9 have been in favour of the plans. Those nine I don't think were present tonight!

Anyway, a good night for Putney, a good night for local democracy and a bad night for Oracle.

Another part of the borough, another overdevelopment nightmare

Tower blocks are in the local news again; this time plans to build twin 39-storey tower blocks above Clapham Junction station. The towers will contain 556 homes, NONE of which will be affordable on the extraordinary basis that the developers would rather spend the money improving the station beneath it. Another false choice - affordable housing, a more human scale development AND an upgraded Clapham Junction - if you don't mind, developers.

I highlight this issue, which is actually in the neighbouring Battersea constituency, simply because the Battersea Society is making exactly the same, entirely justified criticism of the Conservative council as our Putney Society is.

The Batersea Society say that the Council lacks a "coherent vision" for Clapham Junction. "Without an overall plan we fear the proposed new shops may damage, rather than benefit, the existing shopping centres in St Johns Road and Northcote Road" they say.

And in the letter notifying residents of tomorrow's Putney Society meeting with Putney Place developer Oracle, Chairman John Ewing says "The Council appears to have no overall town plan for Putney". I agree.

Be under no illusion: it's this void; this lack of leadership from Wandsworth's Conservative council that is holding the door wide open to any stack-em-up, pile-em-high developer to come up with these ludicrous tower block notions.

We urgently need leadership on this vital issue - and if the Conservatives cannot or will not provide it, then it's down to you to vote in those of us who are leading.

Don't forget the Putney Society meeting this Thursday

Just a quick reminder that the Putney Society meeting with the developers of Putney Place, Oracle Ltd. takes place at 7.30pm at St Mary's Church, Putney Bridge.

Everyone is welcome regardless of whether or not you're a member of the Society.

I've now sent out almost 2,000 copies of my Putney Place survey - thank you if you've already returned one either by post or online. And if you haven't yet had your say, you can do so by visiting the special Putney Place page on this website: www.stuartking.net/putneyplace.

There's also plenty of time to submit any thoughts you may have on Putney Place - for or against - to the Council and you can find out where to send them to by visiting my Putney Place page. The deadline is 17 October.

I look forward to seeing you on Thursday.

Are we winning the High Street improvement battle?

As someone who has been campaigning to improve the state of Putney High Street for almost three years, I welcome the Council's new announcement of further improvements to the pavements.

Slowly - too slowly, grudgingly and ungraciously, the Council is (without admitting there's any problem at all) starting to take the first tentative steps to improve our town centre.

Of course, this work isn't being funded by them - it's money provided by Transport for London and approved when Ken Livingstone was London Mayor - but new paving will have a big impact. That is, if the Council keeps them cleaner than the current greasy, grimy paving.

Likewise, if the Council is now serious about clearing away the clutter than congests the High Street's pavements for pedestrians, then that could actually be a second item ticked off from my ten point plan to save our high street. But are they just going to tinker, or are they serious about taking out the control boxes, the pedestrian barriers, the signposts, the rubbish bags and the bike racks (that should be relocated around the side street corners) that clog our pavements?

It's a shame it's taken the Conservatives three years to catch up with the Putney Society, the hundreds of Putney residents who've filled in my High Street surveys and my Labour campaign team. I wonder if the Tories are yet willing to admit there's a problem and that there is a role for local government in rectifying it? And will Putney's Conservative MP break her vow of silence on this issue to help us wield more influence with her Tory friends in the Town Hall?

If not then we're not going to make any progress on the remaining problems: high levels of street crime, flyposting, grotty shopfronts, getting a better mix and quality of shops and improving traffic flow. But whether the Tories admit it or not, keep dragging their feet or not, these problems will not disappear and nor will my campaign to Save Putney High Street.
You can have your say on the state of the High Street by taking my online survey here.

High Street's vacant shops on the up

Conservative Councillors in Wandsworth are now openly admitting on the putneysw15 website that landlords in Putney High Street are starting to struggle to let their premises.

The number of vacant shops in our town centre is on the increase again. In fact, we're probably back to the position we were in 2005 when I launched Labour's Save Putney High Street campaign.

If Putney High Street is facing economic difficulties, that isn't the fault of the Council - it's a consequence of the international credit crunch (though consumer spending was remarkably robust last month).

No, the charge I level at Putney Conservatives, including the MP, is that had they acted to recession-proof the High Street when times were better over the past three years, retailers would be in a better position to weather whatever economic turbulence we're in line for. I believe Shadow Chancellor George Osborne calls this "fixing the roof when the sun is shining".

My ten point plan to fix the High Street has been around for three years now; common-sense points which those of you who've taken my survey have supported hands-down. The Putney Society has been similarly vocal in its concerns about the state in which the Conservatives allow our High Street to remain. Yet the Tories have ignored us - they've even denied there's any problem at all.

For the past three years, when Putney High Street needed some political vision, leadership and direction from its elected representatives, its had none. Let's hope that High Street retailers do not pay too high a price for this absence of courage from the complacent Conservatives.

Putney farmers' market returns

It was good to see that the farmers' market is now back in Church Square by St Mary's Church and the Odeon Cinema, after a couple of false starts earlier this year.

If you missed it today, it's back again tomorrow and every weekend from now on, between 10am and 3pm, with around 12 stands offering free-range meats, fresh fruit and veg Speciality Cheeses, Organic and Artisan Breads, Salads, Oils, pies, fresh flowers and much more.

This is one of the very few pleasant features of Putney High Street: the redevelopment of this riverside quarter - which the Conservative Council opposed - has really shown how new life can be breathed back into a town centre.

While we look forward, desperately, to the repaving of some more of the High Street - work again paid for not by the Council but by Ken Livingstone's Transport for London - this still leaves too much of Putney's town centre cluttered, grubby, grimy and run down.

The Putney Society are rightly heralding the repaving works but I hope they won't regard this as job done: I need them alongside me continuing to crusade for a Putney High Street we can all take some pride in.

Visit my Save Putney High Street campaign pages to give me your views on how we can improve our town centre.

Wandsworth Museum Obituary

The borough's amenity societies: the Balham, Battersea, Putney and Wandsworth Societies, the Wandsworth Historical Society, the Friends of Wandsworth Museum and the Wandsworth Museum Action Group have joined forces to write an obituary of the museum that the Tory Council - backed by Putney's Conservative MP - closed on New Year's Day.

You can read the obituary on the putneysw15 website here - it gives a very effective picture of the resources the borough has lost with the closure, as well as the breadth of support the Museum had throughout the community.

Meeting with Putney Society

Earlier this week I accepted an invitation to address the Executive Committee of the Putney Society - the highly regarded and influential amenity society operating within the constituency.

The meeting was well-chaired by Lucille Grant - I was given an opportunity to introduce myself and explain my plans and aspirations for the constituency. There followed twenty minutes of challenging questions on local and national issues, including the housing crisis in Putney that I have placed at the heart of my campaign; the proposed merger between Salesian College and John Paul II schools and wider education issues; the relationship between the MP and local council; and the state of Putney High Street.

Although my questioners included two self-confessed card-carrying members of the Conservative Party the questioning was fair, robust and an enjoyable experience.

I value greatly the work of the Putney Society, of which I am a member, and look forward to working with them to tackle to issues, current and future, that face our neighbourhood. To find out more about the Society click here to visit their website.

Putney High Street

There's been a lot of coverage and some discussion locally about last Friday's accident when a shop hoarding collapsed, injuring - in one case seriously - two passers by.

I send my condolences, and wishes for a speedy recovery to the two injured and welcome the Health & Safety inquiry launched by the Council.

Some have been questioning the common sense of a shop - any shop - choosing to have a hoarding made of concrete (or at least what was designed to look like concrete, and which was incredibly heavy anyway). I have sympathy with this view.

It was one of the reasons why my Save Putney High Street campaign launched in Autumn 2005 called for both far tighter design standards for the High Street and a shop front improvements scheme.

We proposed such ideas to try to smarten up our High Street - which any impartial observer must agree (still) looks cluttered and grubby almost two years on - but clearly to ensure some consistency in both safety standards and visual quality. This incident, while entirely unforeseen, suggests that the Council was at best unwise and at worst negligent in dismissing out of hand our ideas simply because local Labour supporters rather than Conservatives had proposed them.

Some progress in improving Putney High Street - but nowhere near enough - has been made since the last council elections: mainly thanks to London Mayor Ken Livingstone coming up with investment for aspects of the street scene that the Council is actually responsible for funding.

This isn't just about the Council. We need co-ordinated action from Transport for London, Network Rail and the train companies (to improve Putney Station), the Government's Departments for Transport and Enterprise (to deal with the impact of traffic on the area and to stimulate business growth locally), local businesses and, yes, the Council. What is clear is that the past two years since the Putney Society and my Labour team raised our concerns about the neglect of Putney High Street have been characterised by inaction and lack of imagination. What we need is local leadership. Putney simply isn't getting it from its Conservative MP and councillors.

Links on the hoarding incident:

• Wandsworth Guardian coverage


• putneysw15 website news story


• putneysw15 website discussion forum