Merton Council Ordinary Council Meeting Agenda Membership: The Mayor, Councillor Nick Draper The Deputy Mayor, Councillor Karin Forbes Councillors Tariq Ahmad, Agatha Akyigyina, Stephen Alambritis, Mark Allison, Stephen Austin, Mark Betteridge, John Bowcott, Margaret Brierly, William Brierly, Jeremy Bruce, Angela Caldara, Richard Chellew, David Chung, David Dean, John Dehaney, Chris Edge, Corinna Edge, Samantha George, Maurice Groves, Marc Hanson, Philip Jones, Andrew Judge, Stephen Kerin, Linda Kirby, Sheila Knight, Patricia Lewis, Brian Lewis-Lavender, Gilli Lewis-Lavender, Edith Macauley, Russell Makin, Barbara Mansfield, Denise March, Maxi Martin, Peter McCabe, Krystal Miller, Oonagh Moulton, Ian Munn, Diane Neil Mills, Henry Nelless, Dennis Pearce, George Reynolds, Judy Saunders, Linda Scott, Rod Scott, Deborah Shears, David Simpson, Zenia Squires-Jamison, Peter Southgate, Geraldine Stanford, Gregory Udeh, Leighton Veale, Jonathan Warne, Martin Whelton, David Williams, Krysia Williams Richard Williams, Ronald Wilson and Simon Withey Date: Wednesday 3 February 2010 Time: 7.15pm Venue: Merton Civic Centre, London Road, Morden, Surrey in the Council Chamber This is a public meeting and attendance by the public is encouraged and welcomed. For information about this agenda please contact [email protected] or telephone 020 8545 3361. All Press contacts [email protected] 020 8545 3181 www.merton.gov.uk Ordinary Council Meeting Agenda 3 February 2010 1. Apologies for absence 2. Declarations of Interest 1 3. To approve the minutes of the Ordinary Meeting held 25 November 2009 7 and 71 and the Extraordinary Meeting held on 25 November 2010 4. To receive any announcements from the Mayor, Leader of the Council and - the Chief Executive 5. Questions from Councillors (to be circulated at the meeting) - 6. Strategic Objective Review – Sustainable Communities (Street Scene) 73 7. Reports of Community Forums (a) Colliers Wood and North East Mitcham Community Forum 85 (b) Mitcham Community Forum 91 (c) Morden Community Forum 97 (d) Wimbledon Community Forum 105 (e) Raynes Park Community Forum 113 8. Notices Of Motion The following motions have been received pursuant to Paragraph 2.3(k) of Part 4A of the Council’s Constitution: Motion 1 Submitted by Councillors Maxi Martin, Geraldine Stanford and Agatha Akyigyina This council condemns the ongoing burden on Merton residents of the cost of resident and visitor parking permits. Council is concerned that this financial year’s decision to increase visitor permit fees was taken on 27 February 2009, before the Council’s Budget meeting, but that a copy of the decision was not distributed to Councillors until 6 April, and that even though the Sustainable Communities Scrutiny Panel had asked for “information on revised parking fees”. Members were not informed of the detail of the decision until after the Budget meeting, and therefore had no opportunity to amend the decision or conduct a Call-In. This Council further notes that no contemporaneous legal advice about the decision was sought. Council also notes that the decision was “based upon no elasticity of demand” and condemns the maximisation of revenue from parking permits in residential zones across the borough as a source of general income for the council. This council notes that the cost of a visitors half day parking permit has increased by 150% since 2006 (£1 April 2006, £2.50 April 2009), whilst the cost of an annual resident parking permit has increased by 44% (£45 April www.merton.gov.uk 2006, £65 April 2009) in the same time period. Visitors full day parking permits have increased by 25% since 2006 (£2 April 2006, £2.50 April 2009) whilst additional resident annual parking permits have increased by between 33% and 37.5% (£80-£105 April 2006, £110-£140 April 2009). This council acknowledges that this represents a huge increase in income for the council which is not justified in relation to the cost of providing the service. Motion 2 Submitted by Councillors Maxi Martin, Geraldine Stanford and Agatha Akyigyina This council condemns Merton’s Conservative administration and owners Golfrate for their failure to address the blighting of the local community by the Tower in Colliers Wood. This Council is concerned that the temporary green netting and boarded windows have become a permanent feature and that there has been no other work to remedy safety concerns or improve the appearance of the Tower since. This Council believes the dilapidation is contributing to anti-social activities in the Borough, and calls on the Cabinet Member and Golfrate to agree a sustainable solution to this issue and ensure the redevelopment of the Tower is achieved, as agreed by Planning Committee, with resident’s interests at the forefront. Motion 3 Submitted by Councillors David Dean, Samantha George and David Simpson This Council recognises the crucial role that both central and local government can play in tackling climate change and therefore welcomes the various actions this administration has taken in recent years to cut the borough’s CO2 emissions, which include: • Achieving a 22% reduction in emissions from the Civic Centre in Morden, equating to over 450 tonnes of CO2. • Employing a full-time energy and sustainability manager and conducting a comprehensive programme of environmental audits for council buildings. • Introducing energy saving projects across all council buildings in Merton such as improved insulation, more efficient lights, time controls for heating and electrical items and equipment reducing the voltage of electricity supplied to buildings, so saving a total of more than 1,900 tonnes of CO2 and over £285,000 since 2005; • Implementing the borough’s first ever Climate Change Strategy. • Making it as easy as possible for residents to recycle – and thereby increasing recycling rates to over 33% - through initiatives such as the introduction of mixed recycling collection for houses and communal recycling bins in blocks of 10 or more flats; providing new dual litter and recycling bins in Mitcham town centre; offering free Christmas tree collection as well as recycling and replanting of Christmas trees; a waste education programme in the our schools; recycling roadshows around the borough; and rolling out a food waste collection scheme to 10,000 Merton households. www.merton.gov.uk • Encouraging more residents to walk and cycle through initiatives such as school travel plans; rolling out 20’s Plenty schemes in many of our residential streets; opening the borough’s first Homezone in Figge’s Marsh; investing over £250,000 over the last two years in Merton's existing cycle network; and securing one of the capital’s first two Cycle Superhighways. • Promoting sustainable forms of public transport, not least through the opening of a new station at Mitcham Eastfields – the first new suburban train station in south London since World War II – in the space of only 22 months. • Extending the Merton Rule to include all new developments and developing an innovative monitoring system to measure how much renewable energy is being generated. This Council also understands the need for government to set an example for others to follow when it comes to tackling climate change, as demonstrated by George Osborne MP’s recent commitment that a Conservative government will ‘cut central government emissions by ten per cent within twelve months’. This Council therefore welcomes the current administration’s clear commitment - illustrated by the Cabinet signing up to the national 10:10 campaign at its meeting on 9 November 2009- to reduce Merton council’s carbon emissions by 10% during 2010 through a range of actions including: • Upgrading the council’s fleet of vehicles with more efficient engines, which are able to run on biodiesel made using vegetable oil rather than unsustainable fossil fuel; • Making the borough’s street lighting more energy efficient; • Investigating the installation of a Combined Cooling Heat and Power (CCHP) system in the Civic Centre, which could supply the building with electricity, cooling water and heat and save over 200 tonnes of CO2 every year. • Developing one of the capital’s 10 new Low Carbon Zones in a less affluent part of the borough and investing over £275,000 from the Mayor of London to facilitate home improvements, deliver lower energy bills and create employment opportunities, through initiatives such as an apprenticeship scheme for residents to become "energy doctors”; opportunities to generate energy from waste to heat homes and community buildings; and workshops and roadshows on energy, sustainable transport and waste reduction. • Encouraging more cyclists in Merton using additional support secured from the Mayor of London’s Biking Boroughs scheme. This Council further resolves to redouble its efforts to build on its reputation as a low carbon borough, by continuing to work closely together with local residents, schools, community groups and businesses to make Merton more energy efficient and environmentally sustainable for the future and at the same time helping stimulate the local economy and create job opportunities www.merton.gov.uk during this time of economic recession. Motion 4 Submitted by Councillors Henry Nelless, Samantha George, Marc Hanson, Tariq Ahmad This Council notes that Wednesday 27 January 2010 marked the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the largest Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and it affirms the various events that took place across the borough to mark this year's Holocaust Memorial Day. This Council recognises the importance of Holocaust Memorial Day both in remembering the victims and survivors of Nazi persecution during the Holocaust, and those affected by subsequent genocides around the world, and in bringing together all sections of our community to learn the lessons of the past and commit to building a better future. This Council therefore resolves to continue challenging all forms of discrimination, persecution and racism so as to ensure atrocities such as the Holocaust can never happen again. 9. Calendar of Meetings 117 10.