Councillor James Holmes

The meeting was held via Zoom, and chaired by Councillor Daniel Holden in the absence of Councillor James Holmes. Five residents and six councillors attended on Zoom with 55 additional views on YouTube. The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and explained how the meeting would work.

The latest on developing a Neighbourhood Plan for Wimbledon

Suzanne Grocott gave a presentation on Plan Wimbledon’s progress towards developing a Wimbledon Neighbourhood Plan, which is attached to this report. PlanWimbledon is a community group that has been running for 18 months and aims to create a better, more sustainable Wimbledon through the development of a neighbourhood plan. The group held a general meeting on 15 June.

Future Merton held a public consultation in April and May on whether PlanWimbledon should be designated as a Neighbourhood Forum for the purpose of developing a Neighbourhood plan the proposed area of Wimbledon. There were c1300 responses to the consultation with 90% supporting the proposed area and the application to become a Forum. Most respondents were local residents.

The key issues raised by Merton Council following the consultation included:

• A lack of responses from Wimbledon town centre businesses and employees
• No responses from Plough Lane retail park or Weir Road industrial estate

Since the consultation concluded PlanWimbledon has been in negotiation with Merton Council to address some of these issues. The Council is due to decide on PlanWimbledon’s application at the Cabinet meeting on 22 June.

Borough wide engagement on COVID recovery

Kris Witherington, Merton Council, gave a presentation on the Your Merton engagement programme, and the presentation is attached to this report. The aim is to build a detailed understanding of resident & community priorities in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. By seeking views from all parts of our community we aim is to create a comprehensive, professional engagement that provides genuine insight from residents, communities, service users and hard-to-reach groups. This will provide an updated set of insight showing changes to previous perceptions and future priorities which will support the development of future corporate plan for the borough. The programme asks about places that are important, your daily life, the impact of the pandemic, and your ambitions for the future. We have conducted a large scale telephone survey, have developed an interactive website and will be working with community groups to hold targeted focus groups. Residents are encouraged to complete the website by going to

www.merton.gov.uk/yourmerton by 7 July and to share this with their friends, family and local networks.

A resident asked if the telephone survey was the same as the regular Residents Survey. Kris explained that survey covered both regular questions and specific questions for the Your Merton programme.

·         Parliamentary Boundary Review

2023 Boundary Commission Review:

The Boundary Commission for England is consulting on proposed revisions to the parliamentary boundaries for 2023. For the Wimbledon constituency the major changes are Cannon Hill ward moving to Mitcham and Morden while two wards from Kingston, St James and Old Malden, will join the constituency. To comment on the proposals please go to

https://www.bcereviews.org.uk/ by 2 August

A resident asked about the overflowing bins in Dundonald Rec. Cllr Fairclough said that the contract team had found the bins were not being emptied frequently enough.

The Green Spaces team had provided response which was:

Dundonlad Park has experienced an increase in usage in-line with the recent improvement in weather conditions. Our greenspace service have increased their frequency of attendance at Dundonald Park to ensure that bins are managed more tightly during this time of increased usage. If there are bin lids missing this will be reported to our service delivery partners, idverde for action. The Coffee stall has a bin for users and there are other bins in the park

Haydon Park North traffic management was raised at the last community forum meeting. Highways Team and responded with:

We received funding via a bid process to introduce a Low Traffic Neighbourhood in Haydon Park North area and following an informal consultation the majority of the residents rejected the scheme. There are no further plans for this area and additionally, we do not have access to further funding at this time.

David Hall Chair of Wimblecomm said that Wimbledon Community Assocation would be celebrating 75 years this year. They are working on capturing the history of the organisation and hope to either have an event or other way of highlighting the work of the group. Information on their plans will be available from their website at https://wimbledoncommunity.org/

Cllr Gretton asked if bins had been taken out of Haydon Road Station and that residents have been reporting that their recycling wheelie bins showing cracks and lots need replacing.

A resident asked about the ‘Parklet’ being installed in the Wimbledon Village High Street. Details of the parklet and the consultation on the Experimental Traffic Order can be found on the Council website.

A resident asked about school streets. Kris explained that the Experiment Traffic Orders for 28 school streets had begun in September but due to lockdown closures the consultations for all of the sites had been extended until 31 July. These can be found on the Council website.

22 September 2021, 7.15pm in Wimbledon Arts Space

Councillor Holden thanked everyone for attending and closed the meeting.

Future meetings:

7.15pm Wednesday 22 September 2021

7.15pm Wednesday 1 December 2021

7.15pm Wednesday 23 March 2022