Councillor Stephen Alambritis will provide an update and take questions

Councillor Alambritis announced that on Tuesday 6th November, between 4 and 6pm, everyone is welcome to visit the brand new Morden Leisure Centre, for its soft opening. He thanked Pellikaan, the construction company, for their work on the project.

Finances across local government remain stretched and Merton is no exception. The latest Medium Term Financial Strategy shows that there is a budget gap of £19m from 2019/20 to 2022/23. This will be met through a mix of savings and income generation. Much of the cost pressures relate to Adult Social Care where the Council has a statutory duty to provide for some of the most vulnerable people in Merton. The Council has invested an additional £9m in Adult Social Care to help meet these challenges.

Children’s Services, where the Council is a corporate parent to 135 children and young people, are also a high priority. The recent Ofsted inspection found that the Council was good with outstanding features and one of the top ten authorities in England for children’s services.

Working in partnership with other boroughs has also helped reduce costs: Merton leads a legal services partnership on behalf of four other boroughs; shares regulatory services like licensing across three boroughs; and has even let out three floors in the Civic Centre to colleagues in the NHS. Renting out parks has also brought in additional revenue but can cause residents concern which the council is sensitive to.

The new dementia-friendly library in Colliers Wood was recently short-listed for the 2018 Library of the Year award.

The Council has created an additional 4,400 extra primary school places since 2010 by extending 23 schools, and a new secondary school, Harris Wimbledon, has opened in the former adult education site at Whatley Avenue, with adult education now being delivered by Merton College. The school will then move to a new building on High Path in South Wimbledon for the 2020 intake. There are now 15 outstanding schools in Merton, including most recently Harris Morden, a school which had previously rated as inadequate. The Council’s School Improvement Team continues to work across the borough to support schools. In last year’s GCSE results Merton had the highest scores for the Progress 8 school which measures progress from Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 4.

There a number of important regeneration projects underway. Clarion Housing is investing £1billion in improving three estates, that will result in better quality homes and no loss of social housing. The More Morden regeneration is back on track. Councillor Alambritis paid tribute to the Conservative Group, which kick-started the project. On Plough Lane, work is progressing on the new football stadium for AFC Wimbledon. The club will hopefully move in for the 2020/21 season. There will also be 600 new homes, at least 30% of which will be affordable. There is to be a new national health centre called The Wilson, which will address matters such as mental health. Work is ongoing on Mitcham Town Centre, in conjunction with TfL and work on the Wimbledon Masterplan also continues.

On 1st October, a new waste system was introduced, with wheelie bins for residents. It is hoped the new system will increase recycling rates, bring cleaner streets and bring savings of £1.6m in the first year and more thereafter. The new service was not radical in any way but based on successful schemes used in councils across the country and shared with three of our neighbouring boroughs.

Cllr Alambritis thanked all those who volunteered in Merton. Volunteers are an essential part of life in Merton and he was pleased that the Cabinet had just agreed to continue to support the voluntary sector through a new Strategic Partner Funding Programme.

Asked about the possibility of a concert hall in Wimbledon, Councillor Alambritis explained that the car park covenanted to Morrison’s comes back to the council next year, so there is a possibility of a concert hall being built there, if it can be demonstrated as viable economically.

A resident asked about leaf-sweeping in Autumn and why the wheelie bins are different designs. She also asked what is being done about residents receiving the wrong leaflet and wrong bins. Councillor Alambritis apologised for the errors in the new waste system and said the council has impressed upon Veolia the need to rectify these mistakes. There has been a big demand for food waste caddies. Veolia should be doing everything they can to clear the leaves away. It will take time for the system to settle down and run smoothly. The bins can be different designs, as long as they can fit onto the trucks. The new trucks, which belong to the council, are state-of-the-art, with cameras on all sides for safety and to ensure collection is being done correctly.

A resident questioned the proposed location of Harris Academy, saying it has been identified by the Mayor of London as a very polluted site. Councillor Alambritis agreed that there are air quality issues throughout the whole of London. A paper on the proposed site will go to the planning committee, who will need to be satisfied that the air quality is acceptable for a school to be situated there. Schemes around trees, fencing and which way classes face can also be implemented to help address the matter. Air Quality is taken very seriously by Merton Council with a new Air Quality Action Plan. A levy on diesel cars has been introduced as well as increasing the number of electric charging points.

On building height for the Wimbledon Masterplan, direction is taken from the Mayor of London and is based on density policy.