Leader of the Council, Councillor Stephen Alambritis

Councillor Alambritis provided an anonymous case study of a 96-year-old man who lives independently but on his own. After a fall, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and already had Type 2 Diabetes. Merton Council’s Reablement team has worked with the resident to create a Reablement Plan including four visits a day, with new equipment to make his home accessible, a MASCOT alarm, and referred him to Age UK Merton for support. The resident is now regaining his confidence and attending Wimbledon Guild to reduce his isolation. 45% of Merton Council controllable income goes on Adult Social Care and also supports groups like Wimbledon Guild and the Warm and Well project with £1m for the voluntary sector. Committed in the July Principles in 2011 to prioritise vulnerable residents.

Raising revenue from regeneration schemes like AFC Wimbledon move to Plough Lane. Will also support Mitcham Cricket Club in similar way.

MyLondon rated Merton as 4^th best borough for families, based on quality of schools, housing costs and services for families. Friends of the Earth rated Merton joint 2^nd in London for tackling climate change.

Merton Council has decided to keep all libraries open, with a new library in Colliers Wood, despite 500 libraries closing nationally. Thanks to volunteers to are essential to providing services and keeping libraries Wimbledon is the busiest in borough with more than 200,000 visitors to Arts Space last year.

Nearly all schools in Merton are good or outstanding. 23 Primary schools expanded to address demand and a new secondary school in South Wimbledon is already oversubscribed. Four of our care leavers went on to University this year. Merton Council is looking at how we support students with special needs and lobbying the government to help fund this work. You can get involved in the consultation before 16 October. Adult Education also going from strength to strength under Merton College having saved the service from the impact from reduced central government funding.

A Brexit Task Group is looking at the implications especially of a no deal Brexit, and is meeting monthly. We have also updated our Risk Register and have been supporting the 24,000 EU residents in Merton to access Settled Status, through funding a support worker Merton and Lambeth CAB, based in Morden and providing a document scanning service at the registry office in Morden. We are also monitoring Hate Crime incidents and looking at challenge for social care in terms of recruiting staff.

Bishopford Road Bridge have insurance to cover the cost of either repairing or renewing the bridge depending on which is the best options. The latest news on the bridge is available from our website.

A resident asked about the future of Mitcham Cricket Club and Stephen responded that they have already designated the pavilion as an Asset of Community Value and will use planning to protect the future of the pavilion and the club, as we did on the Plough Lane site.

A resident asked if the Clarion redevelopments include sufficient space for accessible facilities and Cllr Alambritis said those details would be looked at through the planning process.

A resident asked about the Kwick-Fit site and Cllr Alambritis said that the developer has three years under national rules to start on the scheme following planning application so it is disappointing they are sitting on the site.

A resident asked about income thresholds for care costs and Cllr Alambritis responded that we have been waiting for some time for the Government Green Paper on social care as these thresholds are set nationally.