Dear Liz,

I hope you’re well and enjoying the summer! This is the August edition of my regular councillor newsletter about Wandsworth Town. Please read on for:

-    My next Council Surgery

-    Stop overdevelopment on the Gasworks site

-    Old York Road and St John’s Hill Festival successes

-    Wandsworth Bridge update - week 2 of 10 week closure

-    Old York Road improvement scheme progressing

-    Stop the Fulham LTN - government takes action

-    Community group celebration and Wandsworth Grants Fund

-    International Older People’s Day

-    Work Match celebrates 10 years of helping local people find work

-    Megaskips are back - 18 times a year

You can help spread the news by forwarding this e-mail to friends and family that live locally. I’m always happy to hear from residents so please do reply to let me know what I can do to help.

Best wishes,

Cllr Will Sweet

Your Conservative Councillor for Wandsworth Town

MY NEXT COUNCIL SURGERY

I hold a regular Council surgery at Wandsworth Town Library. It’s always a privilege to meet local residents and do my best to help them with any issues.

Please do get in touch if you’d like to meet me at my surgery - the next one is on Saturday 2nd September.

STOP OVERDEVELOPMENT ON THE GASWORKS SITE

Thank you to the hundreds of residents who signed my recent petition against the Wandsworth Gasworks proposals on Swandon Way.

The petition was presented at the July Council meeting so the Council now has to respond. The plans shockingly include a 30 storey tower and 646 new homes. Residents are rightly worried it will spoil the character of the area and overwhelm local services. The application itself has not yet come to the Planning Applications Committee but when it does I will speak against it on residents’ behalf. I expect this to be in the autumn/winter 2023 depending on how quickly the Greater London Authority and Wandsworth Council progress the application.

I’ve campaigned for years to protect our historic town centre from overdevelopment and tall buildings. I spoke against the Homebase tower at the Mayor of London’s hearing and I kept my election promise to get the Council (then run by the Conservatives) to introduce a Conservation Area around Old York Road.

OLD YORK ROAD AND ST JOHN’S HILL FESTIVAL SUCCESSES

Wasn’t it brilliant to see the Old York Road Unplugged festival and St John’s Hill Festival return this summer?

Like many residents, I enjoyed the stalls and entertainment at them both - and thankfully the weather was excellent. These festivals bring visitors to the area and are a big boost for our independent shops on these flagship high streets. It is so important that they continue next year.

WANDSWORTH BRIDGE UPDATE

WEEK 2 OF 10 WEEK CLOSURE

Sadly, the Council’s badly-handled closure of Wandsworth Bridge is causing traffic chaos. Your Conservative councillors have pushed for information on what is going on and are told that the work to jack the bridge and replace the bearings is ongoing. The road surface appears to have been removed, and we are told that the bearings are on order.

The Council said the bridge would be closed for approximately 10 weeks. In the meantime, I have heard reports of poor service on the temporary 728 bus route. I understand that there are supposed to be 5 buses in the fleet but that they have not always been in operation, leading to delays. Your councillors are in touch with TfL to seek improvements. We will keep up pressure on the Council to re-open Wandsworth Bridge as quickly and safely as possible.

OLD YORK ROAD IMPROVEMENT SCHEME PROGRESSING

After we secured a tremendous £2 million to make permanent improvements to Old York Road, Council officers have now confirmed that they are doing the detailed design work for the scheme and that construction will start in late 2023 or early 2024. It will include refurbishment of the paving and historic features. I will update you as soon as we have further details.

STOP THE FULHAM LTN - GOVERNMENT TAKES ACTION

During the Wandsworth Bridge closure, we need to keep up the pressure to suspend the awful local traffic scheme LTN north of Wandsworth Bridge. I was delighted therefore that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has ordered a review of LTN schemes across the country. I will keep you updated on the Department for Transport’s findings and decisions.

You may remember that Wandsworth Conservatives introduced a vote on this topic at the Council meeting and launched a huge campaign across Wandsworth. As I set out in my last newsletter, Hammersmith & Fulham Council have legal obligations and TfL has powers to intervene if traffic actions are causing problems in the road network - as they clearly are in this scheme. We think the Labour Leader of Wandsworth must use his political influence to ask the Mayor of London and his counterpart in H&F to stop the scheme.

COMMUNITY GROUP CELEBRATION AND WANDSWORTH GRANTS FUND

I was pleased to attend the Council’s celebration of volunteers and local community groups earlier this summer. It was a chance to thank and celebrate what these champions do for our community. I’m always happy to help with applications from local groups to the Council’s grants fund.

It supplies small grants of £500 to £10,000 in the following categories:



1. arts and culture;
2. environment and attractive neighbourhoods;
3. children and young people;
4. citizenship and civic engagement;
5. achieving aspirations and potential;
6. health and wellbeing;
7. support around the cost of living and recovering from the impact of covid-19.

INTERNATIONAL OLDER PEOPLE’S DAY

Groups that work with older people and adults in Wandsworth can apply for up to £250 to host a ‘Brighter Living’ event in October to celebrate International Older People’s Day and Silver Sunday and to promote physical activity and healthy independent lifestyles.

Please apply here by the 20th of August.

WORK MATCH CELEBRATES TEN YEARS OF HELPING LOCAL PEOPLE FIND WORK

Wandsworth Work Match has just celebrated its ten year anniversary. Since 2013, this outstanding programme has helped 2500+ residents into work. Local people can sign up to the scheme to be matched to roles in the area and receive training and coaching to prepare for the interview and job.

You can find out more here: https://www.wandsworthworkmatch.org

MEGASKIPS ARE BACK - 18 TIMES A YEAR

The popular megaskip days happen 18 times a year across Wandsworth. You can take up to six bulky waste items along for free, which will save you a trip to the dump or paying for a bulky waste collection.

The next megaskip day is next Saturday 12th of August and you can find details of locations here: https://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/news/news-august-2023/mega-skip-day-coming-soon/

Published and promoted by Harry Todd on behalf of the Wandsworth Conservatives, all contactable at 1 Summerstown, SW17 0BQ.