Chessington  District Residents Association

 

AGENDA

 

For the meeting to be held on Thursday 3rd January  2008

 

At St Paul’s Church Hall

 

 

 

1.     CHESSINGTON DISTRICT RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION NOTICES

2.     MINUTES OF LAST MEETING

3.     VISTING MEMBERS QUESTIONS

4.     MATTERS ARISING

5.     NEW ISSUES

6.      PLANNING APPLICATIONS

7.     PLANNING NEWS

8.     POLICE REPORT

9.     ANY OTHER BUSINESS

 

 

MINUTES

 

Of the meeting held on the 13th December 2007

 

PRESENT

 

Richard Heath,  Chairman,  Jim Taylor, Vice Chairman, 

 Ray Kelsey, Francis Brannan,  Les Davis, Colin Hossack, John Hayball, Alex Martin,

 

APOLOGIES

 

Sue Torrero,  Amanda Birch, David Tipett-Wilson, Peter Alexander, Vice Chairman

Colin Suckling, Ted Farmer, Brian Gaye 

 

Cllr Vicky Harris

 

VISITORS

 

Cllr Patricia Bamford, Colin Punch, Mike Hoare, Pat Newman

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. CHESSINGTON DISTRICT RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION NOTICES

 

There were no notices.

 

2. MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING

 

The minutes of the last meeting were agreed with one amendment.  Mr Peter Alexander, Vice Chairman also attended the funeral of Mrs June Kitchener.

 

3. VISITING MEMBERS QUESTIONS

 

  There were none.

 

4. MATTERS ARISING

    

( a )  Councillor Bamford has spoken to Chessington Youth Action (CYA) about our donation. CYA have confirmed that they are making arrangements for the presentation of our cheque.

 

(b)  A  report was made and discussed on the presentation by Kingston Hospital at a public meeting of their plans to seek trust status for the hospital. The meeting was held on  Wednesday 5th of December at the Hook community Centre. The presentation was made by Kingston Hospitals Nursing Manager who explained the hospitals business plan and answered numerous questions.

 

Our  discussion was led by Mr Mike Hoare who is the Chairman of the Ace of Spades Residents Association and an active member of the Merritt Health Centre Patients Committee and other similar organisations.   He has a background in senior management and consultancy working with major organisations undergoing structural change.

 

Mike explained the details of Kingston Hospitals proposal to the Executive Committee. He explained the technicalities of the hospital seeking to become a foundation trust hospital, described the hospitals proposal to go into partnership with a private organisation who will undertake all elective surgery and evaluated the difficulties the hospital will face in the coming years. He concluded by saying that a successful and well managed foundation trust hospital will be in the best interest of the community.  However, the immediate way ahead will be difficult as there are many national governmental issues  still  to be resolved which will have an impact on the future of Kingston Hospital. 

 

 

5. NEW ISSUES      

 

(c ) A report was made on the third public consultancy meeting held by Tesco Plc to discuss their proposed superstore and housing development on the old government offices site adjacent to the Tolworth roundabout.  Councillor Bamford did not participate in this part of the meeting. Plans were shown which detailed the three current proposals being evaluated for the remodelling of the Tolworth roundabout.  Plans were also shown of the three current proposals being evaluated for the layout of the blocks of flats to be built on top of the superstore.   It was explained that the number of flats and the height of the accommodation blocks has not yet been finalised. The Executive discussed the plans and  their impact upon our community. Tesco are now working with the planning department at the Royal Borough of Kingston to finalise their proposals and a planning application is expected to be made in March or April.

 

Mike Hoare pointed out that the designation of the site as either urban or suburban may effect the density of housing allowed. There are guidelines in planning document PS42 which we will look at in due course.

 

( d )  A report was made on the South of the Borough Neighbourhood Committee meeting held at the Hook Community Centre on the 27th of November. Our Association was especially interested  in a remarkable presentation made by RBK’s  Road Engineer, Mr Paul Dearman, on the above ground and below ground water drainage systems for Hook and Chessington.  The issue of flooding in our community has been of especial concern to our Association for a number of years and we have made numerous initiatives to ensure that properties in roads such as Sussex Gardens are protected from flooding.  We thought that Mr Dearmans presentation was extremely valuable and very interesting.  The Executive Committee resolved to invite Mr Dearman to repeat his presentation at our next meeting.   

 

( e )  The amalgamation of Moor Lane and Buckland schools has been agreed by the Executive Committee of the Council.  Jim Taylor questioned  if we are absolutely certain that there will be a long term reduction in the number of pupils in the community which justifies the amalgamation. Councillor Bamford summarised the demographic studies that have taken place and explained how other first schools in Chessington and Hook are similarly affected.  Our Chairman Richard Heath has attended a meeting held by Buckland School Management and parents to discuss vehicular access to the site.  He summarised the problems and reported that the issue was ongoing.

 

 

6.  PLANNING APPLICATIONS

 

( f )  56, Rollesby Road – An application has been made to build a one bedroom house in the back garden.  We will investigate further and report at the next meeting.

 

( g ) St Phillips School – An application has been made to fell a mature oak tree.

 

7. PLANNING NEWS

 

( h )  Three recent planning applications have been refused:-

573, Chessington Road

71, Leatherhead Road

Somerset Avenue, two properties to be demolished and replaced with numerous houses.

 

( i ) Rushett Farm -  The Inspector making the public enquiry into illegal spoil dumping has published his conclusion.  At the time of the meeting the full details were not known.  It is understood that a form of retrospective planning permission has been granted with no requirement to remove the large amount of spoil which was dumped illegally.  We will make further enquires to get more details on this issue.

 

( j ) Chalky Lane – A report was made that the road surface of the lane is in exceptionally poor condition .  There is also a growing problem of illegal rubbish dumping in the lane.  We will take this up with the Borough Road Engineer and the Police.

 

( k ) Hook Recreation Ground – At a recent Executive meeting the overgrown state of the gardens was reported to Sergeant Dan Wheatley.  It was explained that the overgrown bushes obscure the sight lines from the Hook Road and encourage anti social behaviour on the recreation ground.  The bushes have subsequently been trimmed and undergrowth removed  as part of a ‘Community Pay Back ’ scheme undertaken by young offenders organised by the Youth Offending Team and the Police.

 

8. POLICE REPORT

 

( l )The Police were unable to attend the meeting.  A report was made on the Safer Neighbourhood Steering Committee and Public meetings held on the 1st of December. At that meeting the new Police Officers and PCSO’s were introduced.  The new Chessington South Safer Neighbourhood Sergeant is Sergeant John Truelove, a very experienced Officer who has come from the CID.

 

The community has generally been very quiet over the recent period..  There have been five arrests for drugs related offences including three dealers.  All Police Constables have now been trained to use the hand held radar guns to monitor speeding vehicles and a successful exercise was carried out in Moor Lane.  There has been a small amount of anti social behaviour by youths which is being dealt with.  Police and community work continues with a project currently engaging year five first school children who are photographing areas of the neighbourhood that they think need sorting out.  The Police are on heightened alert in the run up to Christmas checking vulnerable vehicles in a pro-active project to reduce vehicle crime. 

 

9.  OTHER BUSINESS

 

( m )  Our next Executive meeting  on the 3rd of January is only three weeks after our December meeting and the interim period is expected to  be very quiet over the Christmas and New Year holiday.  We will therefore take the opportunity to discuss a number of issues affecting the community in general.  These will be :-

Land drainage in Hook and Chessington as already mentioned.

Police proposals to reorganise their premises throughout Kingston.

The Metropolitan Police Authority consultation on their Children and Young People Strategy.

Road safety at Hook and on the A243 in general.

Issues that Councillor Bamford might wish to discuss.