Chessington  District Residents Association

 

AGENDA

 

For the meeting to be held on Thursday 7th February  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.     ANY OTHER BUSINESS

 

 

MINUTES

 

Of the meeting held on the 3rd January 2008

 

PRESENT

 

Richard Heath,  Chairman,  Jim Taylor, Vice Chairman, 

 Ray Kelsey, Francis Brannan,  Les Davis, , John Hayball, Alex Martin, Colin Suckling, Sue Torrero,  Andrew Day, Colin Hossack, Amanda Birch

 

APOLOGIES

 

 Peter Alexander, Vice Chairman

Ted Farmer, Brian Gaye 

 

 

VISITORS

 

Cllr Patricia Bamford, Colin Punch, David Tippett-Wilson, Diane Brannan,

Mr Paul Dearman (Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames Council), Mr Ron Jeffers, Mrs Ann Jeffers, A.MacKenzie,  Lee Mills (Chessington Youth Action)

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. CHESSINGTON DISTRICT RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION NOTICES

 

There were no notices.

 

2. MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING

 

The minutes of the last meeting were agreed.

 

3. VISITING MEMBERS QUESTIONS

 

 Mr Andrew MacKenzie who lives in Malden Rushett asked what can be done about a growing problem in Malden Rushett.  There are increasing numbers of heavy goods vehicles (HGV’s) travelling along the A243 during the night.  They cause considerable noise and vibration nuisance to the resident’s of Malden Rushett.  As the vehicles travel fast on the relatively empty roads the noise and vibration is increased.  He asked if it was legal that they should travel into London during the night.

 

We were fortunate to have Mr Paul Dearman, the  RBK South of the Borough Traffic Engineering Manager with us to give an authoritative answer.  He said it was legal for the HGV’s to travel as far as the Bridge Road roundabout.  It was also legal for them to travel on the A3.  The road from the Bridge Road roundabout to the A3 is supposedly a restricted area.  The meeting was unsure if there were signs advising a restricted area at Bridge Road.  The meeting was also unaware of where any restrictions on HGV’s entering London on the A3 were located. Mr Dearman said that enforcement on lorry bans on hgv’s is the responsibility of London Borough’s.  He also said that TfL are planning to resurface the A243 at Malden Rushett and from Merritt Gardens to Bridge Road so as to diminish vibration from passing vehicles. 

 

The Association will investigate these issues more fully and come back to a future Executive meeting with comprehensive information and recommendations for any actions by the Association.

 

The London Low Emission Zone (LEZ), which starts at the Malden Rushett crossroads on the A243 was also discussed. This comes into effect on Monday the 4th of February and we have all seen the warning signs installed on side roads in recent months.  The enforcement of the LEZ is the responsibility of Transport for London who will, in part, use high technology to aid enforcement.  A traffic  monitoring camera will be installed to the north of the Malden Rushett  junction.   

 

4. MATTERS ARISING

    

( a )  After the tragic death of Mike Cowley in a road accident while crossing the A243 Hook Road,  at the traffic lights adjacent to the Hook Community Centre our Councillors organised a meeting attended by Transport for London, who are the road authority, the Police and Mr Jim Taylor of the Resident’s Association.  They carefully examined the roads and the immediate environment to ascertain if any short term measures could be effected  to enhance road safety.  It was decided to paint speed limit signs on the road and to create a cyclists haven at the traffic lights at the  junction of Elm Road. In the immediate term a traffic study of this area will be conducted by TfL. 

 

Whilst the meeting was in progress those attending were disturbed to see a number of people crossing the road at the traffic lights where the fatal accident occurred.  This is especially dangerous as there is no facility for pedestrians to cross the road in the traffic light sequence. Immediately traffic on the Hook Road stops at a red light traffic entering and leaving Elm Road gets a green light. What is especially dangerous is that when south bound traffic stops at a red light people are tempted to cross. Yet Kingston bound traffic still has a green light!  The only safe place for residents to cross the road is at the pedestrian crossing outside Woolworths. Even here there is a problem.  The period of time that pedestrians have to cross the road is set to a minimum duration. We want the time for the pedestrians increased. As the Hook Centre attracts a considerable number of visitors creating a safe method to cross the road  will be a priority of the traffic study.

 

( b )  Mr Lee Mills of Chessington Youth Action (CYA) told us of recent donations that they had made to support young people in the community.  These included enabling two disadvantaged children to attend a summer camp with their school friends on the Isle of Wight and enabling two school children to receive training from a chess master. Funding has been provided to some students at Chessington Community College to have  extra music tuition to enable them to pass exams and support has been given to pupils at Castle Hill to help the teaching costs of their percussion band. The Resident Association confirmed that it will be making a donation to CYA. 

 

5. NEW ISSUES      

 

( c ) The London wide health care consultation process being undertaken by the Primary Care Trusts is now under way.  There is to be a consultation meeting at the United Reform Church in Eden Street on the 7th of February.  There will also be a presentation followed by questions given by the Chief Executive  of the Kingston Primary Care Trust at the next Neighbourhood Committee meeting.  This will take place at 7.30pm on Wednesday the 6th of February at Southborough School, Hook Road, Surbiton. The Residents Association will attend at least one of these meetings and prepare a submission to the Primary Care Trust.

 

(  d ) Chalky Lane has now been cleaned of the rubbish dumped by fly tippers.  There has been more fly tipping but a system is now in place to remove the rubbish quickly.  Fly tipping is a continuing problem in this area.  Colin Suckling reported that there is now a great deal of fly tipping of rubbish in the lane adjacent to the Star Public House.  As this is the border between the Royal Borough of Kingston and Mole Valley District Council removal of the rubbish  and attempts to prevent fly tipping happening are proving very difficult to effect.

 

( e ) Alex Martin reported that the Garden Centre were accepting Christmas trees for recycling free of charge.  Even better, anyone bringing a Christmas tree for recycling gets a free cup of tea or coffee.  This typically generous offer is proving very popular. 

 

( f )  There was a discussion of the lack of clear information about refuse and recycling collections at Christmas time.  It was noted that at the moment it is difficult for residents to know what will or will not be recycled, especially with regard to plastic containers.

 

Councillor Bamford reported that a great deal of work was being undertaken in  planning for the South West London Refuse Partnership, a multi borough organisation which will, from September, deal with our waste and recycling in the years to come. It is intended that there will be a standard and uniform method of refuse collection and recycling across the Boroughs. 

 

6.  PLANNING APPLICATIONS

 

( g )  56, Rollesby Road – In our December minutes we noted ‘a planning application has been made to build a one bedroom house in the back garden.  We will investigate further and report at the next meeting’. Jim Taylor brought to this meeting a plan of the site.  It is completely unique with access from the service road which leads to the rear of Rollesby Road.  As there are no problems caused to adjacent properties we will make no objection.

 

( h ) 1 Wilson Road – A planning application to build a three bedroom house on an empty plot of land.  We will make no objection.  David Tippet-Wilson commented that the ‘empty plot of land’ was a bomb site from the second world war.

 

7.  PLANNING NEWS

 

( i  ) We reported in our December minutes ‘ St Phillips School – An application has been made to fell a mature oak tree’. This turned out to be ‘exempt works’ and not subject to planning controls.

 

8.  OTHER BUSINESS

 

( j ) For many years the Association has been concerned with the drainage of surface water and flooding in Chessington & Hook. This area was developed, before the second world war,  on farmland which included drained lakes. Ray Kelsey reports that at that time wet lands formed during the winter and would be flooded for three months or more.

 

 Mr Paul Dearman  the RBK  South of the Borough Traffic Engineering  Manager attended the meeting and gave us a very comprehensive lecture about the drainage system for this area. He had a very large map of Chessington & Hook which showed the extremely complex system of land drains which exist underneath our community. 

 

He described in some detail how rain water was generally drained from Winey Hill in the south of the area and moved north to eventually pass under the A3 a little to the west of the Cap in Hand public house.  However, it was realised some years ago that the continued development of the area caused more water to enter the drainage system necessitating improvements being built.  This included some major engineering works.  When the drainage system becomes overloaded water is diverted over an underground weir located a little to the north of Clayton Road.  It is diverted back to a major drain which starts more than 50 feet underneath the Bridge Road roundabout.  From there  a 6 foot diameter pipe leads to an exit into the Hogsmill stream adjacent to the Bonesgate public house.

 

The system is under continuous review and is regularly updated.  The drainage works taking place along the Leatherhead Road last year were to install a large underground land drain that can, in an emergency, store water until it is drained by the system.  In the coming year the land drain running behind Sussex Gardens is to be excavated and a ‘french drain’ installed to ensure that properties will not suffer flooding in future.

 

During questions Jim Taylor asked if the system was currently adequately cleaned and maintained.  Mr Dearman replied that when RBK had the responsibility for maintaining the system it was well cleaned and maintained.  However, now that the Government has moved responsibility for the system to Thames Water, he has no current knowledge and could not comment.

 

We are very grateful for the very comprehensive and interesting talk given by Mr Dearman and recognise his great knowledge and expertise.

 

Dates for your Diary

 

The date of our next meeting is Thursday the 6th of March.

 

The next Police Safer Neighbourhood Team meeting is being held at The Kings Centre, Coppard Gardens on 4th March at 7.30pm.