Worcester Park Roadworks Map

I've been attempting to work out the scale of the upcoming roadworks disruption and turned to Google Maps to help visualise it. While all those who are into NLP discuss my preferred learning style the rest of us can try and work out whether we'll ever be able to go shopping again.

If you click on the image on the left it should take you to a Google map with lines and clicky things showing where the works will be taking place. It's my best endeavour at trying to collate the information, which comes from the Kingston Council page here, so do let me know if I've missed, misplaced or mucked anything up. So, in no particular order:

Phase One works will start in January 2011 and are expected to be completed in eight weeks. A traffic management scheme will be in place throughout the works that will require the temporary closure of three roads – Green Lane, Lynwood Drive and Park Terrace - and one way working underneath the railway bridge that will be controlled by temporary traffic lights.

‘Streets For People’
Who: Sutton Council (with funding from Transport for London)
Where: Central Road between junctions with Green Lane and Lynwood Drive.
What: Works involve de-cluttering the footways, altering kerb lines, building speed tables and resurfacing footways.

Cast Iron Mains replacement
Who: Sutton and East Surrey Water
Where: Central Road between junctions with Green Lane and Balmoral Road.
What: Replace two mains along both sides of Central Road and the supply to each property in the area. This requires excavation of the carriageway and the temporary closure of the junction with Lynwood Drive.

Gas Mains Replacement
Who: Southern Gas Network
Where: Malden Road from the junctions with Motspur Park and Idmiston Road.

Replacement Sewer – Flood alleviation scheme
Who: Thames Water
Where: Malden Road, Worcester Park from junctions with Park Terrace and South Lane.
What: The works would involve deep carriageway excavations, likely to occupy half the width of the carriageway, requiring some form of temporary traffic management.

‘Minor’ Traffic Management schemes
Who: Kingston Council
Where: Two primary locations on Malden Road – junction with Motspur Park and Church Road.
What: Realignment of kerb lines and resurfacing of the highway.

Possible addition: Gas Mains Replacement
Where: Malden Way Southbound slip Road on A3 at Malden Roundabout

Two years of roadworks disruption in Worcester Park?

Hmmm... just when Sutton and East Surrey Water's little experiment in road works seems to be passing without much disruption dire prognostication of disruptions to come arrives from Kingston Council (aka "the people who cut down the trees" to those of us on the Sutton side) who really ought to know.

On the Kingston Council website it says:
“We have identified that there are a series of activities by a number of different agencies that will need to be completed in the next two years that will all affect traffic on the A2043 [Ed:Malden Road/Central Road].

“The simple fact is that these works cannot be carried out without causing some level of disruption. By working together we can reduce the completion time by some months and therefore minimise the disruption to road users and local residents.”

The total duration of all these works would be approximately two years if all the works followed one after the other in the traditional way. But all the agencies involved recognise that by working together, sharing our knowledge and expertise, we can deliver the best improvements for local people in the shortest time and by causing the least disruption.

And here comes the really good news!
The first project will be essential works to underground gas supplies either side of the railway bridge at Worcester Park Station, between Green Lane (London Borough of Sutton) and Park Terrace (The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames). Phase One works will start in January 2011 and are expected to be completed in eight weeks.

The works are part of the national Gas Mains replacement programme, replacing old iron pipes with new Polyethylene mains which will require excavation of the highway. A traffic management scheme will be in place throughout the works that will require the temporary closure of three roads – Green Lane, Lynwood Drive and Park Terrace - and one way working underneath the railway bridge that will be controlled by temporary traffic lights. Advance warning notices will be displayed in the area and residents will be kept updated of progress throughout the programme

Full article here:
http://www.kingston.gov.uk/information/news_and_events/news.htm?id=110203

Is this all part of Sutton Council's cunning plan to get us on Central Road side of the railway to shop in Sutton instead!?!?

Sutton High Street redevelopment

The highly esteemed Parkerilla sent me an email a couple of weeks ago:

Hi Brinkster,
saw this in the Evening Standard on the way home today, I imagine you've already seen it but if not, I was going to say make you smile, but maybe turn into the Incredible Hulk on one of his bad mood days is another option ...

He knows me too well. When I think about the money that's been spent on Sutton High Street I vary between ironic laughter, deep depression and incandescent rage. The graphic on the left is taken from the Sutton Guardian's unscientific, but telling, poll on the subject and as politicians both love and implicitly believe polls Sutton Council will have to admit that the findings are true.

Hats off to the Sutton Guardian though whose video on the subject is quite illuminating, particularly the interview with Councillor Jayne McCoy, Sutton Council’s spokesperson for planning, economic development and housing.


For those with video-click-o-phobia here's a snippet
"Well there's no denying we've had quite a few problems. The log benches are a big problem, the mechanism didn't work properly. We've taken the benches out and we're going to get proper ones fixed now. We've had delays, it's complicated, there's a number of reasons the project's had its problems but we are looking to do everything we can do to get the prject completed and obviously started a review via our internal audit team to have a look at the lessons to be learned from the project".

Here's hoping the internal audit team don't get cut in the budget then! It's far too big a subject for me to adequately cover here but I have unearthed a video that purports to reveal the truth from inside Civic Centre.....well... see for yourselves.

Dorchester School expansion plans published

I see the plans for the new Dorchester school expansion have been published. As you'd hope from an official council publication they're pretty well illustrated and you can find them here:
http://213.122.180.105/FASTWEB/detail.asp?AltRef=A2010/63191
or skip straight to the plans and documents here:
http://213.122.180.105/FASTWEB/copyright.asp?AltRef=A2010/63191

The consultation period began on the 9th of August and you've got until the 30th of August to submit comments, observations or beautifully crafted poems* on the subject. My favourite part in the consultation documents is where an observation is recorded that:
"the roof shape to the 3 classroom appears ‘quite daring, challenging’"

Riiiiight.... Anyone got Prince Charles' email address?

* They may accept Haikus and limericks if they're good ones

Feeling Summery?

Not that I'm a pedant you understand, because that would be terrible, but I happened to be browsing to our dear Lib-Dem Sutton Council website this morning and saw something that caught my eye. Click on this and see if you can spot it:



Given up yet?

Sure?

OK. Here it is:



Here's the definition of summery v summary

Someone down in the Council dungeons seems to be hoping for an improvement in the weather.

Worcester Park renovation consultation

Is there an election coming up or something?? There seems to be a sudden upsurge in interest in the welfare of Worcester Park and although I'd love it to be because they've recognised us for being the fine, upstanding community that we are the part of me that sometimes reads Private Eye suspects there may be an ulterior motive.

First we were told that the long-promised traffic-light synchronisation was on its way, and more recently we've been told that there may be funds for flood defences in the offing. Now the dearly beloved recipient of all our Council Tax payments, the London Borough of Sutton, has started a consultation on a proposed £400,000 renovation of Worcester Park in conjunction with Kingston Council.

In a joint initiative between Sutton and Kingston Councils, residents are being asked what improvements they would like to see in the area. Their views will help create a plan that may include more pedestrian crossings, improved lighting and more street trees.
The public will also have their say on more extensive changes such as controlling the speed and number of cars that are allowed down certain roads. The streets being considered for improvement are Green Lane, Longfellow Road, Lincoln Road and Central Road.
The project is being funded by Transport for London under a scheme called Streets for People. It aims to improve the quality of local areas and make them a place where people feel comfortable walking, cycling and shopping.

Even Merton Council get to have a word in there:
Cllr William Brierly, Cabinet member for Planning and Traffic management on Merton Council said: "Although the consultation will not affect roads directly in our borough, any resulting improvements will impact on Merton. We support Sutton and Kingston in this initiative which should result in a more pedestrian- and cycle-friendly environment.
"We would welcome an improved pedestrian and cycle route joining Green Lane with Lower Morden Lane and Garth Road which would create better access across the borough borders. I would encourage as many people as possible to get involved and make their voice heard."

A little more information can be found in the local committee minutes from November 2009 here (point 940).

Unfortunately the page sharing this piece of news doesn't have a link to any consultation document or suggestions on how the likes of you and I can get involved and using the Sutton web site's search feature with the words "Worcester Park" and "£400,000" doesn't provide any information so perhaps one of our friendly local Councillors could point us in the right direction? As the consultation started on Monday and only runs until the 12th March it'd be a shame to miss out on the chance to put a word or two in.

Am I going soft?

With the recent focus on spelling mistakes on street signs and the like I began wondering whether the amateur pedants, such as myself, are at risk of playing into the hands of the professional organised pedants e.g. Sutton Council.

Perhaps like some of you I work for a large organisation and in order to buy anything more complicated or expensive than a stapler means that quotes have to be gathered, forms have to be filled in, approvals have to be received from everyone who may or may not possibly be interested before the item stands any chance of being ordered. It would then need to be delivered by someone who'd done manual lifting training, probably passed another Health & Safety assessment of some kind and a workstation evaluation had been carried out to ensure I wasn't going to breach some obscure regulation handed to them from a higher body.

What I came to thinking in the end was do I really want Sutton Council to have someone to go around and check x thousand road signs for spelling mistakes? How much would that cost, and how much would it cost for replacements for those misspelled ones? Firstly that person could be better employed at something else more important but secondly should they succeed in their task of finding misspelled signs that might then set off a frenzy of processes as signs are ordered, checked, rechecked, requoted, installations scheduled, environmentally sound disposals of old-signs arranged, etc, etc.

It's the same kind of chain of events that fills the NHS with managers rather than nurses and fills our newspapers with Health & Safety stories and I don't think society is going to break down and anarchists are going to move in just because a street sign remains uncorrected. All of these things are a trade-off and rather than thinking "Should this road sign be corrected?" and give a yes or no answer I'm starting to think "Should this road sign be corrected or would I rather keep weekly rubbish collections?"

I may have to hand in my Amateur Pedants Association membership, if such a thing existed, for merely even thinking this but the next time I see a misspelled street sign I think I'm going to just get over it. I may grind my teeth, laugh or groan, depending on my mood, but I won't be setting up a Facebook group, writing to the newspaper, the Council or whoever... I'll just think about all of the money I'll be helping to save but not making a fuss about it and how it could be better used heating old people's houses or providing care for neglected children.... and I'm going to start my post-pedantry rehab by not spell-checking this post!

Anyone want a used copy of "Eats, Shoots and Leaves"?

A landmark ruling

I see that the Sutton Guardian has started a campaign to find a landmark to compete with the Angel of the North and asks the question:

"...if Sutton had a landmark to rival that of the Angel - championing and symbolising the town - what would it be? "

Hmmmm.... "Championing and symbolising" Sutton. That's a tough one. A list of notable Sutton-ites is suggested and Adrian Short points out John Major as a significant Worcester Park resident but other than that the list's fairly thin with Harry Secombe and someone from S-Club 7 getting mentions. I'm not quite sure about how serious the Guardian are about the whole thing as you'll see if you view their mock-ups of an Eiffel Tower and and Angel of the North in Sutton (see link below). It's hard for me not to be cynical about the stated desire to give Sutton High Street a cafe-culture feel as it seems to me that the only way to do that would be to get rid of most of the people and ship in some new ones...

Now, if I had to symbolise Worcester Park?!!? That's a real challenge! Suggestions please!

Sutton Guardian - Landmark campaign
http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/local/topstories/4381278.Sutton_town_centre_needs_a_landmark/

Please don't step in the politics

Politics is a bit of a dirty word at the moment but many of the issues in the Sutton part of Worcester Park can only, to a lesser or greater extent, be changed by either engaging with Sutton Council directly through the Councillors or at the very least by taking an interest in who you decide to vote for in the local elections. Apart from the historical issues surrounding garden waste, the Sutton Life Centre, yet another plan to renovate Sutton High Street and more there are a variety of other things which go on all of the time that you can get yourself heard on. Sutton Council do have consultations on certain issues but these haven't been well-responded to leaving the Councillors free reign to interpret the results in the way they choose but spending a few minutes a week to participate can make a huge difference.

If you look in the sidebar on the right-hand side I've introduced a section for Council Blogs with a couple of LibDem ones and a Tory one in there to get started but if you know of any more good local politics sites then do let me know.

Recently local blogger Adrian Short has taken the Sutton LibDems to task for their latest election pamphlet in a post entitled "With lies like these I’d rather the LibDems fiddled their expenses" and uses words such as "misleading" and "sordid" to describe it. If you're even thinking of voting in the upcoming European elections then do take some time whether your chosen party really is the right one to get your vote, and you might want to start by looking at Adrian's post.

Adrian Short

http://adrianshort.co.uk/2009/05/15/418/

Sutton Council at it again

You talkin' to me?? YOU TALKIN' TO ME?

Mrs Brinkster reported last night that De Niro's Pizza was shut and has a big sign saying that it's going to be opening under new management. Undoubtedly inspired by the Huntsmans Midas Touch transformation they'll be aiming to corner the market for Italian food at the top end of Central Road, as opposed to the bottom (La Mama) or the middle (Cafe Picollo, Pizza Express, Papa Johns).


Now for those Worcester Parkians in the Epsom & Ewell or Kingston council parts please excuse me while I rave incoherently about Sutton Council and mop up the blood spilled from the repeated concussion of my head against my desk. Just when I thought that they'd exhausted themselves in the money-wasting stakes with the horrendously conceived Sutton Life Centre they've managed to top it with, as the local Guardian reports, "Multimillion pound plans for a green Sutton High Street unveiled"
As we've seen with a variety of Sutton Council proposals they enter into a "consultancy" exercise worthy of the Vogons in "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" where they'll put up a turgid and uninteresting document (116 pages in this case) and when nobody can be bothered to read it and write in to object they assume that apathy is the same as enthusiasm. If you want to see the plans for yourself you have to go either to Sutton or Carshalton as they won't be visiting any other council-tax paying location in the borough.

For the sake of brevity I'll not go through all of my objections but will instead highlight point 9.12 which, to my mind, illustrates the gap between ideal and reality:
"Sutton town centre is served well by public transport services. There is direct rail access to London Victoria, London Bridge, Croydon, Epsom and Wimbledon."
Now I don't know about you but if I want to go shopping, and by that I mean proper browse-around-the-shops-have-lunch-and-make-a-go-of-it shopping, I'll go to Kingston. If we don't fancy the crowds we might vary that with Epsom or Wimbledon and if we have a particular need we'll head over to the Purley Way in Croydon but rarely, if ever, will we think of going to Sutton any more. If I was at London Bridge or Victoria I wouldn't be thinking to myself that a trip to Sutton was going to be a retail revelation and if I was at Croydon, Epsom or Wimbledon I'd just walk straight out of the station and go shopping there instead. Now that Woolworths and Gamleys have gone from Sutton there's precious little to bribe the little Brinksters with so as far as they're concerned it's akin to a desert wasteland in the "fun" stakes, which does not a good shopping trip make. For me the the only useful thing that Sutton has which the others don't is a Computer Exchange (CEX) which comes in handy sometimes but I can nip up to the Tottenham Court Road branch from work instead.

And if you read to page 72 of 116 in the consultation document you'll find how they propose to integrate trams into Sutton Centre, namely by sodding up the existing traffic arrangements. Trams around the one-way system? That'd be interesting.

Quite why the Council think that Sutton residents are going to welcome this is beyond me when even the chairman of the Sutton Environment Network has called it "wrong-headed" and coming from a corporate environment that has a honed and toned PR department this stuff wouldn't even have cut it in the 90s (or earlier) and isn't what they should be spending our Council Tax on (the outsourced PR, the outsourced research or the actual proposal).

For me one of the best things about the Guardian article was the first comment at the bottom, which I'll reproduce here as I love it:
"sfocata, Sutton says... 11:46pm Tue 21 Apr 09
So let's see... the Village Quarter is the scummy bit and the Exchange Quarter is, er... the shops. Then the Civic Quarter is the bit around the Civic Centre, and the Station Quarter is (I'm getting the hang of this now) the bit around the station! Just how much of these multi-millions was spent on this ludicrous branding exercise? Why not give each quarter its own unique swirl logo as well? Who's going to be first to submit an FOI to find out just how much has been wasted on all this "quarter" nonsense? It's a high street in a suburb, for God's sake! Make it green with proper policies, not with a rebrand worthy of Pseud's Corner."

Sutton Guardian
http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/local/suttonnews/4305351.Multimillion_pound_plans_for_a_green_Sutton_High_Street_unveiled/

Sutton Life Centre - The 'anti' Group on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=77008483054&ref=mf

Sutton Council - Sutton Town Centre Area Action Plan
http://www.sutton.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1398

The Green Tardis comes in peace

Having spent much of the week avoiding flying glassware in the City I'm glad it's the weekend, but I'll put that celebratory cup of coffee outside a cafe on Central Road on hold if the Sutton Guardian's got its facts right

"Pollution levels in Worcester Park, which are already running at alarming rates, would be further increased by the Hamptons development, new figures show. Research for Sutton Council, by traffic consultants Atkins, found that Central Road in Worcester Park was already exceeding national and European standards for nitrogen dioxide by 3 per cent. Work by the consultants has revealed St James Homes’ plans to build the new housing development would push this to 5 per cent. At 3 per cent, the public’s health is already at risk. Breathing in raised levels of nitrogen dioxide can increase the chances of respiratory problems and can have particularly harmful effects on people with asthma "

Sutton Guardian
http://bit.ly/7Xmcl

The Green Tardis
http://brinkleyroad.blogspot.com/2008/12/michael-left-comment-this-morning-about.html
http://brinkleyroad.blogspot.com/2008/10/apology-to-dorking.html

5 million good reasons to vote carefully

I didn't make the Cheam North and Worcester Park Local Committee last night as I had a PC to revive with a deadline of today. Fortunately I managed to coax it back to life so I now have access to all my notes without the hassle of extracting the hard disk and sticking it in something else, which is nice.

In news with a wider appeal there's activity inside the Huntsmans Hall so the promised 6-week refurb is under way with the promise of a lounge bar to look forward to.

The Local Guardian seems to have had a splurge of Worcester Park news over the last couple of weeks and that continues with the story of how one local resident has unfortunately made a name for himself in New Malden.
"A Worcester Park man has been warned he faces jail after launching into a vicious attack on his former partner in New Malden High Street. Kieran Timoney, of Kingshill Avenue, Worcester Park, admitted kicking and slapping his ex-girlfriend and tearing a chunk of her hair so hard he created a bald patch. "

and also the story about the Worcester Park filmmaker, Akash Lockmun, who has won an MTV award together with his creative partner for an anti-knife crime movie.

Probably the most significant story though is the failure of the £5 million "Smarter Travel Sutton" scheme to make any impact on traffic in Sutton, one of its stated targets. The Sutton Guardian again relates,
"The £5m Smarter Travel Sutton scheme has failed to reduce traffic congestion over the past two years, it has emerged. The three-year partnership between Sutton Council and Transport for London (TfL) promoted sustainable transport to 75,000 householders. At a board meeting last week TfL praised the “behavioural change” scheme for encouraging more Sutton residents to cycle, walk and use public transport. But the organisation admitted road traffic levels were cut by only one per cent, in line with other outer London boroughs. Ben Plowden, Smarter Travel director, said: “Therefore the growth in the use of sustainable modes has not yet translated into a direct impact on traffic levels across the borough.” "

£5 million!?!?! That's the amount of money that went AWOL from their accounts in an Icelandic bank and 20 times the amount that they were proposing to save by removing transport from disabled children. I wish I'd made it to the Council meeting now to hear what was said.

Love is in the air

As I'm sure you're aware it's St Valentine's Day tomorrow and instead of waxing lyrical about the day here I'll point you in the direction of my article in the latest Worcester Park Life. Unfortunately that piece of earnest and scrupulously-researched writing might leave me hoist by my own petard as Mrs Brinkster sat studiously reading it the other day which, I suspect, has raised her expectations somewhat... or even quite considerably. At least I'm not in as much fear as some of my fellow City-workers who have been wearing thin the carpet of Clinton Cards and their ilk with queues more reminiscent of bakers in Soviet Moscow. Mrs Brinkster hasn't mentioned my bus slogan of yesterday so I think I may still be OK

Moving on from all things lurve-related I'm pleased to be able to highlight a Brinkley Road business for you in Mundy Art and to highlight the Worple Group Spring 2009 Art Show at which he'll be exhibiting. Gavin got in touch by email to let me know about his business and I'd recommend you take a look!

My Useful Link Of The Day is this one from Sutton Libraries where you can look to see if the local library has a particular book available. I knew this was available in the library but seemed a bit pointless as firstly a) you were already there and b) the touchscreen computer I was using didn't seem to have any kind of keyboard function so I couldn't search anyway.

Lastly the next meeting of the Cheam North and Worcester Park Local Committee is next Thursday, 19th Feb, at 7.30pm so if you're interested in attending then you can find the Agenda on this page. It's your chance to interact directly with your local Councillors and go some way to answering the oft-repeated question, "What do they actually do?".

One little victory

Those who've been following my posts and the ITV News about Sutton Council's current proposals to cut transport funding for special needs children in the borough may be interested in the latest news from the Sutton Guardian:
Protesters have won a partial victory in a fight over plans to cut personal door-to-door transport services for disabled children. Sutton Council had proposed to cut the transport budget £250,000 by introducing pick-up points for children with special educational needs.
Parents had argued the plans would put their children, many of whom require constant care, at risk and would put carers and parents under pressure.

The council announced last week that it had “responded to concerns’’ and children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder, and those who can not walk unassisted, would now be unaffected by the plans. The new recommendations, which go to scrutiny overview committee on Tuesday, would affect 85 SEN students out of a former 545.

My reading of that is that someone at Sutton Council was willing to make 460 special-needs children who require assistance with walking to walk up to a mile in all weathers to a pick-up point. Does that seem like a bad idea to anybody else?

Lots of news!

The details have been announced for the annual event which enables all local residents to unashamedly revel in their Worcester-Parkiness:*

Worcester Park Traders Association
Christmas Late Night
28th November 2008 - 6pm to 9pm
Late night shopping, stalls, rides,
bouncy castle, refreshments, bands and more...
Includes a visit from Father Christmas HIMSELF!!
For more information contact the WPTA on 020 8337 6007

Those of you who are local readers may glimpse posters up and down Central Road that the Worcester Park Blogger and myself have put together to assist Terry and the Traders Association and I have the personal word of Michael Fish that the weather on the evening is going to be great.

In other exciting news Mrs Brinkster just sent me a picture of the new Christmas lights on Central Road which are being put up this very morning. I'll get my first glimpse when I go home this evening.

In case you were wondering I cropped out the 20 health & safety people with clipboards, dayglo jackets and hard hats on the ground below.

I occasionally hear the question "What do our Councillors ever do"? Well the local Guardian think they've found at least one thing and reports that a Worcester Park Councillor is under investigation for alleged bullying after approaching a Cheam shopkeeper for displaying a poster against the rebuilding of the Elizabeth Hall sheltered housing complex. You can see the full article if you clickon the image below:

A Sutton Council spokeswoman said: "We've received two complaints about Coun Gordon-Bullock and we are looking into them".

Lastly the Hamptons public enquiry notice has dropped through the door so if you haven't seen it and want to know what happens next then click on the image below.


* My intro from last year, which I still like so I recycled it.

Whew

Where has the week gone? Decorating, that's where my week's gone. In an effort to finishing our schemes for Brinkster Central before we become too heavily embedded in the yuletide festivities we've been sorting out stuff to give to the charity shops and generally getting dust up our noses in the name of progress. To massacre the words of Winston Churchill we are not at the beginning of the end but we are at the end of the beginning so I'm prewarning you that my upcoming posts may be sporadic or entirely taken up with subjects like why tile shops are odd places to go.

For the lovers or haters of the big green tardis on Central Road you'll now be pleased to know that it's attached to the London Air Quality Network and you can see the current situation and the graph for the last seven days, just look in my bloglist to the left for the latest update (unless I get bored of it).

For a whistle-stop tour of other local news KFC is still being rebuilt, there's an article on a local builder being affected by the credit crunch, the story of the disputed will and Sutton Council's released a guide to a half hour stroll around Worcester Park.

Lastly I'm looking forward to meeting up with the Worcester Park Blogger tomorrow evening at an undisclosed Worcester Park location (well, I'm not disclosing it anyway) so perhaps we'll let on what's afoot. For those of you who live too far away to get hold of a copy of the Worcester Park life then here's the photo I was referring to in my last post:

Can't see the wood......

On the way back down Brinkley Road in the gathering dusk last night I noticed that those dear little scamps from Sutton Council had replaced the trees that were cut down back in May.

At least they would have done but one car was parked too close to one spot so I assume they'll come back to do that. The other looked nice though!

After my culinary contemplations of yesterday I noticed this morning that The Drill is looking for a line chef to bolster their kitchen operations:
"The Drill is an independent pub/ restaurant requires a chef to work alongside our newly appointed Head Chef. Our mantra is "Eat be Entertained"; with live music every Friday, Open Mic nights & Jazz evenings. Our pub has been recently acquired and refurbished and we are in the process of building a reputation for delivering quality, freshly prepared food - we are letting our food do the talking! We are passionate about what we do & I want a chef that is passionate about food and what it means to deliver quality to the table!"

I daren't get my hopes up for the ascent of Worcester Park into gastro-pub heaven just yet but if it does happen then I'll be as happy as Larry, whoever he may be, although I confess I'm slightly concerned that they advertised it on Gumtree but I couldn't spot it on caterersearch.com..... If you're any good and you want to apply though do go ahead!!

An apology to Dorking

Where's the week gone?!?!?! It's Thursday already and I've hardly have the chance to rub my two braincells together and come up with a post.

Isn't it funny how the word "apology" has subtly changed in meaning over the years from "an expression of being sorry" to "what you say when you're not really sorry but feel like you need to appear to be". I've heard so many unauthentic apologies over the years I've lost count but the prize probably goes to South West Trains, although I've probably picked on them because of my frequent use of their services. I just think that if you're going to offer an apology, or even actually say "s*rry", then doing it using an automated message is somehow missing the point.....

That aside I need to start with a quick apology to Dorking, which is a nice place and has a really nice blog so it almost pains me (but only almost) that Worcester Park FC have beaten them twice in the last few weeks, the second time by 5-0 following on from the 4-0 drubbing in the 2nd round of the Combined Counties League Cup. If you want to know how keenly they're feeling the pain then read this.

Lastly I've been on the phone to the folks of Enviro Technology in Gloucestershire to find out what the new big green tardis actually does and the very helpful Mike told me that it can analyse air samples every second and report back the results. He put me on to Eddie from Sutton Council who was able to add that the site will be live from mid-November and the stats should be viewable on the London Air Quality Monitoring Network web site. Its priority is to measure pollution rather than pollen and will allow the council to monitor whether they're meeting the National Air Quality Standards, particularly in relation to people shopping and living by the Central Road.

Lots of news

No Friday laughs I'm afraid.

For those who haven't seen the Sutton Guardian alliteratively headlined article instigated by the Worcester Park Blog's recent post, and subsequent debate, about Sutton Council's advice on feeding foxes then I've scanned it and made it available if you click on the image below.

Or read it here

In other news the carnage on the A24 London Road continues. In the last two weeks we've had the fatal hit and run which claimed the life of William Buckingham and unintentionally led to a string of accidents at the site, one which led to a cyclist being airlifted to hospital. Mrs Brinkster saw the North Cheam junction closed at one point last week and now there's been another hit and run involving a car and motorcycle.

To take a quote from the Guardian
”The helicopter has been here about four times in the past couple of weeks. It’s shocking, something needs to be done about this stretch of road - it’s a death trap. Its a 30mph zone but cars come flying along here at about 70mph. We need a zebra crossing or some speed cameras at the very least.”

The Guardian has also run an article about Sutton Council's proposal to change transport arrangements for special needs children in the borough where the Council stands accused of using dubious "research" to support the measure by suggesting that there's a direct correlation between special needs and obesity. One person told me that Stanley Park High School, recently in the news for expelling three pupils for sex attacks on girls, is now being investigated because of reports that some pupils were waiting for the special needs children to get off their transport and then insulting and bullying them which, if true, doesn't go far to inspire confidence in Sutton's provision for those families with special needs children.

With £5.5 million of Sutton Council's money caught up in the Icelandic banking crisis I anticipate we'll hear more stories of proposed cuts before too long......

But if you want to see a really, stupidly extreme example of poor research and special needs (don't get me started on the MMR/autism debate) then consider PETA's (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) latest misinformed advert which has now thankfully been pulled from the billboards:

#

Gah!

Avast ye scurvy landlubbers!!

Arrrr... Today be Talk Like a Pirate day and the Jolly Roger be flying proudly at me place of employment. If ye want to find out more about aboot talking like a pirate then do set sail for the official web site.


Enough of that frivolity. Yesterday saw a pile of papers burned outside Lloyds, left either by some half-hearted arsonist or by some protestor attempting to burn down Lloyds for taking over HBOS, or both. Either way the window had been covered over with a board when I went past this morning and actual damage is unknown.



Still on Central Road I'm pleased to say that Cycle Power is having its grand opening tomorrow with special discounts throughout the day. Do go along and support this great new local business! If you want to find out what's going to replace the now-closed Loving Thoughts gift shop then you can find out at Worcester Park's blog.

Speaking of local business I've discovered the December 2007 document that Sutton Council appear to have based their retail decisions on. Starting with point 2.55
In considering proposals for such development outside designated town centres, including the extension to existing shopping facilities, the Council will adopt a sequential approach to site selection.

and moving on to point 2.63
This policy states that the Council will give priority to preparing a town centres strategy and action plan for Wallington and Rosehill District Centres.

It would appear to my untrained eye that in the name of a "sequential approach" the Council appear to be committed to doing nothing to enhance Worcester Park as a retail area until they feel like they can get around to it. I haven't ploughed through the whole 260 pages just yet but would seem to be the impression, though if I find something to contradict that I'll let you know. Fortunately Worcester Park business seems generally to be able to look after itself at the moment......