I’ve no idea how many people who read this blog shop at Waitrose on St John’s Hill in Clapham Junction, but if you do you will know about their Community Matters scheme.

Essentially each month, the store nominates three local charities and they each receive a share of £1,000 in proportion to the green tokens placed in their pots by shoppers.

I noticed today that Battersea Summer Scheme is one of this month’s charities.

The Summer Scheme is run each year by Battersea Crime Prevention Panel and basically runs a series of events, expeditions and excursions for young people in Battersea during their summer vacations. The basic idea being to ensure they are engaged in positive pursuits and not in a position in which they are at risk of being a victim of crime, or a perpetrator of crime.

They are totally reliant on donations of time and money to run the scheme each year – and while I know the other two causes are worthy – when you are at the check-out make sure you get your token and pop it in their slot.

Sudi Piggott, one of the competition judges, announcing the winners
Sudi Piggott, one of the competition judges, announcing the winners

Last night saw the formal end of the SW11 Literary Festival with the closing event at Recipease in Clapham Junction.

The event itself was fantastic, seeing the announcement of the winners of the recipe competition (which will all be part of a cookbook) along with some great food and company. But I really wanted to congratulate all the people and sponsors involved in festival. It has become part of the local cultural calendar and attracts people to the events from far and wide. If I have any complaint it’s that some of the events weren’t well co-ordinated with my diary (Chris Patten and Mark Thomas both clashed with meetings at the Town Hall) – but that’s something I’ll have to take up with the organisers next year!

One part of the festival is still running, however, and that’s Battersea Poems. There’s still time to text in your entry if the muse strikes!

Summer laziness
As I mentioned last week, things do start getting quieter during late July and August and my council work this week really showed that – I’ve managed to go the whole week without a single trip to the Town Hall. While that doesn’t mean I’ve done nothing (I’m sadly all too available on the phone and via email) it’s quite nice to think that I’ve managed a whole week without a visit to Wandsworth High Street.

More meetings with the police
Following on from last week I had another session with the local police on Thursday, this time with Nick Cuff, who is now the chairman of the Regeneration and Community Safety Overview and Scrutiny Committee. It was a useful session and concluded with a short patrol with one a constable from the Tooting town centre team. I hope to do a fuller post about it next week.

SW11 Literary Festival
If there has been one theme it’s been planning for what happens after summer. While there are a number of events planned one of the bigger ones (in terms of time and venues) is the SW11 Literary Festival. This morning saw the launch of the festival’s recipe contest – which will ultimately result in an SW11 recipe book.

The reason I mention this is not my love of food (which I clearly love too much, along with alcohol and not exercising enough), but because it meant I stood on St John’s Road for a good while this morning and was amazed at the number and persistance of ‘chuggers’ – those professional fund-raisers who try and stop you in the street and sign a direct debit.

Again, I want to post on this next week – mainly so I can consider and mull over my thoughts – but I’d be very interested to know other people’s views on chuggers.

One benefit of the incredibly disruptive waterworks on Eccles Road has been the closure of the road to traffic and some residents are keen that the closure becomes permanent.  As I mentioned in my previous post on this doing something as seemingly simple as closing a road to through traffic is actually incredibly difficult.

First, we would not be able to consider Eccles Road in isolation.  While we can stop people using Eccles Road we can’t stop them wanted to get from A to B, and that means they will need to use another road.  In all likelihood the closure of Eccles Road would have a major impact on Altenburg Gardens and Lavender Gardens.  But we’d also need to consider roads further afield.

And this raises the second point.  There are a number of Transport for London (TfL) red routes nearby.  The closest is Battersea Rise, which has a junction with Eccles Road.  But there is also Elspeth Road which would be affected and depending on how access to Lavender Sweep changed TfL may also need be involved because some traffic would be diverted onto St John’s Road.  Either way we would therefore have to engage in a lengthy consultation TfL before we could make any changes.

Third, and finally, at the last survey Eccles Road did not meet the criteria to be a priority for traffic management.  The survey is a few years old (it took place in 2005) but showed in the morning peak 100-150 vehicles per hour were using Eccles Road and in the evening this rose 250-300 vehicles per hour.  The average speed was 16.2mph.  This might seem high, but the council looks for more than 300 vehicles per hour and a speed of over 31mph to make a road a priority for consideration.  It doesn’t mean Eccles Road won’t be considered, but does mean it isn’t one of the worst roads that the council has to manage.

In short, this means a disappointing ‘no’ to residents who were hoping that once Thames Water left the street, cars would not return.  However, the council have agreed to undertake another survey (which would be needed in any case) to see if there has been any change once Thames Water have left.  Once the results of this have been compiled the road can be reassessed.