c/o The Old Rectory 15 Malden Rd Cheam Village Surrey SM3 8QD 020 8644 3855 13.10.08 Dear Neighbour We represent the Elizabeth House Project Action Group, formed by vote, by most of the residents of Elizabeth House, Pond Hill and Mickleham Gardens. We are writing to tell you more about the Council’s plan to redevelop a large part of the Village. We believe this is a serious threat to our community and we all need to protest NOW if we are to stop it. The Council has decided to DEMOLISH the sheltered housing for 85 elderly people In and around Elizabeth House by Cheam Park; to leave the area DERELICT FOR YEARS; and to replace it in 2012 with a ‘care park’ specialising in people suffering from dementia and learning difficulties. There are NO plans for live-in wardens on-site. They have told our Village’s 85 much-loved elderly residents to leave their homes – originally within a month, but this has been changed to ‘soonest’ – and then the Council has said that it plans to vandalise them in the hope that squatters will not move in. It plans to offer the site for redevelopment to a Housing Association – but they don’t know who, when or where yet. The existing tenants will be allowed back in 2012 – that’s those who are still with us, and who want to share their homes with people with dementia. The Council’s excuse? The existing homes fall beneath modern ‘Lifetime Homes’ standards and cannot be renovated. This is nonsense. The people in charge of ‘Lifetime Homes’ standards tell us they are horrified. Their flexible list of desirable standards was NEVER meant to justify throwing people out of their happy homes, many of which could do with just a little renovation to make them perfectly ‘modern’. The cheap, commonsense option, which we want the Council to take, is to refurbish what is there and keep our Village residents. The Village is not suitable as a closed-in care home for people with distressing illnesses – the shops, library, park and transport are suitable for the mobile elderly. The Council – which has just lost £5.5m in Iceland - allocated £60,000 to pay for a team to push their plan through, and Paul Burstow MP appears to support this. Their technique is to divide people into small groups and in some cases, it seems, to give conflicting assurances. Many have been frightened and offended by threats including that of eviction for those who don’t co-operate. They have asserted that ‘before anything happens there will be a lot of opportunities for discussion’. page 1
The reality is, there may be a show of consultation, but it’s shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. Comments made publicly by the Council Scrutiny Committee, who presented themselves as a potential hope for reversing this bad decision, are that all the deadlines to reverse it have passed. The deadlines that only THEY knew about. Some people are hoping that the consultation at the Library on Wednesday afternoon and evening, will make a difference. But the meeting is not to hear our plan for refurbishment, but with the Town Planners charged with making a brief for people to REBUILD the area. THE THREATS TO OUR VILLAGE ARE REAL AND LASTING. The Village will become a less pleasant place to live. The value of our homes may be affected. TURNING THE VILLAGE INTO A DEMOLITION SITE. Think - an ideal opportunity for drug dealers and undesirables to ‘camp’ in the area, just as they have started to do in the Park. The safety of the Village will be affected. INTRODUCING A LARGE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WITH DEMENTIA. The finished buildings would have to accommodate the existing tenants (those who haven’t been killed by the worry of moving suddenly) PLUS a high number of people with dementia. What about our doctors? How will they cope? Will we ever be able to get an appointment? DESTROYING A FANTASTIC COMMUNITY OF 85 OLD PEOPLE. The nature of Cheam Village will change forever. No more friendly elderly people in our Village community. Elizabeth House and the surrounding homes have a community which most Councils would give their eye-teeth to preserve. They help each other to read, to shop and know each others’ health problems and foibles. They are being told to go their individual ways now – not that many of them can find any alternative home in Sutton. We believe that the plan threatens the health and happiness of the elderly people, some of whom have already been ill with worry. TAKING AWAY GREEN SPACE. Among remarks made by Council officials to the existing residents are that they have ‘too much green space’ and that covered walkways will be made. AFFECTING OUR SAFETY. No live-in carers are planned for the new building. That means that dementia sufferers can ‘escape’ and wander anywhere. Imagine the impact on, say, road traffic in the Village. When this point was put to Paul Burstow MP, self-proclaimed champion of the elderly, he answered that we should be pleased to adopt community care and implied that we were hardhearted. Also that anyone who became seriously ill would be ‘assessed’ and ultimately moved. The reality is that Paul Burstow does not live in the Village but safety tucked away from it. We don’t want to spend our evenings and weekends on the phone to the Police because yet another resident is going walkabout, endangering themselves and others. The Police may or may not turn up. When they do, they tend to call at the homes of whoever called them at all hours, including late nights, to ‘check details’.
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At a recent meeting with Mr Burstow, we found him referring to ‘our’ plans, as if he was part of the Council. This decision was based on an outdated report of 2003 with NO independent consultation. WHAT DO WE WANT? We are pressing the Council to REFURBISH NOT DEMOLISH. At a fraction of the cost of this illconceived, hasty and unpleasant scheme, the existing homes could be given the few amenities they lack. Some rooms in Elizabeth House lack a private bathroom but there is existing space for this within the bedsits. Refurbishing can be done in stages, with residents moved out for a brief time not for years. It will conserve our Village community and character. Refurbishing is economical and ecological. We know that Sutton Council, awarded a huge grant for ecology, did not even consult their own Ecology Centre before deciding on this plan. COSTS The Council claims it is not making any money from this scheme. Actually by handing the area to a Housing Association, it is saving itself thousands. If, as Paul Burstow argues, it cannot afford to keep running the facilities itself, we propose handing over the area to a Housing Association for REFURBISHING not destroying. WHAT YOU CAN DO -
Attend the meeting at Cheam Library on Wednesday 15th October from 3.30 to 7.30 pm. Tell the planning consultants that our 'aspiration' is not to demolish the site ate all.
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Sign our petition. Online at www.cheamscheme.co.uk or in one of the local shops.
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Contact Paul Burstow MP at 312-314 High Street, Sutton SM1 1PR.
- Contact your local councillors and ask them what they are doing to help. CALL or EMAIL them and leave messages and tell them what you think. They are: Councillor Jonathan Pritchard c/o Civic Offices, St Nicholas Way, Sutton SM1 1E
[email protected] Tel: 07855 432 350 Councillor Graham Whitham 5 Basildon Close, Sutton SM2 5QJ
[email protected] Tel: 020 8770 5036
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Councillor Misdaq Zaidi 66 Higher Drive, Banstead, SM7 1PQ.
[email protected] Tel: 020 8767 2300 NB company switchboard – don’t be put off. -
Send your objections to the Council Leader, Councillor Sean Brennan, 9 Constance Road, Sutton SM1 4MQ, 020 8770 5406,
[email protected]. He has just commissioned a Mori poll to find out how we feel about living in Sutton, so let’s tell him. The person charged with pushing the scheme through is Malcolm Barker, Renewal & Commissioning Manager, c/o Civic Offices, St Nicholas Way, Sutton SM1 1E. It is probably hardly worth objecting to him as he and his team are paid £60,000 to make sure the scheme goes through! Have ideas to help. Should we have a protest march?
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Offers of help with photocopying, distributing letters and leaflets etc. would be gratefully received.
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Offers of help from anyone who has expertise which we can draw on would be gratefully received.
This is a David and Goliath struggle against people using YOUR money to destroy YOUR community and leave a huge derelict space where there used to be a happy community. WE NEED YOUR HELP, WE REALLY DO. Experience shows that if we don’t give up, we may rescue our Village community. We CAN change hearts and minds! THE ELIZABETH HOUSE PROJECT ACTION GROUP.
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