Apologies were received from Cllr Tony Reiss (Cllr John Oliver as substitute) and from co-opted Member Roz Cordner.

There were no declarations of pecuniary interest.

The minutes were agreed as a true and accurate record.

Matters arising:

Lis Chapple data was sent to members on 22 March 2022. Details below:

The split of officers and staff is as follows:

·         Current posts allocated to South West BCU - 1474 - this is 1344 officers and 130 staff

·         Current numbers of people in South West BCU as at 17/3/22 - 1569 - this is 1453 officers and 116 staff (we are awaiting more PCSOs to be posted to us)

The Chair invited Cllr Ross Garrod, Leader of the Council, to share his priorities.

The Council has been built on solid foundations and I want to use this opportunity to pay testament to my predecessors but now, as custodian of the position of Leader which I’m fortunate to be in, it's my responsibility along with the Chief Executive and the whole council to build on this, using all my energy and enthusiasm, to make Merton a better place to live and work.

As you'd expect with a new administration there's a fresh vision and a new approach and the guiding principle for the administration is that the council is responsive to the needs of our residents and reactive to the challenges we face as a borough, whilst also delivering excellent services. It will be a Council embedded in the community making residents part of that decision decision-making process and bringing services closer to them.

Our priority as an administration is to rebuild pride in Merton and that's pride in our people, in our services and in our place and I want people to feel proud to live and work in this borough. We want to nurture that sense of loving where you live and work and this will include how we can improve our town centres and high streets and getting on with the regeneration of Morden town centre. It also means having to take difficult decisions to keep our streets clean and the Cabinet is due to decide the future of our waste contract later this year.

The second priority is building on a sustainable future. I want Merton to be recognised as the

easiest place to own or hire an electric car or bike, positively encouraging our residents to

use sustainable transport. I want to see a shift in planning so that we can get good quality energy efficient developments built right across the borough but also be a champion for the greater provision of genuinely affordable properties.

Thirdly I want this borough to build on its sporting heritage and for it to be recognized as the borough of sport. We've got some amazing local sporting facilities and clubs and we'd like to explore how we can all work together to create a bigger voice for Merton in sports funding, driving investment into the borough and into grassroots sports. This will promote healthier lifestyles, greater sporting opportunities and will provide a legacy for our residents.

There is a lot of hard work ahead and this administration is committed to delivering a borough that all our residents can be proud of.

In response to Commission Members questions:

There's been many years of ambition to regenerate Morden but we've all seen the challenges that TFL face so we're going to explore how we can deliver Morden town centre in piecemeal and in stages rather than one big bang and hopefully that will spur investment and will spur other organisations that have an interest in the town centre to get on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

These minutes are exempt from publication.  

The Chair asked Members to submit their questions for the Borough Commander who will be attending on 7 September. The deadline is 19 August 2022.

The work programme was agreed.

Members RESOLVED to re-establish the Financial Monitoring Task Group for this year.