Councillor Mark Allison

Councillor Mark Allison gave the annual report he provides to all of the community forums. Councillor Mark Allison, Leader of the Council, thanked the chair for the invitation. Mark thanked the Council staff for their hard work in response to COVID. Mark has been a Cllr for nearly 20 years and is proud of his connection with the local area. He was born locally in St Helier Hospital and grew up in St Helier area before moving to Mitcham. Mark said that Merton is a great community but there are huge challenges. Mitcham and Colliers Wood are more disadvantaged areas within Merton and over the last decade huge progress through improving schools, a vital element in improving life chances, a new leisure centre and maintaining full council tax support. A lot of this progress has been undone by the impact of the COVID pandemic has hitting areas like Colliers Wood and Mitcham harder than other places.

As part of a mixed race family Mark said he is passionate about fairness and being inclusive, including appointing the most diverse cabinet in Merton’s history. As Leader he plans to celebrate Merton’s diversity, as with Black History Month currently.

Mark has been Leader since November so has only experienced the role during the COVID pandemic. Mark launched Merton Together to recognise how many in the community wanted to step up and help their neighbours. Mark thanked everyone who got involved in responding to COVID as their efforts have made a huge difference. Merton Council has worked with the NHS and other partners to help keep people safe but of course many families have lost love ones or had their circumstances changed and their lives may never be the same again. Supporting these households through this will be a major priority.

As a result of the major changes for many we launched the Your Merton engagement exercise to listen to residents about what they value and what their ambitions are for the borough. We are still analysing the results but it is clear that residents value their community, their local open spaces, and were much more conscious of their local area, especially their local high streets. Mark said he is still in listening mode and wants to hear want people have to say. Three of the issues have come out of the listening exercise we have started to address:

• Concerns about the cost of living – which is why we will not be raising parking charges as we had previously planned to.
• The need for better homes – being isolated in poor housing has had a huge impact on some so the council will be investing in development of affordable homes. This was reviewed by Overview and Scrutiny on 19 October and agreed to.
• People want to feel safe – although Merton is a low crime area people want to feel safe. £1m upgrade in CCTV coverage

Mark said he knows that there are other local issues that will need addressing and wants to work together, as we did during the pandemic, to tackle the challenges ahead. Mark said he was proud of Merton and Merton’s community and how it has come together to support each other.

A resident asked about the progress on Air Quality. Mark replied that Merton has more school streets than any other London borough, and have introduced new Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. There have also been changes in car ownership with 15% going to lower emission vehicles. Pollution remains a significant issue in parts Colliers Wood.