Councillor Billy Christie, Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Services

Cllr Billy Christie, Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Services, on behalf of Leader Cllr Ross Garrod. Cllr Christie said that following the elections in May this was a new administration with new leader and many new councillors. The administration’s top objective is rebuilding pride in Merton so that everyone has a stake in making Merton through investing in people, places and services .

The administration has three main priorities:

• Civic pride:
  • This includes pride in our communities, places, and town centres, as well and our cultural facilities and community sector.
  • Make it easier for residents to be active in local communities and to invest in our town centres.
  • Focus on basics like keeping street scene, which is why we are recommending not renewing Veolia contract
• Sustainable Future
  • Encourage active travel and sustainable transport including making Merton the best place to own an electric car or e-bike.
  • Shift planning policy to get energy efficient new homes.
  • Build 400 affordable properties on Council land by 2026
• Creating a borough of sport
  • Merton has a huge amount of sporting heritage, including both national and local facilities.
  • Get more investment into grassroot sport.
  • Encourage esidents to have healthier lifestyles.

Residents want to see improvements in street cleaning, as a result the Council has agreed an Improvement Action Plan with Veolia including a night-time response team. Ten additional enforcement officers have been recruited to prevent littering and fine those that do. There is also a new emergency response vehicle to respond to fly-tipping. The Action plan is being regularly reviewed and monitored. Merton has also partnered with Fix My Street, a free App to make it easier for residents to report fly tipping and other problems. Cabinet will be deciding whether to extend the Veolia contract or not when it next meets and if the contract is not extended Merton will be looking how to improve services.

The Merton Local App has been introduced to support local businesses and this has already been downloaded more than 4000 times. Other achievements include:

• Funding already secured from GLA for 93 new homes on Council owned land
• 250 new EV charging points secured through funding from Net Zero
• £2m added to climate emergency fund
• £1m investment into local sports facilities including 40 tennis courts being refurbished
• £2m fund being used to help people hit the hardest by the Cost-of-living crisis. We already have the most generous CT support schemes. We have held four cost of Living events, another one taking place at Pollards Hill on 29 October. We are also providing vouchers for school meals during holidays.

A resident asked what the definition of Affordable housing is, Cllr Christie explained that there is a national definition of 80% of market rent but the plan in Merton is to build social rent which is much lower.

A resident asked about naming and shaming fly-tippers, whilst another said we also need to look at causes of this crime. Cllr Christie said we need to do more to tackle fly-tipping and have launched our Wall of Shame featuring CCTV footage to help identify individuals. There is a difference between commercial fly-tippers and individuals, but we will prosecute wherever we can. 

A resident asked about using waste food and it was pointed out that the Community Fridge did this.