Cabinet - Monday 12 May 2025, 7:30pm - Wandsworth Council Webcasting

Cabinet
Monday, 12th May 2025 at 7:30pm 

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Good evening and welcome to this meeting of the cabinet.
As usual before we start, are there any declarations of interest or apologies?

1 Declarations of Interest

Councillor White.
I'm a volunteer at SACRU but I draw no enumeration or any financial benefit for my involvement.
Thank you and we also have apologies from Councillor Henderson as well.
Grant, well welcome to May's cabinet meeting.
Thanks for coming, for those watching along online.
I'd like to welcome Councillor White, our new cabinet member for the environment to
team and also Councillor Gasser to her new role as cabinet member for children.
Before we talk about the decisions we're making this evening, I just want to give a brief
update as usual about the month that we've had.
We had strictly Wandsworth, which is a fantastic kick -off to our year as borough of culture.
It was amazing.
I know a number of you in the room enjoyed dancing along with Oti Mabuse, with Gok Wan.
It was brilliant also to have Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, along in his favorite
borough.
It was a day of fun for so many residents and it's just a kind of spectacular, joyful
event that we'll see much more of in our year of borough of culture.
The last month's also seen the launch of our Access for All scheme.
We've expanded that and launched new digital membership cards.
Access for All was already a huge success with more than 80 ,000 people taking part in free gym and swim sessions.
And we delivered thousands of other free and discounted experiences from our residents.
So that's those gym and swim sessions, welcoming park runs to Battersea Park, free swimming lessons for under eights, just to name a few.
Access for All is helping residents live more active and healthier lives.
And now we've expanded this across more of our services and activities around the borough,
ensuring that support is available from the day -to -day essentials to life's key moments.
So for residents in those access for all eligible groups, services that they must access, we
provide a 100 % discount.
And for services that they choose to access, we provide a 50 % discount.
So that's 50 % off your allotment, your bike hanger rental, and in fact people are now getting married in the Town Hall
50 % off your access for all weddings as well. And we've made the process of signing up and
accessing these offers more streamlined for residents by launching that new digital membership platform that drops into your Google wallet
It's like a sort of train ticket, and if you're not online you can get a physical membership card as well
So I'm incredibly proud to say this is now Britain's best concessionary scheme.
We're breaking down barriers, we're expanding opportunities, and
we're creating a fairer Wandsworth.
And finally, we had VE Day just last weekend.
I know the borough was home to dozens of street parties for VE Day.
We waived the fees for those road closures and also handed out grants to
the community to make sure everyone could celebrate the 80th anniversary of this
event in real style.
And I know most of us were able to attend events local to us,
and it was great to see the mayor of Wandsworth get round
a number of them herself.
I'm proud we were able to provide grants to groups
like Age UK Wandsworth to bring VE Day celebrations to some
of our less mobile residents and support celebrations,
like the one at St. Mary's in Battersea.
VE Day was a time to bring communities together,
and that is central to what we're trying
to do here in Wandsworth.
Some great photos on our website,
and if anyone wants to see the celebrations
that took place, along with some incredible stories
of Wandsworth residents who were here
on the original VE day, please go online and look at those.
So that's what we've been up to in the past month.
You can also see in the packs in front of you,
we've got three papers that we're considering this evening.

2 Allocation of Wandsworth Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (Paper No. 25-149)

So the first report that we have for decision tonight
is the spending of the neighborhood renewal fund,
which is our N -SIL fund.
And N -SIL is neighborhood SIL,
that's a contribution from property developers
for us to spend on local infrastructure projects,
which is of course part of our decade of renewal.
And as part of becoming a more
outward looking collaborative council,
we've spent the last year consulting with residents
and organizations all across the borough
to get their feedback on what their priorities are.
We've been doing that online,
You've probably seen a big map of the leaders' drop -ins, doing it by email, by WhatsApp,
finding out what priorities are and how we can benefit local people.
So I'm pleased to say we've ended up with a great number of projects and it involves
us working with some incredible community groups.
So just wondering if we could take a closer look at the paper.
I don't know.
Councilor Akinola, do you want to talk us through some of the community projects we
have in this list?
Yeah, absolutely.
So NSL is going to fund some work at Carney's gym.
They did great work with boxing in the community.
We're very proud that they're in our borough.
But they're also piloting a bike project.
So we're going to help refurbish the workshop there so they can get going.
So I look forward to seeing, visiting them then.
refurbishing other community centres including KLS who are celebrating a
hundred years with their film at Batter the Arts Centre later today or even like
this very minute yes the Doddington and Rollo Centre as well and I'm very
pleased that we are investing in the Wandsworth property partnership which is
partnership between council local people that we've been working on for a couple
of years with platform places and hopefully we'll be bringing some of our
one of our empty buildings in Wandsworth High Street back into use particularly
for cultural and arts uses. Fingers crossed.
Amazing thanks very much. I know that transport and infrastructure is a huge
part of what we're investing this money in as well. I don't know Councillor Yeats
if you could say a few words about that.
Thank you, Councillor Hogg.
Yes, I'm really pleased.
There's a lot of investment going into making our transport network safer for everyone.
We're installing speed indicator devices across the borough, targeting areas where residents
raise concerns over speeding and road safety.
We are improving the walking and cycling provision on Queenstown Road.
That's a very important scheme.
the section of the road from Queen's Circus up to Chelsea Bridge,
which is a very, very heavily cycled road.
We're widening the footway and providing segregated cycle lanes.
We'll be doing the same at Wandsworth Bridge,
making the temporary scheme there permanent
with proper segregated cycle lanes that meet today's standards.
We're looking carefully at how best to carry out those works,
given that's a key river crossing,
and obviously we don't want residents to be disrupted.
So we'll be doing some of that work at night to minimize disruption
Using Ansel will also be make this will also be making a contribution to to push -button crossings
We're doing on Garrett Lane and just near the Henry Prince estate
That's following resident feedback about lack of crossings by the estate. And of course as we know Garrett Lane is a very very busy road
So these are just part of the improvements to our roads and pavements that we're making as part of our decade of renewal
That's great stuff.
Thanks so much.
I know, Councillor White, there is quite a lot under your portfolio of environment here
as well, but I appreciate given your links to crew, you'll probably sit this one out.
But is it okay if I run through a few of the things we'll be doing?
Because it's obviously a huge priority to use these developer contributions to make
leisure exercise, getting outdoor more accessible to people in the borough, and particularly
those who are currently underrepresented and there's some great
steps towards that in this neighborhood renewal fund. You'll see a grants program
specifically aimed at increasing the participation of women and girls in
sport and we're going to refurbish outdoor play equipment right across the
borough and there's 15 playgrounds included in this report for
refurbishment and we've got outdoor gyms at Tooting Common, King George's Park and
Wandle Recreation Center in there as well. And just to say we're not going to
We're going to replace those playgrounds like for like,
not just rusty equipment with new equipment.
We know some are used more than others.
We know demographics have moved on,
that play equipment has moved on
since we last looked at them.
So we're actually employing an officer
and there'll be a proper team that will go through
looking at those playgrounds one at a time.
We're going to replace the athletics track
at Battersea Park Millennium Arena
and crucially spend 50 ,000 pounds
providing community activities over the next two years
to make sure that there's truly access for all there.
We're replacing the Battersea,
all weather artificial turf pitches,
and delivering community activities there
over the last three years.
So congratulations on a fantastic wide -ranging offer.
Councillor Henderson isn't here,
but he would want me briefly to mention
a few of the community safety elements of this paper.
I know he's very pleased
about the three rapidly deployable CCTV cars.
They'll enable us to respond immediately to report reports of antisocial behavior and crime and to act as a proper deterrent.
And we're going to add 150 hours a month of extra CCTV monitoring to our network, already one of the biggest in London.
And we also have money here to pay for three additional community safety officers over a two year period.
Operating across Falconbrook, Nine Elms, St. Mary's, Battersea Park, and Surrey Lane Ward.
So Wandsworth is already the safest in the London Borough
But we know that this is because of the hard work of our police of our residents and our investment as well
So just wondering if anyone has any other comments or questions about this paper
Councillor Ireland
Thank You councillor hog. I'm really pleased to see money going out the door here to improve
Facilities, but I was just wondering if residents or any community community groups come forward with any suggestions about gaps in
How easy would it be to expand on this list? Oh
and
Very easy, please come forward. Please say this. This is nine million pounds worth of spending this evening
But there's another three and a half million pounds in the pot
I think the gas holders site which got planning permission last month had something like 20 million pounds worth of seal attached
as well, so obviously a few million pounds of neighborhood still there.
So our ears are still open, officers are still listening, so the next tranche of funding
will come through very quickly and you'll see pretty much all of the schemes in this
paper being delivered within the next year.
So are we happy to approve the contents of that report?
Thank you very much and thanks to everyone who's been involved in it.
Now the next item is the Wandsworth Borough of Sanctuary Community Fund Round 4.

3 Wandsworth Borough of Sanctuary Community Fund, Round 4 (Paper No. 25-143)

Councillor Akinola, do you want to take us through this?
Yes, I'm actually really pleased.
I'm really pleased about this.
I think this is our second or third year of delivering, of handing grants to community
groups for Borough of Sanctuary.
But what's really important this year, and I'm really pleased that we've actually managed
to do it is that the grants were first assessed by a group of people with lived experience
of sanctuary and refugees, which is really building on the work that we did with what
we've been doing with the ELBOT champions.
So they assessed it first and then they joined the grants committee to ratify and agree and
rationale their decisions together with counselors.
And that's actually how these awards have been made, which is a very positive step,
I think for all of us actually handing over power to our residents, especially our newest ones.
Also funds are going out to KLS, KARAS and Power to Connect who are doing events for Refugee Week and other work,
which is skilling up our newest residents and helping them to really assimilate into our wonderful boroughs,
I like to call it, Wandsworth, and more of this over the next year.
So I hope everyone can make it to refugee week events in June
Thanks so much for that cancer acunola are there any comments or questions
If not do we approve that paper

4 St Anne’s School Closure Proposal (Paper No. 25-150)

Thanks very very much and then the final item for this evening is an and school closure proposal
And we're fortunate to be joined by the executive director for children. I was pop of each you this evening
I wonder would you be able to say a few words of introduction and then we'll hear from Councillor Gasser if that's okay
Happy to Councillor hog. Thank you for having me tonight
We know that financially it's been
Challenging for our schools in London, but also here in Wandsworth
We haven't been immune to the very real impact on our schools of falling pupil numbers as a council
we've worked tirelessly in partnership with our schools and taken a strategic approach
to manage this with careful place planning, with forecasting and through capping and formally
reducing pupil admission numbers.
And although this has gone some way to help our schools to strengthen the financial health
of our school system, it hasn't really been sufficient to avoid some difficult discussions
like the proposals here today, which will always come as a last resort.
It's very sad yet it's not a surprise that actually the governors at St. Anne's have approached us with
their careful decision to consult on the closure of the school and I want to start by thanking
the governors, the head teacher, our colleagues in the school and the diocese for their bravery
and unwavering commitment to do what's right even when that decision is difficult, emotional
and potentially met with disappointment and challenge to an extent. Their willingness and
desire to work you know with us in partnership and be the best partner they can be has made this
process and decision one which has arrived at with kindness and I think full transparency for
the communities involved. At the heart of this decision is a school, a community with a distinct
and cherished religious ethos which has educated and nurtured our children and been a professional
home to countless of talented and dedicated pupils and teachers alike. The school experience
is so special and a defining period of a child's life, bringing with it opportunities for learning
and growth, a sense of belonging to the place, friendship groups and the foundation for future
successes and this is what this council wants for all children in Wandsworth, I know that.
And that is why it's crucial that the decision on the future of the school is made in the
interest of the pupils at St Anne's to ensure that they can receive the best
possible education, the most enrich experiences and have all their needs
met and experience opportunities of growth to enable them to drive to
thrive and grow further. So whilst considering this decision, cabinet
members, I hope that you can embrace the loving and inclusive spirit of St Anne's
in your hearts and reflect on how its legacy can live on in every success
story of its current and former pupils. Thank you, Councillor Hogg.
Well said. Thank you very much and thanks for your work on this.
Councillor Gasser.
Yes, thank you. Just to add to what Ms. Popovici said, I'd just like to thank the governors for all their work and all their care on this.
This is a horrible decision to make. Nobody wants to decide to close the school.
But as Anna said, it's about the best interests of the pupils actually,
Because they know that the school is now no longer financially sustainable.
And that's no reflection on the quality of the education or the quality of the service there.
It's a lovely school, but the pupil numbers have been going down and down.
Currently, they only have 58 pupils across all the year groups, of which 26 are year six.
So they're going to be leaving anyway to go to secondary school.
They've had only, I think, two first place applicants this year.
So it's just not viable.
You can't make the school work on that basis.
And they have tried everything they've been innovative and creative working with our officers combining year groups doing this doing that
It just were no more solutions
So they're now facing a possible deficit of three hundred thousand if they carry on they've spent up all the reserves and
You can't maintain a school on that basis
So they very sadly made the decision in recommending to us that we decide to close this school
They are sure and we are sure that the children will be able to thrive and prosper in alternative schools.
We are looking very closely at alternative provision and those schools will be able to provide the support and the development that those children need for the rest of their time.
They have done consultations both formally and informally, they've reached out to the community.
They received five responses in the formal consultation of which three were in favour of closure.
So they do feel that this is the right thing to do to propose the closure.
And if this is decided tonight, we will start working,
the governors will start working to look for alternative school places for those children.
And for the staff as well, this is very emotional for the staff as well.
We're going to support them in the transition, of course.
And we would really like to keep the staff with our own family of schools.
We want to keep them in Wandsworth, they're a lovely team of staff.
So we got confident that there are enough places locally in good or outstanding schools for the local children.
So hopefully we keep the disruption to a minimum.
We're going to try and make this transition as smooth as possible.
And Councilor Sarah Davis, the local councilor, has also offered to meet with and support any families that might need her.
So thank you again to the governors, to all the council officers that have been supporting this and
be brave enough to take this tough decision and I recommend the paper that we recommend
closure.
Thank you, Councillor Gasser. Are there any comments or questions on the proposal?
Councillor Islet.
Thank you very much. I was just wondering about children with special educational needs.
Are there any children like this affected by this closure and are we confident that
They will also have a smooth transition to new schools.
Thank you.
Yes, thank you.
There are actually four children with EHCPs who are transferred to other schools and
officers have already been looking into this, taking it into account that Pan Amware children will end up.
And they're confident that there are surrounding schools locally that can cater for their needs.
Thank you.
Councilor Yates.
Yeah, thank you very much for all the information and I understand the difficult decision.
I imagine parents in the surrounding area might be wondering about the impact for them and their children.
So would you be able to say anything about that? Thank you.
Yes, so fortunately there are 13 other primary schools situated within one mile of St Anne's
and based on recent vacancy returns are currently 453 vacancies across reception to year five.
Good for these families, not good for the future because we do have spaces which is
a worry long term.
But yes, we are confident that everybody can be accommodated
locally
The transition hopefully will be smooth for the children and for the schools that they join and shouldn't put any undue stress on the local
system
Yeah, all the schools as I said are either good or outstanding really good staff everybody will be mobilized to support the children as much as possible
Thank you.
Are there any other comments or questions?
If not, thank you, Mr. Bopovici and Councillor Gasset.
Are we agreeing with the decision as put forward in the paper?
Yeah, no, it is difficult.
Thank you very much.
So that concludes the formal business for this evening.
I know that was a difficult decision, but I'd also emphasize we've put 9 million pounds of
investment into our communities
And we've done it by listening to local people that they want investment in their leisure facilities in their playgrounds
To make their streets safer. So thank you all very much for your work this month, and I look forward to seeing you next month
Good evening
Thank you.
Thank you.