Home's View Improved as Graffiti is Removed
Community payback workers have painted over a large graffiti scrawl on the side of a building overlooked by the Linden Lodge day centre in an operation organised by the Council, Met Police and Probation Service. The office of solicitors’ firm Hilton Banks in Oldfield Road, Hampton, backs on to the rail line and graffiti thugs had daubed tags along the entire length of the back wall. The Council organised a crew of Community Payback workers, who have all received community sentences after appearing before magistrates, to paint over it, with paint supplied by the company.
“Cllr Pamela Fleming, the Conservative Council’s Cabinet Member for Communities, said: “This was a particularly horrendous scrawl of graffiti. These vandals have clearly been using the wall to mark their territory for a long time, to the detriment of everyone travelling by train through the borough, and elderly people at Linden Lodge, who have to look at it every day. It is about time this was painted over and I think it’s opportune that we have petty criminals doing the work and paying their debt to society. This has cost the borough nothing, but will bring significant improvements to this part of Hampton.
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Launch of New Hatherop Pavilion
A £200,000-plus programme of improvement works at Hatherop Park have recently been completed, providing for hundreds of local people who use the site every year.
The park has been given a new pavilion by the Conservative Council, updating facilities which had been there for a number of years. It is among one of the projects in the Council’s £3.7million Parks Improvement Programme, which has seen a range of improvements in all parks and open spaces across the borough.
Cllr Virginia Morris, Richmond Council’s Strategic Cabinet Member for Environment and Planning said: “The Parks Improvement Programme has been an incredible success and has given many of our sites a new lease of life to be enjoyed by families for years to come. We have said we want to create a ‘flowered borough’ here in Richmond upon Thames, and a big part of that is providing open spaces for people to enjoy which are of the highest quality.
“The results of the programme have been obvious through the number of Green Flag Awards we’ve won, and the near 40 per cent rise in the numbers of people who tell us they love our parks. The completion of Hatherop is particularly pleasing because it has transformed the area from one people had concerns about visiting to a fantastic community facility with a playground, football pitches, horticulture, trees and a Green Flag Award.”
The project has been strongly supported by The Friends of Hatherop Park and Hampton Rangers Football Club.
Within the pavilion are new toilets and changing rooms for footballers. A brand new kiosk facility has been included in the building with an outdoor space for people to meet. The Council will be leasing out the facility so to provide an extra service for visitors to buy lunches or drinks, and will create a small income for the Council through the rental cost.
The pavilion also has a low maintenance sedum green roof to encourage insects and birds which will increase the opportunity for biodiversity in the park. This is a first in a council park.
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Thames Water Quizzed on Failures
Senior officials from Thames Water were questioned by the Council over supply failures which left tens of thousands of people across London without water for several hours during the summer and autumn last year.
The Council’s Environment, Sustainability and Community Overview and Scrutiny Committee has already heard from electricity supplier EDF, which was responsible for power supply to the borough during the summer about how it deals with outages.
During the electricity failure in last June, the Hampton pumping station lost power and supplies were disrupted. Councillors asked Thames Water for back-up plans to keep water flowing to homes and businesses, in the event of future power cuts.
Cllr David Porter, chairman of the Committee, said: “Water supply cuts are rare, but they can have a significant effect on people, especially the elderly and the vulnerable. Everything from flushing the toilet to making a drink are affected and Thames Water has a duty to make sure it can keep supplies flowing at all times.
“I’m pleased the company has agreed to send representatives to explain how its back up plans work and steps it has taken to ensure as far as possible that supplies are not lost in the future."
