As the councillor who was the “champion” of regenerating Hackbridge prior to May’s council elections, I am responding to your article (Residents left in the dark, September 11).
Implementation of the Heart of Hackbridge (HoH) project was overseen by a programme board, chaired by Bio-Regional with members including representatives from the London Mayor’s office (who part funded the project), resident representatives from the Hackbridge and Beddington Corner Neighbourhood Planning Group, from Hackbridge businesses, Sutton Council and myself as an elected ward councillor.
The head of Culvers Primary School and the owner of the Felnex site regularly attended the meetings.
This board held no less than three rounds of public consultations, including two well-publicised public exhibitions, at different stages of the design process.
We had more than 1,200 responses, which were carefully considered before the design of the scheme was finalised and implemented.
The key messages from these responses were that Hackbridge looked rundown, the area lacked a central focus and was somewhere motorists drove through at too high speeds.
The scheme is designed to achieve the improvements a large number of local residents clearly said they wanted for the centre of Hackbridge.
So the headline “Residents left in dark over junction plans” does not reflect reality.
Before work started the final design went through two independent safety audits – both concluded it was safe.
The board also insisted on a post implementation safety audit, which is currently being done. Once completed this will be made public.
Regular reports about the HoH project were made to the steering group of councillors, which oversees all the different developments in the Beddington and Hackbridge areas.
The Conservative opposition members on this group at no time voiced any concerns over the HoH proposals.
Rather they were pleased “their Mayor of London” was part financing it.
It is therefore unfortunate that Councillor Garratt and Mr Maxwell Scott, the Conservative spokesmen quoted in your article, only decided to get involved after the much-publicised work had been completed, when they belatedly decided to try to make political capital from opposing the scheme.
JOHN DRAGE
Ex-Hackbridge Programme champion
- Send your letters to: letters@suttonguardian.co.uk
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