Your questions

I'm not sure if you deal with graffiti on shopfronts?

Answer from Simon Hogg, Leader of the Council:

In February, we launched the 7 rings, 7 days guarantee to make it easier for residents to get in touch and ensure faster repairs across the borough. If you report graffiti, a dangerous pothole, or a broken street sign, it will be repaired within 7 days; if you call us on 020 8871 6000 a member of staff will pick up in 7 rings.

We will remove graffiti within 7 days if it is on Council-owned property, private property, and commercial property and can be seen from the road. We will also investigate reports of graffiti in other places and remove it if we can. If graffiti is on a private property we need to write to the owner for consent for removal.

All other graffiti can be reported online.

To demonstrate our commitment, a digital dashboard is published on our website with weekly stats on the success rate of the 7 rings, 7 days commitment, along with monthly updates on actions taken to reach a 100% success rate.

We are a listening Council and will take care of the things that matter to you, to help keep Wandsworth special.

Answer from Jenny Yates, Cabinet Member for Transport:

As part of our ambitious Walking and Cycling Strategy we are investing to make it safer and easier for our residents to walk, wheel and cycle in Wandsworth. Lime bikes and other e-bikes are a very important part of our transport network here in Wandsworth where over a million journeys are made a year.

We’ve introduced a flexible parking scheme, which involves geofencing around our town centres. This means that in busy town centres it is mandatory to park an e-bike within a designated bay.

We’ve listened to residents who told us that in less busy areas, they really appreciate being able to park flexibly. This means that a bike can left in a sensible location on the footway. For example, women cycling on them at night feel safer being able to get home on them.

We do know that e-bikes can be parked inconsiderately, and we work closely with Lime and Forest, the other operator in Wandsworth, on ways of resolving this.

If an e-bike is causing an obstruction, the operators have an obligation to respond to complaints and arrange for the bike to be collected. You can report Lime bikes and Forest Bikes. Riders can be fined for poor parking and be suspended and banned from the service if they repeatedly flout the rules.

Answer from Aydin Dikerdem, Cabinet Member for Housing:

It is the Council’s priority to maximise the delivery of genuinely affordable homes for social rent. As part of our Local Plan changes, all major residential developments of 10 or more homes will be required to deliver 50% affordable housing at a minimum of 70% social rent (and a maximum of 30% intermediate tenure). For schemes of less than 10 homes, a financial contribution is also required to support the delivery of affordable housing more widely in the borough. 

This compares with the previous administration’s Local Plan which was only 35% affordable housing, with a 50% social rent and 50% intermediate tenure split, which does not maximise delivery nor prioritise those who are in the 8 Official most need. The Tories’ policy also did not require affordable housing on sites with less than 10 homes, unlike many other London boroughs who successfully apply a small site contribution. 

The Council has rigorously tested the emerging affordable housing policy across a range of common site types within the borough to make sure that they are viable, through the Whole Plan Viability Assessment (2024) which will be submitted alongside the emerging Local Plan for examination in Spring 2025. 

To incentivise the quick delivery of affordable housing, the emerging policy also sets out a localised fast track route of 45%, to ensure that developments that can deliver more than 35% required by the London Plan do so. 

In addition to these new Local Plan policy requirements and to hold developers to account, the Council now has in-house planning viability expertise to ensure the provision of affordable housing is fully-scrutinised and maximised on every development that comes forward, in accordance with the emerging policy and to meet the pressing needs of local residents.

Please can you tell us how the Council has been supporting older people in the borough, especially with regard to financial assistance and Adult Social Care enabling elders to be discharged from hospital in an appropriate and timely way?

Answer from Angela Ireland, Cabinet Member for Finance:

At the start of winter, we announced the Wandsworth Winter Support Payment which provides low-income pensioners with help managing increased costs over the winter. As always, we reviewed the needs of our residents and implemented the support they need. Those eligible for the scheme were those not receiving Pension Credit but receiving Council Tax Reduction. For those aged 80 and over, the payment was £300. For those under 80 the payment was £200. 

For residents we already held bank details for, payments were made directly into their accounts, with a letter notifying them this would take place, but no action at all required on their part. Payment was made immediately, ensuring these residents had their Wandsworth Winter Support Payment well before Christmas. Those whose details we did not hold have been sent an easy-to use way of receiving their payment online. 

The Winter Support Payment is part of a wider package of support for pensioners in Wandsworth – all part of the largest Cost of Living support package in London. We are using LIFT (the Low Income Family Tracker) to promote benefits take-up including Pension Credit and Attendance Allowance. We have already signed up over 200 additional residents to Pension Credit who have received over £1m in benefits that they would not have otherwise received, at no cost to the Council. We have also increased awareness and uptake of social tariffs for water, broadband and other utilities; warm packs; increased capacity in our information and advice services; and opened warm Community Spaces. 

Our Adult Social Care service recently scored very highly on the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework, which measures how well care and support services achieve the outcomes that matter most to people. 

The Department of Health and Social Care publishes this national benchmarking annually. It is composed of three parts: a service users survey; a carers survey; and a set of performance indicators. Performance in 2023/24 is very good when compared to London, with 17 of the 22 indicators (77%) in the top two quartiles and no indicators in the fourth/bottom quartile. 

Performance has improved since 2021 across multiple measures. Notably, the overall satisfaction of people who use services with their care and support indicator was in the bottom quartile in 2020/21 and performance is in the top quartile in 2023/24. The Directorate is investing in care and support services and through our transformation programme (Transforming Social Care) continues 24 Official to prioritise care and support services with the aim of furthering the improvement journey.

Hi there, I would like to get involved with the Access for All scheme. I would like to get involved with swimming and gym for health reasons, but as I work part time so therefore unable to afford full membership at the gym. Can you advise me how I get involved?  Thank you.

Answer from Judi Gasser, Cabinet Member for Environment:

If you want to get involved in Access for All, you can check our criteria online to see if you’re eligible.

Our Access For All scheme aims to break down barriers and make sure all residents have an equal chance to access local opportunities, including sports, leisure and other essential services. Everyone should enjoy the benefits of living in Wandsworth, and everything it has to offer.

For eligible adults, gym access is free during off-peak hours, and peak hours are available for a reduced fee of £5.

Off-peak times apply before 5.30pm on weekdays and all day at weekends.

The same times and offers apply to our swimming facilities – those eligible can swim for free, during off-peak hours. During peak hours, there is a reduced admission fee of £5. Children can swim for free at all times.
 
Going beyond sport and leisure, Access for All also provides discounts on other Council services like registrations and ceremonies.
 
This is London’s most generous concessionary offer, and we can already see it changing lives – like Joan’s story of recovery.

As a Listening Council, we will continue to expand and improve our offer to residents, based on what you tell us.