WELCOME to the website of the Raynes Park and West Barnes Residents' Association, designed to inform you of current local issues and to provide a brief history of the local area and the Association. 

All our members receive our monthly magazine "The Guide", which continues to be delivered by our volunteers.

"The Guide" has local information, news, events and advertising. For more information about advertising in "The Guide", click this link.

Our Association , which is run completely by volunteers, works on behalf of our local community. We are a NON political association, welcoming everyone. 

The current membership year runs from March 2022 to February 2023 and costs the very low annual subscription fee of £3.   

Click here to contact our Treasurer and become a member.

Members are invited to our Open Meeting on

Tuesday, 10 October 2023 at 7:30 pm

at West Barnes Library, Station Road, Motspur Park, KT3 6JF

Have your say about Motspur Park Station,

the new developments and safety issues. 

A Network Rail representative will attend.

Chairman's Blog - October 2023

PENALTY CHARGES SURVEY

In April this year, the Sunday Times carried out a review into the parking ticket fines handed out by local authorities. Councils had handed out 3.3 million penalty charges notices (PCNs) costing £265 million in 2022 and the number of notices was 27% higher than in the previous year.  They are given for offences such as failing to buy a parking ticket, parking on a double yellow line or in permit only zones or driving in a bus lane. 

Part of the increase is due to the use of apps to replace cash at parking machines, which are difficult to use, or the rare cases when the machine is simply faulty. Many people suspect that councils increase the number of penalties to shore up their budgets. 

Merton Council charged an average of £117.67 per fine with a total value of over £17,000,000. However, among London councils Merton had one of the highest rates of tickets overturned on appeal, at 6.6%.                                                                   

London councils are now carrying out a parking charge survey, with a deadline for responses of 23^rd October: 

https://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/LondonParkingChargesConsultation 

Residents may wish to respond to this by the deadline. The information given with the consultation notes that since 2010 penalty charges in London have been grouped into two bands, Band A and Band B.  Band A charges are higher and are usually in areas with greater parking pressure, such as central London and town centres.  Band B charges are lower and tend to be in outer London areas where there is less pressure on parking. 

There is a map showing which boroughs apply which bandings. Our eagle- eyed Advertising Manager, Dick Coleman, noticed that Merton, along with Croydon, are the only boroughs in south outer London to levy the higher Band A charges! This may help to explain why Merton makes so much money from their charges. 

LESSA COMPLAINT

The Association has made formal complaints to Merton Council over maladministration in its handling of the applications to build on the site of the former LESSA sports ground off Grand Drive. The applications had to be in two stages, Stage One and then Stage Two and both have now been dismissed. 

The Association is now asking the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman to review these complaints.

John Elvidge