South London's 'best' neighbourhood despite 'awful' roads and bin shortage
By Charlotte Lillywhite - Local Democracy Reporter
2nd Aug 2023 | Local Features
A South London neighbourhood has been described as the city's 'nicest place' to live despite the 'terrible' state of its roads and lack of bins.
Residents in Berrylands praised its tight-knit community but want to see better maintenance of the area as they claimed it is plagued by litter and potholes.
Kingston Council recently consulted on rolling out more measures to slash the speed and volume of traffic travelling through the residential neighbourhood, including humped zebra crossings and pedestrian islands. It comes after the council approved restricting residential roads it controls in Surbiton, which includes Berrylands, to 20mph in 2021.
But people living in Berrylands told the Local Democracy Reporting Service they want to see other changes.
Local Bekah Lumb, 24, said the neighbourhood is "beautiful" but should be maintained better.
She said: "It's the best place I've ever lived in and I've lived in seven different places before. It's honestly the nicest place. If I could stay here forever I would, I'd bring up a family here. It's a beautiful place, lovely community, 100%.
"It's also why the community here is very adamant on keeping it well-maintained and safe. I wouldn't say it's an unsafe area. I'd feel very safe just keeping my door unlocked. It's a very nice area, I just think it could be a little bit more maintained."
Ms Lumb said there are not many bins in Berrylands which "causes a lot of litter… it's bad for the environment but also it just encourages people to throw things on the floor". She said locals litter cigarette butts and dog waste due to the lack of bins, with it taking up to 20 minutes to find one. She added foxes "ruin and rip bags open" so "you wake up and there's just food everywhere, it's not nice".
Ms Lumb works at pub The Berrylands, on Chiltern Drive, and called for safer crossings locally. She said: "There's just not really many accessible crossings around here, especially if you've got little kids. You see them just running out into the road."
She described the road at the junction outside the pub as "so uneven, the amount of people you see fall over when it gets cold here and icy – I've fallen over so many times, we've seen people just go".
Local Pauline Phillips also works at the pub and raised concerns about the state of local roads, claiming "it ruins people's cars". The 65-year-old said: "The roads around here are awful, especially where the school is, the side roads. They flood around here."
Ms Phillips said there are potholes in the area and called for roads "to be redone properly" as she argued "you can only put a plaster on it so many times".
But she likes living in the area and praised its public transport, particularly the K2 bus service to and from Hook. She said it "picks up all the pensioners that want to go to Kingston or Kingston Hospital, it's a good service".
Chris Green, 66, has lived in Berrylands for most of his life and said "it's not that bad, it's just the roads are terrible". He said: "I know it costs a lot of money to resurface a road as [opposed] to patching it, I know it does, but you can't keep patching a road."
He added: "All they're doing is putting a plaster on it. Come the winter and the frost gets in, it all comes back up again."
He said public transport is "very good" in the area but criticised the 20mph speed limit. He said: "People are getting done for 22mph and 23mph – you see bikes going faster than that."
Mark Chivers, 56, used to live in Berrylands and recently took over Surbiton-based firm W.E.B. transport, which makes deliveries locally, after working there for 18 years.
He described the area as "lovely" but raised concerns about "all the potholes" on the roads and said having to travel at 20mph, "if you've got three, four jobs on, it's just terrible". He understands the speed limit around schools and residential roads, he said, but not at Surbiton Hill Park as it is "like a main road".
Mr Chivers said he has noticed a lack of bins in the area and "a lot of people…don't live here but they carry their bin bags and they just dump their bin bags and get on the train".
He added the expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), on August 29, is his biggest concern. He recently spent around £46,000 on replacing one of his non-compliant vans and needs to replace another, but will have to pay the £12.50 daily charge until he finds enough cash. He said he does not know "what the future's going to hold".
The Mayor of London has consistently said ULEZ is important to tackle air pollution to reduce the impacts of climate change, slash congestion and cut the number of preventable deaths.
Anita Kamalathasan manages Stuart's Newsagents next to Berrylands train station on Chiltern Drive. The 54-year-old claimed parking is difficult on the road as it is restricted from 1pm to 2pm and she can't get a permit. She said it makes unloading heavy deliveries "difficult".
She explained: "We don't need to pay for parking but 1pm to 2pm we're not allowed to park here. It's difficult. When the traffic warden comes we…shut the shop and take our vehicle far from here, so that's the main problem. We need to get a permit or something."
Ms Kamalathasan also said the shop relies on footfall from the train station, operated by South Western Railway (SWR), but that it has been struggling as services are often cancelled completely or limited during industrial action. She said she "cried last Saturday" when SWR closed the station during a strike by the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, as the shop only made around £400.
She said: "We are paying for the staff and the electricity. We are thinking to sell the business because of the station."
In response to concerns raised by locals, a Kingston Council spokesperson said it is "committed to delivering a greener, fairer, safer, borough for all residents, womrking together with communities and partners".
An SWR spokesperson said Berrylands station is served by two trains an hour during industrial action by ASLEF, and it closes on RMT strike days as there are "fewer colleagues available to safely operate" it. They apologised for the "large amount of disruption our customers continue to face due to the ongoing strike and industrial action by the RMT and ASLEF unions".
The spokesperson said: "On RMT strike days we are only able to run a significantly reduced service on a limited number of lines across our network. With a limited number of colleagues available, it is not possible to operate as many train services or serve as many stations as we would with a normal timetable."
Mick Wheelan, general secretary of ASLEF, said: "We regret the situation at Berrylands, but it is a matter for SWR to step up and do the right thing." RMT has been contacted for comment.
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