Since 2014 we’ve been monitoring lights in High Trees. You can see the
latest report here
We’d really like to expand this work to other parts of the estate. If you can help please contact us
These reports show large numbers of lights not working. To get an idea what this means for residents see this picture. It was taken in Neil Wates Crescent in December 2019
The history of this campaign is as follows:
2016
February 2016 – Chuka Umunna MP visited the estate to inspect lighting. He said ‘There was “a merry go round of shabby contracts and rubbish service”’. You can see the full minutes here. Metropolitan subsequently responded, you can see their response here
2015
October 2015 – Cllr Mary Atkins wrote to Brian Johnson, the head of Metropolitan. She said she “was very disappointed to learn that there are currently 84 lights not working on St Martins estate. Can you tell me what Metropolitans plan of action is and when these issues are likely to be resolved?”
April 2015 – Chuka Umunna, the Labour candidate for Streatham (now MP for Streatham), has filed an official complaint on behalf of the TRA. You can see Metropolitan’s response here
March 2015 – The TRA emailed all main candidates for the Streatham constituency (Amna Ahmed, Jonathan Bartley and Chuka Umunna) to ask how they could help with the campaign. You can see their responses here
February 2015 – Brian Johnson, the chief executive of Metropolitan, wrote to the TRA. He said”Our repairs service has not been good enough and I fully acknowledge that … Clearly the scale of the lighting failures was at a level that was simply not acceptable. We have now completed a significant portion of the works to repair lights across the estate”. For the full text of his letter please contact us
January 2015 – Chuka Umunna MP inspected the estate with Metropolitan Chief Executive Brian Johnson. About twenty residents accompanied him. There were two reports of the event which you can see here and here
2014
December 2014 – Cllr Marcia Cameron submits a members enquiry stating she is “extremely unhappy about the way in which the residents are being treated and I would be grateful if [Metropolitan] Officers would fix the lights as a matter of urgency”. The full text is here
November 2014 – Cllr Marcia Cameron does a night time walk about of the estate. She reports she is “shocked and dismayed at the amount of lights which were not working”
(Note: St Martin’s TRA is not affiliated with any political party. Any elected official from any party is welcome to support our campaigns. And we are open to all residents of the estate regardless of political affiliation)
St Martins TRA 
Lamp post outside 21- 30 Gaywood close by fence of T/A parade ground has not worked for at least 5 years as the access panel has been removed and lamp post vandalised no action seems to be done about this as all efforts seem to be centered on high trees
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We’re focussing on High Trees lighting at the moment simply because that’s where we have the resources. It would be great if we could roll out work like this to the rest of the estate. If anyone’s interested in doing this why not come to our general meeting on the evening of 27th January (download publicity at http://bit.ly/1BPzZqj) and we’ll see if we can sort something out
Chris
Chair – St Martin’s TRA
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