Today was the deadline for submission of bids for council cash to improve community infrastructure within Merton.

The funds have been divided up so every ward gets a slice of the pie, with priorities per ward identified via responses to the council’s 2017 Community Infrastructure Levy consultation. That means bids for the current spending round will be looked at more favourably if they correspond with areas identified within those responses.

Answers to the CIL consultation are listed in this Merton Council report. If you take a read, you will see that our little neighbourhood gets quite a few mentions, thanks to respondents who highlighted our issues through the consultation.

As a result, our local councillors, led by Ed Gretton, have submitted a bid to smarten up our Parade of shops at the top of Haydons Road under the current funding round. The proposals have already been given the nod by Future Merton bosses who paid us a visit a month ago to hear about ideas for improvements and experience for themselves our issues of traffic, pollution and neglect. That means the scheme is on the right track as it goes forward for further consideration.

We have been assured that separate neighbourhood improvements will be funded with CIL money coming via the Plough Lane development.

To summarise, our councillors were able to apply for the current round of funding as a result of the Haydons Road North area being namechecked via previous consultations, which is the BEST reason to make the effort to reply to what does seem to be an endless string of the things.