Local politics can often be difficult to follow – we all know the council deals with our bins, but what else do they do?

Meetings are usually held in town halls in the evenings, and are not always live streamed for residents to access at home.

While most committees also include long reports about what is happening within the borough, filled with complex jargon.

But the information contained in them can be incredibly important – covering everything from the latest road improvements, to what is being done to help the most vulnerable in the borough.

Here is a list of the top five things we learnt at Wandsworth’s full council meeting this week:

1. The council will wait until the results of Grenfell Inquiry Phase 2 before moving ahead with any more sprinkler fittings

Cabinet member for housing Kim Caddy confirmed the council will wait until the results of the second part of the Grenfell inquiry and advice from the government before deciding what action to take over the installation of fire sprinklers in the borough’s tower blocks.

In December last year the first tier tribunal struck out the council’s application for a ruling which would entitle it to retro-fit sprinklers in every room of all leasehold flats in council-owned buildings which are 10 or more storeys high, as part of fire safety measures.

Cllr Caddy reiterated the council has the safety of residents “first and foremost in their minds”, and said she was proud of the council for rapidly recognising the risk in its own blocks.

2. Wandsworth is investing £20m to tackle the climate emergency

Just a few weeks ago the council approved £5m to be spent on delivering the new environment and sustainability strategy.

This week councillor Rory O’Broin, cabinet member for finance and corporate resources, announced a further £15m investment to fund energy efficiency, air quality, urban greening, sustainable drainage and transport and cycling initiatives.

The borough hopes to become inner-London’s greenest borough, and carbon neutral by 2030.

But Labour opposition members called for more specific targets and to raise the price per tonne of carbon for the offset fund to £95.

3. The council won’t make its contractors pay the London Living Wage – but insists they will push for other social value schemes

Labour councillor Andy Gibbons has been lobbying the council to ask its contractors to commit to paying the London Living Wage.

Cabinet member cllr O’Broin acknowledged the benefits but said: “Simply agreeing to prescribe the London Living Wage is something that would open us up to costs that we are unable to quantify.”

The council is instead pushing for ‘social value in procurement,’ which looks at ways in which a contract can bring a collective benefit to a community, by creating more jobs or apprenticeships, for example.

Cllr O’Broin emphasised that as an employer, the council already pay the London Living Wage and said the vast majority of its contractors also do this.

4. Work looks set to begin to remove the one-way system in Wandsworth High Street 

Cllr O’Broin confirmed that updated designs for removing the one way system  are going out for consultation with residents “imminently.”

He said work is expected to start in 2021, with a target completion date of 2024.

Cllr Tony Belton asked about the financial viability of the project, which is in conjunction with TfL, and going £17m over budget.

Cllr O’Broin re-iterated that there is a cap of £27.5million contributed by Wandsworth and that the increase in cost was largely due to delays with TfL.

He said Wandsworth is ready and will push TfL to start building as soon as possible.

5. Children and young people with special educational needs are still struggling in the borough

Cllr Judi Gasser gave a short speech on school funding, and the issues facing children with special educational needs and disabilities.

She cited the recent Ofsted inspection which has required the council and local CCG to produce a written statement of action detailing how they will improve the service, particularly in relation to the poor quality of educational health care plans issued by the authority, which detail what help a child is entitled to receive.

“The majority group have taken their eye off the ball, not seeing the problems the Ofsted inspectors uncovered. We on this side have been talking about them for ages,” she said.

Conservative councillor Peter Graham responded that the Conservatives are the party “for and who are supported by the working class”, and it is only through his party’s approach that the borough “will change for the better”.