Review of the Year 2013 - October to December

Wandsworth Council announced wide-scale measures to cut £43m from the budget before 2015. The moves include merging six departments into four and cutting 55 jobs.

Later announcements before the end of the year hinted that a further 28 jobs were also to be lost in the reorganisation.

There was shock as a 21-year-old trainee chef Henry Stangroom was found murdered in his rented flat on a quiet residential street on Lavender Hill.

Mr Stangroom had moved to London from Hampshire and was working in Central London before his death.

Andrew Morris, 30, was arrested and charged and is set to stand trial this year.

The storm on St Jude’s day tore through Wandsworth felling close to 100 trees, causing damage to cars, homes and businesses and creating transport chaos.

Services on the Northern Line were heavily disrupted, with huge queues forming outside stations such as Balham and Tooting Broadway but roads were actually surprisingly clear as many chose not to brave journeys to work at all.

November

Work began on the new US Embassy in Nine Elms.

The work on the 11-storey glass cube, and the endorsement of the borough by the USA has been heralded as the catalyst for the huge level of development taking place across Wandsworth.

A married couple were discovered dead in an apparent murder-suicide.

Police discovered the bodies of Douglas Harry Morton and Carol French on Wednesday November 20 after concerns were raised about them.

Friends revealed they were a loving couple who had been together for almost 40 years.

Two thousand five hundred shoppers and staff were evacuated from Southside shopping centre after a fire broke out in the ventilation system attached to Nandos restaurant.

Firefighters from across the area managed to quickly extinguish the balze, and prevent anyone from being injured.

December

The Boris bikes are here.

Major of London Boris Johnson popped down to Wandsworth Town railway station to official open one of 60 new docking stations which went active across the north half of the borough.

The opening took place just days after official sponsors Barclays announced they would be cutting short their support for the scheme and ending the agreement in 2015.

Road users have begun bracing themselves for a tough 2014 after plans to potentially close Putney Bridge to all traffic for six months next year were revealed.

The bridge is used by about 40,000 a day.

The year ended on a sad note as 69-year-old Dennis McGoldrick was struck by a 131 bus and killed outside Tooting Broadway station to the horror of dozens of onlookers.

The Tooting resident is believed to have been blind in one eye, and witnesses described how he seemed to walk out into the road without noticing the turning double decker.