Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Is Carshalton really Central?

I used the slightly cheesy slogan "Making Carshalton Central" in my election campaign. I never said I was a Saatchi. It was actually a hand-me-down from Andrew Pelling MP, my boss. He is the MP for Croydon Central - slogan "Putting Croydon First". He had rejected the idea of Making Croydon Central so in this enlightened age of recycling, I pinched it.

Having ridiculed my own slogan, it does sum up nicely what I want to acheive. Carshalton has been my home for 17 years. It is the only place that my children have called home and I still enjoy living there.

The village seems to be unique in South London still retaining a village atmosphere despite the volume of traffic rolling between Croydon and Sutton. I'm sure that I'll come back to this in a future post as it is a perennial problem exacerbated by the narrow parts of the road by the church and the Greyhound pub both overlooking the ponds.

The ward takes in the conservation area of the village, where the idea of the Derby was conceived over a bet at the Greyhound between the Earl of Derby and Lord Bunbury. I'm not sure that the Epsom Bunbury race would have had such a lasting legacy. Carshalton Park hosts a popular summer carnival and one of the largest firework displays in London each year. Stretching over to the west, it takes in a large residential area including the Poets' Estate, a peaceful, pleasant corner of Sutton that has fought off many attempts by developers to change its nature. Long may that last.

Monday, May 29, 2006

Does cyberspace need yet another blog?

Well, no actually. I'm not here to clutter up the web with an ego trip and any old ranting but who knows what'll happen when I stare at the screen for too long and start believing that millions of people worldwide have a rapacious appetite for Carshalton and Scully news.

A blog seems as good a place as any to let people know what I'm up to as Councillor for Carshalton Central. I've been in my role as councillor for a mere 3 weeks. So the more I do for the ward, the more prolific this blog will become. On the other hand, I'll be chuntering on about other things too, so I'll see how it goes. Whether you live in Carshalton, Timbuktu or even Sidcup, let me know what you think.