LibDems Get Post Office Worried

I walked past this Post Office in London Bridge on Saturday. It was closed as it was early morning and so no-one was around. This is in stark contrast to a few days ago when, as reported in Private Eye, LibDems queued up to have their photo taken with Mayoral hopeful Brian Paddick to save post offices.

Kingston MP Ed Davey, Hornsey & Wood Green MP Lynne Featherstone and a councillor made the pilgrimage to London Bridge to be snapped with Paddick.

Two minor points stick out. With four post offices closing in Featherstone's patch and five in Davey's backyard, could they not go along to one of those. Secondly, with 169 post offices in London for the axe could they have not at least found a post office that is at least threatened. The London Bridge post office is not on the list. The sub postmaster must have been confused.

We have all been campaigning to keep our local post offices open but this is another example of a posturing empty gesture from the LibDems that is all about electioneering and nothing to do with the future of our communities. I hope they at least bought some stamps while they were there.

Fair Deal For Sutton Tenants

On Wednesday, I joined Philippa Stroud, our Parliamentary Candidate in Sutton & Cheam and more than fifty supporters of a campaign organised by Jean Crossby and the Sutton Federation of Tenants and Residents Associations. They presented a petition to Downing Street to a fanfare of support as we watched them going in with coaches and cars giving us the occasional honk of solidarity.

The campaign which has attracted cross-party support demands an urgent review of the policy which takes £10m from our social housing rent account to maintain council houses in other parts of the country.

This equates to 19 weeks rent each year that some of the most vulnerable residents in the Borough are paying whilst living in the second-worst housing in London. Only Tower Hamlets has council-owned housing in a worse state of repair. £125,000,000 is required to bring our housing stock up to the Decent Homes Standard. This level of repair in no way equates to opulence or lavish changes. This will mean that our tenants can live in homes without mould and damp affecting their health, with an adequate kitchen and bathroom. This should not be too much to ask in a comparatively prosperous borough but we are working with one or two arms behind our back when the Government props up its marginal seats with extra money creamed off other Councils in the south.

Our Planning, Transport & Housing policy group will be looking at ways of tackling the problem of housing standards with solutions that lie within our remit. This campaign was well organised and very well supported. We are really happy to support the residents in having their say at the very top level. However, as politicians we cannot stop there. We must take a lead and ensure that we have used every channel and innovative idea that is open to us rather than simply sitting back, wringing our hands and blaming others. Leave any thoughts here or go to our Policy Groups web page and join the debate there.

Government Gets Above Itself Shocker

Geoff "Buff" Hoon is not the sharpest knife in the Government's block but as Chief Whip he has the unenviable task of whipping Labour MPs to vote for the Human Fertilisation & Embryology Bill. This piece of legislation contains some very unpalatable items for pro-life MPs including several Catholic cabinet ministers. Normally this would be a free vote so it is asking for trouble to push this through with a 3 line whip.

Today the Telegraph reports that he has granted Cabinet Ministers a dispensation to abstain if they write to him in advance. This is not normally within the remit of my blog but one line of the article made me smile. It was reported that Hoon was "irritated by the failure of some of his side to see the bigger picture."

Now I am not religious, but for the abstainers I struggle to see what they would consider bigger than the Creator of all things in heaven and earth.

The Bards of Westminster?

Now I know that MPs too often think their parliamentary orations are Churchillian but I saw that a bit of Shakespeare seems to be creeping in to the proceedings by the back door. My political anorak eagle-eyed colleague at work noticed that a Hansard reporter seems to have drifted off to a world of Shakespeare, perchance to dream. Have a look at the bottom of this page. Any rational explanations would be welcomed. Failing that your best Shakespeare/Parliamentary puns will have to do. Make them good otherwise I'll have to make the unkindest cut of them all.

Council Tax Through The Roof Again

The Council Tax increase has been confirmed at 3.4%. Only the LibDems could consider this a good news story, yet they gamely tried to justify it.

We were told that each of the neighbouring councils had bigger increases. This is true, though not the whole picture. Residents in Croydon, Merton and Surrey - all Conservative Councils - still pay far less that we do here in Sutton. One neighbour, Kingston not only had the third highest rise in London but retains the crown of having the highest tax burden of any London Borough. I'll leave you to guess who runs that Council (clue: same party as Richmond, the second highest tax bill in London).

Croydon residents know what they are getting for their extra money. £1.5m is being invested in extra policing and £4.75m is going into recycling initiatives including recycling facilities for every block of flats in Croydon, something we have failed to do in this Borough which sells its green virtues at every opportunity. Excluding flats means that a massive proportion of the residents in Sutton simply cannot recycle very easily. It also pushes the onus onto householders to meet targets that the Council sets.

This budget is merely treading water offering nothing new for residents except bigger bills. At the same time residents in Hammersmith and Fulham are seeing their bills cut by 3% for the second year in a row, there is a freeze for pensioners' bills in Hillingdon. Wandsworth and Westminster residents continue to pay just one-third of the amount than we do.

Keep School Money for School Children

Last night we had our annual bunfight that is the Budget debate. It was a strange affair, with little offered by the LibDems. Instead they say smugly attacking the Conservatives. As a politician, I don't mind this. As a resident, this leaves me fuming. Who on earth is running the Borough if the LibDems are continuing to act as an Opposition party rather than a group that should have a positive track record to boast about after 22 years with their hands on the purse strings.

I'll cover the Budget in two posts as one matter caught my eye in particular and illustrates the LibDem Council's approach to their Budget perfectly. We caught the LibDems out using the interest from huge sums of Government money to lessen its own council tax increase. Conservative councillors discovered that the mystery savings which cut the increase from the controversial 4.9% to the 'benign' 3.4% has come from a variety of sources including the interest creamed off from the Building Schools for the Future funding for Stanley Park High School in Carshalton, and a surplus of council tax from new homes.
This follows the previous controversy when the Lib Dem Council consulted on a 4.9% projected council tax increase in December 2007. The current above inflation increase of 3.4% has been set by using additional money from sources termed in council-speak as "slippage" and the "buoyancy of the Council Tax base". We confronted the Lib Dem finance executive councillor for either not being up-front about this hidden surplus when official documents announced a 4.9% increase or for simply not knowing of its existence through incompetence. No answer was forthcoming.

During the debate the LibDem executive councillor for learning services confirmed that quarterly instalments of £2.056 million have been received by the Council - from the Department for Children, Schools and Families - totalling some £6.168 million. He also confirmed that projected earnings in interest were £150,000 for 2007/08. After considerable pressure from Conservatives over the last week, he agreed that all revenue in interest should be 'ring-fenced' to be used exclusively on the project to build the new Stanley Park School.

It is good news that they have reversed their policy under pressure to ensure that the considerable revenue in interest from the school grant will be used only for the benefit of the Stanley Park School. Using this money's interest to partially offset the council tax increase is just not acceptable. School children should not be short-changed because this Council can't control it's spending.

This does mean that the budget is now incorrect to the tune of £150,000 because the Lib Dems cannot cream it off anymore. How will they make up this shortfall? Maybe we can do a swap with parents' School Vouchers?

Budget Day on Monday

No not that one. We have a Full Council meeting tomorrow where we will listen patiently to Cllr Drage telling us that we have never had it so good and that we should be grateful for only having to pay an extra 3.4% tax in the coming year.

He won't be speaking for an hour with a glass of whisky as in the Parliamentary debate. Fifteen minutes is more than enough for all of us before we correct him on a few points:)

I'll report back tomorrow

Congratulations to Jonathan in Cheam

After a hard-fought campaign, I look forward to the new version of the LibDem posters sprouting up around Cheam Village.

First the result:-
Conservative 1541
LibDem 1454
UKIP 260
Labour 106
Turnout 44.1%

So, Jonathan Pritchard was elected in a tight race. UKIP ran an campaign that, though negative and uninformed had a significant effect winning 7.5% of the vote.

The great surprise was the LibDems. I was taken aback by their newsletters which were cynical and negative. Despite running the Borough for 22 years, they resorted to personal attacks and failed to demonstrate any track record of success in that time. Instead they promised to tackle crime in Cheam despite regularly telling councillors and residents that Cheam had very little crime. They even started to steal some of the campaigning techniques from UKIP with some of the UKIP headlines being repeated word for word in the LibDem Focus. My surprise came from how clearly they demonstrated that they were living off their successes in the 1990s, with no new ideas for the Borough.

I could only agree with several women that I spoke to throughout the campaign who felt patronised by the claim that they should vote for Wendy Mathys because Cheam already had two male councillors and they didn't need a third. So much for the best man (or woman) winning. I would like to see the councillors being broadly representative of the community in which they live but quotas and female chauvinism is really not the way to go to acheive this.

Paul Burstow MP must be concerned with the result. He allied himself very closely to the LibDem candidate but could not swing any extra votes. Midway through the campaign he rediscovered the art of communication using House of Commons headed paper to write unsolicited mail to residents. I'm sure his local electorate will take a dim view of using parliamentary stationary to influence a council election whether or not he paid for it himself. Maybe he hasn't noticed the media coverage about MPs using parliamentary resources for their own ends.

Cheam has the lowest Labour vote of any ward in London, so this was never to be a happy hunting ground for them. Nonetheless they sought to ask questions of residents to debate local issues. It was an interesting tack and deserved a few more votes from the LibDems for being positive.

As for us, we picked three main themes, crime, planning and council tax. Our campaign was positive, though taking the LibDems to task where necessary. Unlike their campaign we played the ball, not the man to take a footballing analogy. It has been a hard slog for the last few weeks. We did not take a single vote for granted despite the misquote in the Sutton Advertiser and I'm really pleased that Jonathan came out as the worthy winner. He will be an asset to the residents of Cheam and he will be an asset to the Conservative Group as we look to build on this in order to win the election in 2010 when we can really effect the change required to make Sutton a better place to live.

The Last Post For Carshalton Road

The latest round of Post Offices in London to be closed was revealed on Tuesday. 169 branches were identified with 2,500 closures in total earmarked across the country.

Sutton has its share with Carshalton Road, opposite the BP Garage joining Gander Green Lane, Bishopsford Road, Mitcham Junction and Wythe Lane for the chop. The shopkeepers seem to have mixed views but I fear for the less mobile who will find the mile or so travel to the nearest alternative difficult.

Conservative Parliamentary candidate Ken Andrew has collected 2,000 signatures around Carshalton and Wallington and Philippa Stroud has been proactive in raising support in Sutton for the campaign to stop these further closures. Philippa's petition is also online, so please show your support here. There are a few weeks of consultation. Any chance of success in reversing this decision depends on your support. Please take a minute to register your protest.

Considering Cheam Baths At Their Leisure

As the Battle of Cheam Baths rages, we are no further in finding out what future the Leisure Centre has. We were told that the LibDems do not know what the future of the site is and so cannot guarantee its future. The following week we were told that it will stay open for the time being as £500,000 is being spent on it. A costly consultation report has been sat on someone's desk since December which looks into future of Leisure provision in the Borough but consideration of this report seems to be going at a leisurely pace. It was supposed to be discussed at the January Executive Meeting. Towards the end of January we were told that it would be before Easter. Looking at the document which details the timetable over the next quarter for items to be discussed by the Executive, I see that the Leisure Centre Strategy has been quietly dropped. This means that it will be the summer at the earliest before we can see what may happen.

If this site closes there will be no public provision in the west of the Borough with the east benefitting from four centres. Jonathan Pritchard discussed the situation with Boris Johnson on a recent visit. The irony was not lost that as Stratford gets new Olympic facilities paid for by residents of Cheam and beyond, this part of the Borough suffers. The amount in Olympic tax paid for by Sutton residents over the coming years would be enough to bring both Cheam Leisure Centre and Westcroft up to a decent standard.

Scrutinising Scrutiny

The Council introduced a major change to how councillors scrutinised decisions by the Executive - the Cabinet of lead councillors - and departmental performance. Previously we sat as officers queued up to give us long verbal reports and asked a few polite questions. Now the process is member-led and works more in the style of a Parliamentary Select Committee where we choose what we want to investigate and gather evidence.

I welcome the changes but we still have a long, long way to go before the process is in anyway effective. Last night was a good example when we looked at the problems caused by the Kimpton rubbish dump to nearby residents. We listened to officers before Christmas explaining about noise at the site. We had to make decisions from reports which referred to various noises measured in dBa, dBeq and dBLA90. Now come on, stay with me. Don't glaze over just yet.

I asked that the residents were allowed to speak. Couldn't possibly came the reply, they have plenty of opportunity elsewhere. When I asked that they come to the next meeting to speak as we enquired further, I was told maybe and that the decision would be made in good time. Well they were except no-one told the residents. As it happened they had found out about the meeting themselves and come along. We heard from the officers and then heard from the residents about the problems that they had to face day in and day out.

I still am not sure what we acheived. We had two sessions with officers listening to solutions to noise problems and only then did we get to ask the residents what the problem was.

Apparently Kimpton Centre was not designed to move materials around. Yet it happens and this is what causes the noise. We were told that other state of the art recycle centres had split-levels. Yet this is how the previous Oldfields Road site had until is was flogged off to Tescos and a smaller site constructed. It seems clear that this administration still treat members of the public as the enemy paying lip service to consultation. We are here to represent residents by asking searching questions not ticking Government boxes whilst pushing away those people who look to us for answers.

Punish War Memorial Vandals Properly

At the end of last year, I called for Sutton Council to lobby the Government to make criminals who vandalise War Memorials face a harsher punishment to take into account the particularly heinous nature of the crime. This followed the desecration of Carshalton War Memorial. The motion at Council received unanimous backing from councillors of all parties.


Only a month before Remembrance Sunday a callous thief ripped valuable York stone slabs from the 80 year-old landmark memorial located next to the Carshalton Ponds. Last month Samuel Ware, 22, was convicted of criminal damage at Croydon Crown Court and sentenced to two months in prison. The sentence has compounded the call for tougher sentences to be created by a legally distinct new criminal offence. As the law presently stands vandalism to war memorials is treated as conventional criminal damage.

Sutton Council wrote to the Prime Minister on 23rd November and received a standard response Number 10's 'communications unit' on 6th December. The letter said that the request had been passed to the Home Office for further consideration. As of today - three months on - no response has been received prompting accusations that this serious request has been ignored.

I am dismayed that we haven't had a response from the Home Office yet and fear our request has fallen by the wayside. People who desecrate war memorials are the scum of the earth. The violation of these monuments deserves separate recognition in the criminal law with appropriate punishments attached.

Gordon Brown loves to postulate when it comes to protecting Britishness but let's see him put his money where his mouth is. Let me know if you agree with me that he should back our call for a new criminal offence of vandalising and desecrating our war memorials.

Marxism Never Tasted So Good

The LibDems like to think of themselves as a nice bunch of people with all other politicians demonised as negative and destructive. They appear mortally wounded when attacked even on their political record. Yet they so often fail to play by the same rules. Their research, however, is usually better than a placed letter in last week's Sutton Guardian. Over to Philippa Stroud with her response to accusations that she relied on BUPA membership whilst campaigning about the NHS.

Dear Mr Editor,
Last week a Rod Vincent from Wordsworth Drive, Cheam amusingly alleged in your paper that I had private medical care membership of BUPA. He then - rather rashly - promised "...that the day I see her queue for medical attention at St Helier Hospital I will eat my copy of Das Kapital."
My husband and I have always used the NHS and our three children were born in NHS hospitals. In fact, my son has recently had his appendix out - at St Helier hospital, I have recently been an outpatient at Sutton Hospital and our GP surgery is in Mulgrave Road.
I have bought Mr Vincent a bottle of ketchup to help him fulfill his culinary promise - namely eating his copy of Das Kapital. Could I deliver this to the offices of the Sutton Guardian for Mr Vincent to pick up at his leisure?
May I suggest that Mr Vincent sign up to the Conservative NH Yes campaign on www.conservatives.com .
Kind regards
Philippa Stroud
Conservative Parliamentary Candidate
Sutton and Cheam

The silver platter may be a little too bourgeoise for Mr Vincent's taste but I'm sure a range of condiments could be rustled up to make the book more palatable. There again, I've always found Marx makes me a little nauseous.

Update: Just noticed this is my 200th post. No time to pop a cork, I've got the 201st to write before a committee meeting (which should give me the material for no. 202)

A Valentine Thought From Beyond The Grave

As we come to another Valentine Day, I think of my political widow Emma. I have always thought that behind every great man, there's a woman rolling her eyes.

I saw a card today advertising a Valentine lunch which included a quotation from the late US comedian Rodney Dangerfield who said "My wife and I were happy for years...Then we met."

Anyway with a by-election, a design meeting for Stanley Park School, a meeting with the new Head of Communication at the Council and a presentation from IPSOS MORI telling me that the Cheam residents are mistaken in their somewhat dismal view of the Council, I'll redouble my efforts to celebrate the day, lest I end up as green as the Warhol-like Dangerfield here.

LibDems Fading Here

Sakina Bradbury, a councillor in Surrey, has become the third Liberal Democrat to defect to the Conservative Party in the last four months. Sakina has been a Liberal Democrat councillor for Whyteleafe ward on nearby Tandridge District Council since 2002. She decided to join the Conservatives after becoming "increasingly impressed" by the way the Conservative administration of Tandridge District Council met the needs of local residents.

I've been taking a team of Conservatives around Cheam over the last few weeks where we have knocked on a few thousand doors. There haven't been too many people that are "increasingly impressed" with the LibDem Council in Sutton. This wasn't always the case. I first moved to Sutton in 1986, the year that the LibDems took over (22 years, I know...) They had some eyecatching schemes then. Some, such as the skip service worked and were popular. Others such as the £500m gas powered dustcarts didn't and were swept under the carpet. Now, as they rest on their laurels , living off past glories as a tired administration, we see year-on-year inflation busting increases without any innovation in service provision. It is not surprising that people who were promised a vision, look elsewhere. Sakina has joined many people including Sutton residents in seeing that the Conservatives are breathing new life into local politics and I wish her well.

Consult...Consider...Ignore

The LibDem Council have just completed their six-week consultation on this year’s budget. This meaningless exercise managed just 22 responses from the 180,000 residents of the Borough.

In order to show that people were interested in what tax they paid, I was joined by four colleagues on Sutton High Street and obtained 26 responses in a mere ten minutes.

This equates to one ten-thousandth of the population and our level of Council tax hinges on this. The Council needs to consult properly or give up the pretence. If the LibDem Councillors had just taken one form each home to get a neighbour to complete it, they would have got a better response.

I addressed the Council Executive (the inner LibDem Cabinet) on Monday, insisting that they stop demeaning the idea of consultation by either doing it properly or not at all. The questions were in the mould of American-style "push polling" which is not interested in your answers but passing on political messages within the question. Take this one for example: "Do you agree that any increase in council tax should be kept below the Government's national limit of 5% even though the grant the council is receiving from the government does not cover inflation?" I was surprised that 8% of respondents answered no to this. Firstly because, I find it amazing that anyone would want to see a rise of more than 5% and secondly because this equates to 1.76 people which makes me question who the 0.76 of a person was.

We go through this dance each year, with the LibDem Council buttering us up for another above-inflation increase. The budget that has just been consulted on, shows a Council Tax increase of 4.6%. If the increase comes in any lower than this, whilst extremely welcome, it will mean that the consultation was carried out on a totally different budget. Not that the vacuous questioning contained in the questionnaire would have to be changed, just the background papers.

Weapon of Choice

With a by-election only a few weeks away, I have been spending a lot of time in Cheam recently. Many people will think of it as a wealthy village with Jeremy Vine and Harry Secombe as previous residents and home to the fictitious Railway Cuttings of Tony Hancock. Nothing much else happens in Cheam does it?

As in most parts of London, traffic spoils what is a picturesque village centre but the beautiful church spire dominates the landscape reminding passers-by that Cheam has a long history dating back to at least 1018.

The congestion is not the only modern scourge to come to Cheam. I was astounded to read of a man attacked by a machete-wielding thug on New Year's Day. It is a testament to the proliferation of such crime in London that the yellow sign appealing for help has quickly become part of the furniture on the Cheam by-pass.

Sutton Police do a great job but they need far more help from the Mayor and central government in particular. We need to tackle gang violence in London. Nearby Croydon suffers terribly from this. Fortunately Carshalton only has comparatively minor antisocial behaviour problems from groups coming from Waddon and beyond. Left unchecked, this will get worse as gangs are able to get away with more and then look beyond their current boundaries. Police bureaucracy is a perennial source of moaning but rarely gets tackled. It takes 25 minutes for a police officer to complete a foot-long form every time someone is stopped in the street, even if only to account for themselves. I'll be pushing Boris to keep talking about how he will deal with this head-on when he is Mayor for London. We have to keep the crime in Sutton in perspective. We are not a Hackney or Tower Hamlets but there is nothing wrong in demanding that we are as safe as we can be in our homes, streets and parks.

Cheam Baths in Hot Water

Residents in Cheam were shocked and disappointed to read that Cheam Baths may be earmarked for closure by the LibDem Council as part of their leisure centre strategy. Instead, residents and schoolchildren who want to use the second most popular centre in the Borough will have to travel to Sutton or even out of Borough to Merton and Epsom.

At a recent Council meeting Graham Tope, LibDem spokesman for Leisure, justified the significant recent price hikes but refused to give a cast-iron guarantee that the centre would be retained. John Kennedy said in response that Lord Tope has gone from "the Cardinal Wolsey of the LibDems to the Gordon Brittas of Leisure in Sutton."

Jonathan Pritchard, Conservative candidate for the upcoming Cheam By-election said afterwards “Local people want local leisure services, they don't want to be forced to travel across the borough or to neighbouring boroughs. The threat looming over Cheam Baths will particularly impact on local residents, Cheam schools and the leisure centre staff. The Council needs to be up-front about this instead of claiming they simply don't know.”

Cheam Leisure Centre has the second highest footfall of all the Leisure Centres in Sutton behind Westcroft. Both centres need a lot of money spending on them to bring them up to scratch but the LibDems seem to be heading for the nuclear option by replacing them with a single centre in the middle of Sutton town centre. The consultant's report has been sat on a desk since December and any decision has been pushed ever further back to Easter. This could have a significant effect on Carshalton as well as Cheam.

Britannia in Downing Street

As I was working in Westminster on Friday, I was summoned by a friend to watch a spectacle planned outside Downing Street. Simon McGee, from the Mail on Sunday met up with "Britannia" to present a petition to No. 10 demanding that the decision to drop Britannia from the 50p is reversed. You can read Simon's version of the morning here.

The Mail on Sunday have the support of 30,000 residents. Britannia couldn't get her trident past the metal detectors so Simon had to pass on the views of so many himself.

Although Britannia has featured on our coins for some 336 years, she has had some time off for short-run commerative 50p coins. However, continued erosion of our sovereignty and civic pride means that people seek to retain these comparatively small symbols of tradition and nationhood. They are right to campaign against this move by a government who truly believe that history books all start from 1997.

22 Reasons Not To Vote LibDem

Excellent article on the Sutton Guardian website this afternoon which you can read here.

The Sutton LibDem MP has sent out a magazine resembling the sort of 'Real Lives' magazine that usually has articles like pets uncovering extra-marital affairs and Britain's Biggest Love Rat etc. Have a look at an example and play spot the difference.

Despite the LibDem Chief Whip failing to save a single post office from closure and, indeed losing the whole postal town of Cheam, twenty two posed photos appeared in the glossy tome. The Guardian article in describing it as exhibiting new levels of narcissism, pointed out that Rembrandt may have turned out 40 unvarnished self-portraits but at least the versatile Dutch master spread them over half a century.

Sadly I often remind myself of the epithet "Politics is showbusiness for ugly people." Ploughing out this sort of lightweight newsletter doesn't really help politicians from any party raise people's expectations of us.

GLA Website Used As Ken's Re-election Tool

Beleagured Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone seems to be using the main website covering the Mayor's Office, the GLA and other London bodies as his own personal rebuttal service.

There are 17 rolling links on the front page of the website, 10 of which are defending Livingstone in the face of fierce criticism by the Evening Standard, Channel 4's Dispatches programme, BBC's Politics Show and - let's face it - anyone with a voice.

His tenure of the mayoralty has been shown to be shabby, deep in the mire with some very shady characters stretching well beyond London. Even his triumphant cheap fares for Londoners is being subsidised by some of the poorest people on the planet in Venezuela so that he can strut the world stage and dictator Hugo Chavez can find a friend.

Boris described Livingstone as being like Marlon Brando at the end of Apocalypse Now, yearning for the end. It's an end which can't come soon enough for Londoners.

Conservatives support Nonsuch Mansion

Nonsuch Mansion plays a vital role in the Heritage of the Borough. Sited in Nonsuch Park, Cheam it is administered by a joint committee comprising of councillors from Sutton, Kingston and Surrey Councils. There has been considerable doubt as to its future for a number of years, with Surrey County Council as the owners, the final arbiters.

Recently, the Local Committee for that area under the chairmanship of Graham Whitham agreed an urgent motion supporting the retention of Nonsuch Mansion and its adjacent parkland for public use and access. This attracted the support of Sutton Council's Executive.

Graham Whitham, also a Cheam ward Councillor, attended a public meeting in Ewell where he conveyed both the Committee's and the Council's backing for the campaign to keep the Mansion in public use. The support was welcomed and we are continuing to push for this valued local amenity to be kept within public use rather than be surrendered to private development.

Our New Twin Town?

Salford Council has wasted £75,000 of a regeneration grant on this sculpture on a roundabout in Cadishead, near Manchester. Some say that "Marge and Steel" pays tribute to the town's industrial heritage and that it is an "inspired piece of work," others call it "a giant barbecue with lap dancers on the side."

Personally I think that it looks like two mating wigwams and so links nicely with our very own totem poles. Rather than inspiring warm memories of successful industry, it looks unfinished and shoddy, thus devaluing the efforts of the region's businessmen to keep some semblance of industry in the area.

The final kick in the teeth for Sutton residents is the thought that the poor settlement that our Council receives from the Government is to redistribute funds into areas just like this in the North.

Wait Till Your Father Gets Home

Before Christmas, the Sutton Guardian likened Council Leader Sean Brennan to Scrooge, after the LibDems announced their draft Budget which will lead to yet another inflation-busting rise in Council Tax.

Now, the same newspaper reports a stern warning by the father of one of the Deputy Leaders of the Council to think of pensioners before committing them to finding the extra cash from a pension that won't see an increase anywhere near the tax hike. David Dombey, Chairman of the Sutton Seniors Forum reminded his daughter and her colleagues that "Anyone just on state pension is likely to suffer as council tax represents a large percentage of their spending."

Ken Andrew, our parliamentary candidate has met retired residents who have told him that they have had to choose which meals to miss in order to pay their Council Tax bill. I hope that the LibDems still listen to their parents and heed the warning. Amongst the people that will not fret about their bills in April are the two Deputy Leaders who received an extra £6000 allowance each this year and the residents of Conservative Hammersmith and Fulham who can look forward to a second successive reduction in their bill. Meanwhile we wait with baited breath to see if our increase is less than the 4.9% of last year, the second highest increase in London.

H/T for photo before hamfisted changes, Cllr. Phil Taylor

Westmead Road Residents Getting the Hump

600 residents on or around Westmead Road and Lower Road were consulted on a traffic calming scheme shortly before Christmas. This was as a result of the poor accident record in Lower Road.
Proposals included two mini-roundabouts, changes to junctions and several speed cushions. Ward councillors were asked for comments on the plans following the consultations. Now, I have a well-publicised aversion to speed bumps at the best of times as they are too often used as a lazy-man's way of "doing something". The question was asked of residents "Do you agree with the road narrowing and speed cushions along Westmead Road between the mini roundabout junction with Shorts Road and the junction with Ringstead Road?" 59 people said yes, 82 people said no. In the amended plans, I was amazed to see that all 10 speed bumps remained between these two roads despite a clear rejection. The justification was that accompanying comments only feared that they would lose parking spaces. Since that wasn't the case, it was OK to leave the bumps in.

Needless to say that this was unanimously rejected by us. Since the problems occur up to a mile away from the humps in Sutton Central (whose councillors graciously approved the speed bumps in our patch), I cannot for the life of me see why Westmead Road residents should suffer the extra noise, pollution and inconvenience of speed cushions. Watch this space for updates.

Update: I am informed by Cllr Janet Lowne that the Sutton Central councillors only approved the changes in their ward. I'm happy to set the record straight.

The Start of Better Healthcare in Wallington

Mint House is to be extended and improved following planning approval given on the 19th December. The office block on Stanley Park Road, Wallington is owned by one of the GP partnerships practising in Shotfield Health Centre.

The building is not exactly the apogee of good design. The proposal is to add extra floors and to improve the look of the building with new materials. It is an integral part of the "Better Healthcare Closer to Home" programme, whereby Shotfield will be redeveloped to offer better, more extensive healthcare to local residents (unsurprisingly, closer to home.)

The Doctors' practices will move into Mint House whilst Shotfield is rebuilt. At the end of the development, this building will revert to office use, housing the administrative support for the new clinic. Shotfield will provide consulting rooms to enable some outpatient procedures to be carried out on site saving journeys to St Helier and Sutton Hospital. Since my doctor is located here, I'm as keen as anyone to see the improvements over the coming years. The planning application for Shotfield itself is due to be submitted in January.

Councillor Disqualified by Adjudication Panel

Last Thursday saw a hearing by the Adjudication Panel investigating the case brought against Councillor Eleanor Pinfold by the Standards Board of England following a complaint by the Monitoring Officer of Sutton Council. Eleanor was disqualified for twelve months meaning that she has to relinquish her position as councillor for Cheam ward with immediate effect.

The findings of the Independent Adjudication Panel are a serious matter and we will carefully examine ways in which lessons need to be learned. It is appropriate to await Miss Pinfold’s announcement on her right of appeal, or alternatively her intention to accept the findings as they stand, with their attendant penalty.

Further comment, opinion or actions, pending an appeal, may be considered prejudicial at a time when due process is still underway. The Conservative Group adopts the Council’s Code of Conduct as its guide to acceptable behaviour by elected members.

Members of the Conservative Group are individually and collectively bound to obey the spirit and letter of the Code of Conduct. Breaches of the Code of Conduct by members, which result in sanctions against them, are mirrored by corresponding sanctions within the Conservative Group Rules which range from reprimand, suspension or expulsion.

The Conservative Group will make no further comment on this case until it has been fully discharged by either the Independent Adjudication Panel or by the Courts following an appeal.

Local Democracy Still Has A Faint Pulse In Sutton

Earlier this month, the latest Hamptons' development planning application in Worcester Park was unanimously rejected by Sutton Council’s Development Control Committee.

Although it only affects one corner of the Borough, albeit a large corner, it is illustrative of the pressures that we face right the way across Sutton. The Hamptons is a housing development based on a New England, clapperboard design; a cross between Salem's Lot and the play area for the Wall Street Masters of the Universe, that give the development its name. It has been built on an old sewage treatment plant. The developers used the space within the site well, though forgot that people need to get in and out and required other services. Green Lane is the only access road to the estate which feeds onto the main arterial road north of Worcester Park. In rush hour residents immediately join a queue which, although it is only some 300 metres long, takes 45 minutes to pass through.

The latest application received an unprecedented response following the Council’s consultation on the developer’s proposal for a massive increase of 184 homes on the Green Lane site. Councillor Richard Butt and several residents spoke passionately and effectively against the application citing:
· The effects on the local environment.
· The safety and effectiveness of the untested wind turbines proposed for the amenity area.
· The complete absence of a realistic travel plan to address the fact that the surrounding roads are already running at over capacity according to traffic surveys.
· The need for community services on the site, especially as no new GP surgery was proposed despite the dramatic population increase in the area, at a time when it is difficult to get onto a doctor’s list. A new secondary school in Worcester Park is also required.

This was the first time that I have seen a Development Control Committee for just one item. More than one hundred residents attended and forced the Council to listen to you at last. This was a real success for local democracy.

The developers will need to decide whether they want to take the application on appeal to a Planning Inspector or to modify their application and try again. Either way, it is important to defend Worcester Park and Sutton as a whole, against poorly thought-out developments which are likely to have a significantly adverse effect on the local community.

An Almighty QoQ Up

Much has been made of the woes at the Ministry of Defence occasionally run by part-timer Des Browne MP (he is also Minister for Scotland). At a time when our Armed Forces are spread very thinly, the top brass have made their feelings known about the lack of basic equipment for frontline troops.

The unit which came up with the MoD's more advanced weapon was sold in 2003 to US venture capitalists Carlyle, enriching some senior civil servants. Sir John Chisholm, Chief Executive of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) invested £100,000 in the buyout. The organisation was renamed QinetiQ, Sir John saw a profit of £25,000,000. Unsurprisingly, the Public Accounts Committee have been asking questions. This led to an amazing exchange as reported in Private Eye which says much about the current state of Defence spending in this country:-

Richard Bacon MP (Con, S. Norfolk): "Mr Wooley, are you a chartered accountant?"
Trevor Woolley (MoD): "I am not."
Bacon: "Are you a qualified financial person of any kind? Do you have any financial qualifications?"
Woolley: "I do not have financial qualifications."
Bacon: "What is your job?"
Woolley: "I am the finance director of the Ministry of Defence."

Boris is Appealing

...to you to let us know how you would change the future of Sutton. Rather than having a load of Conservative politicians talk amongst ourselves, we thought that it might be a good idea to do what is increasingly a novel idea for politicians; listen to the residents that we are elected to serve. Come to www.suttonconservatives.org.uk and join us in shaping the future of Sutton.

Follow The Money

Shadow Finance Spokesman, Terry Faulds is leading a sixth group looking into Council finances and constitution. Imaginatively, I have entitled this the Finance and Constitutional Working Group.

This group stands outside the rest of the process insofar as there are no external members. However we still want to hear from you. The group will look at spending implications raised by the other groups. It will also look at ways of improving decision-making within the Local Authority ensuring that people have a real say in council business whilst reducing the red tape that often delays action.

The Best Care: Our Quality of Life Policy Group

Continuing this series of introductions, I've turned to our group that will look at healthcare and social services in Sutton. The future of healthcare in the Borough is arguably the biggest political issue at the moment. Despite recent announcements from the PCT, we can be no more confident that we will have suitable facilities in St Helier in the coming years.

This 75 year old building is well past its useful date but is still seeing more facilities being jammed in as other hospitals shrink.The Royal Marsden is internationally renowned and wishes to expand, yet it is hesitant until the future of the Sutton Hospital site is known.

Our social services have been found wanting for a number of years. However, Dr Adi Cooper and her team of officers have brought in a welcome injection of new thought and enthusiasm, something we will be keen to continue to develop. The old idiom states that it is a measure of a civilised society, how they treat their elderly and infirm. We need to ensure that we have the skills to hand to offer the services that are required.

Planning, Transport and Housing

This Policy Group has the largest remit of all. It will also be looking at some of the most visible aspects of Council. Much of Sutton, especially in the smaller outlying villages has real individual character. We must protect this, reducing the number of back gardens lost to opportunistic development. We do have to balance this with meeting the demand for affordable housing. Whilst the building continues, so does the increase in traffic. People will not get out of their cars with no viable alternative. We will tackle transport to keep Sutton moving. Finally, Cllr. Barry Russell summarises the problems surrounding social housing perfectly. We need an inordinate amount of money to bring our housing stock up to anywhere near a decent standard. Whilst repairs are going on we also need to protect the people that have taken advantage of the Right to Buy from disproportionate maintenance charges.

This group seeks to find answers to some massive challenges that need a new approach. Everyone has a view on one or all of these issues. Go to www.suttonconservatives.org.uk to share yours.

Out of the Shadows

I was pleased to be able to meet a group of residents who had participated in a new initiative started by Beau Fadahunsi of the Sutton Race Equality Council and encouraged by Dennis Bartholomew on behalf of Sutton Council. They had all shadowed a councillor over a few weeks, attending meetings both in Council and also with residents. This gave them a real sense of the role that councillors play in the community and the relevance of the Council in residents' everyday lives.

This meeting came at the end of the process when certificates were awarded to each participant. In our discussion, there was definitely a sense that they would take something away about politics. They were all more likely to vote as a result. Some were interested in becoming school governors, joining political parties and one may even stand as a councillor next time. All those meetings and we still didn't put her off. Must be doing something right I suppose.

Tackling Law & Order

Sutton is one of the safer boroughs in London. However, we are not content with being compared to Tower Hamlets and Croydon, we want to ensure that we are policed in the best way possible. There is a real fear of crime that needs to be addressed so that people can feel safe on the High Streets, in parks and whilst using public transport.

We are lucky to have two retired policemen helping us with our enquiries and a sitting magistrate. It is not enough to look at policing in isolation. This will not lead to a comprehensive approach. It is crucial that we investigate youth provision and education to see what part we can play in keeping young people away from crime and antisocial behaviour in the first place. Philippa Stroud will be sharing her considerable experience in this field to enable us to come up with some ideas that will capture the imagination of young people rather than ticking a box for a national government target.

Now That's What I Call A Cock-Up 25,000,000. Double-CD Set

It's been confirmed that my family's details are on the CDs that are sitting in a dank corner of the office in Newcastle or being used by Doctor Evil to fund his latest attack on civilisation as we know it, depending on who you listen to. I've removed any identifying data from the copy of the letter here but it doesn't make for comforting reading.

I've been the victim of identity theft before, when someone pinched my post from a flat that I was refurbishing, changed the utility bills into their name and obtained a credit card, taking £1000 from the card company. They were very good, speedily correcting the details on file and adding an extra level of security to my credit reference to avoid a repeat. The police, however, were not so helpful. I was told that despite the fact that I had a payslip and other evidence from the fraudster, they weren't interested in using it to investigate further. I hadn't lost out, so it was up to the card company. Remember that, if someone attempts to rob or murder you but doesn't succeed.

25m names in the wild and a jumpy government make for a very different response on this occasion. Police have finished poring over the HMRC offices in Newcastle and they are now appealing to staff to check "in case the package or discs have turned up." Other examples of data security lapses are coming out of the woodwork including details of Benefit claimants sent to the Dept. of Work & Pensions. Seven million of these letters have been sent out. Just look at the details that have been exposed. Our names and dates of birth, including those of the children, our address, NI numbers and bank details. It is unsurprising that there are thousands of people trying to change their bank accounts.

Mystic Miliband

Ten months ago, we all thought that David Miliband had made a massive Freudian slip when appearing on BBC Question Time. In fact, time has shown him to be the greatest crystal ball gazer since Mystic Meg.

He told the bemused audience "I predict that when I come back on this programme in six months or a year's time, people will be saying 'wouldn't it be great to have that Blair back because we can't stand that Gordon Brown'."

Having just received an apology from HM Revenue & Customs and watched the unedifying debacle of the Government trying to wriggle out of their latest donor scandal, I certainly agree with the second half of his quote.

(Click on the photo for the full effect.)

Environment & Community Sustainability

Sorry, the title of this policy group is a bit of a mouthful but it looks at two increasingly important areas of Sutton life. Whether you are an eco-warrior, a so-called "climate change denier" or somewhere in between, there can be little doubt that we have a fundamental responsibility to look after our Borough and thus contribute to the wider protection of the planet. We will look at ways to build on the work already in train here in Sutton.

The most pressing issue that this group will investigate is that of waste management. Recycling targets have been pushed for a number of years. Whitehall is now moving us to landfill targets, minimising the rubbish that is put in the ground. Incredibly stiff penalties are attached to this move with each local authority facing fines of up to £150 for every extra tonne buried, over and above the landfill tax that is rapidly increasing. So, apart from being the right thing to do, we are under massive financial pressure to tackle this problem as a matter of urgency. This will only work if residents continue to be happy to do their bit. We need to find ways that work that are not too onerous.

The second half of the title refers to communities in all of its senses. Whilst many concentrate on Sutton High Street, outlying areas such as Wallington High Street are allowed to become relative ghost towns. We need some joined up thinking to ensure that each geographic area serves its residents well. Also we will look to ensure that everyone can play their part in their community. We will offer fresh support to the voluntary sector to ensure that the most vulnerable in our society can become involved in community life and decision making.

As usual, have a look at www.suttonconservatives.org.uk for more details on this and all of the policy groups.

Introducing the Education & Training Policy Group

Cllr Peter Wallis points out some of the issues that we need to investigate over the coming year. Yes, we are a top performing education authority, but we have significant pressures that we need to deal with. The five selective schools (and the partially selective Greenshaw) provide the spine for some of the best results in the country. We need to ensure that every child has the opportunity for the very best education. We will look at the role of the Education Authority to ensure that it is performing the role that is required by schools and parents, whilst not involving itself in areas that are best dealt with elsewhere.

Special Educational Needs provision is a particularly acute problem with a major increase in the number of statements for Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). We need more provision within the Borough. At the moment, the Authority is spending a considerable amount of money for private school provision in Kent, Surrey and Hampshire and the budget for transporting children to these schools is overspent by hundreds of thousands of pounds.

This group will also seek innovative ways to protect and enhance our library services and adult learning. Education does not have to stop at 21. Whether you are a teacher, parent or student, let us have your views by going to www.suttonconservatives.org.uk.

Join Us In Changing The Future Of Sutton

Sutton Conservatives have launched a new initiative on an unprecedented scale in local government, to help deliver real change in Sutton with your issues and concerns addressed as a priority. Councils can never stop listening, but all too often in Sutton consultation means an obscure questionnaire or a small advert in Sutton Scene, attracting a handful of responses.

We want to hear from you. We have set up five policy groups consisting of councillors and people from outside politics entirely who have been invited, not because of their political opinions, but because of their expertise and interest in a particular topic. Our Law & Order policy group has two retired policemen and a sitting Magistrate to help advise and lead the inquiry into the fear of crime in the Borough and how we can acheive the very best policing of our High Streets and parks.

You can get involved by post, email or phone through me or your Conservative ward councillor. The main place for discussion will be via our website, www.suttonconservatives.org.uk where you can see what we are doing and have your say.

Meanwhile, each group will be examining the main topics of discussion within their remit. They will speak to those people actually providing the service, look at initiatives in Councils and other organisations around London and the UK and see what innovation we can bring back to improve the lives of residents here in Sutton. The one thing that will be at the forefront of all of this is value for money. As we approach the annual round of cuts to be announced by the Council, we are only too aware of getting the most out of every pound of taxpayers' money spent.

The five groups are:-
Education & Training
Environment & Community Sustainability
Law & Order
Planning, Transport & Housing
Quality of Life
These are underpinned by a Finance & Constitution working group looking at acheiving real value for money and streamlining decision making in the Local Authority.

This project can only work with your involvement. I hope that you will feel able to give your positive alternatives to shape the Borough that you want to live in. It really doesn't matter what your politics are or if you are even vaguely interested in party politics. We all live in the same Borough, use the same services and pay the same Council Tax. We are all in this together, so please, go to www.suttonconservatives.org.uk and join us in changing the future of Sutton.

TfL Appoints New German Speed Control Contractor

We're only one step away.

Smash But No Grab

In another of those "You couldn't make it up" events, Sutton Council refused to move this car saying that it wasn't parked dangerously.

Cllr Tony Shields came across this car blocking the pavement near Devonshire Primary School when taking his son on Friday morning. He reported it immediately on his mobile phone. Later that afternoon when he saw that it was still there, he called again.

He was told that if it was still there in two weeks, it would be moved. When this was challenged by Tony, the response came, "how would you feel if your motor was towed away suddenly?"

Tony has challenged LibDem lead councillor Colin Hall over this saying, ""I thought it was outrageous enough that this crashed car was left for an entire working day - let alone two weeks! Primary school pupils had to walk around this wreck into the road, risking life and limb, in order to get to and from school.

"I demand this answer from Councillor Hall: how can this kind of base incompetence exist in a department under his watch? It is a fundamental duty of this Council. Failure to deliver is totally unacceptable."

Update (2nd December, 9.34pm): The Police stepped in and removed the vehicle after some pushing by Cllr Shields.

The LibDems Last Post

The final motion of the last full council meeting was one that we could all agree to. The LibDems sought to protect our post offices from the next round of closures due in 2008. After the next 2500 sites have closed, one-third of the entire network will have closed down in the last decade.

There are only two public "servants" that earn more than an eye-watering £900,000. Both work for Royal Mail. These are the people that have denied communities a vital lifeline in closing so many sub-post offices, they oversaw the ill-fated rebranding to "Consignia" increased the cost of stamps considerably and got rid of the second delivery of post.

I have written before about the politics of envy. I don't begrudge anyone earning a considerable amount of money if they can demonstrate their worth. The postal service has been decimated by the direction of the company under guidance from the government.

There was one main problem with the debate. Royal Mail is still losing money hand over fist. They will not change their minds just because politicians stamp their feet. Paul Burstow and Tom Brake have not stopped the closure of a single post office in Sutton over the last decade, in fact Paul Burstow has managed to lose the entire postal town of Cheam in that time. We need to push for alternatives that will allow the post office to be profitable whilst still remaining open for the vulnerable in our society. I suggested a few ideas including one that the Council can do now.

At a time when Sutton Council is cutting back on the opening hours of its Cash Hall, why not have a Council one-stop shop in some of the sub-post offices. This will enable people to access council services without having to travel to Sutton.

Anyway, the final result was a lot of wringing of hands. The motion was agreed as we all want to protect our services. However, there were no further ideas on what to do next apart from start another petition. I suspect the same methods may bring the same results.

Through Gritted Teeth

Full Council was somewhat unusual last week. If you looked at the headlines of the minutes, you would have thought everything was hunky dory, tickety-boo and the two main parties agreed on everything. This didn't cover the whole story.

After a mixed bag of questions, I proposed a motion, graciously seconded by Council Leader Sean Brennan, asking for the law to be strengthened, making the defacing of a war memorial a specific criminal offence. This follows the appalling theft of the yorkstones surrounding the Carshalton War Memorial just before Remembrance Sunday. A stonemason Samaritan stepped in to replace the stones allowing 250 people to commemorate the fallen. The police apprehended the thief. Anyway, the motion was passed and a clear signal was sent by the Council.

The second motion was moved by my colleague Barry Russell, asking for the Union flag to be flown daily above the Civic Offices and the Mayor to sit under the Borough Coat of Arms rather than the European Flag. An exchange of emails between Barry and Cllr. Tope raised the hoary issue of Health & Safety as the wall above the Mayor contains asbestos within the Artex. Despite this, since there seemed to be a willingness to get this change made, we amended the motion to allow further investigation of costs etc. Failing this, I'm sure one or two of our larger councillors can do the heavy lifting with the requsite safety equipment. I'll cover the LibDem motions in the next post which should have been straightforward but became flashpoints despite the fact that we all agreed in the end.

Meeting Carshalton College

Shortly before the full Council Meeting last Monday, I met some students from Carshalton College. The majority intended to follow their course in public services by joining the police.

They hadn't schlepped across Sutton just to see me. Sean Brennan, the Leader of the Council and Claire and Rachel from the Sutton Youth Parliament are pictured as well. They had also met our Chief Executive, Paul Martin, had a tour of the Civic Offices and watched part of the Council meeting (that's dedication for you!).

We told them a little about how we fitted into the structure of the Council and discussed some of the local political issues. It is good that they are able to take the opportunity to see what goes on in their name locally. Although national government grabs all the headlines, local government provides most of the very visible services that people use on a day to day basis. It is the council that empties the bins, maintains the pavements and roads, determines what the neighbourhood should look like through planning and, so often charges you through the nose for this with the annual Council Tax demand. It might not be the sexiest type of politics, but it's worth keeping an eye on. The enthusiasm of their tutor, Phillip Taylor was apparent and I am sure will give his students a grounding in the political basics which will remain with them for sometime to come.

MP Too Busy To Do Her Job?

There was a strange exchange in the House of Commons yesterday. A change to the format has allowed MPs to ask for a topical debate. This takes the form of a general debate about a current issue without a vote at the end. Yesterday's debate was on immigration.

Damian Green, Shadow Minister for Immigration, was rightly highlighting the latest scandal to hit the Home Office when Lyn Brown, Labour MP for West Ham said,

"Could the hon. Gentleman let me know whether he is going to debate immigration today? If he is, I am happy to stay and listen; if he is not, I have letters to sign."

Two things struck me. Firstly does she ever write any letters or merely sign off other people's work. Secondly have her constituents put her in Parliament to sign letters or to represent their views on the important matters of the day.

This was the news that up to 5000 people working in high-profile security positions may be illegal immigrants and the fact that Jacqui Smith, Secretary of State promptly ordered her civil servants to cover up the story.

Seb Coe Explodes at Cost of Olympics

This photo courtesy of the Press Association shows the fire near the Olympic site as shown from Westminster Bridge. With the 2012 stadium costing a cool £496,000,000 to build, no-one would have been surprised to hear "It costs how much?" echoing around Stratford as smoke poured from Seb's ears.

Sutton Supporting Our Services

I met Peter Bruinvels at my second remembrance service today, who looks after the British Legion in Surrey and South London. He was pleased with the turnout at the Civic ceremony at the War Memorial in Cheam and the service in St Dunstan's Church. He informed me that the Borough of Sutton collected the second highest amount in his area, raising around £90,000 for our veterans.

This is a fantastic amount of money even if some of us do end up buying several poppies because we lose them or a BBC journalist forgets to return them:)

The Legion has run a very powerful campaign to push the government to honour the 'Military Covenant'. We ask the armed forces to protect our freedom and security by doing things that we just simply would never imagine doing. The government is being pressed to keep its end of the bargain by ensuring that they have the kit and manpower that they require, the family support and accommodation that they deserve, and the best medical care that we can give. This is something that I wholeheartedly back as I am sure that you do.

...And Tories Restore Tradition

BBC London picked up on the story about cutbacks in services ending the traditional marking of the 2 minute silence and put it as their main headline on Saturday evening. By the time ITV called the police whilst researching the story, they were told that the firing of two maroons at 11am and 11.02am would go ahead. Rumours that since they couldn't fire Sir Ian Blair, someone wanted to fire something were wide of the mark. Anyway, job done, sanity restored.

I went to the ceremony at the war memorial on Carshalton ponds this morning and joined around 250 people in paying tribute to those who enable us to have the freedoms that we enjoy today. This blog is one such freedom. I'll finish with a passage that was read by Father John Thewlis of All Saints Church, Carshalton who lead the ceremony. It is the Kohima Epitaph on the World War II memorial for the Allied fallen at the battle of Kohima, a crucial battle in the Burma campaign.

"When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say,
For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today."

Health & Safety ends Sutton Remembrance Tradition

The Evening Standard reported today of a sad end of a tradition in Sutton. In years past, Maroon rockets have been fired in local parks to signal the beginning and the end of the two minute silence on Rembrance Day. The loud fireworks were lit by members of the Sutton Parks Police, the unit that was axed earlier this year to cut Council costs. They have been replaced by a dedicated team from the Met Police who have claimed that they cannot use the maroons on Health & Safety grounds.

Coming a week after £20,000+ worth of fireworks were lit in Carshalton Park with hundreds of people watching close by, I am more than a little taken aback by this. You can see the whole article by clicking on the picture, but I'll just quote my colleague, Cllr. Barry Russell who said

"I don't know why we are pandering to the health and safety brigade on what is a very important day. The cost is absolutely negligible and I know of very few people who wouldn't say that this is the least we can do when you think about the price that our servicemen and women paid for us.

"I don't think the fact is widely known yet but when it is there are a lot of people who will be truly incensed. I can understand that the Met are concerned about health and safety at the moment but this is ridiculous."

Well, the fact is wider known now. Let me know how you feel.

I Couldn't Believe My Mince Pies

...when I read the list of most ridiculous laws as compiled by the Daily Mail. As we approach December, I'll have to remember to watch out for the Christmas sweetmeats police as I tuck into my dinner on the 25th.

Law abiding as I am, I do try to keep to the first law by not dying at work. This has its origins in the fact that Parliament is still classed as a royal palace. Anyone that is unfortunate enough to keel over in the Chamber or its environs will be reported as dying on the way to St Thomas' Hospital which is on the other side of Westminster Bridge.

Here's the list in full:-

1. It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament
2. It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British monarch upside-down
3. In Liverpool, it is illegal for a woman to be topless except as a clerk in a tropical fish store
4. Mince pies cannot be eaten on Christmas Day
5. In Scotland, if someone knocks on your door and requires the use of your toilet, you must let them enter
6. A pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants, including in a policeman's helmet
7. The head of any dead whale found on the British coast automatically becomes the property of the king, and the tail of the queen
8. It is illegal to avoid telling the tax man anything you do not want him to know, but legal not to tell him information you do not mind him knowing
9. It is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament in a suit of armour
10. In the city of York it is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow

Collateral Damage at the Home Office

I'm currently reading the Bumper Book of Government Waste 2008 by Matthew Elliot of the Taxpayers' Alliance and Dr Lee Rotherham. It's an excellent piece of research and amusing too (rare for a political tome) so forgive me if I quote a few sections over the next few days. Here's two about the Home Office:-

"Not that its job is always straightforward. It includes keeping a lookout for members of the 14th Waffen SS Division who are still knocking about, sixty years after the end of World War 2. Apparently, there are 1,450 former storm troopers on our streets. As a Home Office Minister explained, "The Metropolitan Police visited a sample of 13 former members in 2005 to ascertain any information about crimes against humanity but no such crimes were disclosed." You don't say."

"The Home Office is also, we understand, the lead department for tackling a number of designated gang units. However, due to Health and Safety risk assessments, members aren't allowed to actually go out and meet the gangs. They leave this to unpaid volunteers, who are deemed expendable."

No Deals in Smoke-Filled Rooms

The Libdems don't do deals in smoke-filled rooms. Mainly on the basis that the smoking ban ensures they have to think again. Last Monday, Sutton LibDems held a secretive group meeting to update their backbench councillors about the deep cuts to services that they

have planned. When we asked for a similar briefing, we were told that there was no such meeting. The master copy of the list of room bookings showed an entry to reserve the largest meeting room for a LibDem update with an additional instruction not to put this up on the screen by the front door of the Civic Offices with details of the other meetings of the day.

It is true that the Local Government Settlement given by the government, which makes up the largest portion of the Council's income is poor. The Chancellor announced a 1% real terms increase in an already low settlement and yet expected Council Tax increases to be minimal. With the spending restrictions that he places on the grants given, he is living on another planet if he truly believes that is feasible. This having been said, Sutton Council's budget has scope for restructuring to cut waste and inefficient spending before even looking at changes to primary services. Years of self-congratulation about how well the LibDems have managed the accounts in better times precludes them from admitting that they haven't got things right in those comparative years of plenty.

If there are to be significant cuts, we should all be told as soon as possible. We can't go on with the usual dance each year, when the LibDems drip feed a few dramatic figures at this of year only to "save the day" in the Spring. Last year we suffered the second highest Council Tax in London. The previous year, only a last minute climbdown by the ruling group avoided capping. What'll happen this year? Who knows? One thing for sure, it won't be pretty.