Green Garden Waste 4 - LibDem Joins Our Call

A senior LibDem councillor has broken party ranks and attacked the Council for wasting money on waste collection. Paddy Kane, chairman of the scrutiny committee that investigates waste collection services was moved to contact the local newspapers when he discovered that a 40-tonne dustcart (similar to the Sutton vehicle in the picture) had been sent on a 12-mile round trip to collect a single green garden waste bag, branding the move as 'absolutely frivoulous'.

Cllr Cliff Carter called the Council last Saturday to inform them of a resident who had paid the unpopular £35 green garden waste charge and whose bag had not been collected from the front of her house. The Council had promised on two occasions to collect the bag but did not until Cliff's intervention.

Instead of using one of the Waste Management Service small vans that are often seen driving around the borough, a massive truck was driven to the resident's house in Aultone Way from the depot in Beddington Lane despite the fact that the dump in Kimpton Road is only eight minutes away. Cliff told the Advertiser "If you pay for a service you expect to get results, but there's no reason at all why they should send out a large lorry."

The LibDems are split on their view on the unpopular £35 charge with some favouring a lower £10 charge and others supporting our position for a reversal of the decision. I'm pleased that Cllr Kane has put his head above the parapet in attacking the endemic waste of his party's administration saying "This is gross misuse of council resources. Sending a 40-tonne truck for one bag of garden waste is not environmentally friendly. It's absolutely frivoulous." I hope that this is the first of many interventions from the committee which looks at value for money in waste management, transport, planning, roads, parks, libraries and sport. I'm sure that if he continues to scratch the surface, he will find plenty more examples.

Green Garden Waste 2 - MPs Blame Share Fails

Both local LibDem MPs have been making mischief in their attempt to divert attention from their Councillor colleagues almighty blunder in introducing the unpopular £35 green garden waste charge.

In correspondence from Carshalton & Wallington MP Tom Brake and a newsletter from Sutton & Cheam MP Paul Burstow, they strongly suggest that the unjustified extra cost was implemented with cross-party support. Neither expressed an opinion as to where they stood on the issue. (I wonder if either have bought a bag themselves.)

In fact, two of my colleagues, John Kennedy and Graham Whitham predicted much of what has transpired when expressing their opposition to the way that green garden waste has been handled. We are fully supportive of the aim of the overall scheme which is to minimise the amount of waste that goes to landfill. The Council will face punitive fines if action is not taken which could make recent Council Tax increases look paltry in comparison. So, we do need to take action now. Stopping the collection of black bags sitting alongside the wheelie bins is an inconvenience that we have to accept.

Garden waste doesn't go to landfill. Encouraging people to compost more at home is an excellent idea but is not a panacea. A bin full of grass clippings will become very smelly and sludge-filled. There is a knack to effective composting that most people (including me) will not be fully aware of. The £35 per bag charge seemed to appear from nowhere rather than as a result of detailed modelling and research. The communication of the changes has been woefully inadequate. The charge is supposed to cover the new kerbside glass collection. However with only 3000 bags sold at the last count, there will be a big hole in the figures. This will be exacerbated by the need to open a new facility at Beddington Lane for residents to take their own garden waste. This is costing the Council about £5000 per week. We have called for the scheme to be halted whilst the Council go back to the drawing board and consult residents.

It's The Car Or Nothing

A story in the Sutton Guardian this week illustrates everything that is wrong with the green garden waste scheme as it is currently constituted.

Mr Burton from North Cheam doesn't have a car and so walked about a mile pushing his wheelbarrow filled with green garden waste to the dump in Kimpton Road. He queued up with the cars, showed his council tax bill to prove that he was a resident and was turned away because it was too dangerous not being in a car.

He told the Guardian "As a non-car user, I decided to cart my rubbish along in my garden wheelbarrow, but was met by a surly jobsworth, who said it was against procedures. Living in supposedly one of the most environmentally-friendly boroughs in London, I find this set-up is a total farce."

I'll write again on the garden waste as a whole but this is just one of a number of issues that have not been addressed before implementing this scheme. Meanwhile a centre at Beddington Lane has been opened for residents to take their garden waste for composting at a cost of some £5000 per week. Make sure that you are up to date with all of the changes by going to the Council website .

Reaching The Fly-Tipping Point

The row surrounding the unpopular £35 green garden waste charge rumbles on with the next stage predicted by the Conservatives back when the charge was first approved. Almost one case of flytipping a day has been reported to the Council as a result of this charge.

Cllr Tony Shields spent forty minutes on a whistlestop tour of the Borough and spotted a further ten cases where the old plastic bags had been left on verges and along streets. This is despite the new scheme having been in place for a month. Tony told the Sutton Guardian

"You don’t have to be Sir Alan Sugar to work out this scheme just isn’t working. Since the plan was introduced, there’s been 20 reported instances of garden waste being fly-tipped. Just driving round Sutton for 40 minutes showed me that there are plenty more bags being dumped.

"It demonstrates the hacked-off public’s refusal to pay £35 per bag and an unwillingness to queue outside the Kimpton dump in the sweltering heat for nearly an hour – neither of which I would call fun. This is a total Lib Dem cock-up and the taxpayer is funding the cost of fly-tip collection."

Shadow Waste Spokesman John Kennedy added,

"There’s obviously going to be a large cost involved if the council diligently picks up all the flytipped waste. Who knows whether or not they have the necessary fleet get it all done. The carbon footprint impact will be huge, not to mention the time it takes to pick it all up.”

He said Liberal Democrat councillors only had themselves to blame. “We warned them from the outset that this would happen. In the warm weather, not only is fly tipping an environmental hazard, it’s also unsightly.”

LibDem spokesman Colin Hall has dismissed the charge saying that Sutton has one of the lowest rates of flytipping and that garden waste made up 5% of all flytipped waste in June. A back of an envelope calculation would suggest that according to his figures there were 100 incidents in a single month of illegally dumped waste. If this is right, it can't be dismissed that easily. What is he doing to address this costly and unsightly problem?

I am glad that he has finally relented and decided to consult residents six months after introducing the policy. Not so much Consult, Consider, Ignore but Ignore, Consider, Consult. Residents that are against the charge need to make their voices heard clearly in this period.

Green Garden Waste 3 - LibDem Racket on Bag Sizes

Residents are dismayed at having to pay the unpopular £35 green garden waste charge and are then fuming when they see that the green jute bag is nowhere near the size of the old clear plastic bags. The LibDems seem to be taking "Mars Bar" economics to a new height, charging more for less.

Seizing advantage of the nearby Sutton Tennis and Squash Club, Cllr Tony Shields decided to research these concerns in a scientific way that would make New Scientist readers proud; by filling both bags with tennis balls and counting the difference.

The capacity of the old bag beat the new one game, set and match with the scores

• Old bag 522 balls



• New bag 270 balls

This is a difference of nearly 50%. Tony's able assistant in the picture, South Sutton resident John Turner told Tony "This scheme hasn't been properly explained. As a resident, I want to recycle and cut waste but the size of this new bag is a load of balls." Defending the size of the bags, we were told that it was an industry standard size. Interesting, but isn't that an answer to another question? I'm not sure if many residents will take succour in knowing that their bags comply to an industry regulation. To cap it all, during the experiment, the handle fell off.

Garden Waste 1 - Direct Action from Eric

The unpopular green garden waste collection charge has been covered at length in the local newspapers. In eight days, a group of councillors are meeting along with officers to review the scheme. My Conservative colleagues will continue to oppose the £35 charge.

In the meantime, Eric extended a helping hand to an 80 year old resident who could not afford to buy a bag and was physically unable to take the garden waste to the dump. The resident from Oxford Road contacted Eric in desperation. He visited her the next day and resolved to take the bag himself in the back of his car. After 20 minutes queuing at the Kimpton, he was finally able to get rid of the cuttings.

Eric said, "The LibDem Council really don't care about who are hit by this charge, like the elderly widow in my ward. As a Conservative I believe minimising waste is a priority but this charge really is hitting vulnerable people hard. I support the call for an urgent rethink on this policy."

He concluded, "The dump was chock-a-block with cars waiting to get into the dump. If it was that bad on a Tuesday morning, I shudder to think what it was like over the weekend."

One Rule for us... episode 27

Last week, the Lead Councillor for the Environment told us all via the Sutton Guardian that Sutton had the fourth lowest fly-tipping problem in London but fly-tippers were punished most severely.

On the day of publication of that issue, Cllr Tim Crowley inspected this pile of garden waste that a resident had seen dumped by a vehicle bearing the Council tree logo next to Corrigan Rec in the Clockhouse Estate. On reporting the fact that on at least two succesive Thursdays this pile had been added to, he was told variously that it was due to an attempt to save petrol and that it should not have happened and an investigation would be started. It was collected on Sunday by 7 men, 1 tractor and 2 pick-ups.

Despite this, the Lead Councillor for the Environment calmly explained to a public meeting on Wednesday that included Clockhouse residents that it was normal practice to dump the cuttings from Corrigan Rec and then pick it up the next day. This statement came shortly after he responded to a question from Clockhouse residents asking him how they should deal with green garden waste as there was no collection point within several miles of the Estate, by telling them to drive to Kimpton Road (17 mile round trip) or Beddington Lane (11.8 mile round trip).

So... Councillor tells people that they will be in real trouble if they fly-tip whilst the service that he is responsible for is fly-tipping; councillor tells Clockhouse residents to travel across South London to get rid of their rubbish, whilst council waste is tipped in a nearby field. Imagine what your neighbour would say if you chucked your waste across the fence. Have a look at what the Council Leader of Banstead and Reigate found out that the field near Hatch Lane was in fact, not in the Borough of Sutton at all.

Slam On The Brakes

Last month Carshalton & Wallington MP, Tom Brake and his colleagues waved in a European Directive which tackled unfair trading. One of the proscribed activities was the selective quoting of reviews for theatre advertising. A recent Guys and Dolls revival was described as 'hilarious' despite the whole quote explaining that 'the original fifties musical was hilarious whereas the new production falls somewhat flat'.

The theatre owner would face jail if he tried that now. No such penalty for Tom Brake after his own distortion of the facts. He has been caught out for the second time by local residents trying to spin his colleagues out of the mess that they are in over the unpopular £35 green garden waste charge.

He has written to a constituent in response to a complaint about the charge, claiming that the Conservatives were in favour of the charge and ascribing Conservative spokesman, John Kennedy with the quote "The environmental charges that now face us go beyond party politics. Both main political parties have, for the first time, worked jointly on a borough policy." and added "The new strategy gives us a framework for reducing the impact of the waste we produce at home."

I don't remember if this was word for word accurate. The sentiment is correct. We have worked together to formulate a waste minimisation strategy that will reduce the amount that goes to landfill. However there have been two areas that we have consistently disagreed with the LibDems on. The unpopular £35 is one. We are also concerned about the role of the waste awareness officers that have been recruited as we are opposed to any suggestion of the introduction of 'bin police.' Cllr Kennedy has made this clear to the Council Executive and even to Tom Brake himself in a letter dated 17th May. Despite this, Tom Brake is persisting on encouraging the contrary view in a letter to another constituent dated 26th June.

I'm surprised that he seeks to quote a Conservative councillor to give him credibility rather than his own spokesman. I am less surprised that he has consistently failed to offer a view on the charge himself. Still if that is how he sees fit to conduct himself in his last two years as an MP he is unlikely to be surprised at the verdict given via the ballot box.

Restore Public Confidence in Council Services

I sometimes get the feeling that Sutton Council works despite councillors rather than because of them. The 3,500 people that work for the local authority deserve credit for their achievments. Sutton had a reputation for environmental initiatives. The LibDems scored a few hits in this regard despite some failures such as the £250k gas powered dustcarts that didn't work and the photo of dustmen emptying brown and green wheelie bins into the same lorry, which undermined their appeal to get people to do their bit. The introduction of fortnightly collections of the brown bins was perhaps the low tide mark that the Council needed to judge its actions by.

I'm afraid the water is well out at the moment following the introduction of the unpopular £35 per bag green garden waste. Conservatives working on the overall waste minimisation strategy warned that the charge was unjustified and required clear communication with residents if it was to be taken up. It is only now, five months after the Executive agreed to the charge that they are consulting with residents. Residents have been left with the idea at various times that the £35 charge was for as many bags as required, that the Conservatives agreed with the policy and that paying the charge would allow them to throw away as much as before until they saw the tiny green jute bags. 5000 bags have been bought to date despite the Council obtaining 38,000 bags in the expectation of them flying off the shelves. A second amenity point has had to be opened on the weekend in Beddington Lane to take the pressure of the dump at Kimpton Road, costing £5,000 per week. Despite this move, residents still face queues of up to an hour at the Kimpton dump.

The Council have had the Audit Commission in for the last fortnight or so, going through everything with a fine toothcomb for what is known as the corporate assessment. Every controversial decision has been kicked into touch until September when the inspectors will have written up their report, so we end up in the position of a consultation with a limited number of residents that will last the summer, when people need the collection service most.

We have reached the point when I hope that the Lead Councillor for the Environment, e-government and Efficiency will pass on the reins of power to someone else who can restore public confidence in this service. I have written about problems with parking services and the introduction of free laptops for councillors both of which come under his remit but it is the unpopular £35 charge and in particular the way in which it has been handled which brings me to propose a vote of no confidence at the next Council meeting on 21st July. On a number of occasions, officers have been made scapegoats and paid with their livelihoods. I hope in this instance, the person in charge of the policy takes responsibility and makes a principled resignation.

The Long Journey To Kimpton

I'll write separately about last week's full council meeting where Colin Hall survived my call for his resignation via a no-confidence motion. Although he has now gone away for four weeks, the fallout from the unpopular £35 green garden waste charge continues.

The Council bought 38,000 bags. However as of the 24th, only 4,466 had been sold to 3,864 households. That's a lot of little jute bags hanging around in store. Some people have told me that they bought one reluctantly feeling that they had no choice. Others, like the constituent mentioned in the video, simply cannot or will not buy the bags. Tim Crowley got rid of some bags of rubbish for one of his constituents. She had four composters in her garden so she cannot be accused of failing to do her bit.

We know that the policy will change in September following a 'consultation'. The retreat is being carefully stage-managed throughout six weeks of summer when people are doing a lot of gardening.

LibDems Can't Even U-Turn With Grace

The unpopular £35 green garden waste policy is coming to a welcome but slow and very shabby end. On Friday a cross-party committee will meet to consider the results of the consultation with residents about the changes to waste collection. This involved several meetings of varying worth and polling 1000 residents as I have written about previously. The results are overdue as I write, having been earmarked for publication yesterday.

As usual, the LibDem Executive have not bothered to wait or have an advanced copy. Last Friday, they held a group meeting with the two MPs in attendance and agreed to the expected u-turn. Having agreed to scrap the charge, the two MPs issued a press release demanding that the Council, er, scrap the charge.

The whole episode has been a shambles from beginning to end. I am amazed that they have not learnt any lessons and still seek to treat consultation with such disdain. They have come up with the right answer in this instance but this is not because of the expensive communication exercise that they have just undertaken. This was merely a way of justifying the climbdown. Either they have sat on an advanced copy of the results and are refusing to let others seat it or they have decided without considering residents' views.

LibDem backbenchers are seeing their future on the council melting away in the light of this incompetence. I hope that you as residents share my anger that you are just a pawn in the LibDem hierarchy's game of political survival. I'm afraid that you have another 18 months of being treated as someone whose chequebook should be seen, but definitely not heard.

Shadow Environment Secretary Visits Carshalton

Peter Ainsworth MP came to Carshalton & Wallington yesterday to see the effects of the unpopular green garden waste charge. The 4000-strong petition compiled by Conservative Parliamentary candidate Ken Andrew certainly demonstrated the depth of feeling amongst residents.

Peter is the Shadow Secretary for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - not many ministries have snappy titles- and so has a strangely diverse portfolio from Climate Change to nuclear waste, Foot and Mouth to fishing.

In a Question and Answer session, Peter told us that that the Lisbon Treaty was a dead treaty having failed to be ratified by Ireland. He explained that aviation emissions need to be looked at in the context of Heathrow expansion as it is one of the fastest growing sources. He also supported carbon capture in the North Sea as a mitigation for emissions caused by energy generation. Peter was in a buoyant mood despite arriving on a crutch due to a sporting injury, optimistic about the future of the party and looking forward to serving the country in Government.

Green Garden Waste Policy Doesn't Count For Some

A couple of weeks ago, an eagle-eyed resident from Clockhouse saw a truck emblazoned with the Sutton tree logo tipping cuttings onto an overgrown area near Corrigan Rec. He took a photo of the truck as it left and reported it at a residents' meeting attended by Cllr Tim Crowley. Further investigation showed that this wasn't the first time that this had happened and that the rubbish was being dumped over the borough boundary into Banstead & Reigate.

It is not acceptable that we are lectured on fly tipping when the Council takes a different line for its own actions. Although we were told that there was nothing to worry about, the waste was hurriedly cleared up by several employees and a couple of tractors on a Sunday, presumably at double pay. Whilst the political administration continue to attempt to 'contain' the issue, Council officers seem to taken action, holding their hands up and started an investigation to ensure it doesn't happen again.

Don't Just Hope For A Better Sutton

The news is all about the final stages of the closest General Election for a generation but there is another crucial decision for residents in Sutton to make this Thursday. Council elections mean that we also get to vote for our three local councillors and ultimately, who runs the Council.

After 24 years of Liberal Democrat control, the ruling party have become a tired, complacent administration, forgetting why they sought election in the first place. We need fresh thinking in Sutton. The difficult economic times will bring tough decisions and we will need strong leadership to protect key council services.

Sutton Conservatives have spent 3 years researching their 100 pledge manifesto. Our collective experience in running small businesses, employing people and working at the highest level in public services allows us to tackle this situation head-on, bringing new angles to problem solving and steering us all through difficult times.

We cannot reward years of taking residents for granted. The green garden waste charge cost us all £800,000 to reverse, the Sutton Life Centre is sucking up the equivalent of 10% of the entire annual Adult Social Services budget for the Borough to build and the repaving of Sutton High Street is costing us the same as four years' worth of road resurfacing.

I don't know about you but I'm simply not rich enough to afford the Liberal Democrats here in Sutton. Don't just hope for a better Sutton on Thursday - join me in voting for it.

LibDems written off as Pressure Group by supporters

Another excellent bit of work by the author of one of my favourite blogs, Beau Bo D'or provides the pictures for a post about this week's poll in the Times which may have escaped you.

As the LibDems were talking to themselves in Bournemouth this week, the Populus poll for the Times found that nearly two thirds (65%) of the public believe Lib Dem policies make little difference since there is "no realistic chance" of ever putting them in practice as a government.

What struck me most about this was that 37% of LibDem supporters believed this as well. I know that some people join political parties for the warm white wine, but surely people will only go pounding the streets, knocking on doors and delivering leaflets if there is hope at the end rather than traipsing up a never-ending staircase like an Escher monk. There again, maybe they're not which would explain why they have sunk to 12% in the polls.

Some are still manfully carrying on. Tom Brake MP will be in our ward of Carshalton Central a week on Monday. I hope that you will all ask him when he first called for the green garden waste to be scrapped. You may want to compare his attack on the Government for their lax approach to data with his breach of House of Commons advice on data protection.

But How Much Does It Cost To Listen?

Sutton Council made it to the venerable pages of Private Eye, in the Rotten Boroughs section as a result of changes in their communications department. The service was outsourced to Westminster Communications after they had been brought in to write a report on the in-house provision. LibDem Lead Councillor Tony Brett Young said at the time that the new arrangement would not cost 'more than we spend at the moment.' In fact, according to the magazine, costs have increased by around 51% from £379k to a massive £573,600.

I am not an advocate for slashing communication budgets. It is important that residents do know the good things that the Council does. The Council also needs to act as a central repository of information and to share bad news. Many people are unsure how to access council services, or indeed do not know much about what their council do, despite paying through the nose for the privilege.

The biggest failure of this Council with regard to communications is understanding that it is a two-way process. Whereas there will always be messages that the Council wishes to get across, it is even more important to be able to receive, digest and act upon messages that members of the public want to pass on. After all, the Council is only an extension of the residents in Sutton, acting as the provider of collective services paid for by them, when it is most convenient to have a community-based service rather than everyone fending for themselves. Imagine the number of dustcarts that would be driving around if it was a free-for-all.

The unpopular green garden waste charge is but one illustration of this failure. Logic dictates that the Council should consult before introducing a policy, not six months into the service. The LibDem Executive knew that it would be an unpopular policy, therefore they knew that they wouldn't like the answer that was likely to come back. This was failure no. 1. Secondly, they did not clearly articulate the changes. Many people were not aware of the changes until their old clear bags were left uncollected. Others were not aware that the £35 was per bag and not the total charge. Few people knew that the £35 got them a bag that was half the size of the original.

Finally, the consultation that has just ended was strictly controlled to exclude debate. Colin Hall made the mistake of walking into the Carshalton Local Committee where an open Q&A session raised some interesting points, with some shall we say animated residents. None of the other Local Committees allowed this, instead having Colin Hall and or officers standing to the side whilst residents quietly filled in a form. The communications team contacted 1000 residents to gain the views of a statistically relevant sample, which is to be commended. Unfortunately, the LibDems held a meeting on Friday night, before the cross-party group charged to suggest changes had seen the results. Therefore, either the decision has been made behind closed doors without worrying about what residents actually said, or the results are back and are being 'analysed' before general release. Either way, it's not the transparent U-turn that we might have been expecting after the grief that the LibDems got for making the original decision in such an intransigent fashion. The cross-party meeting is next Friday, so we won't have long to wait.

Sutton Life Centre Forced Through

Full Council last Monday turned out to be the usual bunfight but confirmed that meetings of all 54 councillors have as much influence on council decisions as Gordon Brown does on his facial muscles.

Two main items were discussed, the future of leisure provision, where the LibDems confirmed that Cheam Baths would close by 2015 and the controversial £8.5million Sutton Life Centre. Councillor Tim Crowley, Conservative Spokesman for Finance & Value for Money requested more financial details the previous Wednesday having discovered that contractors were due to start on site, the day after the decision to build was made. What was the point of pretending to make a decision when it was clear that it had already been taken. We were told that even delaying the decision may lead to Sutton Council having to pay financial penalties to the contractors. The requested information was supplied to me and Cllr Crowley at 4.10pm, less than three hours before the start of the meeting. 52 councillors had to vote on whether to spend £8.5million (astoundingly, the equivalent of 10% of all of the Council Tax raised in the Borough), without full details of the consequences of their actions.

After a 20 minute stand-off, the LibDems forced through a vote to debate the issue, without full disclosure to all councillors. Conservative councillors questioned the need for the Centre in the first place, but majored on the fact that we didn't actually have the money to build the place, instead relying on diverting money from the reserves and schools repairs budget amongst other smash and grab raids to cover the costs. It is clear that this is another case of the LibDems spending money to justify their existence. Residents were up in arms when they were asked to pay £35 for green garden waste bags. Well, guess what, you've just had your pocket picked of £44 each for a project that many will not use. Only one LibDem councillor even bothered to mention finance in the debate.

Yes, but we'll be getting spanking new community facilities won't we? - Undoubtedly; a new library that is smaller than the one that it is replacing, youth facilities to replace the youth club that was flattened to make way for the centre, a climbing wall that is more expensive that privately-run "Craggy Island" at Oaks Park and the multimedia area to teach citizenship at three times the price of the existing facilities at nearby Sutton Junior Tennis Centre. Even Vince Cable has been to Sutton to tell us that we are in the middle of the worst recession since Sean Connery found a few hairs on his pillow. However, we seem to be splashing out residents' cash whilst they are cutting back for fear of losing their jobs. The LibDems used their majority to push the thing through, supporting it to a man. The builders are on site. Work has started on the mausoleum to the LibDem's reign in Sutton.

Council's Winter Cuts Add To Icy Chaos

Angry residents have been hitting the phones this week with complaints to the Council reaching levels last seen when a £35 per bag charge was slapped on green garden waste collections. When the first snow arrived this week, the main roads were navigable as the gritting teams had enough warning to cover the ground. Side roads were a mixed bag.

Tuesday saw rain which had cleared much of the snow, suddenly freeze after a rapid drop in temperature. This caused chaos across the Borough with the main east-west A232 at a total standstill. People reported 2 hour journeys to get from Cheam to Carshalton. Side roads were treacherous.

Now, no gritting effort is going to remove every flake of snow and trace of ice from the highways but people have got every right to be angry when the short-sighted LibDem administration slashed the winter road maintenance budget by £20,000 AFTER last February's snowfall which had a bigger effect than Copenhagen on people's driving habits, as shown in the photo. This cut was made as £16,000 of taxpayers' cash was spent on upgrading the air conditioning in the Council leader's office.

A mere ten months later, snow returns, everywhere grinds to a halt. The gritting team have been working hard throughout. Theirs is a thankless task, working around the clock to cope and keep us moving but there is more that we can do. There are plenty of residents who would be prepared to help grit their pavements. How many grit bins would £20,000 have paid for. Whether emergency bins are put out when the warnings come or permanent ones are opened ahead of the snowfall, I don't know. However if we are to trust people more rather than run everything from the warm and climate-controlled Council office, then we should help people to help themselves as well. Alternatively the LibDems could watch the roads freeze whilst they freeze the Council Tax just ahead of a difficult election campaign. Oh wait...!

Reporting Back From The Bimonthly Bunfight

Last Monday saw another knockabout Council meeting. We discussed serious issues; the Icelandic bank deposits, SEN transport, how the Council communicates with local residents amongst others. However, there is no decision making and it was apparent that the LibDems are too busy looking forward to elections in 18 months time to address the issues head on. Instead we were treated to some political grandstanding that bore little relation to the matters at hand. I guess this is what happens when a small number of LibDem councillors keep the decision making in their own hands, barely bothering to throw any scraps to their backbench colleagues. Their view is that by spending a few thousand on no smoking signs in Beddington playgrounds, residents will forgive them for the half a million wasted on the green garden waste fiasco and the inflation busting increases in council tax that they rely on us not noticing buried deep in our bank statements each month.

The video covers the salient points. One of the questions asked that I didn't cover was about the Heritage lamp posts in Cheam with a LibDem councillor blaming Boris Johnson personally for the threat to their future. This did not take into account Boris' personal attention to the matter after Steve O'Connell, local Conservative GLA member asked him a question in Mayor's Question Time on my request. A conversation with people in Boris' office opened up a new dialogue with the Council which looks like resulting in a satisfactory outcome for Carshalton and Cheam who are both affected by the same problem. Meanwhile, the Sutton LibDem MP has had his photo taken waving a petition that is yet to surface beneath a Cheam lamp. As a resident who wants to see Sutton change for the better, I'll take action over showboating and empty promises any day.

Help Residents - Freeze the Tax

Conservative Finance Spokesman, Cllr Tim Crowley and I wrote an open letter to the LibDem leader of Sutton Council which was included in today's Sutton Guardian. We have asked him to use his power to do more for residents in this economic climate and freeze Council Tax this year.

You can see more and comment on the budget via the website www.freezethetax.org.uk. The response given at yesterday's Executive meeting from the LibDem spokesman, is that the Council's £11m that is squirreled away is better used to prop up their ailing capital programme. This will be the same councillor who is overseeing the building of the Sutton Life Centre, a place to teach young people "how to tackle life issues". The Council is putting in £4m whilst not being able to provide details of exactly how the building is going to generate the income to keep it open.

Text of the letter:-

Dear Councillor Brennan,

As the man in charge of Sutton Council, you know how much it costs to provide services
to residents. The economic downturn is hitting Sutton residents hard, particularly the
vulnerable. As Leader you have the power to make people’s lives better. Other London
Councils have done so. This is why the Conservatives feel you should use your power to
freeze council tax for 2009/10.

Regrettably, under your leadership, council tax in Sutton has never stopped going up. A
few years ago you even put it up by a staggering 15%! Conservative research has
uncovered £11million of taxpayers' money sitting in council coffers. We think it right to
keep cash aside for a 'rainy day', but we have to ask: have you looked out the window
lately? It's pouring!

Throughout 2008, you managed to find money to force through the unpopular green
garden waste policy before scrapping it and to find £4million to build the ‘Sutton Life
Centre’ without the funding to keep it running! Not to forget the £5.5m which is still
frozen in Iceland. As residents are forced to tighten their belts, why aren’t you doing the
same?

A Conservative government will make it possible for councils to freeze council tax for
two years, to leave more money in people’s pockets during a time of economic hardship.
In The Evening Standard you immediately trashed this proposal calling a below-inflation
increase "a quick fix now with years of misery to follow" and that "this could only be
achieved by cutting vital services". Is this still your view? In contrast, we know that value
for money and excellent services can go hand-in-hand.

Tellingly, you have stayed silent as Boris Johnson delivers on his pledge not to take a
penny more from London taxpayers, in his first year as Mayor of London.

As local Conservatives, our challenge to you is to make a real difference this year. Freeze
the council tax. Local people’s jobs, savings and mortgages are at risk in this economic
crisis. Don’t push them over the edge.

As Council Leader, you have the power and the money to make a difference. So why
don't you?