Sunday, January 28, 2007

Building Stanley Park for the Future

On Saturday I attended the third and last consultation session where the three remaining potential sites for the rebuilt school were open for discussion.

As well as Education Spokesman for the Conservatives, I am a Governor at the school and part of the project team so have a vested interest in the success of the rebuild.

The three sites are Orchard Hill, Stanley Road allotments and the existing site. There are pros and cons with each site. These need to be taken into consideration before picking a site to follow up.

The Government have given us £23m for a once in a lifetime opportunity to rebuild the school. Stanley Park High School has had a rotten reputation for the last couple of decades but David Taylor, the current head has brought the school on leaps and bounds with a vastly improved ethos and better results to match. There is still a long way to go and this relaunch will be a massive boost to teachers, pupils and parents alike.

Rather than writing an essay, I'll try to come back and add my thoughts about the three sites over the next few days.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Carshalton Feels the Force of the Gales

Though the London Plane tree next to the Ecology Centre may have survived the battering over the last week, other trees and as a result cars, did not fare so well.

Last Thursday as well as the incredibly poignant funeral service of Jo Pollock, high winds brought a tree down in Carshalton Place flattening two cars and narrowly missing two people.

This week Carshalton Park took some damage but another tree fell onto the road opposite the old Texaco Petrol station resulting in someone having to be cut out of their car.

My colleague, Tim Crowley who was travelling through the ward yesterday spoke to Environmental Services. The trees appeared to be maintained but such wet windy conditions made the accidents unavoidable.

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Philippa Stroud joins the battle for Sutton

After a marathon session lasting all of Saturday, Philippa Stroud was chosen by Sutton & Cheam Conservatives to fight Paul Burstow to become the next MP for the constituency.

Philippa beat a very strong field and I look forward to working with her to ensure her victory whenever the election is called. Her role as head of the think tank "Centre for Social Justice" will bring new ideas to the constituency and I am sure that residents of Sutton will be able identify with her, the down-to-earth approach that she has and the principles that she shares with my colleagues.

Josephine Pollock

I have spent what should have been a positive day helping to choose the next Parliamentary Candidate for Sutton & Cheam. I was dragged back into a dreadful sense of reality on the awful news that the wife of Hamish Pollock, Jo died on Thursday.

Hamish is a LibDem opponent but party politics melt away on such occasions. Jo was 43 44 and left behind 2 children as well as a hardworking, long suffering husband. My heart goes out to Hamish and family.

Update: My apologies, I got the age wrong. See comments.