Emissions Policy Leaves Councillors Fuming

On Tuesday night I sat on the Scrutiny & Overview Committee that looked at a proposal to bring emissions-based parking charges to Sutton. I wrote about this when Richmond introduced a similar scheme in 2006. Fortunately after more than two hours, the committee saw sense and killed off any thoughts about such a plan.

It has been calculated that 1.69% of Richmond's total CO2 emissions come from cars with a parking permit yet they are unduly penalised. Here, residents in Cheam, Belmont, St Helier and Wallington could pollute as much as they wanted to. Similarly anyone in a controlled parking zone with off-street parking would not be affected. Amazingly, as the controlled hours are during the day, anyone who drives their car to work every day would be free to do so with no penalty as they would not need a permit. The only ones who would have to pay would be people whose cars were parked up, not emitting a single cough of CO2. A back of the envelope calculation showed that only 3.5% of cars in Sutton would have to pay this cost on the back of everyone's pollution.

Everyone at the committee takes the responsibility of reducing emissions seriously but this smacked of doing something because we need to be seen to act rather than an effective move. We were not allowed to question Colin Hall, the Lead Councillor who commissioned the report. Members of the committee were perplexed when Cllr Roger Roberts, the chairman of the committee took it upon himself to explain to officers what the recommendation of the committee should be without letting members have their say. Despite widespread antipathy to the fundamental idea of such charging, he proposed that the Council Officer went away and spent more time redrafting the report. Fortunately, he was slapped down as was the report.

It wasn't quite the end of the fun as the Chairman managed to push through two discussion papers without allowing any discussion. The Council is undergoing a corporate assessment at the moment which is much like an OFSTED inspection in a school when assessors look at absolutely everything and appear everywhere. The chief assessor sat in on this meeting. We are currently a four star rated Council. Last night I could see one of those stars tiptoeing its way to the door.

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 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.

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.

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."

David Davis Standing for Our Freedom

I joined the many Conservatives that would have been watching the news at 1pm with an open mouth as we slowly took in the fact that David Davis had resigned his seat in order to fight the subsequent by-election on the single issue of 42 days detention. I'm still a bit too shell-shocked to figure out if it was a good move or not. What I am sure about is he has my absolute support on the issue of detention without charge.

Polls suggest that people support 42 days detention by two to one. Some of the comments on my blog and many on other websites clearly show that the Government have failed to put across exactly what this insidious piece of legislation actually means for ordinary people in the UK. If you asked me if I would put terrorists in prison without charge for 42 days, I would say yes without hesitation. However, this is not what we are talking about. If it is passed, people suspected of terrorism-related crime will be allowed to be held at the whim of the Home Secretary. Let's look at how other crime and anti-terrorist measures have been used in the UK by this Labour Government.

• Three men were extradited to the USA without any evidence being produced having been accused of a fraud against NatWest (not a USA company)
• CCTV cameras which were introduced to fight crime are now being used to issue parking tickets long after the car has moved.
• A lady was arrested for reading aloud a list of names in Trafalgar Square.
• An 82 year-old man was arrested for heckling Tony Blair.
• Compulsory ID cards may be introduced at a cost of £18bn; more than the Home Office spends in total on policing, immigration control and security each year.

In addition to this, Gordon Brown has the ability to ban public meetings, set up special courts and postpone elections thanks to the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. This legislation is already robust enough to give the police and judiciary the powers that they need to deal with complex terrorism inquiries. I am perplexed that at a time that trust in politicians is at an all-time low, people should allow the very same people to determine the future of a British citizen in this way.

You will see from the chart at the top of this post that no other western democracy feels the need to have such controls. Vladmir Putin must be green with envy that he can only hold people in the Lubyanka for a maximum of five days. At 28 days we are already double the limit of anyone bar dictatorships. Why does this Government feel that our police are not as capable as those in Spain who suffered in the Madrid bombings or the USA who face a more severe terrorist threat than we do?

There is no need for Al-Qaeda to commit another atrocity in the UK. They have acheived an important objective in changing the behaviour and attitude of the population in this country in a way that the IRA never could. I remember the stoic attitude of my work colleagues as we were evacuated onto Leicester Square only to hear the Surrey Tavern pub bomb explode 300 yards away. Now, in a blinkered attempt to play tough politics the government has given fuel to a small number of nutters ready to prey on susceptible kids ripe for radicalisation. I end where I started. Terrorists deserve the severest punishment and then some. Locking people up without charge rips up the Magna Carta, the premise of 'innocent until proven guilty', Habeas Corpus, however you want to describe it, no longer exists in this country. It may take a decade or two but this legislation will go the way of other anti-terrorism legislation and be extended quietly to cover other circumstances.

David Davis stated his case in a superb statement that I have reproduced in full below. If he is right in his view that the Parliament Act will be used to force this legislation through it will be the ultimate irony; using legislation meant for a completely different set of circumstances to push through controversial legislation for political expediency:-

"The name of my constituency is Haltemprice and Howden. Haltemprice is derived from the medieval proverb meaning 'noble endeavour'. Up until yesterday I took the view that what we did in the House of Commons representing our constituents was a noble endeavour because for centuries our forebears defended the freedoms of the British people – or we did, up until yesterday.

"This Sunday is the anniversary of the Magna Carta, the document that guarantees that most fundamental of British freedoms, habeas corpus, the right not to be imprisoned by the state without charge or reason. Yesterday this House decided to allow the state to lock up potentially innocent citizens for up to six weeks without charge.

"The counterterrorism bill will in all probability be rejected by the House of Lords very firmly. What should they be there for if not to defend the Magna Carta. But because the impetus behind this is essentially political not security the government will be tempted to use the Parliament Act to overrule the Lords. It has no democratic mandate to do this since 42 days was not in the manifesto. Its legal basis is uncertain to say the least. But purely for political reasons this government's going to do that.

"In truth 42 days is just one, perhaps the most salient example, of the insidious, surreptitious and relentless erosion of fundamental British freedoms.

"We will have shortly the most intrusive identity card system in the world. A CCTV camera for every 14 citizens, a DNA database bigger than any dictatorship has, with thousands of innocent children and a million innocent citizens on it. We've witnessed an assault on jury trials, that bulwark against bad law and its arbitrary abuse by the state, shortcuts for our justice system that make our justice system neither firm nor fair, and the creation of a database state, opening up our private lives to the prying eyes of official snoopers and exposing our personal data to careless civil servants and criminal hackers.

"The state has security powers to clamp down on peaceful protests and so-called hate laws which stifle debate, while those who serve violence get off scot-free. This cannot go on, it must be stopped and for that reason today I feel it is incumbent on me to take a stand.

"I will be resigning my membership of this House and I intend to force a by-election in Haltemprice and Howden. I will not fight it on the government's general record; there is no point repeating Crewe and Nantwich. I will fight it on my personal record. I am just a piece in this great chess game. I will fight it. I will argue this by-election against the slow strangulation of fundamental British freedoms by this government. That may mean I have made my last speech to the House, possible. And of course that would be a cause of deep regret to me. But at least my electorate and the nation as a whole would have had the opportunity to debate and consider one of the most fundamental issues of our day. The ever-intrusive power of the state into our lives, the loss of privacy, the loss of freedom If they do send me back here, it will be with a single, simple message. That the monstrosity of a law that we passed yesterday will not stand."

Myopia in Whitehall Causes Blindness across the UK

I have had to tackle a few cases at work in the past couple of years when constituents have been denied treatment because of the costs of the drugs that are required. Wet Age-Related Magular Degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in the UK with 20,000 sufferers. There is a drug that can help in restoring vision though it is not a full cure. Lucentis costs a fair whack though at £28,000 for a course of 14 injections.

The National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) have changed their mind about the drug, originally refusing to allow its use on the grounds of cost. However because of the bureaucratic way that drugs are licensed, final guidelines will not be published until the autumn. Some Primary Care Trusts have started prescibing Lucentis in anticipation. Others refuse. Some will prescribe it after you have gone blind in one eye. The universal health system has not existed in this country for many years except in the eyes of a few politicians. We have a postcode lottery.

In the light of this, I was concerned to read an article in the Sunday Times which explains how the Labour Government will not allow patients treatment on the NHS if they have paid for part of their treatment privately. One patient who had paid £9,500 for some drugs to combat their bowel cancer was billed £16,000 for previous treatment and was then denied treatment in her final months before she died.

Where else does the Government run such a policy? If people who have a Freedom Pass decide to take a taxi for a particular journey, does Ruth Kelly march round and tear up the concessionary travel pass? Does she take away your keys on the roadside when you come to the end of the toll section of the M6? What about children whose parents pay for private tutoring or extra books? Should you be denied the state pension because you work for a company that gives you a pension scheme?

The irony is that the NHS will treat addicts who have paid for drugs that make them ill, but will not treat people who just want to get better or have a better quality of life in their dying days.

Alan Johnson refuses to countenance change because he believes that it will lead to a two-tier health service. It is no accident that the National Health Service is the only one of its kind in the world. The longer that political dogma ensures that the 'jewel in the crown' is above real reform, the longer people will suffer without knowing why.

Young Obama Fan Lands The Knockout Blow

I'm straying just a touch away from Sutton politics in this post as Hillary Clinton finally gives up the ghost in seeking the Democratic Nomination. She has suspended her campaign rather than ended it. This will have something to do with the millions of dollars that her campaign is in debt despite having ploughed a lot of her own money in.

The unedifying spectacle of Clinton and Obama slugging it out has left McCain to go about his business campaigning in the important states. Can you believe this is only the end of round one? The election isn't even for another five months or so yet it seems to have gone on longer than one of Cllr Roberts' speeches.

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 .

Help write the Conservative Blueprint for Local Government

Sutton Conservatives' Policy Groups are cracking along looking at the very best ideas that are working in other Councils that may work here in Sutton. Nationally, the newly formed Conservative Council Innovation Unit are writing the 'bible' of best practice for local councils. This is instead of writing a national manifesto for local government. I am pleased that the Party is serious about localism; trusting local people to introduce and run the services for the place that they know the best.

The man charged with heading up this task is Stephen Greehalgh, the dynamic leader of Hammersmith & Fulham Council who has reduced Council Tax by 3% for two successive years as well as cutting council debt by £60m. During this time, satisfaction ratings with the Council have increased significantly. He is also on the panel that is undertaking an audit of City Hall for Boris. You can read more about Stephen's vision for the Conservative Council Innovation Unity on Conservative Home, here.

Honesty is the Best Policy

Sometimes it feels like Comical Ali has taken on the role that Alistair Campbell once filled. However, there was a gem of comical honesty at the end of Sunday's Politics Show for those watching. Mike Russell MSP, Environment Minister in the Scottish Parliament summed up a debate with a sudden bout of honesty that took some of his colleagues aback. The debate had the vacuous title of "Moving Scotland Forward."

He opened by saying,

"I find myself in some difficulty, because the opening sentences of my speaking notes say:
"This has been a very valuable and useful debate. I welcome the contributions and views that have been expressed".
I publicly dissociate myself from that opinion. This has not been a "valuable and useful debate." It is of some significance that not one member has declared an interest—because there has been no interest in the debate. Outside the chamber, there will be no interest in the debate. By insisting on holding this debate, Robert Brown has succeeded in wasting everybody's time."

There then followed this exchange:

"Those absent members knew that this afternoon's debate was pointless. It was a pointless occasion, and it was one of those occasions that do the Parliament no good whatever. Let us be ruthlessly honest about it: this was political theatre for those who are paid to be here. The debate had no other meaning."

"Will the Minister give way?"

"No, I will not give way. My intention is just to get through this. I just want to get through it and go home. Just understand that, all right?"

Unless someone was playing around with truth serum darts and a blowpipe in Holyrood last week, the Scottish Parliament certainly has a different atmosphere than Sutton Council meetings.

(Footnote: He did go on to lose the vote.)

Hooray for Tax Freedom Day

Today is the day that you and I start earning money for ourselves rather than the Government. Tax Freedom Day imagines that you pay off all of your annual tax bill up front, giving a stark illustration of exactly how much money is being thrown at this Government. Back in 1997, you would have started keeping your pennies on May 26th. As clear as this is, it is still muddled by Government obfuscation. If Government borrowing is taken into account, Tax Freedom day would fall much later on June 14th.


Stealth taxes make illustrations such as this all the more valuable. Have a look at the Adam Smith Institute website for more details.

Sutton and Gomorrah

The Sunday Telegraph had an interesting Sutton story in it yesterday. Instead of taking the Old Testament approach suggested in my title, a group of inter-denominational church-goers have got together to act as "Street Pastors" in Sutton High Street on a Friday and Saturday night.

Rather than preaching to them about the error of their ways as some may assume, they are there to 'do what it says on the tin' and offer pastoral assistance. Their bags contain flip-flops to help keep girls upright and thermal blankets for those hitting the chilly air whilst dressed up for a hot, sweaty club.

I have met a few of these Street Pastors in their day jobs and spoken to one pair whilst they were on duty - No, I wasn't in need of flip-flops or assistance:) - and I am pleased that they are there. We don't have enough police officers to cover the drinking holes in Sutton as well as the rest of the borough so initiatives like this should be encouraged. That is not to say that this should be to the exclusion of tackling those people whose night out turns to causing trouble and violence. Such a concentration of pubs and clubs at the top of Sutton may contain the situation in one area but it also makes it a no-go area for many.

Tragic Stabbing in Carshalton

I awoke to some horrific news this morning. Carshalton does not often hit the national news, let alone a breaking story. Two children aged 5 and 4 had died with a 6 month old seriously injured. A man and a woman in their thirties had been arrested at the scene.

If you haven't seen the news already, you can read the story on the Sutton Guardian website or on the BBC. I won't add to any speculation. The police are doing their job and journalists are doorstepping neighbours in Park Lane and Rotherfield Road. The truth will out.

What can I add? Precious little. Just a thought for the poor innocent children that have taken the full force of a twisted turn of events. Whatever can bring someone to the point that they can take a life is beyond me. A life that I have brought into this world; impossible.

When my son half-heard the headline of a stabbing in Carshalton he picked up the copy of last night's Evening Standard with a hard hitting front page about knife crime, sighing that it had been all for nothing. However, this type of tragic story cannot be legislated for and is difficult if not impossible to predict. It is a rarity that just happened to come to Carshalton for one mad moment. Knife crime as a whole still needs our urgent attention.

We will be asking whether the family were known to social services and so if staff were aware of any potential for problems. Apparently they had not long moved in. We will take stock, not jump to any conclusions but breathe a heavy sigh tonight.

Green Light For Boris Changes

Boris has started his Mayoral term at a canter. With sweeping changes in City Hall and initiatives to make good his election pledges of making our streets and transport safer and City Hall more accountable, he has built up quite a head of steam.

One announcement that was made today gathered little attention but will be welcomed by many. According to the Evening Standard, traffic lights are going to be rephased across the capital to ease congestion on busy roads. More cars will be allowed through on each green phase. Although this will mean a slightly longer wait for pedestrians, it will also allow them a longer crossing time which will improve safety.

Boris said, "I do want to make sure that traffic flows more smoothly in London. I think we can do that without any prejudice to the rights and needs of pedestrians or vulnerable road-users.

"I've discovered an appalling legacy of neglect of London's traffic lights and it turns out that, contrary to the so-called green credentials of the last admin, there are no fewer than 727 traffic lights that do not conform to Department for Transport guidelines.

"Poor pedestrians are now being forced to sprint across. I'm assured we can not only rectify the gross neglect of traffic lights but we can also allow cars to flow more smoothly through them."

Fortunately the picture is of a sculpture in Canary Wharf so he won't have to spend anytime untangling that pretty mess. I hope one of his first lights for consideration is at the Windsor Castle junction in Carshalton. That way, they might be able to introduce a pedestrian phase without the ridiculous proposals of banning various manoeuvres, thus sending cars rat-running up Carshalton Park Road and Salisbury Road.

Crewe's Missile Scores Direct Hit

Last night's by-election in Crewe & Nantwich sent several messages to Gordon Brown and the Labour Party. A massive 17.6% swing to the Conservatives saw Edward Timpson beat Tamsin Dunwoody to her late mother's seat.

There is a clear sense that it is time for change. Some of the decisions made by Gordon Brown as Chancellor are coming home to roost. The decision to abolish the 10% tax band was taken last year. The regulatory system that missed Northern Rock was put in place sometime ago. The electorate did not fall for the concession made by Alistair Darling, borrowing £2.7bn to fund a tax cut for those affected by the 10% change. They railed against the "Tory Toff" negative campaigning when Labour played the man not the ball. Surely after so long in power, they should be able to set out their track record - OK, maybe not.

The LibDems fell back as well. The infamous by-election specialists were squeezed with their vote share going down. People swapped straight from Labour to Conservatives, showing that the Tories have a fantastic base to build on as people are interested in listening to them and discovering more about their policies rather than simply protesting about an unpopular Prime Minister and Government.

Enough crowing. I am pleased to see that David Cameron and CCHQ are determined to see this as a stepping stone and not go overboard. People in Crewe and Nantwich have put their trust into the Conservatives. It is up to us to repay that faith and show that they have made the right decision. We will continue to work to earn votes in Sutton and the country rather than rely on other's misfortunes and fate. Plenty of work still to be done.

Demystifying Sutton Council

The 54 Councillors in Sutton represent over 150,000 people, yet I suspect very few know what we do on a day to day basis in their name. Sutton Scene is a corporate magazine concentrating on Council services, the local newspapers report a few political stories. The time that councillors spend in the Civic Offices gets less coverage but needs to be done. The LibDems, as the ruling group make decisions. We scrutinise them and question those decisions. Much of the work is not adversarial, instead concentrating on the general running of the Council. This doesn't make it less important.

You'll see in the video above, a brief run through of what happens in a typical Council meeting. Most decisions are made elsewhere, so we have been looking at ways of making Full Council meetings more relevant, more interesting and more effective...We're still looking.

You can help. There are plenty of residents that grumble over their afternoon tea when reading the local papers. You can submit a question to the council by emailing committee.servicesATsutton.gov.uk (Change AT for @; I'm trying to avoid spam). This is then answered at the Council meeting and you will have the opportunity to have a follow-up question. There is half an hour for this and it is very underused. You see, if no-one asks questions, they think that they must be doing OK, so there's a challenge for you. Have a look at the Council web page for dates of Full Council and other meetings. I look forward to seeing you in the Public Gallery. If you can't sleep at night you can even listen to us witter on via streaming audio on the same website.

The BBC won't be beating a path to my door to present any politics programmes and a ray of light affected Brendan Hudson's piece, but I hope that my amateur effort gives you some idea about what we get up to on a Monday night.

Just A Bit Of Fun

It looks as though the two local MPs and the Leader of the Council have been looking at the same ward breakdown of the London election results that I have.

The results that are the best indicator of the local situation in Sutton are those for the London Assembly candidate. The Conservatives won fourteen of the eighteen wards in the Borough and won the popular vote in both Parliamentary constituencies. If this was reflected in the General and Local elections, the three LibDem politicians would have failed in their quest to "Save Our Seats".

These breakdowns are only indicative of voting trends and it is difficult to translate this to national and local politics but they are useful. The variations between elections can be seen by the ballot where people had to tick which party they supported. Before postal votes were redistributed, the Conservatives won every single ward in the Borough. It would be rather Mugabe-esque to believe that this was anything else but, as Peter Snow would have said, "Just a bit of fun."

We've got a lot of work to continue over the next couple of years to clearly demonstrate the ever decreasing returns that residents in Sutton get from their LibDem politicians. What may have started as a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed administration in the 1980s has become a tired one, with few new ideas coming from the elected leaders themselves.

We will also be setting out our positive vision for Sutton. Negative politics may be effective in getting people elected. It has no place in running a Borough. Instead only innovation, inspiration and hard work will see better value for money and the very best services. Don't forget you can help us with this by going to www.changesutton.org.uk and letting us know what you think.

Class War Desperation In Crewe

Earlier this year we saw the LibDems fight a by-election in Cheam with a negative campaign and no positive policies despite having controlled the Borough for 22 years. Something similar is happening in Crewe & Nantwich where the Conservatives are hoping for their first by-election victory in a Labour-held seat since Mitcham & Morden in 1982. The News of the World is publishing a poll tomorrow which shows the Tories in a 8% lead.

Government Ministers have all been up to Crewe with one notable exception, Gordon Brown. The Labour candidate has repeatedly refused to say whether she sees the PM as an asset or liability to her campaign. Labour activists are hiding their leaflets from reporters. The newsletters concentrate on asking whether Edward Timpson is posh or not, belying Gordon Brown's repeated claims that he is just getting on with the job in leading a successful Government. It's all getting a little embarrassing now.

Edward Timpson does live in an expensive house. His father built up the successful Timpson chain of shoe repairers. Crewe is in Cheshire, home to the WAG. Timpson's place is not Beckingham Palace. He was brought up along with 80 foster children that his parents looked after at various points in their lives. Timpson was brought up around the area.

Tamsin Dunwoody has dropped the second half of her double barreled name 'Dunwoody-Kneafsey' in order to maximise name recognition in trying to win her late mother's seat. Her grandmother had a seat in the House of Lords and her grandfather was a Party grandee. So much for abolishing hereditary succession. She also lives in a rather large house, except hers is 125 miles away in South Wales. The desperate regression to class warfare was capped when that great prole Quentin Davies rolled into town. I can't imagine having a Quentin and a Tamsin on my doorstep explaining how simply awful it would be to have toffs in charge. It would be funny if Gordon wasn't still clinging on by his fingertips at all of our expense.

LibDems On The Spot

There were several interesting questions asked at the Full Council meeting on Monday:-

Philippa Stroud asked about housing after the resignation of the Chief Executive and Chairman of Sutton Housing Partnership. This was after the failure of the organisation to get the two star rating which would have secured funding to bring our houses up to scratch. We have the second worst housing in the capital and need some £120m to bring it up to a basic standard of decency. Philippa highlighted a case where a single mother was living with her four children in one room.

Philippa also asked why more than 90 girls could not find secondary school places in Sutton. We know how many children enter primary school each year so we should be able to predict secondary school demand with a reasonable level of accuracy. The LibDem lead councillor shrugged this off with the comment that "sometimes the figures don't add up." Although thirty places have been made available in Carshalton Girls, sixty children will be left high and dry for sometime to come. Cllr Tim Crowley asked what advice should be given to parents such as one sat in the audience whose daughter had no place for next September. The resident was left disappointed when no answer was forthcoming.

Carshalton resident Paul Kelly, asked what the council was doing to support small businesses and shops in the outlying parts of the Borough like Worcester Park and whether cutting parking charges and increasing spaces would help. He had noticed an increase of boarded up shops and noted that 450 small business had closed in the Borough over the last year. Lynn Gleeson, lead councillor for Economic Development explained that because more women were obliged to work to pay their mortgages, they did not shop in the same way. Whereas it is true to say that shopping patterns are not what they were, Cllr Gleeson failed to explain what the Council was doing to reinvigorate our High Streets in the face of such changes. You may not be surprised to hear that she did not believe that parking charges were too high.

Have They Gone Yet?

Another full Council meeting last night. The questions threw up some interesting exchanges but I'll concentrate on the main business for this post.

We discussed two corporate documents, the Sutton Strategy and the Sutton Plan. The former is agreed by the Council and partner organisations such as the NHS Primary Care Trust and the Police. The latter is supposed to translate the LibDem manifesto into actions.

This is all well and good in theory and much of this was required to tick another box for national government in order to get funding but they both highlighted one fact. The documents explained what the Borough was like now and targets listing what they would like to do but there was precious little about how to do any of it. The section detailing implementation ran to a single page with even an Ethnic & Diversity Statement running to five. It clearly demonstrated the fact that the Liberal Democrats have become an unneccesary adjunct to the council; the Borough's appendix if you will, with officers pushing on with running the show despite the LibDems rather than because of them.

The officers should be there running the day to day administration but the lead councillors are there to give political leadership, setting out their vision and keeping officers on the path to delivering this vision. The case in Sutton is that the majority party have run out of steam, hanging onto the coat-tails of the officers and the council's partners.

Busy Boris

Boris has certainly hit the ground running in his first week as Mayor. He has made some bold appointments with Ray Lewis becoming Deputy Mayor for Young People. Ray is the inspirational head of Eastside Young Leaders' Academy with a fantastic track record of providing real change for young people in Hackney.

Patience Wheatcroft, former Business Editor of the Times will lead a 60-day audit of City Hall. She will be helped by Stephen Greenhalgh amongst others. As leader of Hammersmith and Fulham Council, Stephen has already been incisive in his approach to local government finances, cutting council tax in his borough by 3% each year for the past two years.

Boris has met with Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York to draw comparisons and with Council leaders from across the city further demonstrating his desire to work closely with those people that know their part of London best. If you are going to build transatlantic relations, Bloomberg is the better bet than Hugo Chavez.

His first action was to ban alcohol from the underground and buses. In his campaign, Boris concentrated heavily on making public transport safer. This is an important first step and it is good to see such quick action despite Bob Crow's typically blinkered approach. I'm sure that if Boris had not done this and assaults on staff went up, the call for strikes would have been deafening.

Finally according to Iain Dale comes my personal favourite. Boris showed the basic common sense that has been sorely lacking for eight years. I'll leave it to Iain to tell the story:-

"When Boris sat down at his desk on Monday morning he was presented with a huge press cuttings file, which included loads of articles from the Morning Star. 'Why on earth are you including these?' he asked one of his staff. 'Well,' said the staff member, 'Mayor Livingstone was keen to support the Morning Star'. 'In what way?' asked Boris.It transpired that the GLA Building had a subscription of forty - yes, forty - copies of the Morning Star delivered every day. Boris's first action as Mayor was to cancel all forty subscriptions to the lefty rag, thereby halving its circulation with one stroke of the mayoral pen. That's what I call the mark of a real Conservative - annoy the leftists and save the taxpayer £10,000 a year at the same time."

K.O. for the P.O.

The Post Office have revealed their decision on the future of branches in London. All five that were earmarked for closure in the Borough are to be axed, leaving hundreds of people inconvenienced and having to suffer longer journeys and longer queues.

One is here in Carshalton, opposite the BP garage on Carshalton Road. BP are putting an M&S Simply Food branch on their site. Without postal services, I fear that the shop will find it hard to compete with the might of M&S and BP. Another nail in the coffin of diversity.

Ken Andrew, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Carshalton & Wallington did a terrific job in raising awareness of the threat and collected a petition with well over 3000 signatures on it. Despite best efforts, the decision had pretty well been made with only 7 branches reprieved in London out of 171.

Money For Old Rope

Under rules agreed by the Labour Government earlier this year, Ken Livingstone stands to get a £69,000 payoff after losing the election, at least £30,000 of which will be tax-free. You may think that this is a small price to pay to be free of the man.

Departing Assembly Members will receive around £25,000. There is a weak case to be made for this when someone has lost an election. However, there is no case when someone steps down at the election as a planned retirement such as LibDem members Graham Tope and Sally Hamwee, both members of the House of Lords. They did not stand for election yet qualify for a payout. I didn't stand for election either, where do I queue up for my handout? If I find out, I'll let you know.

Red Tape In Ivory Towers

Two stories that I have read today and

then thrown away (having completed a risk assessment, applied for a waste licence with the commensurate fee and written to the Secretary of State in triplicate):-

From the Sunday Telegraph:

Havant council spent 34p on a letter demanding payment of a 1p tax bill. Guy Shepperd, 36, of Horndean, Hants, was told he could pay by instalments.

From Private Eye:

Citywest Homes, the "arm's length" company which manages Westminster council's housing stock, is inviting oldies to get in touch if they need any help with a variety of tasks, including "filling in forms". To avail themselves of the service all the tenants have to do is, er, fill in a form!

Boris Brings Hope To London

The last few days have been fantastic news for the country with Gordon Brown getting the clearest message possible that he should start packing his bags and finding a publisher for his memoirs. The culmination of the elections was the news that Boris had become Mayor of London sending that other blinkered Labour politician into retirement on a wave of expectation for real change in London.

Boris has a great vision for London, however he knows that he couldn't and shouldn't do everything on his own. He has constantly told me and other councillors that we know our areas best and should be trusted. I am happy to have a Mayor to take a strategic view but who will not micromanage every borough to attempt to force through unpopular policies. He has already met his campaign pledge to increase the number of police on the streets, albeit just the one, Brian Paddick.

Outer London residents came out in huge numbers to vote for a change and I am determined to remind Boris at every opportunity that we need his attention in Sutton. Crime, transport and housing problems don't stop at the end of the Victoria Line. The London Plan for development requires urgent attention to drastically reduce backgarden development. Antisocial Behaviour on our streets, parks and buses needs battling.

Steve O'Connell, new Assembly Member for Sutton & Croydon had a fantastic result too, doubling the Conservative majority to a whopping 42,000. He has worked hard to prove that he wants to work closely with people in our Borough rather than looking at Sutton as a poor relation to the largest Borough in the City. He deserves his success but we will keep him on his toes as a shopping list of Sutton priorities wends its way up to City Hall. The vote count at Olympia yesterday was interminably boring, lasting 14 hours or so. We were considering a wager to see which result came first, the Zimbabwe Presidential election or London. The counters including many Sutton Council officers worked effectively, the Spanish machinery less so. I'll leave you to work jokes about Spanish Working Practices into the equation.

The full results in Sutton & Croydon can be seen at the London Elects website, a few of the main points follow:-

Mayor
Boris Johnson 48.36%
Ken Livingstone 28.34%
Brian Paddick 11.77%

Constituency vote
Steve O'Connell (C) 43.34%
Shafi Khan (Lab) 19.16%
Abigail Lock (LD) 18.32%

This resulted in an increase in Conservative vote of 6.55% and a decrease in the LibDem vote of 1.80% compared to 2004. Nick Clegg described this as 'counfounding expectations' and 'regaining momentum'. Having seen local LibDem councillors peversely celebrating their loss of the Cheam by-election by holding up the margin of defeat on scraps of paper at the last council meeting the myopia has lost its shock value now. UKIP's share of the vote decreased by more than 5% and were worringly beaten by the BNP in two of the three ballots. There is no doubt who has the momentum to bring change now, we must continue to work hard to show that the Conservatives can bring positive change. No party matches everyone's wishlist, but Gordon Brown and the local LibDem machinery will be offering forlorn prayers for a splintered vote to give them a glimmer of hope to return to power at the next election. I'll be working hard with my Conservative colleagues to offer a vision locally that offers people in Sutton a positive reason to vote Conservative to add to the increasing desire to get rid of the incumbents.

Hoey To Join Team Boris

Boris has just said that if he wins the election on May 1st, Kate Hoey will join his mayoral team as a non-executive director advising Boris on sport and the Olympics.

Hoey, Labour MP for Vauxhall and Chairman of the Countryside Alliance may face expulsion from the Labour Party as a result despite Gordon Brown's 'big tent' exercise of last summer. Kate Hoey has long been seen as a potential defector with centre-right views and a healthy dose of euro-scepticism. She served as Sports Minister, has worked for several football clubs and is a former Northern Ireland High Jump champion.

Boris said "I am delighted to announce that Kate Hoey will join me in my administration if I win on May 1. She and I agree that there is much more that can be done to promote sport and to develop sporting facilities across London. Kate has a huge and well-known commitment to sport and to London, and I am determined to bring talent from across politics and the community to a new administration.”

There has been speculation over the last few days if Hoey would defect following an event at which she was due to appear with Boris but pulled out last minute. When asked if she was supporting Boris for Mayor, she answered "I am a Labour MP, I am not endorsing anyone." Scant comfort for Ken then!

I see that she is the one of the most rebellious of all Labour MPs according to Public Whip and has made plenty of noise about councils closing swimming pools. It'll be interesting to see what she makes of the LibDems' handling of Cheam Baths when Lead Councillor Graham Tope contradicted himself in a single letter to the Guardian, starting the letter saying that there were no plans to close the pool but finishing off by calling for a rational debate about what to replace it with. All of this schizophrenic behaviour whilst the Council are ploughing £500,000 of our money into the pool with no future. No doubt they'll be trying to fill it up without putting the plug in next.

Light At The End Of The Tunnel

I bumped into the chairman of Carshalton Athletic FC yesterday who gave me some very welcome news. The club will be submitting a planning application to replace the floodlights at the War Memorial ground in Colston Avenue this week.

Residents have complained about the old lights for a number of years as they shine into their bedrooms, especially in the winter when the trees are bare. The new lights should reduce this problem considerably as well as reducing energy costs and providing more effective lighting for the club. Sounds like everyone might be a winner.

Carshalton also avoided relegation this week so congratulations all round.

Back To Moderation

Part of the problem with getting anything done in politics is that often it is the few that shout loudest that attract the attention to the exclusion of everyone else. This blog, the first in Sutton, is an attempt to exchange views with people who are interested in Carshalton and the Borough of Sutton but don't normally get involved.

I usually respond to comments quite quickly as it is important to have a dialogue rather than a polemic blinkered approach. Unfortunately one regular correspondent does not take this approach instead spending an inordinate and quite frankly unhealthy amount of time on waging a personal vendetta. This is not the place for it. I don't want to put off people that want to debate issues that affect our everyday lives but this is not a club for disaffected politicians. One of those has been set up elsewhere to continue the one-sided discussion.

Some may consider this censorship, some may wonder why I didn't do it earlier. I'm only too aware that most people in the Borough would shrug their shoulders and not care. Either way, I haven't got time to concern myself with people who are what civil servants call a vexatious persistent correspondent. I'll concentrate on trying to change Sutton for the better for the rest.

Caring About The Community

This afternoon, I spoke at a public meeting organised by the Queen Mary's Christian Care Foundation. It was open to all candidates for the London Assembly or a representative. Steve O'Connell was busy at a prearranged event in Croydon so I stepped in. Only David Campanale from the Christian People's Alliance joined me. The third person in the photo standing in the middle is Dr Richard Cooling of the Foundation.

They have a vision for a care village located on part or all of the Orchard Hill site in Carshalton that you can read about here. At present, there are two main plans being considered for the site, just housing and the new Stanley Park High School plus some housing. There are some fundamental issues that have to be resolved before anything can happen. Firstly, the NHS Primary Care Trust own the land. Their finances are not looking too clever at the moment so they need every penny to reprovision the service for the current residents of Orchard Hill. Secondly, Sutton Council have agreed that the proposal should be considered as part of the supplementary planning document which will determine what development will be allowed on the site, yet issued a document that fails to mention the Foundation. Finally, if the land is sold for housing, it is lost to public services forever. A care village can evolve over time as thoughts about service provision changes. Breaking up the plot into small parcels of privately-owned land precludes this.

Residents of Sovereign Park are happy to see this take shape. As a Governor of Stanley Park, I can see synergies between the new school and the centre with shared facilities and opportunities for vocational training and as a local politician, I would welcome any initiative that improves access to such services. The group have proved their committment over a number of years in pushing the Council and PCT to consider making them a preferred purchaser, giving them a level playing field. They are not asking for a step up. They are a good example of a group of organisations and committed individuals seeking to offer a service that Whitehall or even the Civic Office cannot provide. I say, trust people not bureaucracy to deliver.

Bit Late For Tears

Is it just me or is the spectacle of a series of Labour Ministers not quite resigning over a policy that they were cheering about on its announcement over a year ago faintly ridiculous and unedifying?

In the last budget that he delivered, Gordon Brown announced a headline 'tax cut' to great cheers from the Labour benches. Cutting the headline rate by 2p was paid for by scrapping the 10p tax bracket payable on the first £2,230 of taxable earnings. Of course commentators saw further than the back-slapping backbenchers, understanding that this would have a disproportionate effect on the less well-off. 5.3 million families will be affected by this change that has just come into effect with one in five families being worse off by anything up to £464 each year. Gordon explained it away as simplifying the tax system, despite the fact that he had introduced this extra tax bracket himself a few years before.

Smug Labour MPs looking forward to an autumn election have turned into a cynical bunch of politicians staring at the abyss. Seventy of these people have signed an Early Day Motion objecting to the move, some junior ministers have taken the commanding step that must make their constituents proud, of writing to the Prime Minister. Angela Smith, PPS to Yvette Cooper, resigned, spoke to Gordon who interrupted his photoshoot with the various presidential
hopefuls in the US and promptly caught the bottling bug explaining that 'resigning her position was not envisaged.' I love hate to say "I told you so!"

We are standing on the edge of an economic precipice. Trust Gordon Brown to want to push us forward. See you at the bottom.

A Pong For Europe

Following the mystic mayhem reported in a post yesterday,

there's a real stink coming from the European Union.

This time it's not from Brussels. Many newspapers have reported a stench carried on the winds from continental Europe to places as far west as Swindon. Apparently the culprits are German farmers spraying liquid manure. This has put paid to the original Gallic-sounding nickname of the phenomenon, Le Whiff.

I Just Didn't See It Coming

The EU often come under some deserved stick for the rules, regulations and laws that it comes up with. However, when you have to spend your time legislating to prove your worth, occasionally you hit upon gold.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Britain's 1951 Fraudulent Mediums Act is to be repealed next month and replaced by the EU Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, which comes into force on May 26. Under the outgoing legislation, the prosecution had to prove that a medium or spiritual healer had intended to be fraudulent in order to secure a conviction. But under the new European consumer protection directive, it will be the psychic's responsibility to prove they did not mislead or coerce credulous consumers.

This reminds me of the old joke about the psychic fair that had to be cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances.

Note: Only UKIP members with a sense of humour may post a comment here:-

Boris in Sutton

A few weeks before his trip to Carshalton, Boris timed a walkabout up Sutton High Street perfectly, missing the snow flurries that gusted down the hill. The response from members of the public was phenomenal with people coming to shake his hand, have a picture taken and wish him well. He is a celebrity without doubt, but remember he is still a politician, so this treatment is testament to the refreshing approach that he takes; a sensible appraisal of the problems that Londoners face with a cheeky smirk sufficiently visible to remind us of someone that does not take himself too seriously, unlike the incumbent who has finally begun to believe his own propaganda.

The highlight for me was the impromptu ska anthem by local band the Dualers. Whilst the lyrics "New Mayor of London, Boris Johnson" won't be winning any BRIT awards any time soon, the sheer spontaeity of the occasion was excellent.

You can see this on the video which I have only managed to lay my hands on a couple of days ago, hence the delayed post. It's a little rough and ready but, like Boris, not everything needs to be perfectly polished to be effective.

Boris in Carshalton

I brought Boris to Carshalton High Street a few days ago. We discussed the contrast between the village feel of Carshalton and the different types of problems that we face here compared to Zone One.

You may recall that local business owners and residents had complained about underage drinking and vandalism in and around the High Street and the two parks. Shopkeepers articulated their concerns whilst appreciating that not all young people hanging out around the canal were looking for, or causing trouble.

Victor Eve collared Boris to highlight the bleak future for patients of Malvern Ward in Sutton Hospital, a specialist Alzheimers unit which is earmarked for closure. The owner of Village Bathrooms bemoaned the fact that since TfL had taken control of the High Street as a red route, getting anything done was both time consuming and costly. Even seeking permission for decorations at Christmas was proving to be a headache.

Finally we rested the campaign-weary feet at Harry Brooks' coffee shop where Boris chatted with John Faulkner, Chairman of Woodstock Road Residents' Association and Steve Mendat, a local Neighbourhood Watch Street Co-ordinator and caretaker at All Saints School. He also had time to spend a few minutes giving an interview to Lisa Williams of the Sutton Guardian.

I was determined that Boris would not simply be surrounded by the party faithful, instead meeting "real" residents of the village such as John and Steve who could tackle Boris on issues that concerned their friends and neighbours rather than pushing an election message to them. We have a long way to go before the result of this election is known. However, if and when Boris enters City Hall as the new Mayor, I want him to know exactly where Carshalton is and what he can do for us. Time and time again since being selected as the Conservative candidate, Boris has given me confidence that he will not ride roughshod over areas such as ours, instead seeking guidance from those who know the area best including our hard-working London Assembly candidate, Steve O'Connell. I'm looking forward to the refreshing change.

Newsnight Debate

I've just caught up with last Tuesday's debate on Newsnight with Jeremy Paxman interviewing the three leading candidates which you can see on BBC iPlayer for the next two days.

Three transport points stuck out for me. Firstly Brian Paddick unequivocally stated that he would scrap the Western extension to the Congestion Charge. This is a good thing since the Mayor introduced it in the face of opposition by the majority of residents. However the LibDem candidate failed to point out that he would replace it with a peak time congestion charge stretching over the vast majority of Greater London, the boundary being the limits of the Low Emission Zone. Woe betide anyone who lives in Worcester Park which would be split in two with this proposed charge.

The second two were about bendy buses. When confronted with the fact that bendy buses kill more people than Routemasters, Ken Livingstone explained that this was not because they were long, but because more people fell underneath them; an oblique and somewhat blinkered response. I've seen a few near misses with pedestrians toes - fortunately nothing more serious- as the buses turn corners.

Boris Johnson pointed out that bendy buses were hotbeds of fraud with some £8m of fares being lost. I have rarely used a bendy bus in London but used them frequently over the last few days in Rome - did I say that I had been away on holiday:)? There, the buses were packed, making it physically impossible for anyone to validate their ticket unless they happened to be pinned against the machine and feeling dextrous.

Click on the picture to see the full transport leaflet from Boris.

Since the election imprint was on the second page of the transport leaflet, I've added one below to cover the document cover shown above.
Promoted by Ian Sanderson on behalf of Boris Johnson, both at 30 Millbank London SW1P 4DP

Welcome To Britain

I've just got back from a few days in Rome. We had a fantastic time but it wasn't without a couple of examples of Italian officials showing the worst of their bureaucracy and buses breaking down. But that only happens abroad doesn't it?

Not a bit of it. After ten years of this Government losing control of immigration policy and process, Stansted had a 3/4 hour queue for passport control (probably longer for those outside the EU). This was after midnight so hardly peak time.

The drive back along the M11 and M25 had miles of coned lanes with speed limits reduced and no visible sign of any work having taken place during daylight hours. Now we don't even have a 'Cones Hotline' to rant at (pointless at the time, definitely pointless now since you can't use a mobile whilst driving) although Big Brother watches us via digital speed cameras.

At least in Rome, an earthquake, a Pope and two thousand years of history caused the Colosseum to get to the state that it is in. Though it is ragged around the edges, it is still very impressive - I'm still talking about the Colosseum. We need a change of Government and real reform before the final shine is taken off - I'm not talking about the Colosseum any more.

Where's Livingstone?

Local Conservative campaigners in Wallington have been asking ‘Where is Ken Livingstone?’ As the contest for the next Mayor of London draws closer, people in Sutton have been campaigning to highlight Ken Livingstone’s neglect of London’s outer borough of Sutton.

Steve O’Connell, Conservative candidate for the London Assembly said:
“The current Mayor of London has been running an administration for zone 1, not for the rest of us who live in Greater London. We need a Mayor who will represent all Londoners and Boris Johnson has already demonstrated his commitment to doing this by visiting Sutton High Street and Cheam Village.

We are fed up with Ken Livingstone’s out of touch approach to running London. After eight years as Mayor all he seems to be interested in is preserving his job and looking after his cronies.

It is time for a change. Boris Johnson is campaigning on the issues that matter to the people of Sutton and offering fresh solutions on issues like Crime, Transport and back-garden development. We want to see a Mayor who cares about Sutton and is committed to working for all those who live in Greater London. Boris has clearly demonstrated he is the man for the job.

Letts v. Harman. Part II...

...This time it's personal.

I enjoy the writing of Quentin Letts (inset), sketchwriter for the Daily Mail and contributor to any number of other newspapers and magazines. He has a wicked sense of humour and a healthy disdain for most politicians. Now John Prescott has gone, he reserves his ire for replacement Labour Deputy Leader, Harriet Harman.

I must be one of the few people sad enough to sit through most of the last few No. 10 press conferences but it was worth persevering to the end to hear this question to Gordon Brown:-

"You just dodged Graham's question about Harriet Harman. We all know she is a nightmare but she is there, she is your Deputy. Can you tell us was she right to wear a stab jacket and should she wear a stab jacket next time she is in Downing Street?"

Other bloggers and the dead-tree press have covered the ridiculous sight of Harriet Harman wearing a stab vest in her own constituency. This follows Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith's admission that she doesn't feel safe when buying a kebab in her patch. Boris Johnson quipped at a recent mayoral hustings that his aim was to make the kebab the most dangerous thing in Smith's constituency.

Anyway, back to Quentin Letts. He has form. Take this earlier question to Gordon Brown at the December PM's Press Conference:-

"Shall we just try one more time, Prime Minister, on the Harriet Harman question? How much are you behind her? Are you 100% behind her, 90, 20, 10? Do you wish she would go and jump off a cliff? Do you really want her to be in this job?"

He really must stop mincing his words about Hattie:)

Boris' Freedom Pass Guarantee

I was pleased to see Boris highlighting his pledge to keep the Freedom Pass on his website. There has certainly been a lot of misinformation given by Ken Livingstone and his cronies over the last year or so, suggesting that the concessionary travel scheme was under threat from the Conservatives.

This has never been the case, but Livingstone repeated the claims to divert attention away from the main argument. At the moment, London Councils, an umbrella organisation representing all of the Boroughs administers the cost of running the scheme taking money from each council. Transport for London set the price for the pass. If London Councils feel that they are getting a raw deal, they have recourse to bring it in front of an arbiter; one Ken Livingstone. This is hardly equitable and ensures that TfL can squeeze yet more money away from local control into the centralised pot being dished out from City Hall.

Each party believes that it is a good idea to provide free travel for over-65s and disabled people. However Ken Livingstone has attempted to make it received wisdom that because the Conservatives - who are the largest Party on London Councils by controlling the most Boroughs - deign to disagree with Livingstone, we would make the fantastical jump of scrapping the whole thing. Definitely a case of saying a falsehood enough times to make people believe it!

In For a Penny, In For a Pound

Having consulted on a council budget based on a council tax increase of 4.9%, the ruling Liberal Democrats eventually bowed to our pressure by restricting themselves to 3.4% extra. Each year the Conservative Opposition highlight innovative approaches to reducing the tax burden around London such as Hillingdon where they are freezing tax for pensioners. Each year Sutton's tax continues its relentless increase with little extra in return for residents.

This year's increase was pegged back after the intervention of David Dombey's impassioned plea on behalf of pensioners. I notice that in a recent Sutton Guardian (6 March), Mrs Dombey is campaigning to stop the demolition of a public toilet in the ward represented by her daughter, a deputy leader of the council. Maybe they can succeed where other politicians have failed in getting the Lib Dem administration to listen instead of their traditional 'consult, consider, ignore' approach.

Ruth Dombey responded when her father told her how to spend the pounds. Will she act now her mother has told her how to spend a penny?

Philippa Fighting For Social Justice

Philippa Stroud, the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Sutton & Cheam has worked closely with the Conservative councillors over the last year, adding a good brain, relevant experience and an extensive address book to our work. I hope we have been able to reciprocate.

Philippa will play a key role in any future Conservative Government through her work as Director at the Centre for Social Justice, a thinktank founded by former Conservative leader, Iain Duncan-Smith. The CSJ produced a doorstep of a report, Breakthrough Britain with 190 recommendations to follow up the interim report Breakdown Britain which highlighted social problems arising from social breakdown in the UK over the last few years. It looks at such areas as worklessness, debt, addiction and families. Gordon Brown has since adopted 16 recommendations as his own and David Cameron has incorporated 27 into his policy development.

We all know that the economy, public services and foreign policy are vital areas for any government. They tend to be easier to understand, attracting simple headlines and short-term solutions. Areas such as family breakdown are far harder to tackle. Many people I meet, shrug their shoulders and say that society is not what it was in years gone by without really stopping to think why and how we can effect change. It is good that someone is and has the drive and influence to see results.

Philippa appeared on Newsnight at the end of February on the eve of Gordon Brown's announcement about Welfare Reform. Paxman didn't need to ask her the same question more than once, never mind fourteen times as she handled herself very well as you can see in the clip above.

Common Sense For Westmead Road

On Wednesday night, my colleagues and I heard Ken Andrew speak at the Carshalton & Clockhouse Local Committee about the issues around the proposed changes to Westmead Road. He presented a petition which attracted significant support from residents that would be most affected by the proposals. I was pleased to see a good number of residents at the meeting to tell us their views.

At the meeting, Ken articulated concerns about the changes to the Hail and Ride bus service and the introduction of speed humps. No-one could disagree with making our roads safer – hence my support for the introduction of the two mini-roundabouts and other limited changes as called for in the petition - but the rest of the scheme appears to address a problem that is not there. Lower Road has an accident record that requires some action. However the plan affects the entire length of Westmead Road and unduly affects bus users and drivers.

As previously reported, when this scheme was first presented to me and Eric, we both queried why speed humps remained in the proposal after being clearly rejected in the consultation. We were told that residents only objected to humps because of possible loss of on-street parking and since no places would be lost, there was no reason to remove them from the scheme. This explanation was derived from the comments that a few residents had written. We were not satisfied with this as we believed that there were insufficient comments to jump to this conclusion and so demanded that speed humps were removed from the design.

With many of these schemes council officers come under pressure to push through plans in fear of losing the funding at the end of the financial year. The choice that we had on Wednesday was described as “take it or leave it”. Councillors unanimously voted to leave it, rejecting the proposal. It is unfortunate that we did not have the option to pick and choose the parts of the scheme that residents believed would have most benefit to them, due to the cumbersome bureaucracy of Transport for London.

Ken Andrew and local resident Paul Kelly did a great job in organising the petition and I was pleased to see how well supported it was. We often take this Council to task for not seeking and responding to residents’ opinions and I am pleased that in this instance, residents have grouped together effectively to ensure that their voice is heard. Eric and I will continue to do our utmost to reflect your views and concerns about Carshalton.