Reality Check on Monopoly Money

Last week the G20 calmly agreed to spend $1 trillion on trying to bail everyone out of the mess that we are in. Reports suggest that the UK's debt is set to surpass £2trillion. Somewhere along the way, people become detached from these impossibly large figures. This includes Ministers who bandy them around as tokens rather than people's hard-earned money. There are ways of illustrating these figures, such as the Conservative's "Dad's Nose, Mum's Eyes, Gordon Brown's debt" campaign which calculated that every child born in the UK has £17,000 debt. Even this is difficult to take in. I've found a general example to illustrate $1trillion.

$100 is the highest denomination bill issued in the States.

$10,000 is less than 1/2" thick consisting of one hundred $100 bills.

$1million is represented by this small pile of 100 packets of $10,000.

$100 million starts to look more impressive, fitting on a standard pallet.

$1 billion starts to pique the interest of government ministers.

Finally $1trillion or $1,000,000,000,000. The man can still just be seen at the bottom left of the picture.

Life Centre or Life Sentence?

A picture of an ostrich just didn't cut the mustard when writing about the latest on the controversial £8million Sutton Life Centre.

As expected, Sutton's senior LibDem councillors queued up to sing the praises of the Sutton Life Centre.

It was wonderful to have a library that would be open for longer than the one that it would replace, like the one at the Phoenix Centre in Beddington, without mentioning that many users of that library bemoan the fact that it may be open for longer but it lacks one small thing; books.

It was great that we would have a state of the art centre to teach Junior Citizenship, the silver bullet that would stop our young people getting involved in antisocial behaviour and drugs without recognising that such a course already exists in Sutton at one-third of the proposed charge per pupil.

Sometimes, even I am startled at the detachment of the LibDem administration. The Executive meeting on Monday when this was discussed was one such time. The Life Centre might just work. The 40,000 children that need to come to provide most of the income may arrive by the coachload. People may be chasing each other up the climbing wall to get their turn. Starbucks may start sending their trainee Baristas to the Sutton Life Centre to get experience as cappucino follows moccachino out of the cafe door. Kevin Costner built a baseball field in his farm when told by ghostly voices in 'Field of Dreams', "build it and they will come". He built it, they came, but it was just a film. You cannot play fast and loose with public money. It is not appropriate to say that because we have got £4million from a national grant, we need to bend over backwards to match it at a time of financial turmoil, moving money away from education, adult social services and reserves to fill the gap.

If the project falls short of its income target by 20%, the Council will have to find £95,000 each year to keep the place open. The conditions of the grant mean that if the Council sell the building or change its use in the next twenty years, we may need to pay the £4million back. Councillors always have to balance risk. We are still £5.5million light after taking a Treasury management risk in lending the money to an Icelandic bank. This is a risk too far at the wrong time. The business plan is fanciful at best. In order to find 40,000 children to turn up to pay for the building, a massive proportion of children from South East England will have to come.

According to figures contained in the business plan, there are an average of 33,900 children in each year group in schools within the target area of a 1 hour drive of Sutton. The centre is aimed at Years 6 and 8 meaning a total target market of 67,800. The centre needs 40,000 children to come which is 59% market penetration. In order to do this, the plan only allows for a paltry marketing budget of £5000 and £1300 stationery. This does not stack up well amongst organisations with a touch more experience and know-how as this list showing their percentage of their respective markets shows.

• Starbucks 16%
• Tesco 30%
• Barack Obama 53%
• BBC Radio 54%
• Apple iPod 70%
• Microsoft Windows 88%

Since, the Sutton Life Centre is pitching comfortably above the most popular man on the planet, the assumptions surely need at least a cursory second glance from someone independant and with something approaching a business brain. The G20 won't be swooping down to the Holiday Inn working how to bail us out if things go awry. Let's get it right now.

At least the Executive have had the good sense to bring the decision to a meeting of the Full Council before we did. We had our form ready to call-in the decision but it was not needed as the LibDem councillors realised that pushing this through would be one step too far.

The Full Council meeting is on Monday 27th April starting at 7pm. It is held in the Civic Offices, St Nicholas Way, Sutton, SM1 1EA. You are most welcome to come along and see where your money is going. If you use Facebook, you can add your voice by joining the group Unaffordable: Shelve the controversial £8million Sutton Life Centre! and just as importantly, please invite all of your friends to do so. If 3003 people can want Wizard man to switch the Christmas lights on in Sutton, I really hope that a few people are moved enough to try to save a few million quid of taxpayers' money. The message needs to be sent loud and clear: the public purse, filled with taxpayers' cash, should not be the plaything of politicians.

Conservatives to Protect Back Gardens

Back in 2006, I posted about a speech that I made in Council when we sought to protect our back gardens from in-fill development. Figures show that around that time some 41% of brownfield development in Sutton was in fact on gardens. I don't have the up to date figures.

Yesterday in Westminster, Shadow Housing Spokesman Grant Shapps MP unveiled the Conservative Green Paper "Strong Foundations: Building Homes and Communities." A Green Paper is basically a statement of intent by a political party detailing the outlines of policies that it will introduce. There were some interesting proposals for social housing which I will endeavour to cover later but I was glad to see that the party have reaffirmed that they will tackle the issue of garden-grabbing head on.

"We will also reverse the classification of gardens as brownfield land and allow councils to prevent over-development of neighbourhoods and stop ‘garden
grabbing’."

Brownfield land was meant to be land that had been built on previously that was surplus to requirements, no longer fit for purpose or not as efficiently used as it might be. Including gardens in this definition dramatically changed the makeup of towns and cities. It certainly has in parts of Sutton where streets of reasonably sized family homes have given way to flats.We know that demand for housing in the area is great. As usual, it is getting to that balance which is important. It should be for local people to decide where that point is rather than a crude one size fits all policy from the centre.

Mr Smooth

There's little point Gordon Brown trying to keep up in the slick stakes with President Obama. Luckily he is too busy saving the world from ourselves to worry about what people think.

Spurred Into Action

At last night's Executive meeting, in amongst more weighty issues, we were treated to a lecture from Cllr Dombey on how to get things done in local committees. This followed a recommendation from the Carshalton & Clockhouse committee to the Executive that urgent action was taken to repair the wall on the A232 by All Saints Church. Cllr Dombey's contention was that it was better to speak to officers rather than trouble the Executive with such matters as illustrated by the fact that officers had started to gather quotes.

Unfortunately the Deputy Leader of the Council couldn't have been expected to have all of the background to hand. The matter was recommended for referral to the Executive by Cllr Hamish Pollock, the single LibDem on the committee with the unanimous support of the remaining five Conservative members. He has been trying to get some repairs done for eight years without success. I am sure that he will be pleased as we all are that the recommendation to the Executive has had the desired effect of breathing life into a situation that has been mothballed for so long.

Freeze The Tax - Freeze The Life Centre

You will have received your Council Tax bill by now, showing another inflation-busting increase. Well, we tried. The only part of our bill set by a Conservative, that of the GLA precept, was frozen by Boris. George Osborne, Shadow Chancellor has pledged to give council's enough money to freeze council tax if they can peg their increases to less than 2.5%. This is a fair partnership between national and local government; you do your bit and we'll help. Meanwhile, we sought your views and shared them with the ruling administration.

We believe that Sutton could have joined the thirteen other London Boroughs that are freezing or cutting their tax, helping their residents when they need it most. You can see more on why we believe this is possible and how we could have acheived it without any frontline cuts at the website http://www.freezethetax.org.uk/.

Instead, the biggest drain on this coming year's budget, the £8million Sutton Life Centre is coming up for the go-ahead at tomorrow's meeting of the Council's Executive. £4million is coming from a grant from national taxpayers, the other £4million is coming from us directly, here in Sutton. The Council have raided the reserves, taken money originally given to Adult Social Services, delayed repairs to schools and kept unexpected windfalls that you were owed, just to shore up this pet project. I've already written about the way that planning was obtained in a hurry. The Executive have had only six days to see the business plan. However, since it only contains six pages of financial information for an operation that is aiming to turnover £3/4million a year, they could come to a conclusion quite quickly.

The clincher is the target market. It is aimed at schoolchildren in years 6 and 8 that are within a 60 minute drive of the site. According to the figures contained within the user profiles in the report, it is safe to say that the Sutton Life Centre needs to attract 60% of the entire population of children in years 6 and 8 living in South London and North Surrey. Not even Bill Gates would attempt market penetration of that kind within a 12 month period. They are helped by the fact that they will stop the existing Junior Citizenship programme thus forcing local schoolchildren to go to the new building or miss out. The fact that the existing scheme costs schools £3 per pupil and the new one £9 per pupil suggests that schools are going to be out of pocket again because of the Local Authority.

The charge of £9 is another optimistic assumption. According to the report, there is one place in the country vaguely comparable situated in Milton Keynes. Sutton's business plan requires twice the number of visitors paying a higher price simply to break even. I suspect that tomorrow night, the LibDems will be leaving their legacy to the people of Sutton. The likely £95k per year needed to keep the place open with just a 20% shortfall in income will provide 95,000 reasons why not to vote LibDem at the next local elections.

Residents show support for War Memorial Hospital

Last night, around 50 residents came to a public meeting in All Saints School, called by Conservative Parliamentary candidate Ken Andrew to talk about the future - or lack of it - of the Carshalton War Memorial Hospital.

Ken spoke of the history of the hospital, built by public subscription following the Great War, what it meant to residents today and the effect that its loss would have.

Andrew Grimes from the NHS gave a presentation about the overall programme of changes for healthcare in the area. The War Memorial was one part of a far wider-ranging project. You can see a copy of his handout here. He explained how although Carshalton was getting a good deal from the changes, it was decided that the Intermediary Care beds that had once been planned for Carshalton were being put into the Wilson Hospital in Mitcham. Andrew explained that no decisions had been taken, although the business case for the changes has been given to the powers that be for approval.

I added some points that I have made several times before, including the fact that it was like selling the family silver with the land lost to public service forever. The NHS change their mind on healthcare provision as often as a Jimmy Choo devotee changes her heels. If we continue to shed sites like this we will end up with the predicament that residents in the west of the borough find themselves in. Worcester Park has seen a lot of house and flat building in the last few years. There is a massive shortage of GP places and school places but no land to fix this infrastructure problem. Since I live in Salisbury Road, I also joined the residents in their additional concern about what will go in its place and the effect on the area. As I have reported before, Cedar Close is involved as part of a land swap to maximise the revenue available to the NHS as well as getting more modern facilities for the present residents with learning difficulties.

Residents then had plenty of opportunity to raise their concerns. Some of the more elderly neighbours questioned the legal right of the NHS to sell off the land. I have been promised the legal opinion obtained by the NHS. Others believed that the lack of intermediary care in Carshalton would push patients back into their homes prematurely. We have been promised a further public meeting about such care matters in the near future. The feedback from the meeting was positive with residents able to get their views across. I've had a pop at the poor communication from the NHS in the past, but Andrew Grimes did a difficult job very well for the NHS. I hope that the decision makers continue to listen and take heed.

LibDems Greatest Hits from 2008

I came across this video during an idle moment and thought it was worth revisiting as a reminder of another example of the remoteness of the present council administration. It is a clip of the local ITV news from last autumn discussing the changes to school transport for children with Special Educational Needs. In case you weren't following the story, the change went through, rubberstamped by the LibDem backbenchers at a full meeting of the Council. Autistic children were exempted from the change after some passionate campaigning from affected residents.

The changes are being introduced anytime now. I'm still not convinced that the expected savings will materialise. In the meantime, children and their parents are being put through massive upheaval to their already difficult lives. Rather than fronting up about the fact that this is a cost-cutting exercise, the Lead Councillor claims that the move is greener and will give the children exercise.

Sutton's Empty Houses

Last year Sutton was 6th in London for having the highest proportion of empty houses. Many of these were private homes. The Local Government Association has called on the Government to cut VAT on refurbishment work to encourage owners to bring them up to scratch and occupied. At the moment, new builds are exempt from VAT but refurbishment is not. A separate campaign, Cut the VAT has more details.

In the meantime, residents have been asking what is happening with the empty property in The Square. There have been security problems over the period whilst it has been empty. It has been earmarked for some residents moving from Orchard Hill in Carshalton. The Primary Care Trust seem to be the sticking point. I hope that they start to accelerate their efforts to rehouse people from Orchard Hill which was due to have been closed down last year. Whilst the delays continue to this major project, Stanley Park High School remains unbuilt, the property above remains empty and some residents remain in unsuitable accommodation.

Shooting the Messenger about Jargon

This week's Sutton Guardian had a story about the use of council jargon that was excellent in every regard apart from one. I was accused of using a bit of jargon myself, when in fact, I had only used it in a previous article slamming the use of council-speak. The bit of jargon was no ordinary word. It was 'deliverology'; a word that I believe was first used in Tony Blair's 'Delivery Unit'. Both of the phrases in the last sentence should be committed to trial in the lexicographical equivalent of the Hague.

Anyway, here's my response, which I hope that the Guardian will publish next week.

"I was somewhat surprised to see that I had been singled out for criticism for the use of the word "deliverology" (Tories call for end to waffling jargonology, Guardian 26.03.09). The only time that I have used this barmy word was when slamming its use in these pages last year. I have heard it used elsewhere but still have no clue what it actually means. I would be grateful if any readers can enlighten me.

I'm always happy to take criticism on board and I am my own biggest critic, but I think on this occasion my direction of travel has been tested for soundness by my colleagues and we are coterminous in that the outcome suggests that my use of the government lexicon is a predictor of beaconicity. Either that, or to translate for the real world, anyone that knows me would think that I am pretty jargon-free."

Brown Battered in Brussels

Well worth watching SE England MEP Dan Hannan laying into Gordon Brown after the Prime Minister had addressed the European Parliament. Dan lays the charges at Gordon Brown's feet in the most succint way that I have seen for sometime.

Update: After more than 600,000 views on the internet, the mainstream media are starting to report the speech. Someone with too much time on their hands has produced a transcript:-

Prime Minister, I see you’ve already mastered the essential craft of the European politician, namely the ability to say one thing in this chamber and a very different thing to your home electorate. You’ve spoken here about free trade, and amen to that. Who would have guessed, listening to you just now, that you were the author of the phrase 'British jobs for British workers' and that you have subsidised, where you have not nationalised outright, swathes of our economy, including the car industry and many of the banks? Perhaps you would have more moral authority in this house if your actions matched your words? Perhaps you would have more legitimacy in the councils of the world if the United Kingdom were not going into this recession in the worst condition of any G20 country?

The truth, Prime Minister, is that you have run out of our money. The country as a whole is now in negative equity. Every British child is born owing around £20,000. Servicing the interest on that debt is going to cost more than educating the child. Now, once again today you try to spread the blame around; you spoke about an international recession, international crisis. Well, it is true that we are all sailing together into the squalls. But not every vessel in the convoy is in the same dilapidated condition. Other ships used the good years to caulk their hulls and clear their rigging; in other words – to pay off debt. But you used the good years to raise borrowing yet further. As a consequence, under your captaincy, our hull is pressed deep into the water line under the accumulated weight of your debt. We are now running a deficit that touches 10% of GDP, an almost unbelievable figure. More than Pakistan, more than Hungary; countries where the IMF have already been called in. Now, it’s not that you’re not apologising; like everyone else I have long accepted that you’re pathologically incapable of accepting responsibility for these things. It’s that you’re carrying on, wilfully worsening our situation, wantonly spending what little we have left. Last year - in the last twelve months – a hundred thousand private sector jobs have been lost and yet you created thirty thousand public sector jobs.

Prime Minister, you cannot carry on for ever squeezing the productive bit of the economy in order to fund an unprecedented engorgement of the unproductive bit. You cannot spend your way out of recession or borrow your way out of debt. And when you repeat, in that wooden and perfunctory way, that our situation is better than others, that we’re ‘well-placed to weather the storm’, I have to tell you that you sound like a Brezhnev-era apparatchik giving the party line. You know, and we know, and you know that we know that it’s nonsense! Everyone knows that Britain is worse off than any other country as we go into these hard times. The IMF has said so; the European Commission has said so; the markets have said so – which is why our currency has devalued by thirty percent. And soon the voters too will get their chance to say so. They can see what the markets have already seen: that you are the devalued Prime Minister of a devalued government.

Building The Foundations for Success

As I go around speaking to residents, it is always interesting to hear about people's perceptions of political parties. Not just the differences between them but how they believe that they work. I thought it may enlighten some to show a little of what goes on behind the scenes. When I turn up on someone's doorstep, I haven't been personally charged to do so by David Cameron. There is a big devolved structure that enables the Conservative Party to work across the country in a reasonably consistent way.

The Conservative party has three main branches, the Parliamentary Party, professionals and volunteers.

Most people immediately think of the first group as it is these people who they see in the media. There is a lot beyond Westminster. The professionals don't just deal with press releases and research policy but also cover the mundane; helping organise local associations and providing support for IT, offices, printing etc. The often unsung volunteers number in the hundreds of thousands up and down the country, giving their time knocking on doors, stuffing envelopes, delivering leaflets. Contrary to popular belief, there is no magic way that a large wodge of money can provide an alternative to these fundamental basics.

Heading up all of this is the Conservative Party Board made up of all three sections of the party. They set the strategy, resolve tough problems, organise the party in the most efficient and effective way possible and slightly scarily become liable for the debts of the party as trustees. Below this for the voluntary side is the National Convention. This is largely made up of representatives from local constituencies. The top brass on this are elected and have a place on the Party Board.

Elections are coming up this spring with the results due on the 25th April. Three people are standing for chairman of the Convention, Simon Mort, Sir Graham Bright and Jeremy Middleton. Yes, even these elections require an online presence in order to get messages across the country in a short space of time. Each of the candidates talk about local volunteers having a greater say in choosing candidates and running their local associations. Localism is not just attractive for local government, the clamour has been there for greater devolution of power within the party organisation for sometime.

Three are also standing for the position of Vice President, Paul Swaddle (pictured), Fiona Hodgson and Charles Barwell. It is interesting to see the difference in approach in campaigning for the two roles. Certainly Paul and Charles have a sense of action. As someone well down the food chain in all of this, I am only interested in the structures and committees if I see them making a difference for me and the thousands of others who are trying to get the change we need through a Conservative government and a Conservative-run Council here in Sutton. Looking at some of the aims and objectives of the candidates, I get a sense of urgency from Jeremy Middleton and Paul Swaddle. I don't have a vote but I would be content that these two would make the top-end of the Party relevant for more people within the Party, which should translate into success at the ballot box which is what we all give up our time for.

Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word

This week David Cameron took the step that our own Councillor, Tim Crowley asked Gordon Brown to take at "Any Questions" last week. Our local spokesman for Finance and Value for Money tackled Junior Minister Sadiq Khan, asking him why Gordon Brown wouldn't acknowledge the part that he played as Chancellor and Prime Minister in the failure of the regulation of the banks and the proliferation of such high debt which makes the UK spectacularly badly positioned to weather the global credit crisis.

War Memorial Update

I've come across a map which may be helpful for residents living near the War Memorial to show what the NHS have planned for the site. Click on the photo to enlarge it.

The site has been split into three for administrative purposes.

1. Ashcombe House is the dark block to the south which is currently being rebuilt as flats to allow disabled people that use large, specialist wheelchairs a greater degree of independence.
2. The land to the north (the light grey block) will be given to the Council in exchange for Cedar Close (the area marked by the dotted line to the west). This will have new buildings to house the residents of Cedar Close in more modern facilities.
3. The land around the current footprint of the actual hospital and Cedar Close will be sold to fund the reprovisioning.

It is assumed that the land sold will be for residential. Since there will be no plans until developers get interested in the land, everything is based on best guess. I can envisage either two cul-de-sacs or one road joining The Park and Salisbury Road. Since the area lies in between a low-density housing area and a Conservation Area, there will be limits on what development can be acheived on this site, so we are afforded some protection as neighbours. (I live opposite Cedar Close on Salisbury Road, so this will directly affect me too.)

In the meantime, the battle to keep the land available for public use continues. Local Conservative Parliamentary Candidate, Ken Andrew has collected a substantial petition demonstrating public support for his campaign to save the hospital and will be holding a public meeting -details to follow. You can also still join the Facebook Group "Save Carshalton War Memorial Hospital".

TomToms Replace Commonsense in Leicestershire

The Daily Mirror reports that Leicestershire County Council have spent £6,000 on fitting Sat-Navs to fourteen lawnmowers because they get lost in the long grass. Interactive maps will also help check whether the grass has been cut or not. A spokesman from the National Allotment Society called it 'bonkers' and 'a waste of money' saying:
"All it takes is for someone to look out the window and see if the grass needs cutting, you don’t need a satellite to tell you."

(Just to confirm that April 1st is still some way away.)

The US take on Gordon Brown

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Brown in the USA

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Economic Crisis

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart often throws up great commentary. This is an excellent example.

Councillor Cliff Gets Snow Damage Fixed

Recently, I wrote about the LibDem's frankly odd response to the snow when they cut £20k from the Winter Highways Maintenance Budget, whilst looking out of the window at people sliding around on the ice outside the Civic Offices.


At their Cabinet meeting a few days later, the Lead Councillor scoffed at the Evening Standard and others who had commented on this blinkered approach.


It took a question by Councillor Cliff Carter to finally shame the LibDems into realising that Sutton's roads had more holes than a slice of Emmenthal. We've already got the raised obstructions in speed bumps, the potholes that have formed after the frozen conditions are a result of nature's way of evening things up a bit. The LibDems were forced into an emergency change in their budget, taking £250k from their contingency fund to fill some of the holes.

Interestingly they have spent all of their contingency in this current year. They haven't identified any more cash, so watch this space to see if they can last the coming year without scratching around raiding another pot of cash. Either way, it was good work by Cliff to get across the clear message that residents have been saying for the last few weeks.

I Spend Therefore I Am

A passionate debate took place at last night’s meeting of Sutton’s Full Council as the Liberal Democrat finance boss commended his budget to councillors for the financial year 2009/10, with an above average council tax increase of 2.9%.

I've included a few highlights below. Bizarrely, the points were met with speeches on John Major, Margaret Thatcher, Boris Johnson, the state of the railways in 1919 and the benefit of exercise for over-50s. Far be it for me to say that the LibDem administration are losing their way, but I suspect the 180,000 Sutton residents who rarely set foot in the Civic Offices have more pressing matters when looking at how their representatives are doing with their cash.

Opposition Finance spokesman, Councillor Tim Crowley, who spearheaded the Conservatives’ attack, levelled the charges that Sutton’s LibDem town hall leadership is: -

1. Failing to make life easier for residents in a time of financial hardship with a council tax freeze - fully costed and easily achievable.
2. Ignoring an overwhelming response from the Conservatives' alternative budget consultation (1200+ responses) which shows that 93% of residents believe council tax should be frozen (http://www.freezethetax.org.uk/)
3. Perilously pressing ahead with the controversial £8million pet project, the 'Sutton Life Centre' - an unaffordable and high-risk project, in a dire financial time.
4. Betraying all the residents of the Borough who voted for the LibDems because of the Council leadership's slavish pursuit of Labour Government targets, ahead of the needs and at the expense of local residents. In short: vote LibDem, get Labour.
5. Ideologically incapable of lowering the tax burden on Sutton's residents because local LibDems define themselves through the high expenditure of public money.
6. Pleading poverty when, behind the spin, the LibDem Council is hoarding nearly £12million of taxpayers' cash in a 'war chest' to fund controversial pet projects.
7. Controversially raiding the schools budgets by £1.3million and 'siphoning' £3.6million from adult social services into these pet projects - when this money should be ring-fenced for the services that they were intended for.
8. Irresponsibly taking money away from maintenance budgets for the upkeep of council-owned properties to the tune of £2million.

Councillor Tim Crowley commented on the budget by saying: -

“Last night the LibDems voted to inflict yet another above average council tax hike on residents. But the difference this year is that we’re in the worst recession in many years. The Lib Dems’ answer is to press ahead with the controversial £8million Sutton Life Centre without asking residents, by raiding other budgets to build it, and without knowing how they’ll afford to keep it open. In this budget, all roads lead to the Life Centre

“We issued a compassionate plea to the LibDem leadership to help residents by freezing the tax. Regardless of their spin, this was entirely achievable through large windfalls received by this Council.”

Councillor Paul Scully, Leader of the Conservative Opposition, added: -

“Sutton’s LibDem Council has lived up to its reputation for an epic refusal to listen to local taxpayers, by failing to freeze the tax burden when most needed.

“They seem totally incapable of reducing their burden on local peoples’ pockets and frighteningly quick to throw money at controversial pet projects. This is made worse as we face a deepening recession. Now is the time for the LibDem Council to employ thrift, not to be a spendthrift.”

- Speech Summary -

Councillor Tim Crowley made the following points in his speech: -

On addressing the concerns of the recession and its impact on Sutton:
“As an outer London Borough many of our residents commute to London and have jobs in either the financial industry, or are employed in support services to that sector. These people’s futures are under an ever darkening cloud.”

On criticising the Lib Dem Council’s ‘get out clause’ of a poor settlement from Government:
“Every time Councillor Drage stands up and discusses all local matters financial he refers to the fact that we are a floor authority with one of the lowest grant settlements in London.

“This is Councillor Drage’s “get-out clause” for anything that this administration says it can not do. But let’s remember that the 3 year grant settlement secured last year was actually higher than the council was expecting.”

On Lib Dem finance boss Councillor Drage’s magic act:
“Like David Copperfield - famous for making large objects like tanks and the Statue of Liberty disappear – Councillor Drage is performing the equally impressive feat of making a mountain of taxpayers’ money vanish into thin air.”

On freezing the council tax via windfalls from a VAT refund and the Freedom Pass:
“Let’s look at the other areas where you have had money in that you weren’t expecting - The 2 windfalls as laid out in the tabled report: -
· £1.3 million from a VAT refund going back to 1975 and
· £1 million from a refund from the Freedom Pass, London’s concessionary fare scheme.
“This equates to £2.3 million which would have enabled you to freeze the council tax without affecting overall long term budgets. This is money which the taxpayers have paid out once, why should they not get it back?

“This LibDem Council has had a stroke of good luck with the millions it has received via windfalls, it should now pass this good luck on to taxpayers who are currently suffering bad luck in this recession.”

On Sutton Council’s £5.5million frozen investment in Heritable Bank, subsidiary of Landsbanki:
“Then we have the big one…the £1.5million that is having to be set aside to cover potential losses arising from the freezing of £5.5million of assets that are frozen in an Icelandic bank account.

“We have had a debate and an inquiry about how and why this took place. But the fact remains it did take place and it has happened on your watch with a possible large cost to the Sutton taxpayer.”

On the LibDems’ betrayal of residents by “slavish” relationship with the Labour Government:
“The final major issue that lies at the heart of the LibDem approach to public finance, and this budget, is your relationship with central government and your slavish pursuit of central government targets, ahead of the needs and at the expense of local residents and taxpayers.

“When a council is elected then the least that the voters expect is that you will, as an administration, fight for their needs, ahead of the Mandarins of Whitehall. It really is vote LibDem, get Labour.”

Council Pulls A Fast One Over £8m Pet Project

Sutton’s Liberal Democrat town hall bosses pushed through planning permission for the controversial £8million ‘Sutton Life Centre’ last week, following two planning committee meetings. Conservatives have raised severe concerns about the planning suitability of the ‘pet project’ as well as the cost, which has been labelled a “financial minefield”. Approval came at a second hearing after an initial attempt to ram it through late at night at the end of the first meeting.

At the meeting of the Development Control Committee, Conservative councillors questioned the suitability of building the Life Centre adjacent to Sutton Cemetery and Crematorium; the impact on traffic and congestion in the local area; the environmental impact of upwards of 1000 coaches coming to the area; the inconsistent number of visitors due to come to the Centre; and the inevitable noise and light pollution which will emanate from the site, causing disruption to local residents.

Committee member Councillor Tony Shields raised concerns about the climbing wall and the flood lighting which will accompany it. He also highlighted the controversy surrounding the disputed figures for visitor numbers to the Life Centre. A briefing sent to councillors in January stating that the Centre is expected to receive 40,000 visitors per year, a figure echoed in the 1997 feasibility study for the project. In contrast, the projected visitor numbers presented to the committee suggested only 21,000 visitors.

Scant notice was paid to the section of the report which explained that the Life Centre would be available to the public for private hire in the evenings and the problems in Alcorn Close, Barrington Road, Sherborne Road and Thompson Close which will follow.

Conservative Deputy Leader Tony Shields commented: “The Lib Dem-run Council has practically done nothing to consult local people. Additional and unacceptable pressures will be placed on local residents’ parking. Approximately 1000 coach loads of visitors from all round the South East certainly isn’t very green, is it?

“No one has asked for this controversial £8million pet project. The fact is even it’s major Lib Dem supporters have called this project ‘high risk’. They’re shoving Sutton into a financial minefield in a time of economic crisis. It’s now obvious that they haven’t got a clue how many people are going to visit the Centre. The project has been granted permission based on 21,000 visitors but they’re going to need 40,000 to keep it open – doubling the impact on the local area.”

Councillor Shields concluded: “Lib Dem town hall bosses must halt this scheme now, while they still can.”

Channel 4 Exposes Sutton's Icelandic Failings

Sutton Guardian reports that Sutton Council were one of only three councils that continued to sink deposits into an Icelandic bank when 72 other local authorities had stopped risking taxpayers’ money.

A Channel 4 documentary has obtained information under the Freedom of Information Act that shows which Councils ignored a credit warning made as early as February last year. As we know, Sutton went right up to the wire on this matter, putting millions of pounds into Heritable Bank, the day before its parent company Landsbanki went into administration.

Cllr Tim Crowley, Conservative Finance Spokesman told the Guardian "We know that Sutton was lumping taxpayers' cash into the Icelandic Bank 'Heritable' right up until the eleventh hour when their whole house of cards banking system collapsed. As the Opposition Conservative Group we've consistently highlighted this as a cause for deep concern because it appears that the Lib Dem finance chief was asleep on the job, despite often reminding us he's a former Bank of England Economist.

"Finance bosses from councils up and down Britain saw the vulnerability of Icelandic investments, but Sutton didn't until it was too late. They Lib Dem council leadership has even been blasted by their own finance spokesmen in parliament, Vince Cable and Lord Oakeshott. As the Opposition we'll do whatever we can to get the money back, but we're dismayed that even with £5.5million in limbo the Lib Dems are still ploughing ahead with the £8.6million 'Sutton Life Centre' and have refused to implement our proposed 0% increase in council tax."

Meanwhile the man with the chequebook, LibDem Lead Councillor John Drage said “An independent review found that the way we invested money was in line with best practice in local government."

Says it all really!