Parliament Chops Down Another Rainforest

Some politicians scratch around for things to do during the Parliamentary recess. Paddy Tipping is one such politician. The Labour MP is chairman of that august institution, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Junk Mail.

This group expresses concern about the environmental cost of junk mail. They have just shared this view by, er, sending an unsolicited letter with a 14-page glossy document to all 646 Members of Parliament.

LibDems written off as Pressure Group by supporters

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

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

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

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

Beginning Of The End For Garden Tax

On Friday I attended a Council meeting in order to make recommendations to the ruling Executive about the changes to waste collection. I'm glad to say that as predicted, belated commonsense prevailed.

The headline points of the proposed changes are:-

• To retain all changes to waste collection except the £35 charge.
• To end the £35 charging scheme at the end of October.
• To refund £21 per bag (a pro rata figure) to those who had bought bags.
• To collect garden waste fortnightly but with a limit of two 120-litre plastic sacks or three 75-litre jute sacks in November and December.
• To introduce a free fortnightly collection from April to December each year with the above restrictions, although more can be collected at a charge of £1 per bag.
• Continue to stress the value of home composting.

The changes are welcome but at considerable cost both financially and to the reputation of the council. Around £176,000 has been spent introducing and now scrapping the charge. It was confirmed that the raw data from the consultation and the draft report from officers was available to the LibDems and the two MPs for their meeting last Friday. We first saw the report and data on Wednesday lunchtime leaving little time to digest a 50 report document and a further 50 pages of background information. When this was queried on Wednesday, we were told that the actual report was only 10 pages long with supporting data making up the remainder and surely 48 hours was enough. I'm afraid that it is this scant regard to examining an issue in its entirety that has led us to this costly position in the first place. Anything more than a cursory glance behind the headline position would have pointed out that this unpopular charge would be ineffective and infuriate residents.

The final decision will be taken at a meeting of the Council Executive on September 23rd at 10am.

Shadow Environment Secretary Visits Carshalton

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

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

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

LibDems Can't Even U-Turn With Grace

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

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

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

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

Things Can Only Get Better...

...or there again the planet might just get eaten up by a black hole. Which side of the argument are you on?

The Large Hadron Collider at CERN is being switched on today. The machine which lies under the border of France and Switzerland will send photons around the 17 mile long circular tunnel at 11,000 laps per second in order to try to see theoretical subparticles such as the Higgs Bosun particle.

All good useful stuff. The point is to try to recreate the moment just after the Big Bang. However, reading the small print, some scientists have a slight niggle in the back of their mind that the process might create a black hole that will destroy the Solar System and have been trying to stop the launch through the courts.

I didn't have any truck with this argument, favouring the reasoning that similar collisions happened in the atmosphere all of the time without such cataclysmic results. That was before I discovered that one of the scientists behind the project was Brian Cox, the former keyboard player with D:Ream. Politicos or 90s music specialists will recognise this group's greatest hit as "Things Can Only Get Better" used as Tony Blair's campaign anthem in 1997. Things didn't, I'm still waiting for my money back and has he done his research a little more carefully 11 years on. Maybe it's not quite time for walking around with an "End of The World" sandwich board yet?

Tooth Fairy Feels Bite

According to a story tucked away in some of yesterday's newspapers, a study has identified another victim of the economic downturn- the tooth fairy.

Apparently, the amount left under a child's pillow for a milk tooth has crashed from an average of £1.22 to just 87p in six months.

In order to prove that it is not just Colgate that can inspire confidence, expect the announcement that Alistair Darling is to release funds to provide a safety net for children across the UK by guaranteeing levels of contribution to the premolar puck.

Looking Down The Barrel of London Crime

Sutton Guardian are reporting a fight in the Love2Love nightclub where a shotgun was produced and fired. The nightclub on Cheam Road, Sutton attracts DJs from across South London and their friends and entourages. It is too early to say whether this was such an incident or if it was someone more local. Sutton has a low incidence of such crimes unlike some other Boroughs. We need to take the very strongest action to ensure that it stays this way.

It is striking that this incident took place next to the Council Offices and just yards away from the police station which is also home to the Safer Sutton Partnership.

I came back from London on the train recently where I overheard a couple of black ex-Brixton residents talking. One explained to the other how a girl that he knew was "kicked to death", whilst the other knew someone that had been shot in his car. I got into conversation with them. It was illuminating that despite being relatively young and people that had "been up to tricks" in their youth, they escaped Brixton to Thornton Heath because it was too dangerous.

Knives have become a fashion accessory in parts. Guns must not be allowed to become the norm in gang culture here in South London. Knife arches in Sutton have produced some results, increased stop and search also. Boris is right to have concentrated on transport police. Everything that we can do to stop importing this problem will help before we get to the stage that we are producing too much of our own serious crime.

No-one was injured by the gun but one man is in hospital and a further ten arrested. The surrounding roads remain closed whilst the police investigate.

More About Communications

Just to reinforce what was said yesterday in my post and subsequent comments, I've reproduced below a letter that I sent a little while back to the Guardian for publication:-

As I pointed out in last week's Sutton Guardian good communication between residents and their local council is pivotal, after all as residents we're the ones paying for it. However, Lib Dem-run Sutton must remember that good communication is a two-way street, and that means listening to residents. Not the sham consultations we're used to – I mean really listening.

The Lib Dems are skilled at telling residents how good they think they’re doing and are adept at pumping out material to that end - often flying in the face of reality. A recent Ipsos MORI study shows that only 4% of residents feel they can definitely influence Council decisions, compared to roughly 50% who feel they can't. Even this is rose-tinted, I suspect. Let's not forget the response of 22 residents was the 'justification' for the above-inflation council tax increase affecting tens of thousands of households.

Blasting messages at the public doesn't work; as residents we need to feel we can respond, and more importantly that we will be listened to by the Lib Dem Council. The garden waste controversy shows us this. This will be the challenge for any Council PR team and a chance to mitigate cynicism over its cost.

As Conservatives real and meaningful consultation with residents is enshrined in our values, along with real value for taxpayers, complimenting the hard work of Sutton staff. An incoming Conservative administration will implement policies to breakdown the barriers that separate the Council and the community it serves, so that the organisation we all pay for really starts to listen.

But How Much Does It Cost To Listen?

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

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

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

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

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

Carshalton Blog wins Gold

Many thanks to all of you that voted for me as one of your top political blogs. This year, I've reached the giddy heights of 57th 56th top political blog in some highly esteemed company, up from 155th in 2007. As a local blog, I don't expect to compete with the best-known blogs but I'm very appreciative of the support and I hope that it helps to raise the profile of what is happening in the Borough.

The last year has seen more debate on the blog as people get a little bolder, leaving comments. Readership has picked up overall though dipped in the summer as I posted less frequently. Absolute Unique Visitors as measured by Google Analytics reports a monthly readership of between 350-500. Not bad when you consider that Sutton Council could only muster 22 responses to its annual budget consultation.

My resolution for the coming year is to post more regularly. This is akin to the giving-up-smoking New Year resolution as other commitments start to call upon my time, but I'll persevere whilst trying not to dilute the site with posts that are covered far better by others. Let's see how long it lasts anyway. Keep the comments coming and the debate flowing.

Update: 2nd resolution is to proof-read a little more carefully. Thanks to a very public sociologist for pointing out that he was 57th whilst I was 56th.

Ping-Pong Is Coming Home

Much has been said about the amazing success of Team GB at the Beijing Olympics. I rediscovered a quadrennial passion for Yngling sailing and the Keirin (greyhound racing on bikes where instead of chasing a hare, the cyclists chase what looks like a pizza delivery bike), as well as the more commonly known sports.

I was caught up in the moment cheering on every one of our medallists and look forward to the sport in four years time. There is a long way to go and I suspect that I won't look forward to the bill for the games but that is for another post. In the meantime, have a look at the video and watch Boris at the handover party looking forward to London 2012 as only he can. Now where is my ox?

Sutton hosts European Carrom Championship

Now my computer is just about back to normal, I ought to catch up with the events of the last week or so.

I was invited to the attend the final and closing ceremony of the Carroms European Championships held at Sutton High School. If you haven't heard of the game before, have a look at the Wikipedia entry and this simple summary of the rules. Essentially it is similar to pool but played on a board with counters which are potted by flicking a 'striker' instead of hitting a cue ball.

The great thing about the game is that it is easy to get into, costs very little to start and can be played by young and old, male or female, fit and unfit. My grandfather made my father a board over half a century ago, which my family still pull out and play on every now and again. Being accessible is only one test of a great game. Longevity is the other. The final was three hours of enthralling play. The skill and concentration shown by the two finalists, both from the UK was remarkable and the time flew by.

Vijay Sharma of the UK Carrom Federation was a terrific host with contestants from Italy, Holland, France, Germany and Poland amongst others. It occurs to me that with a bit of a helping hand from the Council, Vijay and his colleagues could organise some demonstrations of this compelling game in Sutton schools and encourage a few young people to take up the game. Young people often talk about not having anything to do. We respond with youth provision without truly understanding whether youths are interested in what is provided or not. Offering a choice can only be a good thing and carrom is easy, cheap and different. Well worth a crack in my book.

New Deadline for Top Blog Vote

Iain Dale reports that he is having to bring the deadline forward for voting in the blogging awards to this Friday. I've covered how to vote and what it is all about here.

If you're feeling generous and would like to help me reach even loftier heights than 155th, please send your top 10 blogs (preferably with me in it) to toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com.

Apologies for the lack of posts. My hard drive has died and it is taking sometime to get my data back. More soon.

Green Garden Waste Policy Doesn't Count For Some

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

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

The Long Journey To Kimpton

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

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

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

I Need Your Vote

Last year, I was place 155th in the Top 500 political blogs. This year, Iain Dale is

publishing a new book including the top 100 blogs. If you have enjoyed reading my witterings, then it would be great if you would spend a few moments voting for me. I've reproduced the rules below:-

“We're asking for your votes to decide the Top 100 UK Political Blogs. Simply email your Top Ten (ranked from 1 to 10) to toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com. If you have a blog, please encourage your readers to do the same. I'll then compile the Top 100 from those that you send in. Just order them from 1 to 10. Your top blog gets 10 points and your tenth gets 1 point.

The deadline for submitting your Top 10 is Friday August 15th. Please type Top 10 in the subject line. Or you can of course leave your Top 10 in the Comments on this post.

Once all the entries are in a lucky dip draw will take place and the winner will be sent £100 worth of political books!

The rules are simple:

1. Please only vote once

2. Only blogs based in the UK, run by UK residents are eligible or based on UK politics are eligible

3. Votes must be cast before Friday 15 August

4. Blogs chosen must be listed in the Total Politics Blog Directory.

5. You must send a list of TEN blogs, ranked. Any entry containing fewer than ten blogs will not count.

6. Anonymous votes left in the comments will not count. You must give a name

So, once again, the email address to send your TOP TEN BLOGS to is...
toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com


Finally if you are struggling to think of ten decent blogs, I have copied some of the best below. They are in category order rather than order of preference (with one shameful exception.) They are all worth a visit so if nothing else I hope that you have a little time to discover some good writing and in Beau Bo D’or’s case some brilliant photoshopping. There are plenty more listed on the Total Politics website.

Paul Scully: http://paulscully.blogspot.com

Conservative News:
Conservative Home: www.conservativehome.com
Iain Dale: http://iaindale.blogspot.com

News, Opinion and Gossip:
Political Betting: www.politicalbetting.com
Guido Fawkes: www.order-order.com
Dizzy Thinks: http://dizzythinks.net

Humour:
Beau Bo D’Or: http://www.bbdo.co.uk/blog

Journalists:
Benedict Brogan: http://broganblog.dailymail.co.uk
Nick Robinson: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson
Comment Central: http://timesonline.typepad.com/comment
Three Line Whip: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/go/category/view/Three%20Line%20Whip

Politicians:
Dan Hannan MEP: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/Daniel_Hannan
James Cleverly AM: http://jamescleverly.blogspot.com
John Redwood MP: http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com
Nadine Dorries MP: http://blog.dorries.org/blog.aspx

Local Politicians:
Cllr Iain Lindley: http://www.iainlindley.co.uk
Cllr Paul Bristow: http://thebristowblog.typepad.com

Inside track:
NHS Blog Doctor: http://nhsblogdoc.blogspot.com

Sutton's Excellent Staff

I've just been sent a photo taken at an event that I attended a couple of weeks ago. The Sutton Council Excellence Awards dinner was an opportunity to recognise those council employees who had gone that bit further in delivering services to all of us in Sutton. We have 3,500 people working hard, sometimes the work is thankless, sometimes they have to provide the public face for the LibDem administration's occasional unpopular and ill-thought out decisions. It's good to say thank you.

The evening was hosted by Trevor Knight OBE, retired Head of Library Services and Helen Young, former BBC weather presenter. Also in the photo are Dean Shoesmith, Head of HR and Cryss Mennaceur, Head of Organisational Development and the person with the unenviable task of getting councillors into training sessions, somewhat akin to herding cats. I sat with the caretakers of the Civic Offices, who won a deserved award.

One Rule for us... episode 27

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

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

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

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

Recycling Bins

...Quite literally. I spoke to a Sutton resident this morning who clipped the glass recycling bin in her green wheelie bin. On collection day, the green wheelie bin was emptied into the back of the truck along with the blue bin.

How many of these bins have been recycled themselves? Another example of the system becoming more complicated without adequate communication or provision?