MAKING SCHOOL RUNS SAFER

I know that a lot of parents are concerned about dangerous parking outside schools in Sutton and I think that we need to come up with a deterrent to dangerous parking during the school run.

I have just been looking at a specially adapted SMART Car that NCP (the parking people) are using in some London boroughs to discourage dangerous parking. The car has a telescopic mast on the roof, attached to a CCTV camera and can be used to issue parking fines to illegally parked drivers.

I have asked NCP to loan the Council one of the cars for a couple of weeks to find out how effective they can be at discouraging dangerous parking. I think it is really important to get local support for an idea like this, so I’d like the car to issue warning letters rather than fines to people who park on the zig-zags outside schools, at least initially as a kind of amnesty.

It would be good to have an article in the local paper to explain that the car will be visiting schools and issuing warnings. The schools might also like to let parents know that the car will be around. I hope that this can help make the journey to and from school safer for our children.

I’d welcome your thoughts and comments on this idea.

Scrutiny? I don't think so!

On Monday 20th November, the Tories on Sutton Council called an Extraordinary Council Meeting on the pretext of scrutinising the Council’s decision to appoint Greenwich Leisure to run the Borough’s 4 leisure centres for the next 26 months.

The decision to appoint Greenwich was taken after Sutton Community Leisure (SCL) exercised their right to quit the contract with the Council. Despite the tight timetable the Council attracted a number of competitive tenders and selected Greenwich as the organisation best equipped to run the centres and assure a seamless handover from SCL at the end of the year.

Throughout the whole process – a period of just a few weeks – the Tories have been kept well briefed on developments by Graham Tope, Lead Councillor for Leisure. So imagine my surprise when they decided to requisition this to Council – supposedly to scrutinise the decision!

If the Tories had been serious about wanting to scrutinise the decision they would have brought it to the relevant Performance Committee. This was pure 'politicking', and the way some Tory Councillors played with local people's concerns about the future of our leisure centres through scaremongering in the local press was disgraceful.

The Tories ended up looking foolish, and wasted a lot of Council Tax payers money on a special meeting that they did not know how to use and did not need.

With the decision on Greenwich now taken, the Tories have up to two years to scrutinise the future leisure contract that will be let when this one runs out. I will be interested to see whether they do this.

Phone Mast letter Pt 4

Phone Mast letter Pt 3

Phone Mast letter Pt 2

Who Opposed Mobile Phone Mast?

Back in June, I helped residents in Foresters Drive and the Lib Dem Focus Team in Beddington South oppose Orange Mobile’s plans to erect a phone mast opposite 106 Foresters Drive. So I was pretty surprised to find out that the Tories in that ward have apparently claimed in a leaflet that the Lib Dems forced the decision through!

Ironically, it is thanks to the Tories that mobile phone companies have ‘permitted development rights’, which mean that they can stick a phone mast up in most locations without local people having any say in the matter. It is high time this was changed to give Council’s the power to decide whether a phone mast should be erected or not.

As to the Tory claims, well they are rubbish. You can see my letter of objection here - this was considered by the planning Case Officer in June. As to the Tories claims to have tried to stop the mast being erected, well, I’m not sure that they will be able to find their objection.

Bob Fixed It

David (my son) and I went down to watch Bob the Builder switch the Christmas lights on in Sutton High Street on Thursday evening.

It was a great evening's entertainment, with an excellent Madonna tribute singer performing when we arrived, a troupe of Bollywood dancers and even Santa showng up. Minutes before the big 'switch on' at 7.00, the stage was full with the dancers, Bob, Santa, the Mayor and Mayoress and Radio Marsden team. Surely the biggest team ever to take on this job!

• There will be another chance to take a break and enjoy some entertainment and music on Saturday 2 December at Sutton’s special Green Christmas celebration in the town centre.
  
  Themed around having fun at Christmas while thinking about what's good for the planet, there will be a marquee decorated by local school children in Sutton High Street from 10am to 4pm.
  
  Entertainment will be provided by stilt walkers, unicyclists, jugglers and face painting - for the children of course – and there will be live music.
  
  Green travel will be a key theme for the day, with a mechanic from Bike Street available to give your bike a quick ‘MOT’. A team from Transport for London will be aboard the Good Going bus giving away lots of freebies including pedometers. And the council's recycling and energy efficiency experts will be on hand to talk to shoppers.
  
  The remaining Christmas lights along the approach roads to the town centre will be switched on when the event closes at 4pm.

The day will be sponsored by the council's Smarter Travel Sutton campaign which aims to reduce congestion in the borough and encourage people to use public transport, walk or cycle.

New Wallington South Special Focus published today

You can read the latest Wallington South Focus by clicking on the image below.

Read the latest news about:

The future of Wallington Police Station; our thoughts on keeping Bridge Road bridge closed; Rat running in Elgin and Clarendon Road; and the answer to the question 'Where is Councillor Bailey?'.

Comments now on

I have now enabled comments so that readers can leave me a comment on my postings.

View Ming Campbell's Blog about Sutton

Ming Campbell, Leader of the Liberal Democrats visited Sutton recently. View his blog about the visit here.

What do we do about Bridge Road bridge?

The bridge across the railway line in Bridge Road has been closed to motor vehicles since 2004 to allow Network Rail, who own it, to undertake remedial and strengthening work.

If Bridge Road re-opens, my colleague Councillor Jayne McCoy and I are very concerned that vehicles that should use the main roads will start to rat run in Bridge, Ross, Clarendon, Elgin and Clyde Roads to avoid Woodcote Road, Manor Road and the Stanley Park/Stafford Road junction.

We are aware that many residents share our concern and we would like the Council to apply for permission to convert the section of Bridge Road that is carried over the railway, into a pedestrian and cycle route. We think that this could be an attractive addition to Wallington. If our idea gets local support we will ask for improved street lighting, some new benches and changes to the road to make it clear that it is not for cars.

We will bring this to the Beddington & Wallington Area Committee for discussion as soon as possible.

No decision has been made at this stage and we would like to know what you think. Please drop us a line to say whether you agree or disagree.

You can reach us by leaving a comment here, or by writing to Colin or Jayne c/o The Members Room, Civic Offices, London Borough of Sutton, SM1 1EA. Alternatively you can send us an email to wallingtonsouth_councillors@blueyonder.co.uk.
Please put the word ‘Bridge’ in the subject field.

On Saturday 4th November, I joined 22,500 people who marched from the US Embassy to Trafalgar Square to raise awareness of the urgent need for action to address climate change.

The rally was timed to take place before the UN Climate Talks in Nairobi (6th-17th November). People from many different walks of life, including famous names such as George Monbiot, comedian Simon Amstell and musicians Razorlight and K T Tunstall came together to demand urgent action on climate change.

The mood of the gathered crowd was lifted by the brilliant sunshine and unseasonably warm weather (very apt) but I think that we all knew that we have reached a tipping point. It’s now or never if we want to avoid the worst excesses of climate change.

Over the next few weeks I will be signposting some of the actions that Sutton Council is taking, in co-operation with local people to ‘do our bit’.

Gore film great success

On Tuesday 31st October, hundreds of people came to watch two special showings of Al Gore’s climate change film, ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ at the UCI in Sutton after picking up free tickets, compliments of Sutton Council’s Climate Challenge fund.

Everyone that I spoke to after the film was moved to action and feedback from the event has been really good, with email and telephone calls coming in from people who want to help do something. One young man has even offered to hand out T-shirts and leaflets in the high streets.

I hope to get copies of the film to put in borough libraries and to send round on free loan to schools when it comes out on DVD later this month.

It’s been a busy week and a critically important one for the planet!

On Monday 30th October Sir Nicholas Stern published a comprehensive review of the economic impact of climate change. At over 700 pages it paints a worrying picture, saying that there is only a small chance of greenhouse gas emissions being kept below "dangerous" levels.

The former World Bank chief economist warned that global warming could shrink the global economy by 20%. But that action taken now could limit the damage done to the world economy to 1% of GDP.

The government clearly needs to bring in a Climate Change Bill now – and the Bill needs to have teeth, setting annual targets for CO2 emission reductions. So I was pleased to hear Gordon Brown’s promise that the UK would lead the international response to tackle climate change. But I have to say that I am not convinced. Government inaction to date speaks volumes.

Unlike the Government, the Lib Dems policy is very clear. You can read our proposals to tackle climate change on the website: http://www.libdems.org.uk/environment/issues/

Headlines from the Stern Review

• Global temperatures have risen by half a degree Celsius as a result of carbon emissions
• They are likely to continue to rise between two and three degrees - possibly more - over the next 50 years if we don’t act now
• The temperature increase would be likely to melt the polar ice caps, raising sea levels by up to 7m (23ft) enough to permanently displace 200 million people
  
  The economic impact of this would be:
  
• A global slow down in economic output of at least 3%, and up to 10% if temperatures rise by five degrees Celsius
• The poorest countries losing more than 10% of their output
• To stabilise at manageable levels, emissions would need to stabilise in the next 20 years and fall between 1% and 3% after that.
• This would cost 1% of GDP