Newtorylabour Know How

Tony Blair's government published its Climate Change Bill recently. Are you serious about doing something about climate change? What it needs is a little 'newtoryabour' know how...

Local Lib Dems committed to Saving Our Hospital

You can now show your support for the Save Our St Helier (SOS) campaign by purchasing SOS merchandise from our range of t-shirts, mugs, badges and gifts.

http://www.cafepress.com/saveourhospital

The campaign shop offers constituents and supporters the opportunity to purchase a range of SOS items - all proceeds will be reinvested in fighting campaigns rights here in Carshalton and Wallington.

By purchasing from this exclusive range of items you are helping support important local issues. What's more, by using any of the items on a daily basis you will be helping publicise the plight of our local hospital

So how else can you help 'Save Our St Helier'?

You can also show your support for the campaign by signing the online petition at: http://www.tombrake.co.uk/petitions/

Alternatively, you can actively campaign on the issue by volunteering to collect petition signatures. You can download a SOS petition form from Tom Brake’s website: Just click the following link: http://www.tombrake.co.uk/resources/index/Petitions

For further details contact Tom Brake's constituency office on 020 8255 8155.

Not so toothy grin

One year on from the introduction of the government’s new dental contracts the charity Citizens Advice has published a report that suggests that two million people (one in three with dental problems) cannot find a dentist. The anniversary is also marked by the British Dental Association (BDA), which has stated that government reforms aimed at improving dental services, particularly preventative treatment have failed to deliver.

This has got me thinking about how good NHS dental services are in Sutton. My personal experience is mixed. I have been with the same dentist for more than 15 years and have always had excellent treatment. But when my youngest son, who is seven, was born I had a struggle to find an NHS dentist for him. Then when his dentist decided to retire recently it wasn’t easy to find a replacement NHS dentist.

What is your experience of NHS dentistry in Sutton? You can let me know by leaving a comment here or by sending an email to me at colin.hall@sutton.gov.uk . Please put ‘Dentist’ in the subject field of your email. I will publish the findings here.

Findings of BDA Survey:

• 85% of dentists surveyed believe patient access to NHS dentistry has not improved
  
• 97% of dentists think that the ‘fill and drill’ treadmill has not changed
  
• 93% of dentists think that new system has failed in its aim to encourage a more preventative approach to treatment
• 95% of dentists were less confident about the future of NHS dentistry than they were two years ago.

If you are trying to find a dentist in Sutton take a look at the British Dental Association website. You just need to enter your post code: http://www.bda-findadentist.org.uk/

Should Ken Get More Powers?

“Sutton residents work hard to recycle as much as they can and the council does its best to help, so why does Ken Livingstone want to take control of all waste disposal in London?”

That was the question posed to me by a Wallington resident last weekend.

Well, rather than give a straight answer – I’m a politician afterall (!) – I thought I might suggest ten reasons why a Single London Waste Authority is a bad idea.

1. A single Waste Authority would cost more. Creating a Single Waste Authority, rather than achieving savings, could actually increase the costs of dealing with London’s waste by up to £5.5 million per year. KPMG identified a risk of totally disproportionate costs of creating a Single Waste Disposal Authority, which would be borne by Londoners through their Council Tax.
2. Setting up a new mayoral body would divert valuable resources at a time when London’s existing borough led waste disposal authorities are already getting to grips with the twin challenges of reducing the amount of waste going into landfill and increasing the rate of recycling.
3. The Mayor already has enough power over waste. He sets the agenda through his Municipal Waste Strategy and he can direct boroughs over major waste contracts. He also has extensive planning powers in relation to waste facilities. He does not need to deliver the actual disposal function.
4. The link between waste disposal and waste collection/street cleansing would be lost. This link is important in ensuring an integrated approach to waste. As has been seen in the two tier shire county areas, making different authorities responsible for different parts of this process leads to confusion, inefficiency and dispute.
5. A body dominated by the Mayor and run from City Hall will not be responsive to local issues. Borough led waste disposal authorities are best placed to be flexible and deliver appropriate local solutions. The Mayor should keep his strategic role and not develop an operational one.
6. Boroughs are delivering and major new facilities have planning permission and are being developed. Recycling rates compare well with other urban areas and London sends less to landfill per head of population than the national average. There already are major new facilities in the pipeline including Mechanical Biological Treatment plants here in Sutton and soon at Frog Island in Dagenham, an autoclave facility in Rainham and an Energy from Waste plant at Belvedere.
7. The Mayor’s track record has been to impede the delivery of new waste facilities in London. Since the creation of the office of Mayor of London in 2000 the Mayor of London has used his powers to intervene in waste management strategy decisions and planning proposals across the capital. In some cases, his intervention has put London’s chance of achieving EU waste targets at risk.
8. A single waste authority would lead to stagnation of the waste market in London. Rather than improving services for waste management, a new single waste authority would create a stagnation of the waste market in London. It would create an uncertain market for investment from the private sector, with facilities already in the pipeline hit by planning blight.
9. A single waste authority would not be more efficient than the current structure. London has already delivered more than its share of Gershon efficiency savings on environmental services - any additional efficiencies gained through a Single Waste Authority would be small, and could be outweighed by higher overhead costs.
10. The Government’s review of the Mayor’s powers rejected proposals for a single waste authority instead proposing a London Waste and Recycling Forum ‘led by the Mayor’ and bringing together the GLA, boroughs and business to coordinate waste activities in London.

The Government clearly agrees that there is no need for a single waste authority. When it announced its proposals for new powers for the Mayor in July 2006, it decided against a single waste authority. That is why the Greater London Authority Bill does not legislate for a single waste authority, and London Councils (the body that represents all 33 London Boroughs)continues to support this position.

2a–8 Brambledown Road - 'not a pretty site'

You may have noticed that the houses at 2a-8 Brambledown Road (owned by Churchill Retirement Living) are in pretty sorry state. The properties have been partially boarded up and some garden walls have been knocked down. Cllr Jayne McCoy and I share the concerns that local residents have about what is happening on the site and we have taken advice from Sutton council’s planning department on the matter.

Planning permission is not needed to demolish the garden walls, but the developer must have either planning permission to develop the site or approval in writing from the Council to a method of demolition of the houses to go ahead with demolition of the buildings.

Sutton council hasn't given this permission and, as you may be aware, Jayne and I opposed the planning application from the start. We were pleased when the council refused planning permission for the site - twice!

When I was delivering the Special Focus about the development last week, I also noticed that the site is not properly secured. This is worrying because the site is unsafe but possibly attractive and dangerous for young children in particular. I have asked the council to take this up with Churchill Retirement Living and to insist that they secure the site. I do not think that the council can force them to do so, but I have also asked Mr Richards to request that they tidy up what is a very ugly site at present.

Lyons review to be published today

The long awaited Lyons Report into local government funding will be published later today, alongside Gordon Brown’s last Budget. The main findings of the report seem to have been leaked to the BBC.

ACCORDING TO THE BBC LYONS WILL CALL FOR

• Two extra council tax bands at either end of the price spectrum - a new band for the most expensive homes and an additional lower one for the cheapest properties
• People entitled to council tax benefit to gain it automatically instead of being claimed
  Council tax revaluation before any changes
• Allowing people to hold more in savings before losing the right to council tax help

A tourist or ‘bed tax’ as an extra source of local authority income may also be included, but it will be up to councils to decided whether to adopt this.

Despite some of our hopes Lyons will not suggest returning the business rate to local control.

According to the BBC, the new top bracket for Council tax will be homes worth around £1m

Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly to the Guardian on Sunday that revaluation would definitely not happen in the life of the current parliamentFor more information on Lyons and the budget go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Read the latest issue of Focus here

The latest Wallington South Focus is here for you to read or download. Just click on the image.

Wallington Old Town Hall planning application withdrawn

D2007/57196

I have just found out that Orchard Hill College of Further Education, based in the old Town Hall in Woodcote Road has withdrawn its planning application to erect a two-storey rear extension to the building.

I'm pleased about this. I appreciate that the college made the application because they wanted to provided additional teaching facilities and to put a roof over the courtyard, but my collegaue Cllr Jayne McCoy and I were opposed to it because it was not in keeping with the original building.

The extension would have had a negative impact on the overall design and balance of the building and it would have upset the harmony that exists between the old Town Hall and the library and gardens, which were constructed slightly later in a complimentary style.

I hope that the college can find a way to reorganise space within the building to allow them to provide more teaching spaces without extending the building, which will in my opinion be unacceptable.

Watch out for the ‘lost Guinea pig’!

Our local police have just notified me of a con being operated in Sutton.

Male callers have visited two homes in Carshalton claiming that they needed to search the gardens of the houses to look for a lost guinea pig.

Neither case has been in Wallington, but local residents need to be vigilant.

Fortunately on both occasions the householders were canny enough to keep a close eye on the male callers, but please be aware of what the police believe to be a con to gain access to properties.

In the first incident one suspect
was described an 18-year-old white male, of slim build, 5ft 2in tall with a
grey/brown top and scruffy clothes. His associate was a 30-year-old white male,
of stocky build, 5ft 10in tall with short brown hair.

In the second incident one of the callers is described
as a 16-17-year-old, white male with an Irish accent and light gingery hair. The
other male was 20-years-old and 6ft tall, wearing a dark grey/green fleece,
woollen green hat with two creamy coloured bands.

Police Community Panel meets

I attended the second Wallington South Police Community Panel with Cllr Jayne McCoy recently. Sergeant Braybrook, who runs our Safer Neighbourhood Team gave us an update on the work that she and her team are doing to follow up a number of leads after an outbreak of burglaries in our area at Christmas and in the New Year. We hope to bring you more news on this soon.

Panel members, who represent various interests in our community asked the Safer Neighbourhood Team to focus on 4 priorities for the coming months. These are: Anti Social Behaviour and youth disorder; vehicles offences such as speeding and jumping lights in the town centre; and high visibility policing.

Highlights since the last panel meeting:
- Four anti social behavious contracts issued
- Safer streets initiative with high visibility reassurance policing over
christmas
- as a result there were 12 arrests, one lead to action against a graffiti 'artist'
- Pub checks and test purchases of alcohol completed
- Speed checks in Onslow Gardens area