What's your view about the Tesco Bridge in Tolworth?

On the face of it the idea that we revitalise Tolworth appears to be a good idea. However there are some real questions that need to be asked about the sheer scale of this proposal. I have posted the various elements with a summary of what is said.

I see that our local MP has called for a debate and yet does not give his view, despite us knowing he has been involved with meetings with the developer before this scheme came forward.

So what are the issues?

Do we really want nearly 900 units of accommodation and 2,000 extra people living in Tolworth? I am not sure I know the answer to this but this would in effect be the equivalent of a 30% increase in residents for the Tolworth and Hook ward, in which much of this would sit.

Should we be cynical about the fact that Tesco are spending almost the entire publicity document talking about their green bridge idea and not talking about the impact on traffic of their superstore?

Do we really want environmental improvements like those at New Malden High Street?

I have real concerns about this proposal. It seems heavy on selling points without confronting the real problems they are raising about the capacity of Tolworth and the A3 to cope with the traffic demands that will exist from such a development. I am also sceptical about the "Community facilities" they wish to provide. What are these? In recent experience these have often ended up costing the council money.

Do we want Tolworth Broadway to be turned into single lane traffic and the barrier to be taken down? I am all for taking the barrier down but they are also threatening a scheme like New Malden High Street presumable with no bus pull ins and lots of cannonballs for bollards.

Page 2

Apparently more and more people are chossing to go elsewhere than shop in Tolworth. This has been the case for twenty years. We used to have a mainstream supermarket (before M&S) under the Tolworth Tower and that did not help much. 

Page 3

Interesting that here their emphasis is on the improvements to Tolworth Broadway. Only once is the Tesco store mentioned.

2,000 more people? What about schools? Will Tesco be sponsoring a new school under the Government's initiative launched this week in their White Paper.

Page 4 - Environment

This page is full of stuff about how they would use self sustaining energy and generate their own power and water from rainfall and burning waste. Good stuff but clearly there to impress us. 

Been away

Have been away for half term hence the lack of blogging.

Went to Wells Next The Sea in North Norfolk.

Good to get away and think about life beyond politics. 

....and then it was three

Well it is down to three.

A very interesting competition awaits us all.

On reflection, and now that Ken Clarke is out of things, I have to say I will be backing David Cameron. It is a risk as he is untried and lacking in experience. However, as we are finding, innovative thinking and the desire for change appears to be winning out over experience. I am still not convinced he knows what it is he is saying but it is a start.

It has been very interesting how the only politics in town at the moment is Tory politics. I was flying back from Belfast this evening and it was noticeable how passengers were in the airport standing around TV's awaiting the result!

What is going to be absorbing is whether this is going to go to a final vote? I have a hunch that if things start to drift then we may find ourselves with situation where others might withdraw leaving only one candidate. This is what happened with Howard when Davis withdrew.

We shall see.

Health commissioning

We had a very interesting briefing tonight on the effects of the new NHS commissioning on Kingston. In effect they are going to scrap the PCT's. The same PCT that tells us when they have moved all the services out of Surbiton Hospital (apparently it is not 'closure') that they will then develop a master plan for the site.

That's all great except the PCT is likely to be scrapped next year and along with it will go our promises of any new facilities.

Incidentally in 1997 the NHS spent £37m. In 2005 it's budget has ballooned to £76bn. Yet Kingston's PCT cannot repair the roof of Surbiton Hospital!! It is pretty clear to me that Kingston is not getting it's fair share of health spending and that our local MP has a lot to answer for with his inability to convince the Government of Kingston's case. Making speeches and issuing press releases is one thing; getting something done is another.

Beverley Boys' School

I was a pupil at Beverley Boys’ school in its heyday. It was a time when standards were high; there was a thriving sixth form and a fine music and sport’s department. Music was more my thing than sports!

Why was it so good? It came down to good leadership and a superb headmaster in Clifford Fisher. I was recently in contact with Clifford Fisher, him having retired to Eastbourne with his wife. Some may also remember him as a distinguished artist.

I therefore view its educational decline with some despair and agree that steps needed to be taken to restore some form of higher pupil numbers and increased standards. I therefore had little problem with the idea of what I though was a “soft” federation of Beverley Boy’s school with Coombe Girls School (where my mother attended school). However a “soft” federation is one where the respective schools retain their defining characters whilst having a single leadership team; it is NOT a merger or a takeover.

You can imagine therefore my horror at the idea that Beverley Boys’ School should now be renamed Coombe Boys’ School. This is an insult to the very fine work that went on in the past and a slap in the face to the current pupils and teachers who in dilapidated and constrained buildings have striven to improve education standards.

Beverley may well have problems but stripping this fine school and its alumni of their dignity will not help it in either the short or the long term.

Sewage III

Things moving a bit faster now on the sewage works.

Thames Water is now going to attend a meeting and give a presentation to the Transport and Infrastructure overview panel at the Guildhall on the evening of the 1st December 2005. Nothing to do with transport, except when they dig up roads I suppose.

Things have been pretty awful the last few days. With the air still and warm the smell has been dreadful even down where I live on Alexandra Drive. Tonight we have the dreaded mosquitoes in the air, pebble dashing my walls.

I have sent the following to the chap in charge of local government and community affairs for Thames Water and we shall see what happens:

Thank you for your letter informing me you will be attending the Transport and Infrastructure overview panel meeting on the 1st December 2005.

I presume that you are there primarily to answer questions concerning the impact of works upon the Highways. However, I represent a ward which has had a pretty torrid summer from the water treatment works at Lower Marsh lane which have caused substantial problems of odour across a fairly wide area, apparently due to broken equipment. We have also suffered the indignity of a fairly significant mosquito attack during the past twenty four hours.

Is it your intention to cover this subject because if so then I would like to hear more about the future of water treatment and what steps you will be taking in future to limit odours in the light of the Mogden judgement?

Conferences and next weeks fashion show

What a shambles the Labour conference is. I think we shuld admit they are all a shambles at this point in the electoral cycle. Great fun to be there but pretty poor TV.

The Lib Dem conference was a shambles because despite losing the votes on lots of key policy areas the activists wanted changed it is almost certain the leadership will now do it anyway.

The Labour conference this week was equally ridiculous. A lone voice who chose to shout out during a debate is expelled after a lifetime in the party and an early life in a concentration camp. Blair standing there telling the party what he was going to do whilst almost all of them did not want it.

And now the Conservative conference this week……

My time there will be somewhat curtailed by a decision to hold a Council meeting during the conference; duty first and all that.

Our conference is going to be a cross between a beauty contest and a TV game show. Lots of Miss World like belief in “helping small children” but the ultimate understanding that the winner of the leadership contest will be he who comes over best on TV. So here’s the big question: do you pick a leader who can win or who you believe in? Is there one of them who can do both?

Cameron – Is pretty good but not really sure he understands what he is talking about. He has been good on the diagnosis but I am not convinced he quite knows what the medicine is that the patient will accept without throwing up! He has a good bunch of speech writers around him and he would pull in new and younger people to the party who should be supporting us? Could not find a leadership website. Win 7 Belief 8

Clarke – I have said this before about Ken but where has he been for the past four years. You do get the feeling he crawls out of the smog of his cigars every time he gets a whiff of a leadership election. He might win but I am not sure how the hell he can lead the party. All Labour have to do is call a referendum on some small European matter which the party as a whole objects to and there we have our Leader going off and campaigning with the Labour party. However, of all the candidates he is the one the polls say is more likely to win, or is that just because they know him. He has a website. Win 8 Belief 6.

Davis – Apparently the ladies like him. He seems a bit like a Paddy Pantsdown but clearly more right wing. He is not remembered for his time in the Thatcher and Major Governments which is helpful. There is something I just do not get about him. I also heard him speak at something recently and he is only mildly better than IDS at speaking! He has a pretty good website though. Win 8 Belief 7.

What a choice; sure things will change and it will all become a bit clearer as time passes by! Labour is in not much better health. Brown seems a Tory gift to me. Rather good article in telegraph this week by Boris on what Brown would be like.

Save Surbiton Hospital II

Things seem to be hotting up on the Save Surbiton Hospital front.

In conversation with the Editor of the Surrey Comet they agreed to run a campaign to fight any closure of the hospital. As he remarked to me there is a certain sense of déjà vu as it is only six years ago they were apparently going to go away and plan its future. No idea what happened to that and it is very curious they are now taking such fast action to close down the beds.

The Comet has set up a campaign website on their own: Surrey Comet

I have also started an online epetiton on the Council website so we can apply pressure there.

We also have a motion being debated at Full Council next week.

I also have a meeting on Monday 3rd October with the CEO of the PCT so I can understand a little more what this is about and why the PCT can be so overspent considering how much of our tax goes to the NHS.

Sewage follow up

Time for a follow up on my earlier blogs about the problem of smells from the Berrylands Water Treatment Works (sewage to you and me).

I was sent some interesting news from a reader of the blog who pointed me in the direction of a recent case concerning Mogden Works in Hounslow, also Thames Water.

On 19 July 2001 the London Borough of Hounslow served abatement notices on Thames Water under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 for causing odour and mosquito nuisance.

On 8 June 2005, after four years of legal wrangling, Thames Water finally accepted a legally binding schedule to comply with the July 2001 odour abatement notice. It includes operational changes that need to be implemented within 7 days and 30 days and sets a 42 month timetable for fitting covers to the storm tanks, east and west inlet works and the east side second stage primary settlement tanks.

The Mogden residents fighting this have a campaign website all about the problem and their actions. Admittedly this is a bigger works but then it is not the size but the smell that is at issue.

I have now met with the Borough’s environmental health officer and he is considering whether there might be grounds to consider some form of action against Thames Water. The legal technicalities of this are that we need to set up some form of monitoring if we are to ever form against that would hold up scrutiny.

We clearly need to monitor the situation and see what develops. I will pursue the other avenues and see what happens.

Lib Dems facing donation inquiry

My blog on this occasion is not a particular dig against the Lib Dems but a serious view that some day someone will need to be brave enough to sort out once and for all this issue of political donations.

I do not know what will hapopen in this case but clearly the donor thinks they broke the rules. Could it lead to a fine or MP's having to recontest seats?

University drop-out rate rising

BBC NEWS | Education | University drop-out rate rising

I suppose in a way this is inevitable if you have more young people going to University.

Putting aside whether you think this is a good or a bad thing the fact that some of the highest drop out rates in England are in London you wonder whether mergers might be on the horizon. Does London need all the Universities it has?

The Council last night started an investigation into the plans for Kingston University to massively expand its provision. The fact is that we need to ask real questions about whether we as a Borough want or can accommodate the types of growth that the University wants. The most fascinating thing to emerge last night that is if you add together the graduates from Kingston University who stayed in Kingston to the numbers currently attending they already account for about 20% of Kingston's residents.

Surbiton Hospital to close

Public Board Meeting - 23 September 2005

This is an utter disaster and one we need to camapign against.

Kingston PCT is consulting on the proposal to close Surbiton Hospital because the building needs large maintenance bills and they have overspent their budget already this year.

Where are our taxes going?

Surbiton Hospital not only provides local care for those recovering from operations but is also a local centre for x-rays etc and widely used by GP's in the area. At the time we should be driving to localise public services here we are closing them because the health service has run out of money. Sadly, we are not alone in this and there is a pattern acrioss the country of community hosiptals closing due to lack of money as you can see fromn this article in The Spectator.

I will kee you in touch with developments.

BMA warns of jobless doctors

I think this has to be one of the most perplexing things I have read for some time. Of course the Department of Health has to defend the position but can it really be true that we are now facing closing hosiptals as well as Doctors out of work and yet waiting lists that hardly seem to budge?

Flat Tax

There has been a lot in the press for some time now about the issue of flat tax. The Adam Smith institute has written a paper on flat tax proposals for the UK. The Shadow Chancellor has decided to set up a commission to examine the pros and cons. The fact that it has set the Labour advisors into a very fast spinning process probably also means it is worth examining.

In a nutshell it seems to mean a massive simplification of the taxation system so that you have only one rate of tax and no allowances. If flatter tax means simpler tax then there will be many who will find this appealing.

To offset the disbenefit this would have on low and middle income earners there would be a relatively high threshold at which no tax would be paid. There figures vary from proposal to proposal but the threshold being talked of at present is between £10k and £12k. The benefit of this is obviously that quite a large number of people would pay no tax at all; large numbers of pensioners, those on benefit or in part time jobs that currently pay when over the current low threshold of about £4k.

Sounds good you say? Those against the idea believe that this is unfair as it benefits those on high incomes who will pay less. One of the oddities of this argument, and the current tax system, which I have never understood, is that when you have a system based on percentages of gross income then the richer always pay more tax. Surely those on the left ought to be arguing that having everyone paying the same rate of tax is fairer for all, in the same way having comprehensive education is supposedly giving the same level of education to all, regardless of a students relative strengths and weaknesses. (In passing I do not believe the comprehensive system has worked precisely because the weakest and poorest have ended up being pushed out of the most successful schools by kids with wealthier more mobile parents. Wealth creates mobility. At least with the Grammar Schools ability was the deciding factor not wealth - Greenwich judgement aside)

Above all this is the issue that in countries where they have introduced flat tax their productivity and growth has risen sharply. What is difficult to ascertain is whether this is because of flat tax or just their normal economic growth pattern.

I think examining this system is probably a good idea. It is politically “trendy” at the moment to say it should be looked at and I think it is responsible to rule it out or in as an idea. Incidentally, I gather that the Government have looked at it but refused to publish the section that said whether it was a good or bad idea; something to hide?

Brown calls for oil price effort

The trouble with this type of announcement from the Chancellor is that with New Labour it is still to difficult to know when something is earnestly meant or is being spun to divert attention.

Fuel protests appear to be a likelihood over the coming weeks. To divert attention the Chancellor shifts the blame to global oil prices, even though they actually make up a very small part of the total fuel price.

However, I believe there are some issues here. It is all very well for the Chancellor to say that there should be investment in refineries and in alternative energies, but I do not see the British Government trying to do much. Where is the encouragement to the car industry in the UK to start to move away from oil based fuels? The fact is I believe I am right in saying that there are more car companies manufacturing cars in the UK than any other country in the world. With such a diverse audience of global companies I would have thought there was a real opportunity for this Government to change global attitudes to motor fuel consumption. Perhaps the problem is that actually the Chancellor likes the fuel tax escalator because he needs more money to spend!

I have two cars; one is a people mover to get my family around and the other is Smart car. The Smart is very green and low fuel consumption. I was interested recently in Autogas, partly because of price. Startlingly even if you did convert, which many can, you might be able to halve your fuel bills but there are hardly any refuelling points in Kingston. In fact the closest appear to be in Ewell and Wimbledon.

Vote Liberal - get a mess!

"Top Liberal Democrat Vincent Cable has said his party could form a coalition with the Conservatives in the event of a hung parliament."

I know the Liberals have dissapeared off the airwaves since the General Election but this is a prety desperate attempt to create a story. Perhaps my Liberal readers could tell me what the advantage for the Conservatives would be in going into coalition with a high tax, high spend party to the left of Labour?

I have been sent this from a friend in the US, even though it is UK TV. Amused me anyway!!