Last week I met with the Leader of Surrey County Council (who is also the Oxted County Councillor) and the East Surrey Highways team to raise a number of issues concerning local people. The Parish Council had submitted a long list of lights not working and potholes in Oxted South, but I mentioned four issues of particular concern (all of which are long standing problems):
1 - Inadequate Drains on Coltsfoot which causes frequent flooding
2- Lack of lighting on the Railway Footbridge connecting the Pollards Oak Road Shops to Nunnappleton Way
3 - The state of the tactile pavingstones outside the Londis on Hurst Green Road.
4 - Poor lighting on a footpath in the Red Lane development.
The Highways team took these away and promised a meeting in the New Year to discuss progress.
More postively - plans for the pavement extension and completing the parking restictions around Mill Lane and Hallsland Way are well advanced and should be dellivered early in the spring (with a possibility that the parking restrictions could be in place before the end of December.)
Wednesday 17 December 2008
Monday 15 December 2008
Voyeurism in Oxted
On Tuesday at Redhill Magistrates Court, 41-year-old Kane Joseph Smithers, of Sheiling Road, Crowborough, was sentenced on two charges of voyeurism of young women committed at Tandridge Leisure Centre in Oxted. Now this is the second such offence that has been publicised in recent months.
He was able to do this because the changing rooms in the Leisure Centre are mixed sex. In both cases no serious offence took place and Tandridge Leisure staff easly caught the culprits but it made me think.
It has always seemed slighty odd that in some areas of the public realm (especially hospitals) that there has been a strong move in recent years away from the two sexes sharing areas, but in others (swimming pool changing rooms) then it seems to be positively encouraged. Moreover, there appears to be a yo-yo effect with some parts of the country going one way while others go the other.
Does this mean that the arrangements in the Leisure Centre should change - probably not from a child safety perepective asthere appear to be pros and cons for both arrangements , but I for one would the ability to have a proper shower after a swim.
He was able to do this because the changing rooms in the Leisure Centre are mixed sex. In both cases no serious offence took place and Tandridge Leisure staff easly caught the culprits but it made me think.
It has always seemed slighty odd that in some areas of the public realm (especially hospitals) that there has been a strong move in recent years away from the two sexes sharing areas, but in others (swimming pool changing rooms) then it seems to be positively encouraged. Moreover, there appears to be a yo-yo effect with some parts of the country going one way while others go the other.
Does this mean that the arrangements in the Leisure Centre should change - probably not from a child safety perepective asthere appear to be pros and cons for both arrangements , but I for one would the ability to have a proper shower after a swim.
Sunday 7 December 2008
Bureaucracy
Is a nightmare at the best of times, but the nightmare created by this government has been highlighted to me not once, but twice in the past week.
1stly - At Thursday's meeting of the Planning Policy Committee we were told that we needed to update a list of milestones (which we are forced by law to have) due to our success in getting our core strategy approved. However, the government has threatened to penalise councils who change their milestones. How ridiculous, force us to have a list and then force us not to change it despite us putting in place a Core Strategy that we are forced to have! What's more the reason that milestones take so long to get approved is that our Planning Department spend 1/2 their time submitting democratically approved and publicly consulted plans up to central government for them to review and change and then wait for them to send them back.
2ndly - Due to the bungling Government consulting the County Council (which has no remit in this area) over funding to improve Play Areas, the Surrey Districts (including Tandridge) had no ability to bid for the funds and the opportunity to bid closed before the County was able to coordinate a response. Madness. Local Councils need to be set free from such a straightjacket. If this didn't mean that children in Tandridge will miss out on around a £million of funding, it would be funny.
Both examles demonstrate that there is ample scope to cut out a wasteful layer of central management which just hinders the ability of locally elected councils to deliver quality services to local people. And on the first example, the leader of the Lib Dem opposition on TDC agreed with me.
1stly - At Thursday's meeting of the Planning Policy Committee we were told that we needed to update a list of milestones (which we are forced by law to have) due to our success in getting our core strategy approved. However, the government has threatened to penalise councils who change their milestones. How ridiculous, force us to have a list and then force us not to change it despite us putting in place a Core Strategy that we are forced to have! What's more the reason that milestones take so long to get approved is that our Planning Department spend 1/2 their time submitting democratically approved and publicly consulted plans up to central government for them to review and change and then wait for them to send them back.
2ndly - Due to the bungling Government consulting the County Council (which has no remit in this area) over funding to improve Play Areas, the Surrey Districts (including Tandridge) had no ability to bid for the funds and the opportunity to bid closed before the County was able to coordinate a response. Madness. Local Councils need to be set free from such a straightjacket. If this didn't mean that children in Tandridge will miss out on around a £million of funding, it would be funny.
Both examles demonstrate that there is ample scope to cut out a wasteful layer of central management which just hinders the ability of locally elected councils to deliver quality services to local people. And on the first example, the leader of the Lib Dem opposition on TDC agreed with me.
Economy has some life left.
I was out doing the rounds, putting out our Autumn 'In Touch' today. It was interesting to note that despite the death of the property market that there are still quite a few for sale boards up, together with some that have sold. Good therefore to see not all of the economy has stopped (despite today's newspaper pointing out that we have again be overtaken by the French!).
But at TDC we are likely to have to tighten our belts in the new year, with prices going up income falling ( have a mentioned before the appalling 0.5% grant settlement we get from central government?), but hopefully one thing that might escape the cut is £14,000 that the Community Services Committee voted to the local Scouts last week to contribute to the rebuilding of their hut following its destruction a couple of years ago.
But at TDC we are likely to have to tighten our belts in the new year, with prices going up income falling ( have a mentioned before the appalling 0.5% grant settlement we get from central government?), but hopefully one thing that might escape the cut is £14,000 that the Community Services Committee voted to the local Scouts last week to contribute to the rebuilding of their hut following its destruction a couple of years ago.
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