Monday 23 March 2009
Liberals try to get you pay to receive party political propaganda
The Lib Dems have just posted their County Council campaign literature through the door. Well I say their, but the title of the paper is 'East Surrey Journal'. I will let residents make up their own mind about the content, but I must say I was amused by the fact that they have put a '40p where sold' price indication in what is a slightly strange attempt at portraying it as an authentic newspaper - either that or they really think someone will pay 40p for a 4 page piece of political propaganda.
Tuesday 17 March 2009
Role of a Councillor
Councillors have a number of different roles, ward representative, decision taker even social worker but the most important is case worker.
We are the elected face of the council in our patch and it is our role to deal with problems or issues that relate to the Council, the services it provides and the decisions it takes. It is this element that takes up the most time and rightly so.
The majority of issues I deal with (after roads which are actually a County responsibility) are related to planning.
This can be tricky - balancing the needs of different residents is not always straight forward. But I have never got to a point until now where half a road has contacted me to complain about a development. Their complaints are all very reasonable ensuring that at least for once I am very clear of what the right outcome should be.
We are the elected face of the council in our patch and it is our role to deal with problems or issues that relate to the Council, the services it provides and the decisions it takes. It is this element that takes up the most time and rightly so.
The majority of issues I deal with (after roads which are actually a County responsibility) are related to planning.
This can be tricky - balancing the needs of different residents is not always straight forward. But I have never got to a point until now where half a road has contacted me to complain about a development. Their complaints are all very reasonable ensuring that at least for once I am very clear of what the right outcome should be.
Monday 16 March 2009
Parking Congestion
Last week I met with Surrey Highways to discuss parking issues in Oxted South. While I am a district councillor and Highways are a county council issue, many local residents contact me rather than our county councillor to deal with problems that arise.
And the issue of the moment is the consequence of the new parking restrictions on Mill Lane and Hallsland Way. The route cause of the problem is that there is not enough commuter parking for Hurst Green station and once the car park gets full the cars have to go somewhere. The problem is where! Mill lane was very dangerous as drivers could not see anything approaching (people or cars) and for the schoolchildren at Moorhouse school and other pedestrians walking on the road meant taking your life in your hands. So moving it anywhere else had to be an improvement.
However, where they have moved to is no better. So various solutions are being considered (against the backdrop of very little money to doing anything at all). I hope something can be put in place by the autumn,but what we really need to do is improve the infrastructure so we are not just dealing with symptoms but the cause and that unfortunately is likely to take much much longer to solve.I yearn for the day where local people will have the power (including the say over how their money is spent) to drive this type of prioity, but until then we will have to fight against the tide to get something in place.
And the issue of the moment is the consequence of the new parking restrictions on Mill Lane and Hallsland Way. The route cause of the problem is that there is not enough commuter parking for Hurst Green station and once the car park gets full the cars have to go somewhere. The problem is where! Mill lane was very dangerous as drivers could not see anything approaching (people or cars) and for the schoolchildren at Moorhouse school and other pedestrians walking on the road meant taking your life in your hands. So moving it anywhere else had to be an improvement.
However, where they have moved to is no better. So various solutions are being considered (against the backdrop of very little money to doing anything at all). I hope something can be put in place by the autumn,but what we really need to do is improve the infrastructure so we are not just dealing with symptoms but the cause and that unfortunately is likely to take much much longer to solve.I yearn for the day where local people will have the power (including the say over how their money is spent) to drive this type of prioity, but until then we will have to fight against the tide to get something in place.
Parking Congestion
Last week I met with Surrey Highways to discuss parking issues in Oxted South. While I am a district councillor and Highways are a county council issue, many local residents contact me rather than our county councillor to deal with problems that arise.
And the issue of the moment is the consequence of the new parking restrictions on Mill Lane and Hallsland Way. The route cause of the problem is that there is not enough commuter parking for Hurst Green station and once the car park gets full the cars have to go somewhere. The problem is where! Mill lane was very dangerous as drivers could not see anything approaching (people or cars) and for the schoolchildren at Moorhouse school and other pedestrians walking on the road meant taking your life in your hands. So moving it anywhere else had to be an improvement.
However, where they have moved to is no better. So various solutions are being considered (against the backdrop of very little money to doing anything at all). I hope something can be put in place by the autumn,but what we really need to do is improve the infrastructure so we are not just dealing with symptoms but the cause and that unfortunately is likely to take much much longer to solve.I yearn for the day where local people will have the power (including the say over how their money is spent) to drive this type of prioity, but until then we will have to fight against the tide to get something in place.
And the issue of the moment is the consequence of the new parking restrictions on Mill Lane and Hallsland Way. The route cause of the problem is that there is not enough commuter parking for Hurst Green station and once the car park gets full the cars have to go somewhere. The problem is where! Mill lane was very dangerous as drivers could not see anything approaching (people or cars) and for the schoolchildren at Moorhouse school and other pedestrians walking on the road meant taking your life in your hands. So moving it anywhere else had to be an improvement.
However, where they have moved to is no better. So various solutions are being considered (against the backdrop of very little money to doing anything at all). I hope something can be put in place by the autumn,but what we really need to do is improve the infrastructure so we are not just dealing with symptoms but the cause and that unfortunately is likely to take much much longer to solve.I yearn for the day where local people will have the power (including the say over how their money is spent) to drive this type of prioity, but until then we will have to fight against the tide to get something in place.
Saturday 7 March 2009
Labour U Turn on Housing Rents
Yet another example of the dreadfully confused state this Labour Government has got itself into by not thinking through the consequences of it actions:
The government has just announced (http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1167420) that it is going to halve its average guideline rent increases for next year from 6.2% to 3.1%. While this is potentially good news for council tenants, Tandridge District Council is waiting to find out more about the proposal. In particular how the government is going to make the funding available to support the Council to make the changes. It is not yet clear if the Council will receive sufficient subsidy to cover actual costs.
While (apparently) it is good news that the government is reducing the impact of rent increases, we must remember that if it didn't tax TDC tenants, the council would be able to keep rents even lower. It is only giving back a small part of the 'negative subsidy' that this Council has to deal with.
The government has just announced (http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1167420) that it is going to halve its average guideline rent increases for next year from 6.2% to 3.1%. While this is potentially good news for council tenants, Tandridge District Council is waiting to find out more about the proposal. In particular how the government is going to make the funding available to support the Council to make the changes. It is not yet clear if the Council will receive sufficient subsidy to cover actual costs.
While (apparently) it is good news that the government is reducing the impact of rent increases, we must remember that if it didn't tax TDC tenants, the council would be able to keep rents even lower. It is only giving back a small part of the 'negative subsidy' that this Council has to deal with.
Green Belt Concerns Allayed
On Thursday night the Planning Policy committee met as part of its normal quarterly cycle. Normally we don't get many (any) members of the public turning up. However the public gallery on this occasion if not packed was definitely busier than normal. Their interest had been sparked by the agenda item concerning the Council's proposal to carry out a Strategical Housing Land Availability Assessment or SHLAA (pronounced Shlar). This piece of work, mandated by central government, is necessary to see whether we need to identify sites for housing development, and if so to hep inform the assessment as to where. The catch is that it is a consultative process and allows developers to suggest sites too.
Understandably there was concern that having fought off Developers attempt to develop Green Belt land in the Core Strategy they might be able to get back in the game via this process. However, the discussion at the meeting provided much in way of reassurance. The Director of Planning confirmed that we would be able to resist attempts to build on strategic gaps between settlements (the whole raison d'etre of the green belt) and on isolated plots. It is also appeared clear that should we need to allocated specific sites, then it is highly likely there would be more than enough brownfield plots available to meet the long term allocation of the District.
So all in all, while this process is important, it is highly unlikely that any green-belt land will be impacted.
Understandably there was concern that having fought off Developers attempt to develop Green Belt land in the Core Strategy they might be able to get back in the game via this process. However, the discussion at the meeting provided much in way of reassurance. The Director of Planning confirmed that we would be able to resist attempts to build on strategic gaps between settlements (the whole raison d'etre of the green belt) and on isolated plots. It is also appeared clear that should we need to allocated specific sites, then it is highly likely there would be more than enough brownfield plots available to meet the long term allocation of the District.
So all in all, while this process is important, it is highly unlikely that any green-belt land will be impacted.
Monday 2 March 2009
Schools' Are Out
Like many other parents in Surrey we waited up (or rather went to bed and then got up again) until 1159pm on Friday night order to find out what infant school my eldest daughter will be starting at in September. We were fortunate - schools in Tandridge are all good but we managed to get into our first choice. The state education system is still one of the last vestiges of post war central planning and the fact that allocation is done by a central bureaucracy rather than in response to demand is one of its drawbacks - something a Conservative government would change - and in my view for the better. However there is an irony for me here was that one of the main attractions of the school my daughter got into was its small size. It us clear that the biggest challenge for successful schools as they expand will be to make sure that they don't lose their winning formulas.
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