New Affordable Homes in Hurst green

While the unions have installed 'Red Ed' Milliband as Labour party leader over the head ofthe wishes of labour party members and MPs; , here in Oxted South Conservatives continue to deliver improvements for local people.

For instance this month 8 new affordable homes for Tandridge residents have been built on Pollards Oak road (next to the Community Association centre) to join the 10 opened on the Greenway earlier in the summer. Alongside new popular new services for residents like garden waste recycling, this demonstrates our commitment to improving front line services despite the financial challenges that we all currently face.

Councillor resigns from the Lib Dems

It seems that Cllr Lisa Bangs (who represents Lingfield and the Lib Dem's only Tandridge councillor south of the A25) has decided to resign from the Liberal Democratic party and therefore the Lib Dem group.

I believe that her decision was down to her unhappiness with the Coalition government.

Committee Meetings

We have now had the first committees of the new council year.

At Housing Committee we agreed to an action plan which will modernise and change the delivery of support services offered to older people in the district. The action plan has been drawn up following a review of the Council’s Sheltered Housing Service and has been driven by the need to create a service that better meets the changing needs of older residents. The review process included extensive consultation with both existing and potential service users of this council's housing. The new arrangements will hopefully better meet demand.

And at Resources Committee we signed off last years accounts (an underspend!) and bemoaned the pointlessness of a lot of the processes put in place by the previous government which cause us as a council to spend more than £20k per year on reporting that no-one will actually use.

Greenway Social Housing

On Tuesday I was able to look around the nearly completed new homes on the Greenway have have been built by the Raven Housing Trust on former Tandridge District Land. When completed they will be available house local families on the housing list.

I was very impressed. They are spacious with large rooms, built to a very high standard including the latest environmental features (such as solar panels to heat water and a high specification of insulation). And for the lucky new tenants Raven have even provided carpets. And while the majority of the new homes are flats the deveopment includes two 2-bed houses and one 3-bed one, providing much needed additional family accomodation in Hurst Green.

I believe most, if not all have been allocated, and the lucky new tenants will move in next week.

Planning Policy

More good news from the Coalition.

New planning advice - which has now been formally handed down from central government -means that there is no longer a presumption in favour of those who want to build new houses by grabbing back gardens, by saying it was brownfield land.

While this does not mean that houses will never again be built on gardens (and there is for now at least still a need to provide new homes in the district), it does mean that Tandridge DC will be able to take residents concerns into account as to when and where this occurs and say be empowered to say no when it is not appropriate or welcome, without the threat that the unelected Planning Inspectorate will overturn every decision.

Godstone Farm

This morning the independent report into the E. coli outbreak at Godstone farm was published. Local residents can find the report at www.griffininvestigation.org.uk.

Car crime

There have been a few incidents over recent weeks in the Oxted area of cars being broken into or vandalised. Local residents would be advised to keep more of an eye out than normal and report any suspicious activity to Surrey Police on 08451252222 .

End of the Housing Revenue Account

Tuesday's announcement that the Government is reviewing the unfair housing 'subsidy system' (which sees Tandridge tenants sending money via Whitehall) to badly run Labour councils is very welcome. Giving power back to Tandridge to run its own affairs would be a positive move, they key issue is to ensure that we do not end up having to assume too much debt from other authorities in order to facilitate this.

New Council

10 days ago we had the first Council of the year. The main purpose of the the meeting is the governance of th Council. As such we elected Alan Jones as the new chairman. The composition of the new committees also agreed. I have come off Planning Policy an returned to Housing, which I was pleased about. Housing queries often form a large part of my casework and it will be good to get more involved in shaping the policy. I have was also elected Vice Chairman of the Resources Committee. Given the financial mess left by the last Government and the resultant cutbacks that are likely to hit local government on I am expecting a busy year in this role!

Localism Wins

As a local councillor the most eye catching paragraph in the coalition statement reads as follows: 'The parties will promote the radical devolution of power and greater financial autonomy to local
government and community groups. This will include a full review of local government finance.'

This is great news for those of us who believe that decisions should be taken as close to the people who they effect.

Conservative-Liberal Democrat Government

A Conservative led Government that can serve a full term with the active support of the Liberal Democrats is the best result we could have hoped for in the light of the election results.
While I would have preferred us to have won outright, the Liberals bring some good policies, not least the idea of taking the poorest out of income tax by increasing personal allowances to £10,000. But the most important commitment is that of credibly reducing the deficit and starting that work this year. I also welcome their commitment to localism and hope that powers will be devolved down, so we can make even more of a difference to the residents of Tandridge.

Tandridge District Council Results

Quick post to say Conservatives retained the 13 of 14 seats up for election today (all with increased majorities), with the Lib Dems retaining the 14th.

The result in Oxted South was as follows:

CONSERVATIVES 1471
LIBERAL DEMOCRATS 734
LABOUR 719
UKIP 253
GREEN 100

7 Spoilt Papers

Turnout 74.93%

A superb result in Oxted South. Well done Barry Compton! For the rest of Tandridge's results please visit the TDC website

East Surrey Election Result

I am not going to comment on the national picture, it all looks too confusing - albeit a clear rejection of this current Labour government . My commiserations go to Matt Groves and Fabian Richter, who fought Plymouth Moorview and Bath for the Conservatives.

But many congratulations to Sam Gyimah MP, who increased Peter Ainsworth's share of the vote in East Surrey, getting more than double the number of votes polled for the Lib Dems.

I hope that this bodes well for our Council results later this morning.

Polling Today

Obviously it will be some hours before we have the Parliamentary result in East Surrey and around lunchtime before we have the Council results. But a couple of things stuck me today. Turnout seemed much higher than we might have expected given disenchantment with politics generally and pleasingly a lot of young and first time voters turned out. I was also surprised by how much fight seemed left in the Labour machine in Oxted South.

I saw Sam Giymah early in the evening. I realise that many Conservatives were unhappy at the circumstances in which he came to be selected, but I am sure that he will today have received a clear mandate from the voters of East Surrey to serve them in Parliament. In my opinion he will be an excellent MP.

Night Before

All the campaigning is done, now it is for voters to decide. All that is left for me to do is to urge readers to:

VOTE FOR CHANGE, VOTE CONSERVATIVE

Full Council

Last night saw the last full council meeting of the municipal year. There was not a huge amount of debate, but we said farewell to a number of members who are retiring. In doing so partisanship was suspended. It is a good reminder that there is often a lot more that unites Councillors of all parties (and of none) than divides us and that despite the public's current poor perception of politicians, I believe that the vast majority of us are involved in politics because we hope we can make a positive difference to peoples lives, no matter how small.

So come next Thursday I hope as many people as possible turn out and vote (for what ever party)

Campaign Update

So we are now into the last week. The polls following the TV debates show that Cameron has won, and that the Conservatives are leading the opinion polls (and Labour remaining in third place). And postal votes have started to be completed.

But we have not been complacent in Oxted South. We have again been out on the doorsteps, disturbing eving meals and bathtime and about and the main change from the last few years is still how many undecided voters there are, with many leaving the decision on how to vote until they reach the ballot box. And there are a lot of residents who want to discuss policies - local and national - to help inform their decisions. I think there is a lot still to play for...

Housing Debt

Last week there we held special meetings of the Housing and Resources Committees to discuss how to respond the Governments offer to take on around £65mn of Housing debt (Tandridge is currently debt free as a local authority) in exchange for them stopping the tax on our residents housing rents and being able to retain the proceeds from Council Houses bought by their tenants.

We agreed to continue the dialogue with government, as bizarre as it sounds the Government's offer might be a better deal than the current arrangements for Tandridge tenants and Council Taxpayers. But it reflects the gerrymandering of the system where rents from well run authorities like Tandridge where there is a great need for affordable housing for local people are being used to subsidise badly run and indebted authorities in other parts of the country.

Campaign Update

Its been two weeks since I last blogged. During that time I have been to Bath, where there was a considerable desire for change and the local Conservatives are running an active campaign to capitalise on this. Then came the leader debates. A bit of a game changer as far as the national press went, but I must say one not reflected on the doorstep. It is true that a lot of people are fed up with politics and the political class, but certainly no growing enthusiasm for Lib Dem policies in Oxted South (though a number of voters who have said they are not prepared to vote for Labour again). There is however an understanding that the fiscal deficit is too big and a strong interest in both national and local issues that matter, whether that be potholes, swimming in Oxted, parking arrangements or even Fox Hunting

Campaign Update

A good week's canvassing. Clear that while there may be dissatisfaction with politicians of all hues, there is a general desire for change. Generally people have spoken to think that Tandridge does a generally good job, which is good news for my colleague Barry Compton who is re-standing for the council and a number of voters. And even better I have now spoken to a number of voters, who have not previously voted Conservative, but said they think that Sam Gyimah, our Parliamentary candidate, will get their vote in this election.

On Monday I am spending the day with our Parliamentary candidate for Bath, Fabian Richter, t help him in his attempt to unseat the sitting Lib Dem MP and regain the seat, which we lost in 1992.

Crime Alert

The Police have reported an increase in criminal damage in the Oxted area. Over the past few weeks the Methodist Church has seen a window broken, car windscreens smashed in Merle Common and Pollards Wood road, cars damaged in Mill Lane and on the Greenway and a Motor Cycle stolen in Bramble Close.

The Police suspect most of this is caused by small groups of youths and would appreciate any information on 0845 125 2222. Also any nuisance behaviour should be reported to the Police.

Easter Over

The Bank Holiday weekend is drawing to a close and if the pundits are to be believed tomorrow will see Gordon Brown head down to the Palace and ask for a disillusionment.

Last week's canvassing got off to a wet start but we did managed to get out and leaflets have been delivered. As a councillor one of the best things about canvassing is getting to hear what is wrong in the neighbourhood. I get to talk to my constituents all though the year, but that is only a small proportion and generally those to have a particular issue to solve. So to have a broader view of what people's priorities are is invaluable.

And three come along at once

And finally for today I have seen that the new bus stops are going in around Hurst Green. Hopefully unlike this blog, passenger won't have to wait weeks for a bus only to see three coming along at once.

Seriously, I gather that the new bus service is a vast improvement on the previous arrangements; good news for local residents (but bad news for local taxi drivers, who are already suffering the effects of the downturn).

Construction Work in Hurst Green

Quite a lot is going up (or down) at the moment. I blogged 10 days ago about the social housing being built on Pollards Oak Road and the Greenway, but housing of a different type is being built on the Holland Road, where the new nursing home is quickly taking shape. Specialising in dementia suffers it will provide a much needed resource for the area. And on Comforts Farm Avenue and Mill Lane new pipework is being laid. Hopefully the disruption is causign will not last too much longer.

And we're off..

Tonight marks the start of our campaign to retain Oxted South for Councillor Barry Compton at the District Council elections on May 6th. We will of course take the opportunity to mention our new Prospective Parliamentary candidate, Sam Gyimah just in case their happens to be a General Election on the same day....

I find canvassing is a great opportunity to get out and hear what residents have to say about life in Hurst Green, Broadham Green, Merle Common and South Oxted (not to mention a good way to keep fit.

Delivering Affordable Homes for Local People

On Wednesday I visited the previously slightly run down area behind Pollards Oak road shops to see the transformation that is going on in an area of former scrub land and garages. Raven Housing Trust are currently building 8 homes on land provided by Tandridge District Council.
These new properties when complete will be available for rent to families on Tandridge's Housing list. I think this is a really exciting development, delivering high quality homes for local families while at the same time improving a run down corner of Hurst Green. They are likely to be completed in the early Autumn.

And in the Greenway the 10 new homes built on the former car park are much nearer being completed and are looking very good.

Together these are good examples of TDC's committment to provide much needed affordable housing for local people.

It seems I do have some readers!

It was a surprise to me as well! But over the past couple of weeks a few people have approached me saying they occasionally look at this blog (including 2 at Tandridge's annual Civic Reception on Tuesday night) and why had I been so poor at updating it? Well I apologise, I will try to do better, but unfortunately when things get too busy it is the first thing to slip.

Roads

Last Friday I met with our County Councillor and some Surrey County Council Highways Officers. The following is worth reporting:

On potholes they are targeting the A roads first before fixing residential roads. I highlighted the worst of the roads around the South Oxted area, but residents should report any particularly concerns directly to the County Council via their website. Unfortunately it is likely to take a long time before our roads are back to normal.

On the problem on Hurst Green Road, the County are currently publicly consulting on a plan for no waiting restrictions on the stretch of hill from mini-roundabout to where it turns. Regrettably I think this is not the best option as the stretch involved is not the whole of the problem and in enforcing no-waiting along the all of the identified area will just cause the problem to shift again. I have asked the County to consider instead putting in passing places to make the road safe for all users, while minimising the impact further down the road.I will report back if I hear any more.

Lib Dems Call for Huge Increase in House Building

I today received a Lib Dem 'Focus' through the door which apears to imply that they want a massive increase in the number of homes built in Tandridge in order to provide affordable housing. This is quite simply the only conclusion that could be drawn. But they do not say where they intend for these houses to be built.

They claim that TDC is 'failing to deliver affordable housing'. This is simply not true, I believe Tandridge has an excellent record at providing afforable housing, and even in the depths of the recesssion we managed to secure 49 new social homes over the past year (against its target of 50).

It is certainly true that there not enough affordable homes for all who would like to live in the district. But, the stark reality is that with nearly 95% of the district being Green Belt land there are never going to be enough without large scale building on the green belt. Even this Labour Government accepted this fact by giving Tandridge the 2nd lowest target for house building in the South East of 250 new homes per year. And even if these were 100% affordable - this would still not be nearly enough to meet demand.

Therefore like most fellow residents I agree with our policies which take into account the fact that Tandridge is mostly green belt and does not have the space or infrastructure to support a massive home building plan. Within these constraints the Council will continue to deliver in a senetive way significant numbers of afforable homes for local people to rent and buy.

So I challenge the Lib Dems to tell where they plan to build their new homes, which fields they plan to concrete over, which gardens they would like to grab.

Wolfs Wood Dogs Destroyed

News from that TDC have taken action against out of control dogs. Our tenants tell us regularly that they are happy with the way we look after our housing stock. The following press release from the Council demonstrates the active approach we take to prevent the anti-social behaviour of one person impacting on the lives of others:

On Friday 19 February at Redhill Magistrates’ Court, a housing tenant in Wolfs Wood, Oxted was disqualified from keeping a dog for five years, ordered to destroy one of her dogs and to re-home another dog. She also has to pay a contribution of £500 towards the Council’s costs.

Between March and November 2009 the Council’s housing team received numerous complaints about one of its tenants, Dionne Bakewell’s dogs. The complaints were about the dogs’ behaviour which included barking during the day and night and growling at passers-by and visitors. Residents also complained to the Environmental Health team.

The dogs frequently escaped into neighbouring gardens, the local park and wandered around local roads. They behaved aggressively and in a threatening manner snarling at local residents, including children.

There was a restraining order on one of the dogs which meant it had to be kept under control and chained, so it could not get within two metres of the front door between the hours of 8am and 5pm. It also had to be muzzled on the request of a council or police officer.

During one incident in April 2009, the dogs escaped into a neighbour’s garden where children were playing and growled at them. The children were very frightened and ran into another garden to get away from the dogs. The children’s mother spoke to Dionne Bakewell and was verbally abused.

The dogs’ behaviour was witnessed by council officers and the police. On 1 October 2009 the Council wrote to Miss Bakewell to advise it did not consider the dogs were suitable pets and asked her to immediately re-home them. The Council also started legal proceedings.

On 4 November a policeman, responding to calls from local residents about a dangerous dog loose in Wolfs Wood, was threatened by one of the dogs and forced to use his CS gas spray to protect himself. The dog was later captured and taken to the police dog kennels where it has remained.

Police Panel

At Tuesday nights Police Panel, apart from hearing that one of our two excellent PCSOs has got a job as a PC (great news for her and for Surrey Police), but a loss to residents of Oxted South the Police reported that invesigations were ongoing into the armed robbery last week in One Stop. There is no evidence of any local involvement, the criminals likely to have come down from South London. The police also reported that crime in the area has fallen (especially vehicle crime and anti-social behaviour) and with a number of local criminals currently in prison things are very quite. Long may it continue

Council Tax Increase Just 2.48%

At last night’s Council meeting we agreed to increase council tax by just £4.69 for the whole year, for a Band D property. This is an increase of around 9 pence a week and gives a Band D Council Tax level of £193.62. This is the lowest increase for 10 years made despite receiving th fourth lowest grant settlement from central government (which increased by just 0.5% compared to the 4% average) and reflects among other things a £905,000 saving in staff costs, all achieved without any redundancies.

Front line services will be unaffected and in fact over the past year (to quote Chairman of Resources, Cllr Fisher) "weekly recycling has increased to over 30% and we have kept the weekly back door waste collection service. We have reduced the number of households living in temporary accommodation and through the Planning Core Strategy protected our Green Belt and won an above average 74% of appeals. We continue to provide shoppers free parking to support local businesses. In the words of the Audit Commission ‘we have made savings and improved services’.

Sam Gyimah - East Surrey's New Parliamentary Candidate

Along with around 300 others I attended a meeting at Oxted School on Saturday to select a successor to Peter Ainsworth as the Conservative candidate for East Surrey (and therefore hopefully our next MP).

While the circumstances were unfortunate - having six candidates thrust upon us under bi-election rules - the field was strong enough to deliver two candidates who would have been an excellent future MP, in my opinion the best one won. So I, like the vast majority of others present, was very happy the result.

Sam Gyimah came across to me as the ideal candidate, bright, a good communicator, likeable, a good track record outside of politics and an original thinker. From what I have seen so far, I hope and expect him to go far. I look forward to working with him.

For more details about Sam see his website.

Armed Robbery at the One Stop

Yet again another armed robbery in Hurst Green. For a normally quiet part of Surrey we seem to be getting more than our fair share of this type of serious crime. I will take the opportunity of the Chief Constable's annual visit to TDC on Tuesday to quiz him on what they are doing.

CCTV photos of the suspects can be found on the Surrey Police website, though the police report is as follows:

At approximately 9.20pm on Wednesday (February 10) two men entered the One Stop shop, on Holland Road, and demanded staff hand over money from the cash tills.
One of the suspects produced a gun concealed within his hooded-top and fired it into the floor.
The robbers grabbed money from the tills and escaped in a waiting vehicle.
Police are keen to trace a dark coloured 'N' registration Renault Clio which had a white driver's door and a black Range Rover which were both seen in the area at the time of the offence.

The first suspect is described as a black man, slim to average build, approximately 5ft 10in to 6ft tall, wearing a black leather (appearance) thigh length jacket, with a dark hooded top underneath, black trousers, black trainers with white laces and black balaclava.
The second suspect is described as a white man, medium to stocky build, approximately 5ft 10in to 6ft tall, wearing dark rimmed glasses, a dark hooded sweatshirt with "Reebok" written horizontally across the chest, dark shell suit trousers with light vertical stripes on each side of the leg, white trainers with dark insets or dashes around the toe cap and sides and black gloves.
There was possibly a third man waiting outside.

Investigating officer Detective Sergeant, Karl Humphrey, said: "We are looking into the similarities between this robbery and the attempted robbery at Londis, Hurst Green, in September last year.

"This was a very frightening experience for the two members of staff who were working at the time and also for two young schoolchildren who happened to be in the shop when the robbers burst in.
"I cannot stress how vital it is we locate and arrest these men. They armed themselves with a gun and it is possible one of them may have suffered injuries when the weapon was discharged.
"Oxted is a small community and I can understand those who live there may be very shaken by this event but I would like to reassure you we are doing all we can to identify these robbers and bring them to justice.
"If you know someone who drives an 'N' registration Renault Clio which has a white driver's door or a black Range Rover then please come forward. Your phone call could make all the difference to this investigation."

Tandridge Sergeant David Coomber said: "The local Safer Neighbourhood Team will be working alongside detectives during this investigation and also providing a high visibility presence in the community.

"I would encourage anyone who has any information at all regarding this robbery to speak with detectives or Crimestoppers if you wish to remain anonymous."
Enquiries into this incident are on-going but anyone who can help is urged to contact Surrey Police on 0845 125 2222 quoting reference TD/10/688 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.