Election Campaign Round-up

I have been greatly encouraged by doorstep support received so far. Now into the final week after a month of campaigning it is clear that residents recognise that Conservative Tandridge is a successfully run Council, delivering high quality services at a reasonable cost. In particular, at a time when other councils up and down the country are having to cut services in order to fix the hole in the public finances, Tandridge’s success in protecting both its own services and its support to the voluntary sector while not increasing tax or making staff redundant has been welcomed.

I am grateful to all who have taken time the time and trouble to speak to express their concerns. The following issues are the most common that have been raised:

State of Local Roads
We are all entirely dissatisfied with the state of the roads, in particular here in Oxted South, and to be frank the entire district could do with resurfacing. However, roads are not Tandridge District Council’s responsibility but the County Council’s and after 13 years of under-funding by the previous Government it would cost many hundreds of millions of pounds to do this. However Surrey County Council is to spend an extra £4 million per year on repairing potholes and George Osborne announced a further £4 million for Surrey’s roads in his recent budget.

Paying for Parking in Oxted
Local Conservatives are actively opposing the County Council’s plans for on-street charges as we believe it will hurt local businesses as well as causing inconvenience to shoppers. Conservative Tandridge will continue to provide free parking for Oxted shoppers in the Ellice Road Car Park.

Commuter Parking in Hurst Green
Over recent years more and more commuters have been starting their journeys from Hurst Green. With the station car park full, we are all aware that cars are being left on surrounding roads, particularly the Hurst Green Road. Without a radical solution, like the construction of a large car park, or imposing residents’ permits in Hurst Green, the problem can only be managed, not eliminated. We hope that the newly painted yellow lines on the Hurst Green Road will make it easier for cars to pass again. And following campaigning by your local Conservative Councillors, Tandridge District Council is proposing to make available part of the Mill Lane car park for commuters (while protecting spaces for local users).

On thursday, in the Oxted South Ward please

VOTE AINSWOTH, VOTE CONSERVATIVE & NO 2 AV

Vote No 2 AV

Our current tried and tested voting system gives everyone one vote and delivers clear outcomes. The ‘Alternative Vote’ is an unfair, complicated, unpopular and expensive system that gives some people more votes than others. AV is unfair - with our current system everyone gets one vote, but under AV voters of less popular parties may get their votes counted two, three or more times. AV is unclear – the third place candidate can be elected. AV is unpopular – just Fiji, Australia and Papua New Guinea use AV and in Australia voters want to get rid of it. AV is expensive - as it is much more complicated to administer.

Keep One Person One Vote, VOTE NO TO AV.

Vote Ainsworth, Vote Conservative

When casting your vote please remember that a Conservative Tandridge is putting local residents first by:

· Not putting up Council Tax (for the first time in Tandridge’s history)

· Not cutting services or financial support to the voluntary sector

· Not making council staff redundant

· Delivering innovative solutions to difficult issues

Despite the worst recession in a century and a big cut in the amount of money received from Government, Tandridge continues to deliver improved high quality services including:

· Weekly refuse and recycling collections (and a very popular garden waste collection)

· New affordable homes in Hurst Green for local families

· Free town centre parking thereby helping to protect shoppers and local businesses

· New children’s play equipment in Boulthurst Way and additional investment in the Tandridge Leisure Centre

23,000 People Oppose On Street Parking Charges

It is a shame that while Tandrige is trying to protect local businesses by offering shoppers free carparking in Oxted that the County Council is intending to introduce short-sighted charges for on-street parking.

Tandridge Councillors were united in agreed to oppose this at the recent Council meeting. And it looks like that over 23,000 Surrey residents agree. There is just one day to add your name to petition on the County website. To do so follow the link: http://petitions.surreycc.gov.uk/ParkingCharges/

No Increase In Council Tax No Cuts No Redundancies

This is what I and my fellow Conservatives who run Tandridge District Council decided last month. Indeed despite the significant cuts in Government grant brought about by the need to reduce the Country’s budget deficit, the local Conservative councils serving Oxted and Hurst Green have voted not to raise the rate of council tax this year.

Indeed Tandridge District Council has found savings of around 10% without having to sack a single member of staff, cut a single frontline service or borrow a single pound. Instead, it has managed to save this money by working with other authorities to cut IT and administrative costs, by earning more money from recycling and by constantly improving the way it delivers services, to provide more for less.

While the Labour Government spent taxpayers’ money like it was going out of fashion, Conservative Tandridge prudently prepared for the tough times ahead. We have been running efficient services, we implemented a recruitment freeze to avoid the painful process of making staff redundant and have kept the Council out of debt.

Tandridge has been able to increase frontline services rather than cutting them. For instance unlike other local Councils who have had to switch to a fortnightly bin collection, Tandridge residents continue to benefit from both weekly refuse and recycling collections and are now able to have their garden waste collected as well.

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.