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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Sunday, 22 February 2009

Tax and Services

On 19 Feb we set a council tax rate of 4,7% for Tandridge or an increase of 16p a week for an average taxpayer. This gives a Band D Council Tax level of £188.93. However once the increases by Surrey County Council and Surrey Police were taken into account it resulted in an overall Band D Council Tax level of £1,475.21 for the district, an increase of just 3.4%. When you consider that this is despite an increase in government grant of just 0.5% (from an already very low base) and when the negative housing subsidy (or more accurately central government's tax on council house tenants) is taken into account Tandridge actually subsidises Whitehall rather than the other way around; that our income from fees and investments is likely to fall significantly that we are not cutting services nor sacking employees (and thus helping keep the local economy afloat while protecting the most vulnerable who disproportionately make use of our services); in fact we have even managed to enhance them by extending our popular weekly recycling service to the whole area, introducing a new garden waste service and keeping a free car parking for shoppers to encourage our shop locally initiative and support local businesses during the current economic downturn then I hope local residents will agree that this settlement is the right one. What's more, next year is likely to be even more of a challenge and I believe that the budget agreed will put us in the best place possible to meet those challenges too.

Holidays and Snow

I have been on holiday - hence why zero posts in February up until now.

The night before I left, I spent most of the night stranded on the A22 Caterham Bypass, due to the heavy snowfalls. I as therefrom around 8.30pm to nearly 3am the folowing morning. The lack of gritting and roadclearing of what is a major road inthe County really puts us to shame. I know that this was a once in 20 year event and the severity caught us all unawares (especially me), but even so sonw was forecast and the time it took to get back up and running normally was unacceptable.

Monday, 26 January 2009

Pavement and Parking Restrictions on Mill Lane

Today, I met with Surrey County Council officers outside Moorhouse School on Mill Lane in Hurst Green for a site meeting to discuss a new pavement and parking restrictions.

At the moment commuter parking and a lack of pavement makes it very dangerous for pedestrians to walk from Hurst Green road onto Mill Lane and towards Mill Shaw. After a number of years of campaigning on behalf of local residents by Oxted South Conservatives the County Council are shortly to build a new footpath to connect the School to the pavement that starts by Mill Shaw and new 'curfew' parking restrictions will help curb commuter parking, without impacting too much on local residents to make walking (and driving) at the junction a lot safer. The pavement should be installed at half term and the yellow line could come even sooner than that.

Housing

At Full-Council last week we debated and I strongly supported a Lib-Dem motion (credit where its due) requesting that the Government unfetter local councils on Housing, by giving local people the power to decide on how best to provide housing support in their local communities. We may disagree on which powers we might use or measures we would take, but it should be for local people to decide.

At the moment this Labour government via an unfair 'Negative Subsidy' (i.e. additional tax) regime take money away from TDC's Housing Department. Tandridge’s 2,686 tenants pay £10.3 million a year in rent, but £3.7 million of this is taken by the Government. This will rise to nearly £3.9 million in 2009/2010. A better funding system is needed to help local councils meet the national housing affordability crisis and to ensure homes are made decent.

Along with the the minimal grant given to TDC from Government it is just one more example of how poorly it treats people who live outside its heartlands - despite the fact that decent housing in the South-East is a lot more costly than in say the North East and people on low incomes.

The motion was passed unanimously.

Weekly Recycling Now District-wide

Oxted South may have had it for well over a year, but now Tandridge's Weekly Recycling Services is to be rolled out to all households.

The change means another 19,000 households will start to get their recycling collected every week and be able to recycle plastic bottles. Residents in flats with communal recycling facilities and banks will continue with the current collection service.

Last year residents helped collect more recycling than ever before, increasing the amount of waste recycled to 29%. This included:

2,240 tonnes of glass.
6,660 tonnes of newspapers, other paper and card.
200 tonnes of food and drink cans.
50 tonnes of plastics drinks bottles - that’s around 1.5 million bottles.

All the materials are sent to companies in the UK for recycling.

Residents who want to order boxes and bags should contact Amenity Services on 01883 732988, via the 24 hour automated telephone information service on 08459 400 472, online at http://www.tandridge.gov.uk/ or by e-mail to amenityservices@tandridge.gov.uk.

This means that despite entering an economic downturn, Tandridge has been able to roll-out weekly recycling, alongside a weekly refuse collection to all residents.

Thursday, 22 January 2009

Crime in Tandridge

Two bits of news locally.

First, I heard last night about some recent attempts at breaking in to homes on Rockfield Road and Rockfield Close in Oxted. I believe Police think that there is gang attempting to steal cars by taking car keys from hallway tables and the like. Having a burgular alarm may not deter them, so keep keys out of sight and easy reach.

Second there was a raid on a Cash-In-Transit deliver to Tesco in Caterham, yesterday morning. Police said they believe the same men carried out a robbery outside NatWest at The Green, Warlingham, on Tuesday. Apparently two guards were injured and a large amount of money was stolen.

If, as I think it is highly likely, that either or both of these gangs were from outside of the area this just illustrates why Surrey Police needs to be treated differently from a rural Force when it comes to funding.

Thursday, 15 January 2009

Highways and Street Lighting

I met with Surrey Highways yesterday (along with a fellow councillors, District, County and Parish).

On a positive note a lot of progress has been made in repairing pot holes across Oxted South and was report that the broken paving slabs outside the Londis shop on the Hurst Green road will be replaced with tarmac.

The most interesting aspect (although deeply depressing) was that the County Council have absolutely no leverage over EDF Energy in connecting and repairing electrical connections for street lights. If EDF refuse to act, there are no sanctions that can be taken against them. And this situation is enshrined in legislation. We are all therefore at the mercy of EDF for our street lighting.... The lack of lights on the footbridge connecting Nunnappleton way and Pollards Oak road will unfortunately carry on for some time.

More Social Housing

Tonight the Development Control Committee will be discussing an application to build social housing on some dilapidated garages and unused council land at the back of the Pollards Oak Road shops.

This application was first proposed last year and whilst a great idea in principle had the major drawback that it would have blocked off a well used footpath connecting the railway station with the iron footbridge connecting Pollards Oak Road Shops with Nunappleton Way. Because of this I strongly opposed the application and it was withdrawn. I am happy to say that an application has now been submitted which retains the pathway. I very much hope (and expect) it will now be approved.

Policeman Impresses

Last Thursday night, the 'Temporary' Chief Constable of Surrey came to address the Council.

He explained why the the funding settlement for the Force is so unfair. No other force has so much of its crime originating from outside its borders - nearly 50% of crime is imported from London, Kent, Hampshire or the Thames Valley. Surrey has the UK's two largest airports on its borders, M25, M23 and M3 running through it and faces a very real terrorist threat, but is still funded like a rural county constabulary.

What was so refreshing though was his response to Whitehall diktats. He has decided to throw out the targets imposed by the Home Office, but instead concentrating on making Surrey residents feel more secure and tackle the major crimes (not the ones that might allow a swift rise up the league tables). Surrey Police are also gathering intelligence about criminals operating outside of the county in order to be prepared wen they come in.

This appeared to me as Policing as it should be and a very refreshing contrast to the attitude taken in London, where the Met has become the enforcement arm of New Labour. I very much hope our Temporary Chief Constable becomes a permanent one.

Wednesday, 7 January 2009

Lib Dems Soft on those who refuse to pay Council Tax

The Liberal Democrats are apparently calling for Councils to let off people who don't pay their Council Tax. This I think is wrong. While Councils should (and in TDC's case do) try to work with and support residents who have got into financial difficulties to ensure that they can pay off any arrears in a manageable way, there has to be a sanction for the very small minority of taxpayers who refuse to pay or refuse to talk to the council or about why they cannot pay. It is not fair to the vast majority who pay in full and on time, not to chase up people who do not do so.

Tuesday, 6 January 2009

Labour wants to tax rubbish collection

I have just become aware of yet another decision taken by this government that if implemented will further increase the tax burden on hard pressed residents, for no benefit. Eric Pickles, Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary has said that 'This is just another cynical Labour attempt to tax families more by stealth, but with a thick coat of greenwash. The Government should be working instead with councils to help extend recycling collections, and make it easier for all households to go green'.

At the end of November, laws which allow the Government to impose new charges for household rubbish collections received Royal Assent. Ministers have confirmed that the Office of National Statistics will classify these new charges as a tax. Although bin taxes will be trialled in a series of so-called pilots, the small print of the legislation allows the Secretary of State to roll out and impose the taxes on all local authorities by Order, without any vote in Parliament.

Official technical documents reveal that the bin taxes will take one of four forms:

• Bin bag tax: Households must pay for special bin bags. Rubbish not placed in a paid-for bag will not be collected.
• Bin size tax: Households will be charged for the size of their bin; with families requiring a bigger bin paying the most.
• Weekly collection tax: Households needing a weekly rubbish collection will pay an extra charge.
• Bin chip tax: Households will receive a bill based on the weight of the contents of their bin, with microchips in the bin feeding through to a central billing database.

These taxes will increase taxes on families (who already tend to pay higher council taxes); will raise the overall tax burden due to the costs of levying and enforcing a new tax; and will harm the environment by fuelling fly-tipping and backyard burning.

Local Conservatives will fight these plans.

Thursday, 1 January 2009

Happy New Year

I would like to wish all readers and especially those who live in Oxted, Hurst Green, Broadham Green and Merle Common a very Happy New Year.

There are some very big economic and political questions facing us all this year, nationally locally and in our every day lives. Hopefully the answers will become apparent during the year.

Wednesday, 17 December 2008

Highways

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.)