Paul Johnston

Bit of a brouhaha about this. Re-opened this morning by the Mayor. It's in his ward and he's standing for re-election next Thursday - but I wouldn't want to suggest that the timing and concomitant photo-shoot were in any way linked to that. Perish the thought!!

Nonetheless Surbiton councillors were advised by the Returning Officer to stay away from it because it might be contrued that ones seeking re-election were getting an unfair electoral advantage from the event and publicity. This problem could have been resolved simply enough by waiting for one week so that there was no clash. After all the date of the local election has been known for years. It's fixed by Law.

The local Ward councillors were apparently upset by the advice; one of them sent a long email explaining her concern that her opponents might now gain an advantage. Perhaps she had another reason. This morning a special FOCUS appeared in the ward in question headed

"CLAREMONT GARDENS

Re-opening of the water feature today at 10.45 a.m.

Your local Lib Dem councillors hope to see you (my emphasis) enjoying the re-opening............"

So much for the Returning Officer's advice - unless of course the councillors intended using binoculars to observe the enjoyment of their constituents.

By the way, there is a hosepipe ban in force so I do hope there's no water being lost by this 'feature'.

As we enter the final week of campaigning the Lib Dems have at last delivered a FOCUS leaflet in part of Surbiton Hill. Thank the Lord for that! I was beginning to worry that they might not get round to it at all and make our team complacent. As it is the FOCUS has been great for morale and we had the best Conservative team out in the Ward this morning that we've had for weeks!

The leaflet itself is very poor by their usual standards. a bit of a rehash of stuff they've put out elsewhere, including some obscure 4-year-old quote a former Independent councillor. Not much on their candidates or their plans for the future. 

That's the odd thing about the whole Lib Dem campaign. It's almost entirely reactive to what we are saying and is saying very little at all about their own plans for the future, except to try to sell Local Income Tax - which half their own party doesn't believe in (ask Sue Doughty!) and which Kingston Borough Council has no power to introduce anyway.

At last the Lib Dems have put some 'literature' through my door. Previously I have had to comment only on what was delivered elsewhere. The latest effort is called the 'Surrey Express'.

Of interest to me is a photo showing the 'Berrylands Focus Team' - in existance since at least last month! - 'saving' Surbiton Hospital. Strange that I don't recall any of them being at the meeting of the PCT last September or again on November 11th or at any other time. And where is the Surbiton Hill Focus Team? Conspicuous by its absence again.

Interestingly the authors do admit that there is a 'neck and neck race' for control of the Borough. Considering they are defending an overall majority of 12 and currently have twice as many councillors as the Tories and 10-times the number of Labour, this is quite an astonishing admission of how vulnerable their deplorable administration of the Borough has made them.

Again they try to change the subject and divert attention from their failures into a campaign for a 'fair deal for Kingston'.  The funding imbalances to which they draw attention are nothing new. Outer London Boroughs have been significantly worse funded by central government since the present London Local Government set-up was established in 1963. They therefore emphatically do not explain why a party with such overwhelming power as they have had has so signally failed to get a grip on the Borough's finances.

We have also further attempts to smear the Conservative Minority administration between 1998 and 2002. They don't admit that it was a minority administration and that THEY, year on year, kept it in being. Nor do they tell their readers about the reponsibility allowances paid to their Leaders throughout or to their members who chaired Overview Panels from 2000 onwards and were paid at the same rate as Cabinet members.

But most risible of all is a call from the ineffable Edward Davey MP to 're-elect a Council that's kept its promises.' What about its promise not to sink any more public money into the Theatre project - broken shamelessly last year to the tune of £3,000,000 or £250,000 a year in interest alone? All this without ever once allowing the elected representatives of the Council Tax payers a single opportunity to debate the issue in the open in full Council.

Mr. Davey should be ashamed of himself for putting his name to such hypocritical nonsense as this.

For our latest In Touch see www.ksca.org.uk.

We've been canvassing some of our weaker areas coupled with a couple of stronger ones. The results are most encouraging. Nick Kilby was positively ecstatic about the response in one of the former Tolworth West roads canvassed last Saturday morning. Last evening's team also had a great response in a formerly uncanvassed road where the Lib Dem rejections over two years of massively supported local petitions on road closures was particularly resented.

Am particularly delighted that we have carried our point on Arlington Road and that it is going to get a safer pavement sooner rather than later. I'm sure the officers of RBK hadn't looked at it before Jane and I went down there and, with the help of residents, made a fuss in Committee. One up for local representation!

This is probably the last time the Surbiton Hill councillor team of the last 8 years will operate together. Jane Cox joined Janet Bowen-Hitchings and self on the panel of guests for questions and interjections.

The two main issues to arise were the future of Surbiton Hospital and the proposal to build a 79 room private assisted living retirement home on the site of 4 detached houses at the junction of Upper Brighton Road and Langley Avenue.

The latter proposal received a lot of hostile flack. Some people suggested the private developers should get together with the Primary Care Trust and build their home as part of the redevelopment of the Hospital. Jane spoke on the proposal at some length. She is free to do so as she isn't standing next week. I had to be rather more circumspect as I am. I think there is a proven need for specialist housing for the elderly and infirm. The study undertaken two years ago by the Residents' Services Overview Panel revealed as much. (see www.kingston.gov.uk/committees) However, there isn't as yet a firm planning proposal before the Council for this site and I got the distinct impression that people felt the design put in front of them last night was rather too massive for the area and comparable with buildings on the east side of Upper Brighton Road, which are taller on the whole than the ones in Southborough on the west side.

It would appear that there are hopeful signs about the future of the Hospital. There are certainly some good ideas which I have outlined elsewhere. However there's a lingering doubt about the financial position. The papers are daily full of stories of PCTs in dire financial straits laying off staff by the hundred. Our own PCT has had 93 redundancies, I believe. How this can be when the Government has shovelled money into the NHS as never before is a question that perplexes us all - though salaries seem to have risen sharply in some areas, due to the Government's own new contracts with doctors etc. Surbiton Hospital site remains a piece of prime real estate which might yet tempt the next tier up in NHS administration to "Sell, Grabbit & Runne". (with apologies to 'Private Eye')

Wednesday saw the last Surbiton Neighbourhood full committee meeting of the quadrennium. It was held in the unusual surroundings of the canteen (I believe) of the Tolworth Junior School. This is a fascinating structure. On entering it I was transported back 50 years in time and 265 miles in distance as it is exactly the same design and construction as the canteen at my own primary school in Lancaster. Must be a standard issue late 1040s austerity building.

The agenda had little of interest or burning controversy which gave Patricia Franks a pleasant chairing experience to round off her time as 'Co-chair'.

There was one lively moment when the Surbiton Hill residents, whose 295-signature petition against a mobile phone mast I had presented to full Council, turned up to ask for the Committee's support. They spoke well and I supported them. However I could not avoid alluding to the untrue Berrylands Focus leaflet which alleged that Edward Davey MP was presenting their petition, rather than myself. This Lib Dem ploy has actually annoyed the organisers, who feel that Davey and his party have tried to hijack their petition. When I referred to it and asked that the authors of the untrue Focus should apologise for it, lo and behold, there comes a feeble bleat from the opposite bench that the Focus referred to another phone mast (unspecified), not the one in the petition. Such mendacity defies belief and suggests a contempt for their hearers and for the truth that is a matter for grave concern. Why do they have to cover one untruth with another? Why can't they just admit 'we got it wrong, sorry"?

The incident in itself isn't that important, but it isn't an isolated incident, and what it reveals about the Lib Dem mindset is very important indeed.

One annoying and less than engaging characteristic of the Lib Dems is their pretence that elections are about something that they aren't about at all.

In 1994 I fought St. Mark's Ward. It had and still has a large student population. Students were annoyed at the time at the Major government's replacement of student grants with a system of repayable loans. The Lib Dems put out FOCUS leaflets encouraging the students to vote Lib Dem to 'send a message to Major' that grants should be restored and the loan scheme be scrapped. The students obliged by voting for the Lib Dems who won the ward and the Borough.  Result? The loan scheme wasn't scrapped. It's still there and has been made more arduous for students by Blair's imposition of tuition fees which will soon be increased by 'top-up' fees. Of course the Council in Kingston has not and never has had any say whatever over such matters and the Liberal Democrats knew that all along.

Now they're at it again. 'Axe the Tax' they say. They're embarrassed by their failure to tackle Council spending and the resultant hike in Council Tax to the point where Kingston residents are paying the highest Council Tax in London. So their FOCUS leaflets are now encouraging voters to vote for them again to abolish the Council Tax altogether. But again this is blatant deception. They know that Kingston Council has no control whatever over the system of financing local government and that Blair is as unlikely to be influenced by the return of a Lib Dem Council in Kingston as Major was in 1994. But they also know that they have had power over the level of the Tax in Kingston since 2002 - and that's what the election is really about.

In fact they encouraged us to vote Edward Davey into Parliament to 'axe the tax' a year ago. He got in but the tax is still there.

There is a desperate need now for politicians at all levels to tell the truth as they see it if respect is to be restored for those in public life. I wish the Lib Dems would show that they understand this too.

Mayfair Close Surbiton at the junction with Ditton Road this afternoon about 2.30. The white hatching beneath the blue Fiat Panda is a clear indication that one shouldn't park here. The other side of the junction has even more cars. These would seem to be commuters. Local residents tell me that some cars parking there come from as far away as Tunbridge Wells and Bournemouth. This is displaced parking from nearby roads which have just had restrictions applied.

 I have today taken up the cudgels on the residents' behalf

We had a good team out on Saturday morning in the old Tolworth West area of the ward. Before 2002 this had 2 Labour councillors with the Lib Dems in second place. The returns showed us more than  holding our own on 2002.

There's no doubt that the Lib Dem's production of the highest Council Tax in London has been resented by younger and older voters alike. Also some specifically local issues surfaced. The imposition of bus lanes on the A240 Ewell Road in the face of massive local hostility is strongly resented by businesses and residents alike, especially as it is seen to fly in the face of a £500k scheme at the St. Mark's Hill junction to improve the flow of traffic and which is not yet complete. We opposed the bus lanes but the Lib Dems, claiming support from 'the silent majority' insisted on implementing it. The 'silent majority' will hopefully speak on May 4th.

All three parties have nominated a full list of candidates for the Borough elections on 4th May.

In Surbiton Hill there are 11 candidates including a Green and a Christian People's Alliance.

None of the names of my opponents is familiar to me, at least not in a Surbiton Hill context.

Friday last - dashing to get the last ten Council nominations in from Conservative candidates across Kingston. Had almost forgotten appointment with the Great Man from Minnesota until Mary Reid rang me early in the morning to talk about lunch and would I bring him home..........

At 12 noon this really friendly man walked into the Conservative Group office at the Guildhall. I have always been leary of IT professionals. They have a tendancy to talk about things I know nothing about. Well, Griff Wigley isn't a bit like that. I thought we'd have a half hour chat and I could get back to my nomination papers. We ended up involving Group Leader Kevin Davis, Priyen Patel the Group Researcher and Kate Stinton, our head of office and the discussion got around to podcasts, which seem a very exciting prospect. Then we arranged to meet again this coming Thursday. The half hour ended up being more than two - and Griff went home in a taxi - I think.

What a pleasure it was to meet Mr. Wigley - and I got my papers in by the end of the day.