Last chance for public loos

An extraordinary meeting of the council has been called for this evening in a last ditch attempt to reopen our borough's public toilets.

I am proposing the motion and am hoping that a number of RA members have realised what a terrible mistake it was to close these three facilities across the borough.

It disturbs me that there is still waste and inefficiency present within the council's budget and yet instead of tackling this the RAs chose to cut important services to the public. Unfortunately first indications are that the leadership of the RA group of councillors is going to oppose my motion. Cllr Robert Leach has misleadingly suggested that one of the sites is no longer owned by the council. What he doesn't make clear is that the council had not owned it for a number of years, council officers having neglected to renew the lease, but that the legal owners have absolutely no problem with the site being leased at a peppercorn rent for the purpose of being run as a public toilet.

Cllr Jean Smith has sought to dismiss the strength of public feeling on this issue. She has suggested on local radio that that the 130 people who attended the public demonstration at the Stoneleigh public toilets (pictured above) were in fact not local but instead "bussed in" by local political parties. This has been described as a "pack of lies" by the local RA ward chairman. It's unfortunate that instead of dealing with the merits of the argument for public conveniences within the borough these councillors seek to mislead so as to protect their position.

Tonight's vote will be very close and I very much hope that, just as they did with their opposition to granting our local regiment the freedom of the borough, that RA will admit their mistake and do a u-turn. It is important that tonight they represent the interests of their residents and not the interests of the RA group of councillors.

Mass RA resignations

Yesterday's Epsom Guardian carried a letter from Mr & Mrs Beeken, residents of Auriol ward. It reads as follows:

I have today informed Councillor Leach that my wife and myself no longer wish to
be members of the Residents' Association due to his efforts against the
disabled. This is not about money but more the treatment of people who are in a
far worse position than us. In next year's elections we will both be voting for
one of the main party candidates and we urge others to do the same. My wife
Marian and I have lived at this address for more than 30 years.

So even the RAs own members don't agree with their current path under the leadership of Councillor Robert Leach. It seems that Mr & Mrs Beeken are not alone. An examination of the statement of accounts submitted to the Electoral Commission by Stoneleigh & Auriol RA shows that between 2008-2009 that particular RA lost over 400 members. A massive drop.

At that last election the RAs secured, for the first time ever, less than 50% of the vote. It seems their decline continues.

RA internal warfare continues

It seems that the domestic strife the RA movement is currently suffering is set to continue, with much dirty linen being aired in public. Bill Slaughter has to be commended from standing up to RA councillors when other local RA chairmen keep quiet and therefore implicitly give their support to what RA councillors are doing.

The letter below was sent by Bill to the Epsom Guardian. If RA councillors won't listen to the pleas of their own activists what chance do local residents have of having a listening council?

Toilet trouble for RA councillors

On Saturday afternoon I was pleased to join over 100 local residents in a demonstration against the decision of Residents' Association councillors to close the public toilets in Stoneleigh. Ironically the campaign is being led by the Stoneleigh and Auriol Residents' Association (SARA).

One has to wonder how the residents of Epsom & Ewell are meant to place any confidence in their RA councillors when the largest residents' association in the borough is openly contemptuous of and angry with their representatives?

You only have to look at the SARA web site to see the extent of the betrayal felt by once loyal RA activists. The secretary of SARA, Mike Sampson, has described Robert Leach, RA councillor for Auriol and Chairman of the RA group of councillors, as being "inaccurate and misleading" in relation to comments made about the toilets.

Bill Slaughter, Chairman of SARA, has come out in the local press and stated "the RA councillors who control Epsom & Ewell Borough Council are refusing to listen to and act in accordance with the wishes of residents." One hell of a statement from the most influential RA chairman in the Borough. If I was Robert Leach I wouldn't be betting on being able to run as an RA candidate in the 2011 local elections.

Let's remember that the closure of all three public conveniences in the Borough (the other two are on the Upper High Street in Epsom and in Ewell Village) was part of sweeping budget cuts pushed through by RA councillors this year. These included the closure of Cox Lane day centre for the elderly and, quite dsigracefully, scrapping free parking for Blue Badge holders. In the budget debate I put forward how money could be saved without attacking services for the most vulnerable in our community, but us Conservatives were voted down.

It must be galling for residents of Stoneleigh and Auriol that they lose their public toilet (which only cost £7,000 per year), but the RA Mayor of the Borough still gets driven around in a chauffeur driven car, RA councillors have refused to reduce their allowances which they increased by 14% after the last election and the council continues to produce a glossy propaganda magazine for every household a number of times a year. What, they must be asking themselves, is the point of electing an RA council?

SARA appear to have made a financial offer to the RA group of councillors to assist in keeping the loos open. It was stated on Saturday that this was rejected and one councillor described it as a bribe! It makes me wonder whether the RA group has lost all sense. They state they are here to represent the best interests of their residents through the Residents' Association movement, yet when their own local residents' association points out where they have gone wrong they stick two fingers up at them.

If Stoneleigh & Auriol RA councillors will not stand up for their own residents then us Conservative councillors will have to instead. I can promise the residents of Stoneleigh & Auriol that we will fight to reopen their loos.