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.

Congratulations Chris Grayling MP

The general election in Epsom & Ewell saw Chris Grayling returned for a third term as our Member of Parliament. Chris polled 30,868 votes which was an increase of 3,722 on his 2005 tally. He gained a spectacular 56.2% of the total vote, an increase of 1.8% on the last election. In doing so Chris secured the best result for the Conservatives in the constituency since 1992.

It's no suprise that after nine years as our hard working member of parliament that Chris gained such a thumping endorsement from his constituents. I wish him all the best in his new role as Minister of State within the Department of Work and Pensions.

How they voted on Freedom for PWRR

At yesterday evening's Full Council we debated giving the Freedom of the Borough to our local regiment the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment. We were debating whether we should send the matter to a Special Council meeting (the only place where the decision to confer the Freedom can be made). Quite brilliantly we won the vote by 16 to 13. I commend the Liberals and rebel members of the RA group who made that possible. I list how everyone voted below. Those who voted against being against granting the Freedom.

For:

Bradley (RA, Ewell), Buxton (Lib, Court), Carlson (Lab, Court), Jones (Lib, College), Keen (Con, Ruxley), Kelly (Lib, Town), Lees (Lib, Stamford), Morgan (Lib, Court), Morris (Lib, College), Pavey (Lib, Stamford), Petrie (Con, Nonsuch), Pontin (Con, Ruxley), Sanger (RA, Stoneleigh), Sullivan (Con, Woodcote), Taylor (Lib, Stamford) and C. Wood (Lib, Town).

Against:

Arthur (RA, Ewell), Dallen (RA, Town), Dudley (RA, Cuddington), Jay (RA, West Ewell), Leach (RA, Auriol), Long (RA, Auriol), Mann (RA, Cuddington), Reed (RA, Ewell Court), Richardson (RA, Woodcote), J. Smith (RA, Ewell Court), Smitheram (RA, West Ewell), Steer (RA, West Ewell), Woodbridge (RA, Ewell)

Abstain:

Foote (RA, Cuddington), Howells (RA, Nonsuch), R.Smith (RA, Stoneleigh), Winkworth (RA, Stoneleigh), D. Wood (RA, Nonsuch)

Not present:

Cass (RA, Woodcote), Key (Lib, College), Kington (RA, Ewell Court)

The Mayor Cllr Jan Mason (RA, Ruxley) excused herself from chairing the meeting as she considered herself to have a personal and prejudicial interest in that her son-in-law is a member of the Princess of Wales' Royal Regiment.

Why should Epsom be the odd one out?

What do all the following places have in common?

Arundel, Ashford, Barnet, Basingstoke & Dean, Belfast, Brighton & Hove, Bournemouth, Canterbury, Chichester, Crowborough, Eastbourne, Eastleigh, Folkestone, Guildford, Jersey, Kingston, Hastings, Lewes, Maidstone, Portsmouth, Ramsgate, Reigate & Banstead, Romsey, Rushmore, Southampton, Test Valley, Tonbridge & Malling, Winchester and Worthing.

All have granted their "Freedoms" to the Princess of Wales' Royal Regiment. No quibbles at any of these about our local regiment not being local enough.

Why are residents of Epsom & Ewell going to be the odd ones odd in marking the service of our troops?

Petition to honour our troops

Hundreds of signatures were collected in Epsom yesterday in support of granting our local regiment the Freedom of our Borough. There was very real anger at the council for snubbing our troops by saying they are not "local" enough to receive this honour and to allow them to march through our town centre.

We will continue to collect signatures on the streets of the Borough over the weeks to come before the final decision is made at the Special Council meeting on 15th December. However you can also show your support online: click here to support our troops.

Support our Troops!

On Tuesday, the day before Armistice Day, the council's Strategy & Resources committee met to consider my motion to grant the Freedom of our Borough to our local regiment, the Princess of Wales' Royal Regiment.

Frankly it is something the Borough should have done years ago and I very much hoped the motion could be agreed unanimously particularly as our troops are giving such brave and valued service at present.

Maybe I was naive, but I was shocked to discover that the committee was against me. Both Residents' Association and Liberal Democrat councillors opposed the motion saying that the Regiment is not "local" enough. Forget that they are our local regiment and that the Regiment is an almagamation of historic regiments including the East Surrey Regiment. Forget that they recruit from our area.

Anyway this petty, small-minded nonsense from these councillors means Epsom & Ewell is denying our troops the right to march through our town centre on their return from service overseas. Guildford so honours them, as does Reigate & Banstead but Epsom & Ewell seems intent to snub them.

The committee vote now goes to a Special Council meeting on 15th December. We will be campaigning hard to win that vote, and overturn this shameful decision in the weeks to come.

Let there be light

Good news for residents of Leighton Way and Avenue Road. The street lamp on the junction of those two roads is now blazing bright after over a year of being out of action.

The fixing of broken lamps is the responsibilty of the County Council and therefore in Woodcote of our Residents' Association County Council. As a mere Borough Councillor I have no influence over such matters, but I was contacted by a local resident who had been let down by the Residents' Association Councillor who said nothing could be done about the light.

This turned out not to be true. A numner of calls to County later, including sorting out a confusion about whether repsonsibility lay with EDF or County and the engineers were out to mend the light. In the end it took a number of visits, but the light got fixed. So why were the Residents' Associations telling people it could not be fixed? The best advice I can give is if anyone has a similar problem in future just get straight in touch with the Conservatives.