Tuesday 9th December 7.00pm

Wallington South Safer Neighbourhoods Team Ward Panel Meeting

At this meeting we had a report from the Schools Liaison Officer who updated us on her work with the local schools and answered our questions.

I fed back the latest news on the Wallington Station Access Scheme and proposals to address the Woodcote Road bus stop issues. Cllr Bailey reported back on some planning related issues.

We discussed whether the priorities for the previous three months had been met and agreed the following targets for the next three months:

• Targeting Anti-social behaviour in the high street, Beddington Gardens and Shotfield area.
• Targeting vehicle crimes.
• Increase vigilance around prime burglary target areas.

There was an interesting discussion about the classification of crimes which could result in misleading figures. For example each call out in respect of groups of young people was classified as anti-social behaviour incidents regardless of whether the group were found to be causing a nuisance or committing a crime.

The Sgt LeShirley also advised us that the high visibility ‘Operation Santa’ would again take place in Wallington town centre over the Christmas period to deter incidences of pick pocketing and shoplifting.

Tuesday 2nd December 7.30pm

Beddington & Wallington Local Committee Meeting

There were two items on the agenda with the aim of informing members and the public on topics raised by residents as of interest and providing them with the opportunity to ask questions. The first looked at the activities of the Highways Service and the procedures it undertakes to meet its objectives. Mark Dalzell Parks and Highways Manager provided a brief overview of his report and highlighted the importance of information supplied by members of the public.

 

The second topic looked at the issues around Travellers which was pertinent due to the recent incidents in the area of illegal encampments by Travellers. Details of the protocols for dealing with illegal encampments had been circulated with the minutes and Malcolm Barker, who presented the item, also raised the issue of the lack of legal sites for Travellers generally.

 

Items requiring decision were the Redford Avenue Cycling Scheme which needed committee approval to go to formal consultation with the public following the objections of the Beddington South Ward Councillors. This was agreed.

 

Next for decision was how to proceed with the proposed Roundshaw skate park/wheels and ramps facility. It was agreed that the current consultation was insufficient to demonstrate strong demand for the park whilst accepting that young people were difficult to engage in formal consultations. The Police also had concerns about the proposed locations for the park.

 

It was agreed to do more work to establish whether the project was supported by young people in the area and Elevate, a voluntary Christian organisation who put on skating events for young people, were to be employed to do further consultation work. It was also agreed that work should be done to address the Police’s safety concerns about location.

How to buy your way into Parliament

I have found the Conservatives’ recent series of full page adverts in the local paper rather amusing. Bankrolled by big business and wealthy private donors they can afford this extravagant marketing tool, whilst piggy-backing on the real work done by the long-standing Liberal Democrat MPs Tom Brake and Paul Burstow. You will have to excuse my scepticism at Ken & Phillippa’s claims to have been campaigning for St Helier Hospital for the last ten years when Ms Stroud only arrived in the borough three years ago. You would also think that if they care so much they would have learnt how to spell the name of the hospital correctly.

 

This is not the first time that Ken has jumped on the bandwagon of a Lib Dem campaign: I have received leaflets telling me of the work he has been doing in respect of our local ‘Your High’ shop. This work seems to consist of duplicating work Tom has already done and never coming anywhere near the school or the shop.

 

This adoption of Liberal Democrat ideas seems to be the local interpretation of the Conservatives’ national policy. Having no new ideas of their own they have been leaping on Lib Dem established policy and attempting to pass it off as their own. The Tories’ Damascene conversion to ‘Green’ policies is very welcome, albeit a little late, as is their realisation that they should not have backed the Iraq war. In contrast the Liberal Democrats’ long existing stance on climate change; Vince Cable’s warnings about the credit bubble; and our scepticism about the arguments for invading Iraq may now be seen as visionary.

 

It is not only the Parliamentary candidates that are coming round to the Liberal Democrat world view: even our local Tory leader Cllr. Scully is quoted in the paper saying “Sutton schools should be for Sutton Children” – a headline taken straight off a piece of Tom’s campaign material circulated a year ago!

 

As I say I find all this amusing rather than worrying as imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I also trust the intelligence of local residents to to see through the well financed smoke & mirrors campaign the Conservatives are currently running.

 

 

Wallington Girls School to no longer prioritise local students

I was disappointed to learn that our local girls selective school is proposing to change its admissions policy so that local girls who pass the entrance exam no longer get priority over girls from outside the borough.

 

I have heard from many local parents who are concerned that they are unable to get places in all types of local schools due to competition from pupils from outside the area. This change in policy at Wallington Girls can only add to the problem.

 

The issue we have in Sutton is that we have a number of high performing schools which attract applications from students in areas which are less well provided for.

 

As it is a Foundation School it is the board of governors who set the admissions policy. However the school is obliged to consult on the change so I would encourage parents & students who feel strongly about the proposals to write directly to the school: Wallington High School for Girls, Woodcote Road, Wallington, Surrey SM6 0PH. The consultation closes on 1^st March 2009.

 

Click here to see the proposed admissions policy and here to see the current policy.

 

Councillor action:

 Richard, Colin & I all wrote to the Chair of the Govenors asking them to reconsider their decision. We also assisted with the collection of signatures on a petition against the change in policy.

 

Situation Update March 2009

Wallington Girls Partial Climbdown on Admissions

As a result of petitions and responses to the consultation the school has made a  partial compromise on places  and is now going to offer 80 places to local students rather than the originally proposed 60. However Colin, Richard & I do not think that 60 places will be sufficient to meet the numbers of bright local girls seeking a place at the school.

Monday 1st December 11.30am

Beddington Lane Regeneration Scheme Meeting

I met with Paul Blunt Traffic & Highways Works Manager & Russell Troup the senior project engineer to discuss proposed works for the Beddington Lane area. Beddington Lane is in serious need of improvements to maintain its status as an important industrial location. There have been some drainage issues which need addressing specifically. I was advised that the whole of the scheme would cost in the region of £10m and Transport for London (TfL), from whom funding would need to be requested, had advised that they were not prepared to fund the scheme in one go but would be prepared to fund it in stages.

 

I was shown the plans that had been drawn up for the whole area, divided into possible funding stages, and talked through the details.

 

There was discussion around which phases we should aim to implement first. We looked at whether we should try to address the most serious problems first, or whether to aim to get work done where it could be effected the quickest and so move onto the next stage. We agreed that this decision should be made between officers and the ward councillors. What was important was to get approval from the Beddington & Wallington Local Committee for the whole scheme in principle so that officers could get on with submitting the funding bids to TfL. It will be presented to the February Local Committee.

 

The final design will be subject to the results of ongoing consultation with the businesses affected, local residents and key stakeholders.

Conservatives’ Boob

The Conservatives have put out a new video on YouTube with the aim of highlighting the long-term effects of Gordon Brown’s economic policy. Unfortunately the video features a baby being fed formula milk from a bottle. This is a double boob(!) for David Cameron’s Tories. Don’t they know that breastmilk is free? They are doing the public a great disservice by promoting the expensive and inferior substitute – formula – at a time when many families are seeking ways to reduce their outgoings. Then there is the fact that encouraging more women to try breastfeeding would reduce the future burden on the health service because of the long term health benefits of breastfeeding for both mothers and babies .

FREE MILK HERE

Perhaps they were keen to ensure that their video was not removed considering that Facebook has labelled pictures of breastfeeding babies as ‘obscene’.

Tuesday 25th November 7.00pm

Scrutiny Overview Committee

The main item of business at this meeting was the review of the SEN Transport Policy.

As Carers Champion at the council I had taken efforts to hear the views of parent carers who might be affected by the changes to this policy, which proposed introducing pick up points for SEN children attending certain schools and currently receiving transport assistance in the form of door-to-door taxis. I had attended the support group of parents of children with Aspergers, made contact with parents through Contact a Family, corresponded with individual parents who voiced their concerns to me and talked with parents I know who have children with SEN statements.

As a result of these discussions I had concerns about the effect of the policy change on the parents of children on the Autistic Spectrum. Whilst a change to pick up points would appear to be a more efficient and cost-effective way to provide transport assistance, in the case of Autistic children it presented specific challenges which would result in increasing the burden of caring on the parents. The issues related to the specific disabilities of these children and also the domestic difficulties often experienced by parents of children with autism.

I raised these concerns with the Executive Member for Children & Young People, with the chair of the Scrutiny Overview Committee, with the chair of the Children & Young People’s Scrutiny Committee and sought further, more detailed information from the Executive Head of Parent, Pupil and Student Services.

 

The Liberal Democrat group had also had the opportunity to question Ms Lawson the Executive Head of Parent, Pupil and Student Services on the details of the policy and its implementation at a group meeting. The same opportunity was offered to the Conservative group but they turned it down.

 

I was therefore very pleased when I received the papers for this committee to find that the recommendation following the consultation was to exclude children on the autistic spectrum from the proposals. It came as a bit of a surprise to find that the parent representatives who spoke at the meeting were still very angry despite the change. I think that much of the discontent was that the proposal had been made at all, and the assumption that the decision was a fait accompli, rather than understanding that it was a consultation and that their views had been considered very carefully in reaching the final recommendation.

 

There were questions raised around the remaining 85 children with moderate learning disabilities or speech and language difficulties for whom the pick up points would still be applicable. We learnt through questioning that there was a distance criteria that had always been applied in the first instance which meant that SEN children living with two miles of their school, or three miles if aged eight or over have never been eligible for transport assistance. Ms Lawson advised that there were around 500 children with statements who were not eligible for transport assistance under the current scheme.

 

There was only one parent at the meeting who had a child with moderate learning disabilities and she was asked if she would like to address the meeting. This parent described her child’s disabilities and explained the difficulties using a pick up point would cause her family.

 

To me one of the important provisos of introducing this amended version of the policy was that every child who would fall within the criteria for pick up points would receive an individual assessment to ensure that it was appropriate for that child. I asserted the need to expand that assessment to include consideration of the whole family as in families where one member has a disability there are always wider implications for other family members. The parent who spoke was a good example of how the assessment should work. Given the disabilities she listed her MLD child as suffering, they should fall out of the criteria anyway, but if by chance that was not the case, then the extreme stress she described for herself & her family would be considered as well.

 

I was surprised to hear the leader of the Tory opposition asking for confirmation about whether the policy applied to children who were unable to walk as it was stated in both the policy document and in the consultation document (both attached to the meeting agenda) that it did not apply to non ambulant children.

 

I was even more surprised to hear that the Tories also had concerns about the original proposed policy given that this was the first time they had expressed those concerns. Had they had the serious misgivings they professed I would have expected them to have been raised before now, but neither the Executive Member nor any other member had heard from them. Cllr Theobald, an Independent, had been very vocal about his concerns and had had a number of meetings with officers & members to discuss his concerns, but the Tories had made no enquiries that we were aware of. It was not until this public meeting that they turned on their caring faces. Moreover this was a complete about turn as it was a Tory Councillor who had first made the suggestion that the council should consider pick up points for SEN children to address the cost issues, at a previous Scrutiny Overview Committee. All I can say is that it is easy to make promises and appear sympathetic when you are not in the position of having to deliver on those promises.

 

I was able to support the recommendation of the committee to accept the revised policy excluding children with autism based on the assurances given about the remaining affected children, the majority of whom I knew to be eligible for transport mainly on the grounds of distance from school.

 

Other agenda items included the budget consultation arrangements and the final report from the Corporate Assessment. All members of the committee agreed that the ‘bubble’ diagram of the council’s spending was a good, easy to understand part of the consultation exercise.

 

The committee was advised that as a result of the Audit Commission’s Corporate Assessment of the council in the summer Sutton had received the highest possible score. This was welcomed by most members and officers were thanked for their work in achieving this high accolade.

Monday 17th November 11.30am

Carers Partnership Board Meeting

The Board needed to decide whether to support a funding bid for an Alzheimers Café project. Debbie Brennan talked about the details and aims of the scheme. Some questions were asked and we learnt that the project would be complementary to the seven-day a week Oakleigh Specialist Dementia Day Care service. Debbie explained how the Café would help sufferers, family members and carers talk about and deal with dementia, with the aim of reducing the stigma attached to the issue.

 

Paul Burstow, MP for Sutton and Cheam also attended the meeting. Paul had been invited to report back on the National Carers Strategy, having visited the Sutton Carers Centre to consult with carers on the strategy when it was in the process of being drafted. Board members expressed their disappointment that the strategy had failed to address the situation whereby the carers’ allowance ceases once a carer becomes entitled to a pension. Members also advised Paul of other issues affecting carers which he noted and agreed to continue raising in his position as MP.

 

At a previous meeting Rachael MacLeod, Director of the Sutton Carers Centre, had raised the issue of increasing numbers of parent carers needing to access emergency funding. Rachael had investigated the details of the requests and presented the committee with a report. Most of the cases were poverty related and a discussion of the issues facing parent carers ensued.

 

It was agreed that the issues facing parent carers and the lack of support for carers of people with mental health issues should be raised with the Sutton Adults Partnership when representatives from our committee speak at the January meeting.

Thursday 13th November 2pm

Visit to Proposed Roundshaw Skatepark Site

I met with Malcolm Barker the Beddington & Wallington Lead Locality officer, and Mark Dalzell Head of Parks at Roundshaw Recreation ground to look at the proposed locations for a ramps and wheels play area (’skatepark’ used as shorthand for this area which would actually be suitable for bikes and skaters too).

 

The Beddington & Wallington Local Committee had provisionally agreed to fund a skatepark out of Public Realm funds subject to consultation with local residents & young people.

 

We discussed the feedback from the consultation so far which was favourable, particularly from the young people. Then we looked at the site particularly in the light of the concerns that had also been raised by residents and local police, such as potential noise nuisance. We discussed the possible locations and agreed that the current basketball area might be best with some modifications. We also looked at other improvements that could be made to the immediate area such as removing fencing and repainting the lines on the tennis courts, as well as where to relocate the basketball hoops.

 

One of our concerns was that we needed to be sure that we were providing the sort of equipment that the children in the area wanted. Mark said that he might be able to get expert assistance from a local organisation – Elevate, if we could allow some flexibility in the committee decision over the exact design of the equipment.

 

Thursday 13th November 10am

Health & Well Being Scrutiny Committee Agenda Planning and Links Meeting.

We held our usual agenda planning meeting first. Having heard about a number of different plans by various health bodies for the Sutton Site I said that I thought it would be useful if we could have an overview of all the different proposals for the site & the potential knock-on effect that progressing any of those proposals would have for the future of the site. I learnt that some proposals are at the planning stage and we needed to be aware that planning is outside the remit of the committee. However as it appeared that there was no single body outside of planning who had an awareness of potentially conflicting designs on the site I thought that our committee is in a good position to provide that overview. It was agreed that the policy officer for the committee would gather what information he could for us to look into this matter further. It is on the agenda for the meeting on 8^th January.

 

The meeting with the Links representatives was essentially for us to meet up, each body to explain their respective roles and to explore how we can best work together. It was intended to look at our current workplans to keep ourselves abreast of what work we were all currently engaged in.

 

Links is an arrangement that has grown out of and expanded on the previous Parent Patient Involvement Forums (PPIF). Representatives from the PPIF have been members of the Health Scrutiny Committee for many years and in my time on the committee I have found their input into the meetings both insightful and informative. The new Links set up expands their sphere of influence to include social care as well as health and gives members additional powers to call upon the scrutiny committee to look into issues of concern.

 

Unfortunately the Chair of the Health & Well Being Committee went a bit off agenda and spent a great deal of time explaining the new Better Healthcare Closer to Home Joint Health Scrutiny Committee. I was a bit surprised when he decided to provide us all with his personal opinions on the current state of the Better Healthcare Closer to Home programme. I had thought that the purpose of our partnership with Links and its members representing a broad section of the community was to listen to their views on such issues rather than dictating to them our own jaundiced opinions. I for one am very keen to see what issues and concerns are raised by the Links members in the coming year, and look forward to working with this new body.