Woodcote Road traffic signals to be synchronised

Finally the work to link the traffic signals from the Woodcote Road junction with Stafford Road down to the Melbourne Road pedestrian crossing on Manor Road is underway. Ever since the new pedestrian crossing at Beddington Gardens was put in to prevent more accidents occurring at this junction Colin, Richard & I have been nagging TfL to get this work done to ease the traffic flow along Woodcote Road. We had been promised that a ‘slot’ for the work had been allocated but the date the work would begin proved elusive. At last we have been informed that the work is underway.

 

Also included in the linking will be the traffic signals at the entrance to Sainsbury’s car park and the pedestrian crossings by Shotfield and Hawthorn Road.

 

The linking will mean that detectors in the road will respond to queues of traffic and adjust the signal timings to create a better progression of traffic in this area.

 

The work is due to be completed by mid April and we will look forward to seeing if the linking has the desired effect of improving traffic flow through Wallington.

Monday 19th January 7.30pm

Sutton, Merton & Surrey Joint Health Scrutiny Committee

The main item of interest for this meeting was an update on the review of Women’s and Children’s Services provided at Epsom & St Helier hospitals. Following on from consultation events and working groups which took place in the previous year it had been decided to pursue the partnership options idea. By working in partnership with a larger nearby hospital it may be possible to retain maternity and paediatric services at both Epsom & St Helier whilst satisfying the Working Time directives. Discussions on a partnership between St Helier & St Georges hospitals are well under way and look very promising. Surrey PCT is leading the work in relation to Epsom hospital but this is less advanced.

 

Plans for St Helier are for a Level 2 Neonatal intensive care unit; a traditional labour ward with consultant cover and a midwife-led unit. A formal partnership with St Georges would allow sharing of knowledge and expertise.

 

It is hoped that this project will be completed by the end of March.

 

The other item worth noting was the Management Review of Epsom & St Helier NHS Trust which was looking into proposals to split the Trust either into two separate trusts or to merge part of the Trust with another body. This is an ongoing project and consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers have been employed by the Trust to assist.

 

It was agreed by the committee that the proposals made sense as Epsom served the Surrey PCT whilst St Helier was mainly commissioned by the Sutton & Merton PCT. The demographics of the two areas differed significantly too. I expressed some concerns over the costs involved in the review and also the time it would take. The last thing we want to see is the decision dragging on and on. The review is due to be completed in Spring 2009.

Monday 19th January 12.30pm

Wandle Valley Gateway Briefing

Cllr. Richard Bailey & I met with Jeff Wilson, Head of Strategic Planning and representatives of the Friends of Beddington & Grange Park to find out more about the Wandle Valley scheme.

 

As a result of funding from Viridor Waste Management Ltd environmental improvements would be possible to gateways to the Wandle Valley Trail falling within our borough. However a 10% contribution from the council was required and it was being proposed to request this from the affected Local Committees’ public realm budget.

 

The Friends reps had been invited both to hear more about the scheme and also because the Beddington & Wallington Local Committee had agreed to set aside £50,000 out of the current years’ public realm funds for a project they had put forward. There is insufficient unallocated fund to cover the £13,500 requested to match fund the Wandle Gateways scheme. The Friends’ project had hit some snags and would necessarily be delayed so I wanted to know if the Friends would be willing to release the £50,000 to be used for this project. It would also enable another project being championed by the Friends to restore Elms Pond to be funded.

 

Having asked a number of questions the Friends reps agreed to the proposal with the provision that the original project remains on the committee’s wish list.

 

The final decision will be made at the next Local Committee meeting.

Friday 16th January 6.30pm

Wallington Station Access Scheme Stakeholder Consultation Meeting

This was a special consultation event to provide a more detailed briefing to representatives of local community associations about the proposed plans for changes to the Wallington Station forecourt area; the Lidl access into the station and nearby bus stops and transport routes. It was generally welcomed that the plans to move the bus stop closer to the bridge had been dropped following comments from residents during the exhibition in Wallington Library. Improvements around the Lidl entrance area were discussed. There was unanimous dissatisfaction amongst those present about the plans to move the pick up and drop off point away from the station entrance with fears that this would compromise pedestrian safety. This is a point which Cllr. Bailey & I have taken up to pursue with the scheme designers.

Thursday 8th January 7.30pm

Health & Well Being Scrutiny Committee

The main items discussed at this meeting were Management of Long Term Conditions; Sutton Hospital Site and the Performance Rating for Adult Social Care Services and Annual Review of Performance Report.

 

The Management of long-term conditions item was to agree the scope of the scrutiny of this item. Wolfie Smith from the Care Services Improvement Partnership had been invited to give advice based on her knowledge and experience and we also received useful input from Samantha Edwards of SCILL. We were unable to agree without further information how we should narrow the focus of the scrutiny down so we requested further information for our next meeting.

 

Sutton Hospital Site

I had suggested that we brought this item to committee as there were a number of proposals for this site and I felt that we needed to keep abreast of them. It was pointed out that if the site in full or part were to be sold off for housing then this would increase the demands on healthcare resources in an area that was already felt to be under resourced with GPs or health centres. I obtained clarification that sale of the site was integral to the funding of the Better Healthcare Closer to Home (BHCH) programme.

 

We also found out that Sutton Hospital was planned to be used as a decant site during the refurbishment of St Helier Hospital under BHCH.

 

We were unable to obtain reassurance that no mental health beds would be lost to the borough.

 

There was general consensus that the majority of the site should be retained for the purposes of health provision.

 

Under the Performance Rating for Adult Social Care Services and Annual Review of Performance Report Adi Cooper, Strategic Director of Adult Social Services and Housing presented the results of the report which showed that Sutton had achieved a rating of good or excellent in all areas of work covered by the report. Areas had still been highlighted for improvement and an action plan was being prepared. The chair Cllr Gordon-Bullock congratulated Ms Cooper and her staff on the results. Cllr. Thistle requested information on the retention and recruitment and staff aware that this was problematic across all boroughs currently.

Friday 19th December 3pm

Transforming Social Care Programme

Stakeholder Reference Group

Representatives on the board were from voluntary sector organisations, local health trusts, council officers from social services departments, councillors on relevant boards and Partnership boards. I was invited to be part of this group as I chair the Carers Partnership Board. The purpose of this group was to provide input and disseminate information about the progress of the Transforming Social Care programme in Sutton.

 

Discussion took place around the need to change attitudes to social care provision both amongst staff and users. Rachael McLeod, representing the Sutton Carers Centre and I highlighted the need to make carers’ assessments an integral part of the programme and we received the assurance that the term ‘users and carers’ would be used throughout.

 

There was also discussion around users managing personal budgets and I enquired whether a credit card type system might be a potential solution. Apparently this system has been used elsewhere and information about its operation and success will be sought.

 

It was agreed that the group should be chaired by a third party organisation rather than a council officer and I am pleased that Rachael was asked to take on this role, demonstrating the commitment of the group to carers as well as service users.

Wednesday 17th December 12 noon

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Wallington Library Christmas Concert

I attended this special musical event held in the Mallinson Room at Wallington Library and hosted by the Friends of Wallington Library and Gardens. Guests were treated to an interesting and broad selection of recorded Christmas music and sustained with mulled wine and mince pies.

 

I was introduced to a beautiful piece of music that I had never heard before, but once heard surely never forgotton: Angels by John Taverner.

 

It was a lovely event to get us all in the mood for Christmas.

Monday 15th December 6.45pm

Extraordinary Council Meeting

For the first time in 32 years Sutton Council met to grant the Freedom of the Borough to a resident who had earned special distinction. This honour was to be bestowed on David Weir the Beijing Paralympic champion. As well as achieving an armful of medals Davis has been a regular ambassador for Sutton and for Sport. The motion was unanimously adopted.

 

Monday 15th December 7.17pm

Full Council – Tory tantrums and a ticking off

The main items of business were a motion from the Conservatives: ‘Voice for Business’; the SEN revised transport policy as requisitioned by the Opposition for consideration by full council; and the Communications Service Contract also dedelegated by the Opposition.

 

First item to be debated was the SEN Transport Policy as amended to exclude children on the Autistic Spectrum from the proposals for pick up points. As it now stood, after approval by the Executive, only those children attending Carew Manor school who had moderate learning disabilities and children attending the speech & language unit at Muschamp school would be considered for pick up points, and then only after an individual assessment taking into account their specific abilities and family circumstances. However the Tories wanted the whole idea of pick up points to be dropped from the policy. This was a complete about-face on the part of the Opposition as the suggestion for pick up points had originally stemmed from their members at a previous Scrutiny Overview Committee. Instead today they had their caring faces on, forgot about their usual ‘reduce spending’ line and leapt on the opportunity to portray us as the bad guys.

 

In our speeches both Kirsty Young Jerome and myself highlighted that currently transport assistance was only granted when the children had to travel more than a set distance to school, meaning that there were already a number of children who were managing to travel further than the proposed distance to a pick up point to get to school.

 

I spoke about how the council had considered the results of the consultation and significantly amended the policy to account for the concerns expressed. I also pointed out that the service was not being withdrawn but had been reviewed to see if it could be provided in a more efficient way, something that the parents I had spoken to appreciated was necessary, even if they didn’t agree with what was being proposed.

 

It was very kind of Cllr. Tony Brett Young, the executive member for Children & Young People to acknowledge in his speech the work I had done on behalf of parent/carers to get the exclusion for autistic children.

 

During the debate the Conservatives challenged the Lead Member for Children & Young People about his knowledge of children with learning disabilities and Cllr. Brett-Young responded by speaking of his experiences in Australia working closely with children with learning disabilities. I was very disappointed when Tory councillor Stuart Gordon-Bullock later made a derogative reference to this work as “wandering from one Billabong to another”.

 

The decision to approve the revised policy as it stood was passed with a majority vote.

 

The motion ‘Voice for Business’ was presented by the Conservatives and moved for an amendment to the Council Constitution to give a specific right to businesses to address council or committee meetings and to establish a business forum. I had to wonder where the Tories have been hiding these past three years as business representatives have the same opportunities as any residents to address committee meetings, and certainly at my local committee meetings they have been encouraged and enabled to have their say. There are  already three bodies specifically for the business community including the Sutton Business Forum.

 

A number of Lib Dem councillors made these points in their speeches, including Cllr. Dave Callaghan, the deputy mayor. Cllr. Callaghan spoke of the Local Committee of which he is chair, and of the work it had done with local businesses to make improvements to the Rose Hill shopping area. Cllr. Callaghan dared to criticise the Tories’ lack of policy on the economy and dismissed this motion – their response to the local crisis – as ‘tinkering with standing orders’ compared with our active Ten Point Plan which had been well received by the business community. As has now become the custom the Tory members booed, stamped and generally tried to shout down the deputy mayor for having the audacity to join in the debate from his seat on the podium. The debate steadily deteriorated into a slanging match with Cllr. Eric Howell telling the deputy mayor to “Engage his brain before opening his mouth” and Cllr. John Kennedy referring to Cllr. Callaghan’s political comments as “disgraceful outbursts” until the Leader of the Council Sean Brennan had to make a gentle plea for members to refrain from slinging insults and personal remarks.

 

Cllr Lyn Gleeson had submitted an amendment to the motion which agreed that businesses play an important role in the community but highlighted the steps that the council was already taking with its economic strategy and agreed to review the arrangements for businesses to participate in meetings. As this seemed to reach a happy compromise the amended motion was unanimously agreed. However Cllr. Gleeson could not help but remind the opposition who seemed so outraged by some of the previous debate that “We are in the business of Politics” after all. It seemed to me that the Conservatives believe that political criticism can only be one way.

 

Unfortunately the spirit of reconciliation was not to last. The final debated item was the Communication Service Contract. And for a second time the Lib Dems were openly critical of the way in which the Opposition, in the form of Councillor Shields, had requisitioned this decision for full council.

 

Councillor Graham Tope made a brilliant tongue-in-cheek speech about how we should feel sorry for a Conservative group with the worst electoral record in London and their uphill task undermining the work of an established council which continued to receive independent accolades for the work it was doing. He appreciated how, with little else to go on, the Opposition had by necessity to try to ‘shoot the messenger’ by attacking the easy & traditional target of communications with talk of ‘spin doctors’.

 

The Tories’ response to a blunt criticism was almost comical. Cllr. Shields was so angry he could barely get his words out. His voice got louder and louder as he wound himself up into a state of self-righteous indignation. Obviously the absence of press & public allowed the Tories to show their true colours as their members’ behaviour deteriorated yet further when Cllr. Callaghan the deputy mayor again stood up to speak. This resulted in more booing, shouting down and slow hand-clapping so that no one was able to hear whatever it was that Cllr. Callaghan was saying that was obviously so outrageous. I later gathered after listening to the recording of the meeting that it was the councillor’s reference to Mrs Thatcher that was like a red rag to a bull. I am still unsure whether this is because the Opposition want to obliterate any links with them to her name, or whether they hold her too sacred to be criticised in the mouths of others. I sat back and watched the amateur dramatics with some amusement. Cllr. Kennedy was marching up and down threatening a’ head on confrontation’, Cllr. Shields was banging his fist on the table and looked ready to leap over it and start a riot,  Cllr Scully’s mouth was opening and closing but I was unable to hear what was coming out whilst their backbenchers kept up the background noise. I couldn’t help reflecting that the Tories had never debated so hotly over any real policy issue, and it had only taken a basic criticism of their politics to fan them into this outraged storm.

 

Eventually Cllr. Graham Tope rose with some gravitas and rebuked the Opposition for what he described as the worst behaviour he had witnessed in 34 years in the chamber. He was particularly offended by the deliberate shouting down of the deputy mayor as he tried to speak and incredible rudeness of the slow handclapping led by Cllr. Shields, the deputy leader of the Conservatives. He contested the Tories’ claim that this is an ‘abuse of the chains of office’ highlighting that during his long service in Sutton the deputy mayor had always had the right to speak in chamber and that the Tories were conveniently forgetting those times when they had a Conservative deputy mayor, in chains and ermine, who frequently spoke from the dais offering their comments on the debate, political or otherwise.

 

Councillor Kennedy immediately responded petulantly that ‘he didn’t need lectures about protocols’ and bizarrely claimed that the deputy mayor was deliberately provoking personal attacks.

 

I left the chamber at the close of business feeling slightly uneasy. If this was the Tory reaction to a bit of criticism & political banter whilst in opposition, what would be their reaction to serious challenges if they ever assumed the mantle of power? Would they attempt to stifle debate in the same way, and silence any criticism by shouting down their challengers? If they slipped so quickly into boorish behaviour now, how much worse could that be if they held real power? How likely would they be to listen to anyone who did not agree with them? Suddenly their little performance no longer seems funny.

 

A sound recording of this meeting is accessible through the council website.

Wednesday 10th December 12pm

Carers Forum

I attended this special December meeting of the Carers Forum. The main topic of discussion was about Christmas Shopping from a Carers Perspective. The Sutton Town Centre Manager Emily Fahey and Edwina McCarthy, Access Officer for Sutton Centre for Independent Living and Learning had been invited to talk about the work they had been doing to improve disabled access in Sutton and also gave carers the opportunity to bring their attention to other issues they faced when shopping in the town centre. It was sad to hear of the thoughtlessness and ignorance carers sometimes faced when just trying to do the things everyone else does.

We were reminded that there is a Sutton High Street Access Guide with information about disabled access to shops and services in Sutton.

The Forum finished with a Christmas quiz and a sing-song courtesy of Joan and her electric organ.