Author: Tim Foster

One of the most unexpected parts of our new roles as Councillors is the training.  Acting as an interface with Officers in the Council and helping residents brings all sorts of new challenges.  We have had training on a Code of Conduct and soon we have Equality and Diversity training then of course there are the specialist committees where we represent the wider community and operate within legal frameworks.

For the Planning Committee that I am pleased to be involved in, there were three hours of training presented by a barrister and an hour is scheduled before every meeting to familiarise ourselves with the Local Plan.

One thing I have learnt already is that if you are objecting to a Planning Application, please involved your local Councillor.  They can join you in presenting your objections to committee and can be realistic about the success of your position.

It always helps to know which ward you are in so I have attached a link to the Beddington North Ward which lays our responsibilities as Councillors very clearly!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qUMmDZKvlkHTTFt7ZdET_IBSpWzztZCH/view?usp=sharing

And please get involved with the consultation on Beddington Lane – National and Local Governments depend on public apathy about consultation to push through their ideas – get your idea in as well!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tWmR-a4h2nqsK60QF0uM_BK5NOSVhgpw/view?usp=sharing

Tomorrow is Carshalton Carnival and although it is outside this ward, it is a great event and I hope it gets a lot of local support.  But also deserving of local support are the group who have proposals to relaunch the Charles Cryer Theatre.

They have a presentation tomorrow from 12 noon – 2.00 pm outside the theatre – they deserve our support and I will be going along to give them mine – see you there.

Today the calendar tells me it’s the 3^rd of June and I can’t believe a month has gone by since the residents of Beddington North ward placed their trust in me.  It is a privilege to serve them and together with the other Independent councillors, Tim Foster and Nick Mattey, Beddington North residents and their interests will always come first.

On the 8^th of May I signed a Declaration witnessed by the Chief Executive.  I must admit to an inward smile as I felt like George Washington signing the Declaration of Independence (ts)!!

What’s it like being a first time or Fresher Councillor.  A little daunting to be honest with so much to learn and absorb.  The Freshers Fayre where Councillors meet representatives of different Council Departments was very informative.  The staff of ICT were extremely helpful in trying to get my lap top set up for the different Council systems.  I’d like to thank them for their patience and I can report that after two hours all is working as it should.  Now they have to sort out my phone!!!

What has struck me in my first month as a Councillor?  The party political posturing for a start.  It is my opinion that local councils should be run by Independents who have the interests of the residents at heart and are not bound by ridiculous party politics.  A local government of all the talents would be a good democratic way to go but while the Liberal Democrats have a working majority this is most unlikely.  However rest assured I, together with Nick and Tim, will shall do our utmost to oppose matters which are going to affect our lives in Beddington North and to keep you all informed.  I suspect the Liberal Democrats will do everything they can to sideline our opinions, they do this at their peril.

Councillors are given a basic allowance plus more allowances depending on what positions they hold on the Council? This was news to me, I thought a small allowance for time, effort and expenses, would be offered.  If Councillors allowances were cut just think of the good that could do, perhaps for a carer or to keep a specialist unit open in a school.

I have been delegated to sit on the Licensing Committee, the Scrutiny Committee and the Neighbourhood & Environment Committee.  This is as well as full Council meetings and all the training and induction so a very busy time is in store.

I have been dealing with several residents’ problems.  I am assured that my enquiries of Council officers should be dealt with in a certain time frame – we shall see – answers are due by 6^th June.

A wise man has told me to concentrate on things that affect Beddington North and I will do just that but it does not stop me having concerns about matters that come to my attention.  Ruth Dombey in her short video on Sutton Scene says the Liberal Democrats have work to do.  They are committed to working with Age UK to help the elderly.  I hate to point the finger but Ruth you’ve had years to sort these things out and I’m sorry but blaming it all on Government cuts just doesn’t wash.  Yes there are strategic matters that are demanded by central Government and the Mayor of London and this can affect funding but this is not the whole problem.

Ruth Dombey says the Liberal Democrats are the party for the environment, really, so why have we in Beddington North had to see the building of an incinerator and not the country park we were promised.  It seems to me that our ward is the dumping ground for anything Liberal Democrats don’t want to put in another area to jeopardise their support.  The Charles Cryer theatre is another case in point.  Nowhere in the Borough for the performing arts is a real problem.  I suspect although I have no actual knowledge that the bids that are coming in to run the Cryer will be listed as not suitable and the original plan to knock it down together with the Gurner building and the Fox and Hounds pub to build flats will go ahead.  I may be wrong here, I hope I am, but I’m not holding my breath.

So, residents of Beddington North, what are my aims as your ward Councillor.  To endeavour to do my job as honestly and as transparently as possible.  To keep you informed of situations that will affect all our lives and to fight as hard as I can when I think they are wrong and to hopefully encourage others to consider standing as Independents in four years time.

Beware political parties in Sutton the Independents are coming!!!

In the recent Local Council Elections, the voters of Beddington North broke the mould of local politics.  Disappointed by the divisiveness of party politics and experiencing the very worst of local decision making on a daily basis, the people of Beddington North delivered a decisive blow by electing three Independent Councillors – Nick Mattey, Jillian Green and Tim Foster.

Whoever you cast your vote for in that election, we have pledged to deliver the very best we can for this ward delivering a measurable improvement over the next four years.

And in case you are wondering why you haven’t heard much from us in these first few weeks, we have been getting the lie of the land and have already been busy with local issues.

• Richmond Green – a meeting is being organised that will offer the opportunity for a group of local residents to voice their concerns over issues regarding the new build houses. That will include Council Officers, Contractors, Residents and of course Councillors.
• Concerns have been raised about the delivery and quality of the first phase of the Beddington Lane Improvements. Again, a meeting with officers is scheduled for 6^th June.
• Action was taken by Jillian in support of a Street Party for the Royal Wedding and she is taking on the archaic processes and communication surrounding this community focus.
•  There are parking issues all over the place – we have already heard of troubles in Beddington Grove and Headley Avenue. Whilst we are aware of a Council strategy document, this is one of our long-term target issues.  https://www.sutton.gov.uk/info/200194/parking_transport_and_streets/1736/parking_strategy/1
• We were even able to help a lady in Meller Close who had overgrown vegetation from the local school property – thanks to the team at Beddington Park primary for their prompt action.
• And of course, our most experienced Councillor, Nick Mattey, has been holding the ruling body to account on anything from issues with the Local Plan to the refurbishment of the Central Library which has left the Council without a suitable Chamber for Full Council meetings.

There has been another bonus for local residents that has come out of the last few weeks activity.  Those who saw our literature will have seen that whilst we all stood as Independent candidates, we worked closely together and that has continued with our recognition as a group – within the context of the London Borough of Sutton, we are now viewed as “Sutton Independent Residents” and we have proportional representation on important committees:

Nick Mattey will sit on the Housing Economy and Business Committee and the Audit and Governance Committee

Jillian Green will sit on the Environment and Neighbourhood Committee, the Scrutiny Committee and the Licencing Committee

Tim Foster will sit on the Planning Committee and the Strategy and Resource Committee.

The people of Beddington North have three very vocal representatives – we have found our voice and we would encourage you to participate.

A foundation stone of our local Government structure is the Beddington North Neighbourhood Forum whose next meeting is on July 2^nd at Cricket for Change on Plough Lane – we’ll be there and hope you will too.

#LOCALANDVOCAL

Last Thursday 3rd May, the local people went to the Polling Stations in Beddington North with the widest choice of candidates of any ward in the London Borough of Sutton – 3 x Labour, 3 x Conservative, 3 x Liberal Democrat (including two incumbent Councillors) 2 x UKIP, 1 x Green and three local residents standing as Independents.

The results announced around 3.30am on Friday morning brought gasps of astonishment and not a few cheers as the three Independent candidates – Nick Mattey, Jillian Green and Tim Foster topped the poll.

Your new Councillors would like to thank everyone who voted for them and pledge to work hard for them and every other person in the ward of Beddington North irrespective of their political allegiance.  We hope that the Liberal Democrats who still hold the balance of power in Sutton, reflect on this result and temper some of their wilder ambitions and, importantly start to listen to local residents.

Be sure we will!  Thank you again.

That was really brought home to me by an ongoing situation of a local planning issue.  Wandle Bank is a small cul de sac with older terraces of houses running the length of its unmade road, that is the responsibility of the residents and next to the road, the River Wandle.  Behind those houses lie their gardens and a single bungalow with a garden that stretches for perhaps three quarters of the length of the terraces.

Behind that bungalow lies the Flood Channel for the River Wandle and to the west, a terrace of houses that front onto Beddington Lane.

The owner of the bungalow has just submitted a Planning Application to demolish the building and build 4 houses – nothing wrong with that is there?

Well there is because planning applications were submitted in 2012, 2013,2016,2017 now 2018 and there was even a Planning Appeal turned down.  In spite of objections by residents from Wandle Bank and Beddington Lane, rejection by Transport, those residents are having to go through the trauma of the planning process all over again.

That is a very local issue and they deserve support from their elected representatives – but you have to be local to appreciate the issues and work on their behalf.

The same applies to the residents of Sheen Way with the prospect of construction of a new school on the Highview Estate and it applied to those in Chiswick Close, Twickenham Close and Richmond Road when the Richmond Green development was pushed through.

To planners, our houses are like little blocks of Lego on a board – to us, they are our homes, our refuge, our pride and our children’s future, that is why we need strong  local representatives at Council.

Vote for Jillian Green, Nick Mattey and Tim Foster in Beddington North on Thursday – we live here, we care and we will be very vocal on your behalf.

#LOCALANDVOCAL  #INDEPENDENTSDAY3RDMAY

“£28 million invested in St Helier thanks to Lib Dem Council” that’s what the headline says and, with the affection that our local hospital is held, it is a potential tick in the box – as long as you read below the headline and then look at the real background.

The London Cancer Hub is a great and creditable project and it was first used politically by the Liberal Democrat Council as a rationale for siting a new secondary school.  That the alternative site would be damaging to the electoral hopes of Ruth Dombey, Leader of the Lib Dems and that an Independent assessment questioned the adequacy of the site from a size perspective were outweighed by the grandeur and potential of the Cancer Hub.  So the London Borough of Sutton agreed to spend £8 million (+ costs) to acquire the proposed 1.6 acres of land.  Additional costs to the project were incurred because the school will open in September 2018 in temporary accommodation as the new buildings will not be ready until September 2019!

No mention or political capital was made of this acquisition but then with two more tranches of land purchased in 2017 and 2018, for a cumulative £28.1 million, the claim for credit starts – photo opportunities for Sir Vince Cable, Tom Brake, Ruth Dombey, Jayne McCoy together with the well paid Chief Executive of Sutton, Niall Bolger.  Quite why a “neutral” such as Mr Bolger was party to a Lib Dem promotion was never clarified nor how the cumulative borrowing of some £36 million by the good people of Sutton was cause for a political points scorer.

The latest tranche of land was acquired, according to Sutton’s own press release, “to host a series of state of the art academic and commercial buildings” – the same release goes on to say that “the £1 billion London Cancer Hub project will shortly be seeking commercial partners to begin developing buildings on the new land.” Once more, Sutton Council are taking commercial risks with our money!

But, to their credit we have a Lib Dem Council acquiring land from a supporting partner of the London Cancer Hub, Epsom St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust and insisting that they spend the money – all £28.1 million – on St Helier Hospital.  That is quite a merry-go-round of public money!

But we also have to be concerned that someone is being economical with the facts because there is a Press Release from the Epsom St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust dated 14 Jul 2017

https://www.epsom-sthelier.nhs.uk/news-and-events/st-helier-hospitals-12-million-facelift-begins–2069

When you next hear of a bit of bragging of how a politician has spent your money or intends to spend your money, stop and think – claiming credit for a £28.1 contribution to a £12 million project!?  Priceless.

#LOCALANDVOCAL  #INDEPENDENTSDAY3RDMAY

Recently on Facebook, there was a piece about the latest delivery from Liberal Democrats on the west side of the Borough and one of the major party candidates, contesting Beddington North, observed that the same leaflets had been delivered to him in Wallington South.

It struck me at the time that of course he was concerned with what happened local to him, in the Ward where he lives, but was he as concerned about Beddington North?

Each of the major parties has two out of their three candidates for Beddington North recruited from outside the Ward – are they more passionate about where they live and the political perspective they promote than what happens to us in Beddington North?

This was brought home to me this morning by a message from Jillian Green who is standing as an Independent candidate on May 3^rd.  Jillian is a long term resident on the High View estate and has been campaigning for local residents on the proposed Sheen Way Playing Fields development since the Council first put their plans in the public domain.

She tells me that both Labour and Conservative parties are now canvassing the estate with promises to stop the building on Sheen Way – are these are the same Conservatives who abstained on the vote for the Local Plan that included the Sheen Way development?

Last week, I was out canvassing myself and I saw local Liberal Democrat Councillor Nighat Piracha out with a young activist – nothing remarkable about that, except after Ms Piracha had spent 4 years “representing” the Ward, they were having to use a map to find the right roads/addresses of target voters.

We have the 18 – 30’s being cynically targeted by the Liberal Democrats on National issues, we have the Conservative and Labour Groups picking up on genuine local concerns and making promises which, like so many in the past, will fade even before June.

Come what may, we local Independents will still be living alongside you all after the election.

But on May 4^th it will be a lot better if we are working for you as Councillors.

#LOCALANDVOCAL #INDEPENDENTSDAY3RDMAY

On 7^th March, I wrote a blog http://sutton-independent-residents.london/unusual-priorities/ about the placement of an expensive Perspex sign on the hoardings around the Richmond Green development and questioned the priorities of the Council when the road/footpaths around the same development were being destroyed.

I pointed out in that piece that there was a web link on the sign referring people to sutton.gov.uk/newcouncilhousing and reflected that the previous September, Councillor Jayne McCoy, in Full Council, had been unable to indicate what proportion of the houses would be part owned and what proportion council rented.

Other Facebook users had said that similar signs were put up at the Fellowes Road site and the Ludlow site and had asked whether these were all Council Houses.  I said I didn’t know but would ask.  Today, I received the reply:

Dear Mr Foster

I acknowledge your request for information dated 9th March 2018 concerning Richmond Green.

Request: In reference to planning Application No: D2016/73695 – 23-50 Richmond Green – Demolition of 28 existing bungalows and construction of 21 new 2 and 3 bedroom dwelling houses, this build is currently in progress. Recently a large poster was put up on the hoarding surrounding the site that had stated “New Homes for Local People” and a website reference: sutton.gov.uk/newcouncilhousing.

Please can you confirm what proportion of the 21 houses will be council rented properties and what proportion will be marketed under joint ownership with, for example, a Housing Association?

Response:  I am unable to provide at this stage the tenure split on Richmond Green because this is still being determined.

This was from the Head of Housing Enabling and Development – I still cannot understand who would authorise a business plan that involved an expenditure of £7+ million and have no concept of the end game – but that is not the object of this piece.

Council housing and tenancy types are simply explained on the Government website https://www.gov.uk/council-housing/types-of-tenancy.

Whilst I have no doubt that a proportion of the housing built in these three developments will be Council Housing, to create the grandiose impression that they have with their headlines and expensive posters, the current administration is creating an illusion – a confusing one for those in need and an expensive one for Sutton Council Taxpayers.

#LOCALANDVOCAL #INDEPENDENTSDAY3RDMAY

Well today Tom Brake announces that Sutton are re-thinking their strategy on the Charles Cryer Theatre – the sort of news that someone thinks will make up for all the previous nonsense that we have been fed about “Commercial Rents”.

What has happened is that the leadership has finally realised that a Civic Council is supposed to listen to the electorate – the people they are supposed to represent.  The recent apologist document about the Incinerator that has been widely shared on Facebook is another indicator of this dawning realisation that they have relied on their organisation, the election machinery and bombardment of the electorate with their own biased perspectives rather than talking to people on the ground.

And anyone wondering just how insidious that election machinery is, should read the small print on the bottom of a typical Focus leaflet.  The following came from Sutton North and a self-congratulatory editorial about the recent library improvements.

The Liberal Democrats and their elected representatives may use the information you’ve given to contact you. By providing your data to us, you are consenting to us making contact with you in the future by mail, email, telephone, text, website and apps, even though you may be registered with the Telephone Preference Service. You can always opt out of communications at any time by contacting us or visiting www.libdems.org.uk/optout. For more information go to www.libdems.org.uk/privacy.

Fortunately, forthcoming changes in Data Protection under GPDR  mean this assumptive consent will no longer be adequate – sadly for us, the new rules don’t come in until 25^th May 2018 so you may still get an unwanted piece of literature.

From then on, you will have to positively consent to the use of your data and furthermore, if you do not consent, it will no longer be enough to delete you off their database, they can be required to effectively erase the history of contact.

I expect that the London Borough of Sutton has a complete implementation plan in place – yes, even if you are on the lists for Garden Waste, they will have to ask for your consent to write to you.

But at least when the next election comes round, if you once emailed Tom Brake about a constituency issue, you won’t have to read some piece of guff from his Lib Dem colleagues!

Politicians will all have to listen – that will make a change!

We have seen the publication of manifestos from both the Liberal Democrats and the Labour Party and it is worth understanding the definition of the word before everybody gets too excited!

A manifesto is defined as a public declaration of policy and aims, especially one issued before an election by a political party or candidate.

So, they are not promises, only aims – now read the line in the Labour document “However, we recognise that only the election of a Labour Government committed to the radical policies of its 2017 General Election Manifesto will enable s to fully deliver all the change that Sutton residents aspire to.”  That is one hell of a get out clause!

Then there is the terminology – “we demand more Borough school places for our children” – that is not a statement of policy, it is the strident tone of a placard waving protester.

They also seem to have referred to the David Cameron book of cock-ups – they are going to “negotiate an end to the incinerator contract and put a proposal to end the contract to residents via a referendum!”

Wherever you look in the 30 pages – a 10% levy on developers is hardly going to make Sutton the go to borough for house builders – there are more holes than Granny’s colander!  There is a certain amount of cutting and pasting from their 2014 effort “With you, for you” but at just 16 pages, that one was at least an easier read.

As for the Liberal Democrat effort, it lurches from a profound sense of entitlement to what one can only hope is unintentional irony.

Constant reference to “our” in their plans – our Sutton Town Centre Masterplan, our new school in Belmont, our council-owned company – they won’t acknowledge that the only collective “we” are the residents. Councillors of whatever persuasion are there to serve the residents – that’s us.

The irony? Having granted retrospective Planning Permission for the destruction of trees and nesting habitats for the convenience of their SDEN pipelines, they are going to “Support tree-planting schemes with the aim of achieving over 2,000 new trees across the borough”. If that was not ironic enough for you they will “Deliver one of the largest London Parkland areas in Beddington”. Just don’t forget your gas masks when you visit!

For a party of Government, the Conservatives seem a bit slow off the mark with their agenda although they were first in with the voting bribe of £10 refund on your Council Tax if your bin isn’t collected – the fact that they have promised that Veolia will pay it, not them, and in knowledge that the reporting system that the incumbent Lib Dems has in place it not working,  tends to put this into “Promises, promises.”

#LOCALANDVOCAL #INDEPENDENTSDAY3RDMAY