Mary Reid

The Big Wild Read challenges all children to read six books over the summer. As well as enjoying the books they will be rewarded with stickers, swim vouchers, and, if they complete the challenge, a certificate and medal.

Thanks to Jane Richardson for the photo.

Kate Corkery, a popular local storyteller, launched the challenge at the Hook Centre with children from Moor Lane, St Paul's, St Philips, and Lovelace.

It's a great scheme, and is operating at all the Borough's libraries, so just take children along to the local one to join in.

Spotted at County Hall today, threatening the Houses of Parliament.

More about Stop the Traffik who won the Advocacy Award at the New Statesman New Media Awards on Tuesday. You'll see one of their banners outside St Paul's Church on the Hook Road.

Where does your chocolate come from? According to Stop the Traffik nearly half the world's chocolate is made from cocoa grown in the Cote D'Ivoire, in Africa. Horrifyingly, 12,000 children have been trafficked into cocoa farms in Cote D'Ivoire.  Stop the Traffik's Chocolate Campaign tells you much more about this dreadful trade.

We can all help to stop this by only buying brands of chocolate that has not been processed using slave labour. You can download a list of Traffik Free chocolate here. It's quite a long list so you won't have to forgo your chocolate fix! You can be sure that anything labelled Fairtrade will be Traffik Free, as well as Traidcraft and Oxfam stock, but some other brands are as well, so it is worth checking the list. It also tells you which supermarkets stock which brands.

The Environment Agency has detailed news and predictions. The River Thames from Shepperton to Teddington is still on Flood Watch, the lowest level of alert.

Kingston Council website gives regular updates. At present it says:

The latest update from the Environment Agency indicates that river levels will continue to rise over the next 24 hours and are expected to peak late afternoon on Thursday. The Environment Agency expects the water levels will rise above current levels but should be below those of the 2003 floods.

The latest news from the Environment Agency is that the Thames has not breached its banks above Oxford as badly as first thought. The extra water is expected to reach Kingston on Wednesday or Thursday, but the river not expected to rise by more than 50cms.

Today the surface was about half a metre below the towpath on the Hampton side, so it looks as though the worst that could happen is that the paths on either side may get wet. However, it could be higher if it rains heavily in the next 24 hours.

The Stop the Traffik campaign has introduced the topic of people traffiking into everyday conversation - this is the current global form of slavery, still with us 200 years after the Abolition of the Slave Trade in the UK.

The campaign has an excellent website, full of information and lively educational materials, so I was really pleased that it won the Advocacy Award at the New Statesman New Media Awards this evening.

Barry Sheerman MP presents the award for Stop the Traffik

My Society deservedly won two awards for their highly focussed and apparently simple sites that support civic society. One was for the No 10 Petitions website, which I wrote about here and here on the Headstar blog.  The other was for FixMyStreet, which allows anyone to report problems to their local Council by pointing to them on a map - this is a very effective idea, and works anywhere in the country.

The other winners were all terrific - Create-a-scape (one of the most imaginative educational sites I've seen), Intelligent Giving (lowdown on UK charities), LiveBus (realtime bus timetables, but only in three counties so far).

The awards event was held in Westminster Abbey College Gardens, a hidden delight right under the shadow of the Palace of Westminster. I've been invited every year since Edward Davey and I won the Elected Representative award, back in 2002 (and was also later shortlisted for Steve Webb's website and for my own blog), so I was keen to see who would win in that category this year. Could it really be the first year that it would go to local government? - Cllr Andrew Burns was a finalist. But no, David Cameron won for his admittedly groundbreaking use of webcasts - often parodied but still not matched.

There's a great video about the Hook Library on YouTube.

The stretch of the Thames between Shepperton and Teddington Lock is on Flood Watch. According to the Environment Agency this means Flooding possible. Be aware! Be prepared! Watch out!  

This, of course, includes the riverside as it runs through the Borough from Surbiton to Ham.

UPDATE - Thames Water Emergency Line this weekend: 08459 200800

The torrential downpour this morning has affected many of the roads around Kingston. On the latest updates from the Council's travel section it seems that hardly any buses are running in or out of the town centre at present. In fact, all traffic was diverted out of the town centre as part of the Kingston's Emergency Procedures, and access is still very bad.

There has been, and may still be, flooding under several bridges. Cambridge Road is closed.  I tried to shop at Waitrose in Surbiton just as the rain was easing off but the car park was closed. There is a growing collection of photos on the Surrey Comet's website.

As far as Council housing is concerned priority for repairs has been given to sheltered housing. Some people may have to move to temporary accommodation.

I'm not aware of any such problems in the South of the Borough but do get in touch if you need help.

I've heard that the Hook and Tolworth underpasses on the A3 are now open but the New Malden one is still closed. The A3 and, further afield, the M25, are severely congested.

The Hogsmill River running through the Guildhall complex is at its highest level. I was due in for a meeting at the Guildhall this afternoon but the advice is not to travel into town, so we have postponed it.  Getting home this evening may be quite a problem for staff at the Council and in general for people working in Kingston.

You can check the latest local traffic news here.

6pm - all roads through Kingston are now open, although there are some holdups around flood damaged vehicles in places.

I stayed up to hear the results last night, and am pretty pleased that there was a substantial swing to the Liberal Democrats in both seats - 6% in Ealing Southall and 11% in Sedgefield.

David Cameron must be a very worried man. His candidates were pushed into third place in both by-elections.

Over in Ealing Southall (where I had my moment of fame as a balloon carrier) he had imposed Tony Lit as the Conservative candidate, to considerable rumblings from local party members. In spite of backing this well-known local figure, and describing the party on the ballot paper itself as 'David Cameron's Conservative Party', he failed to show any progress.

"Now what sport do they love playing and watching in Jamaica?"

"Bob sleigh?"

Some of the classes at Moor Lane Juniors (soon to become Castle Hill Primary) are going to be linking with Denham Town Primary in Kingston Jamaica next term. So I went along to chat with them about Jamaica and to tell them about the school, which I visited earlier in the year.

But I wasn't expecting 8 year olds to be familiar with 'Cool Running'.

I went to help in the by-election at Ealing Southall today and found myself appointed as an official Liberal Democrat balloon carrier.

First we had squeeze them into a train to take us to Ealing Broadway - here is a colleague trying to control his bunch.

Once there, our job was to position the balloons beside the posters, as a backdrop to Ming Campbell, Paddy Ashdown and, of course, our candidate Nigel Bakhai. 

It's a very odd election. Tory Central Office imposed their candidate Tony Lit on the local party even though he had only become a member of the Conservatives a couple of days before. And bizarrely, he had made a donation of £4800 to the Labour Party and been photographed shaking hands with Tony Blair only two weeks before that! The Telegraph has the story.

I didn't see a single picture of the Labour candidate around the constituency, even though the seat had been held by a popular Labour MP, and I can't even remember the candidate's name. In fact, there are hardly any posters up at all in the windows of the people who live there, so it is very difficult to gauge the impact of the election campaign.

Balloon carrier view of Nigel Bakhai (right) and Ming Campbell (next to him)

I spent the next few hours delivering leaflets. The Lib Dems are treating the campaign with great enthusiasm, with loads of helpers from around the country. I think there might be an interesting outcome on Thursday.

There's lots going on in Kingston this weekend - the Kingston Regatta, Malden Festival and the Hook Fun Day. I managed the last two events and am off to hear Thames Youth Orchestra this evening.

Over in New Malden, Maggie O'Connor held a fitness workout for kids in aid of Young Kingston. She is a great communicator and encouraged over 70 children to dance and smile in the open air. Ian and I got to wear the Young Kingston t-shirts for the first time. Thanks, Maggie!

Then back to Hook for the Fun Day on King Edwards' Recreation Ground. This was orgainsed by Surbiton Rotary Club  for the first time last year, and this year the attendance really repaid the work that went into organising the event. There was entertainment all day long in the arena, a five a side junior football competition between local clubs, plus stalls and sideshows. Thanks, Surbiton Rotary!

I'm a bit behind the curve on this one, having only just joined Facebook. On the one hand it's a huge timewaster so I'm going to have to discipline myself; on the other hand it's a great way of maintaining friendships.

When the Web began to take off there were all sorts of dire predictions that it would damage social life with its focus, so it seemed, on information rather than people. But what is now being referred to as Web 2.0 - that is, the Web with all its clever interactivity - has the potential to strengthen our social networks. Facebook is a brilliant implementation of all that is best about the Web - user controlled, fast, intuitive, personalised - and it generates a parallel world which supports the real one.

A word of warning to other newcomers, especially those of us with multi-stranded lives. As someone remarked yesterday "It brings together your t-shirt and suit lives". We lay out our Facebook friends for everyon'e inspection and we hope they collectively portray who we are. The interactions between our friends, and between our friends and their friends are also exposed.

Facebook seduces you with its apparent intimacy, but it is in the public domain. The best advice I was given about blogging was to never write anything that you would not be happy saying in a public meeting, and the same applies to Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and the rest.

Must get back to my map of all the cities I have ever visited .....

It was over a year ago that some of the 'looked after' young people in the Borough asked if they could have a discount leisure card. Looked after children are the ones who are in the care of the Council; most of them are placed with foster carers, and all of them have histories that have put them at a huge disadvantage compared with their peers. It seemed like a great idea to encourage them to do sports and other leisure activities without them being limited by the expense.

It has taken a little while to get the leisure providers on board, but the Re:active card was launched on Monday by the Mayor, just in time for the summer holidays. And the name? - chosen by the young people themselves.

'Remodelling' is far too understated a term for what has happened at St Paul's Primary School in Hook.  When the funding came through via the capital support for voluntary schools I had envisaged the school pushing outwards to enlarge the grossly inadequate classrooms. So I had been taken aback when I looked round the site last winter and lost my bearings - it seems like a completely new school.

Today it was formally opened by the Bishop of Kingston. But 'opened' is an odd word since all that transformation has taken place within a fully working environment.

This looks like a typical early years classroom, but you may not be able to imagine that it was the old Class 6 - a cramped room in which it was difficult for the teacher to get round to each child when they were all seated.

The whole school celebrated with singing, icecream and balloons.

This school has played a significant role in my life over the last 30 years or so. Ian was a governor there first, then both our boys attended, very happily, to the age of eleven. Much later I became a governor, and Chair of governors, until about eight years ago when Margaret Thompson took over. It was Margaret who saw this project through, supporting two headteachers on the way.

Have you been subjected to racial harassment?  Or are you aware that it is going on? 

If so you might like to report it, confidentially of course, and ask for advice at the Chessington Racist Incidents drop-in surgery. They will be held from 10am - 12 pm on every other Wednesday at the Neighbourhood Housing Office in Elm Road - 25^th July, 8^th August, 22^nd August, 5^th September, 19^th September.

These sessions are being run by the local Police Safer Neighbourhoods team and Kingston Racial Equality Council.

On Wednesday the next South of the Borough Neighbourhood Committee will be held at 7.30pm at Southborough School. Do join us if you are interested in anything on the agenda or want to ask a question. Members of the public can contribute to the discussion on any item.

You can read the whole agenda and the reports for each item here.

The Police Safer Neighbourhood teams for the three wards (Tolworth & Hook Rise, Chessington North & Hook, Chessington South) will start by updating us on their work and taking questions.

Then we have items on:

Parking schemes 

Hook Parade - The petition against the proposals has been discussed by a working group of local shopkeepers and residents, and we support their view that parking meters should not be installed. This item will formalise that decision.

Chessington North Parade - We will be consulting businesses and residents around North Parade to identify any particular problems with parking (especially all-day commuter parking).

Traffic schemes

We will be reviewing the waiting restrictions at junction of Lynton Close and Fullers Way South, and in Hunting Gate Drive, Grange Road and Bolton Road. 

A 20mph speed limit is proposed around St Paul's Primary School.

Finance

We will consider three applications for Neighbourhood grants, from Moor Lane PTA, Chessington Kids Club and Chessington Youth Action.

The final outturn of last year's budget (2006-2007) is reported.

Libraries

The Neighbourhood Committee is being consulted as part of a major review of the Library Service. Anyone can respond to the online consultation.

Schools

Moor Lane Junior and Buckland Infants are planning to amalgamate. We will be discussing the proposed name for the new school - Castle Hill Primary. We will also be looking at the next stage in the consultation which will be about the choice of site.

My Mum reached 90 years of age today! She lives outside Cardiff and we took her out for lunch, with Stuart, Duncan and some of her friends, at a restaurant on the seafront in Penarth.

She was properly congratulated throughout the day with phone calls, cards, presents and lots of flowers. I've put together an album of 'The Early Years' using old photos we'd found stashed away in boxes, which should bring back many happy memories.

Back home now after a happy day ....

The Grauniad today carries this about Hazel Blears:

She said she may introduce new powers that will give people the right to petition councils. They would then be under an obligation to consider it. She hinted strongly that even these measures were not radical enough.

Notice the use of the word 'may'.

Doesn't she know that people already have that power? Petitions are the simplest way for a citizen to get an issue onto a Council agenda (unlike petitions to No 10, but that's another story)

Here in Kingston any petition presented to Council must be considered by the relevant Council committee. A report is then presented by officers giving the background to the issue. The petitioners get a chance to talk about the petition and join in the discussion with councillors to find a solution to the problem they have highlighted. We've had online petitions for several years as well as paper ones.

Of course, what Blears is doing is to carry forward (maybe) the 'Call to Action' concept which has been doing the rounds in reports on local government for a couple of years now. In fact, Kingston's e-petitioning system was mentioned in the Local Government White Paper. So nothing new there then.

Is this anything more than a rebranding of an ancient and very effective democratic process?

I'm on a review group that is looking at our library service across the whole of the Borough, trying to determine what it should look like to meet the needs of the future.

If you live in the Royal Borough do please respond to the online consultation - it will really help to shape our ideas.

Last week, at a ceremony hosted by Trasport for London, Kingston walked away with the gong for the Sustainable Transport Borough of the Year. This recognises the great work that the Council is doing to encourage people to travel on foot, by bike and by public transport.

 What is more - Kingston's Walk to Work campaign, which has now been adopted across London, was given the award for the Best Travel Awareness Event.

Finally, Claire Pilkington from Fern Hill Primary School, was crowned as Champion of the Year. She has worked with the Council's Road Safety and Travel Awareness Team, who should all be congratulated for this triple achievement.

Someone from the crime unit at HM Revenue & Customs phoned me after I had reported the scam letter sent to me today which appeared to come from them. He said that he had come across the letter before but this was the first time it had been reported as having been sent to someone at a UK address.

I pointed out that my address included 'Hook' which is not strictly in the postal address and doesn't show on the electoral register, so the fraudsters must have acquired a commercial mailing list. And it also looks as though they defrauded the Royal Mail with their convincing franking.

I'm really pleased that I've done my bit to save others from being conned.

This morning I received a letter through the post that appeared to come from HM Revenue & Customs, with the heading Final Tax Amnesty Notification. Now I don't have any overseas funds, but it did apparently identify one of those VAT refunds that you can sometimes claim for items bought on holiday.

It asked me to complete form P86 which was on the back and fax it back to a number. The letter was convincing enough at first glance for me to think that I had to respond pretty quickly.

When I looked at it again I became suspicious. There was no address or contact number for the department.  And the form asked for just about every bit of ID information that I have, including my telephone banking password and my mother's maiden name. They even asked for a copy of my passport.

I took it straight to our Trading Standards Officer, who has in turn reported it to the Office of Fair Trading.  More importantly, HM Revenue and Customs are shutting down the fax number.

This is an overt attempt at identity theft. If you receive the letter then tear it up and recycle it. If you have responded to it then contact your bank and credit card company immediately.