Mary Reid

I've written before about my opposition to the planning application in Somerset Avenue. The developers wanted to knock down two semis (on the first bend as you go down the hill from Hook Road) and replace them with eight new houses.

Since then a second application, this time for seven houses, has been submitted and refused.

The developers have appealed against both decisions and have asked for a planning hearing. This will take place on Wednesday 16th July at 10am in the Hook Centre.

Anyone can turn up to the hearing and join in the discussion, so this is an opportunity to express your views - I certainly will! One of my main arguments will be based on the character of the area and the need to preserve the gardens - in line with my 'Save our Back Gardens' campaign.

You can see the two applications, with all the drawings, on the Kingston Council website:

07/10179 (for eight houses)

08/10032 (for seven houses)

What can one possibly say about Zimbabwe, without sounding trite?

Well, I did want to congratulate John Simpson for his courageous broadcasts from within the country in defiance of the ban, and for carrying through his very risky interview with Morgan Tsvangirai.

In all the horror I am left with one conundrum - does Mugabe really think he is fooling anyone at all? The whole nation knows that the election was neither free nor fair; the international community has seen the evidence of the violence and intimidation heaped on MDC supporters. (Oh, and isn't it odd that the count took less than a day for the second round?)

I've been around politicians for long enough to know the dangers of believing your own spin, but I simply don't understand this man. Does he honestly think he has convinced the world that he has been legitimately elected as President? Or, is he so deluded that he actually believes it himself?

Much now depends on the African Union summit tomorrow. The AU does not accredit leaders who have not been democratically elected, so it will be interesting to see if they rise to the challenge.

Much, of course, will depend on the stance taken by Thabo Mbeki; it is clearly difficult for Mbeki to denounce the man who was his political father-figure, but the wellbeing of all Zimbabwean citizens hangs on his actions.

... in Henley, behind the Greens and BNP. (Lib Dem Stephen Kearney came second, reducing the Tory majority)

Does anyone know - has a party in Government ever done quite so badly in a by-election before?

For the last couple of years I have served as Vice Chair of the International Centre of Excellence for Local e-Democracy (ICELE).  The Centre was funded by the Dept of Communities and Local Government, but managed (very effectively) by Lichfield District Council.

ICELE's main work has been with local councils and regional bodies, providing training and advice on the use of modern media to improve democracy.  It has also constructed a website that contains hundreds of resources for councils - guidance, case studies, project evaluations, as well as reviews of commercial and open source tools that are already available.

During the last two years I have been fascinated to see the emergence of the Government's empowerment agenda. From my perspective, governments don't 'give' power to citizens - citizens already have it since it is they who pay for government. What governments (including councils) need to do is to listen to what people are telling them, and make sure that the decision-making processes bring citzens and their elected representatives together to find solutions to problems.

It was clear to everyone that the 'e' channels would be crucial to the success of the empowerment enterprise - not, of course, as the only channel of communication, but because the Internet and mobile devices are, for many people, the core methods that they use.

So it has come as a great shock to many to learn that Communities and Local Government is pulling the plug on ICELE, just when it is needed. In fact, ICELE officially ceases in a week's time, at the end of the month.

ICELE had been through a period of uncertainty and delays over funding since the end of last year, but the expectation was that eventually the future would become clear. In the end Lichfield wrote to the Minister asking for clarity and indicating that it could not, as a small district council, take any further financial risks.

At the moment discussions are taking place to decide what will happen to a number of ICELE's 'products', including the website with its huge directory of resources. The long-term future of the blogging platform that I use, originally ReadMyDay and now relaunced as BloginaBox, is uncertain, although I have indicated very strongly that this must be maintained. Another possible casualty is Voice, the community website system which has been taken up by hundreds of community groups.

I will provide updates on progress - there is a two month interim period when hopefully these problems will be solved.

In the meantime here is the press release that I worked on with ICELE:

ICELE to seek pragmatic approach

Cllr Matthew Ellis, Chairman of the International Centre of Excellence for Local eDemocracy, said:"Whilst it has been made clear that Lichfield DC would not be seeking to take ICELE forwards in the future, we have been calling for a formal decision to be made by the Minister for some time. It takes considerable time and money to create a trusted and recognised brand, which ICELE has now become, not just in the UK, but in Europe. It would be unfortunate if the Centre was closed down before a useful and sustainable home for both its products and its brand can be secured." 

He continued: "The Centre now has partners across the UK and Europe, having been successful in securing, with others, future funding for specific areas of work. We believe it would be unfortunate if ICELE, as a focal point for sharing information and best practice, and some of the projects were simply abandoned. I'm hopeful that the talks we are now having with CLG will ensure that a thorough review is undertaken to find a sustainable future for areas of potentially ongoing work." 

Although ICELE will cease operations at the end of June, with the interim funding recently agreed with CLG it could provide resources for work to be undertaken to secure a future for VOICE and other aspects of the Centre's work.  

 

Over recent years the Council has had less and less money to spend on repairs and improvements to its housing stock.

The main reason for this is the scandalous 'housing subsidy'. When I tell people about this they don't believe it - but it's true!

Council tenants pay rent to Kingston, but 31p in every £1 is taken by central Government and then redistributed to other councils. That amounts to £6.7 million each year that is taken from Kingston tenants and supposedly given to council house tenants in other parts of the country.

Other councils also suffer from this stealth tax, and Kingston has joined with them to protest about the subsidy.

One fact that has emerged recently is that the housing subsidy collected by the Government NOT all put back into housing after all. It seems that £194 million is then shunted into other Government projects that have nothing at all to do with housing.

So Kingston's council tenants, who are amongst the least affluent people in the Borough, are taxed at 31% on the rent that they pay. And a significant proportion of that 31% is used by the Government for non-housing programmes.

If that £6.7 milion were returned to Kingston then it could make a massive difference to the quality of council-owned homes in the Borough.

Curiouser and curiouser....

It seems David Cameron was canvassing in Sonning Common at around the same time that I was being secretly photographed by a rosette-wearing Tory.

In my last posting I used the word 'alright' in a letter that I quoted. It isn't - alright, that is.

Many a time have I winced when a student used this mangled shortening of 'all right', misled, no doubt, by 'already' and 'altogether'.

So how did 'alright' make its way into a letter that I wrote myself, every word?  Am I losing the plot? Or has its ubiquity convinced me that it has now passed into common English?

Yesterday I wrote about the Conservative who apparently stalked me while I was out delivering leaflets for the Henley by-election.

I have now sent a letter of complaint to the agent for the Conservative candidate.

21st June 2008

Kevin Thorpe
Election agent for John Howell
8 Gorwell
Watlington
Oxfordshire
OX49 5QE

Dear Mr Thorpe

I wish to bring to your attention an incident that took place yesterday in Sonning Common.

Yesterday afternoon I was delivering election leaflets for another political party. A group of local people informed me that a man had been following me along the road, surreptitiously taking photographs of me. They were sufficiently worried about his suspicious behaviour to feel that they needed to warn me and to check that I was alright. They feared that I was being stalked.

They gave me a description of the man and his car, and told me that he was wearing a blue rosette with a green tree on it - clearly a description of the Conservative logo.

I have been actively involved in democratic political activity for over thirty years, and am now in my 60s, and I have never witnessed or experienced anything of this nature before. It has left me quite shaken and anxious.

As a senior councillor myself, and former Mayor of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, I do expect fellow campaigners, of whatever party, to treat each other with courtesy. I cannot excuse intimidating behaviour of any kind, and certainly cannot condone anything that violates my right to privacy.

I think you will agree that one of your Conservative activists has behaved in a highly inappropriate way, and I hope you will investigate and deal with the person concerned. I look forward to hearing from you that any photographs of me have been destroyed.

Yours sincerely

K Mary Reid

Let's start with the stalker.

I've been over with some fellow Lib Dems to help at the Henley by-election today, and we set off to one of the many pretty villages in the constituency.

During the afternoon I was delivering leaflets to some large detached houses, most of which had drives protected by tall trees or hedges.

I noticed a couple of girls on their way home from school who were looking at me with some curiosity, but assumed they were wondering what was going on. Then I noticed them chatting to some adults they evidently knew, who also began watching me.

Eventually one of them beckoned me over, and asked if I realised that I was being followed by a man, who was taking photos of me. They were clearly pretty worried about this, and I was rather bothered myself.

A little later one of the girls came back and gave me a full description of the man, and his car....then added that he was wearing a blue rosette with a picture of a tree on it.

Well! I don't know which intrigued me the most - the fact that a Tory was secretly taking photos of me delivering Lib Dem leaflets, or the fact that the group who had spotted him didn't recognise the Tory logo!

I'm still pondering what to do about my stalker. Could it have been the Conservative candidate? If not, was it a Tory VIP, since normally only the candidate wears a rosette before election day? And why was he taking photos of me?

In the meantime, you can see where the crunchy gravel comes in.

It is, I think, fairly typical of the front gardens of this largely well-heeled area, although I can't understand how heels remain in good condition as they negotiate the gravel every day. I'm pleased I wore my trainers.

There is a real buzz about the campaign to get Stephen Kearney elected to the seat vacated by Boris Johnson. People seem to want a change from Boris's incomprehensible eccentricities, which we in London have sadly inherited.

Finally, those red kites.

Twenty years ago the only remaining pairs of red kites in the UK could be found in mid-Wales, and I remember counting myself fortunate to see them swooping over Llyn Brianne. 

Since then they have been successfully reintroduced to the Chilterns and you can often see them flying over the M40 north of High Wycombe.

What I hadn't realised was how prevalant they now are in and around the towns in South Oxfordshire, and I spotted lots of them, with their distinctive swallow tails.

This is my poor attempt at capturing one of them on my mobile, but at least it proves that I saw some!

Crime is still going down in Hook and Chessington, and that's in spite of the fact that this area already has one of the lowest crime rates in the whole of Greater London.

The Safer Neighbourhood Police teams for Chessington South and Chessington North & Hook held their quarterly residents' meeting together on Tuesday evening.  

Both teams announced drops in crimes reported in the last three months compared with the same period last year.

In total, the number of reported crimes in Chessington North & Hook during the quarter year went down from 123 to 116, and in Chessington South they went down from 210 to 157. But as they pointed out, a high proportion of these were relatively minor incidents such as sorting out a domestic shouting match, or minor assaults, all of which have to be recorded. 

Serious crime is very low. Motor vehicle crimes are the biggest worry, and these range from theft to minor damage; most seems to be overnight vandalism.

The leaders of the two teams are Sgt John Trulove (Chessington South) and Sgt David Boyle (Chessington North & Hook).

If you want to contact the Safer Neighbourhood teams then you can phone them on 020 8721 2001. This number diverts to the mobile phone which is carried by one of the police officers on duty. Anyone can call it, but it is not for emergencies.

You can also email them, but I'm not going to give the full email addresses online as it will only attract spam. I'm sure you can make sense of these two addresses, replacing AT with @.

chessingtonnorth.snt AT met.police.uk

chessingtonsouth.snt AT met.police.uk

By the way, if you do see something suspicious, try taking a photo on your phone provided you can do it without drawing attention to yourself.

For those of you who follow planning applications, you may be interested to hear the latest status of 268 Hook Road.

Last October South of the Borough Neighbourhood Committee turned down an application to build eight flats on this site. The developers appealed to the Planning Inspector, but their appeal was turned down last week.

According to the Council website, a new application has been submitted for this address, but no details are available yet.

Back in 2004 the Council turned down an application to build 12 flats on this site, and the appeal was again refused.

I'm afraid I cannot comment on planning applications, because I sit on the Neighbourhood Committee that hears them. So I can only report the facts, and I do try to do so about local applications that generate a lot of public interest.

Over on Lib Dem Voice, Edward Davey has been blogging about the Irish 'No' vote.

(Perhaps I'll persuade him to start a proper blog of his own one day...)

I've just discovered the little-known Chiltern Railways - and the best fares to Birmingham!

The story is this - Marylebone Station must be smallest mainline terminus in London, with only 6 platforms. The main user is Chiltern Railways.

I travel by train to meetings and conferences around the country, and I normally book my tickets online through The Trainline. When I go to Birmingham, I normally go across London from Surbiton, then take the Virgin train from Euston to Birmingham New Street, which takes about 90 minutes.

Now I was due in Birmingham last Friday and Saturday for the Liberal Democrat Local Government Conference. And, of course, Virgin aren't running any trains on this line on Saturdays at present because of engineering works (so helpful...).

The Trainline suggested various complicated alternative routes from Surbiton, via Basingstoke, Reading and/or Woking. One route involved changing at Weybridge, Virginia Water and Reading.

I had almost decided to drive up, when a colleague mentioned the route from Marylebone to Birmingham Snow Hill. This takes half an hour longer than the Euston route, but hadn't shown up on any of my searches on The Trainline.  A more forensic search of the site did eventually reveal the Chiltern Railway train times and tell me that the walk-up off-peak return fare was only £18! The cheapest return fare with Virgin is £39.50 - more than double the price. 

 I also learnt that The Trainline is owned by Virgin. Hmm..

Oh - and Marylebone Station is delightful. The digital announcement boards weren't working so two members of staff were fully employed blutacking posters for each train departure on a large notice board near the platforms. Once a train was ready to accept passengers they stuck on a piece of card giving the platform number. This was serious real-time information generation, and much more fun because you could chat with information providers.

Update

I've just been reminded in a comment how easy it is to get to Henley for the by-election campaign from Marylebone via Haddenham & Thame Parkway. (Actually I'm taking a carload - but thanks for the suggestion)

Well, David Davis has certainly brought a new dimension to national politics!

I have to say straight away that I really admire the stand he has taken. I find the idea of extending imprisonment without trial to 42 days completely abhorrent. 28 days is already too long, in my view. 

This Labour Government has done more to undermine our precious rights and liberties as citizens than any previous one - ID cards, DNA databases, child tracking from birth, and now the ability to hold someone uncharged for 6 weeks. And note how the threat of terrorism has been used as the excuse, as it was for ID cards, even though the police did not feel it is needed in order for them to do their job.

The social impact of this appalling policy is to demonise law-abiding British Muslims, whose lives have been made significantly more uncomfortable by innuendo and stereotyping.

David Davis has launched a unique protest, since it is unprecedented for an MP to resign their seat over a policy issue when they are in full agreement with their own party's position.

It is difficult to see how this is going to play out. He will be standing again for his seat, as a Conservative but without Conservative funding (odd, that). Liberal Democrats will not put up a candidate since we agree with his views on 42 day detention.

Labour is in a quandary. If they put up a candidate then the by-election will become a mini-referendum on the policy, which they will undoubtedly lose. If they don't field a candidate then they will be accused of playing chicken. Although in the latter case it is highly likely that another pro-detention candidate (possibly Kelvin MacKenzie, the editor of The Sun, it seems) will keep the debate going.

In any scenario, Gordon Brown loses.

For the last couple of years the Council has been working with young people around here to design a new adventure area on King George's Field. Sue Baker, my fellow ward councillor, was Play Champion when the project kicked off and she was instrumental in getting a substantial Lottery grant to pay for it.

The plan that emerged was way beyond anything I had imagined, and yesterday it took its first step towards reality when the Neighbourhood Committee was asked to comment on the planning application.  The final decision will be taken by Development Control Committee this evening.

So what's so special about the design of this playground, described as a 'playscape'? It has been put together by Groundwork, who shot to fame after winning a Gold Medal at the Hampton Court Flower Show last year.

Their concept is to develop, through discussion with the potential users, a natural looking mini-landscape, which presents challenges and varied opportunities to the young people who explore it. The result is far removed from bleak pieces of metal equipment sitting on a boring expanse of flat tarmac that sometimes counts as a play space. Instead, rolling surfaces in grass, wood and sand are accessed by firmer paths, which are never straight and spring some surprises.

The scheme proposed here includes a basketball basket, a cable slide and a pod swing, which look like fun, all surrounded by imaginative planting.

There will be a new bus-stop in Jubilee Way outside the playground, and the pavement will be widened - although these are not part of the planning application.

I was a bit disappointed that there was some opposition to the plan. Council officers had spent a lot of time discussing the ideas with the Bowls Club next to the site, who had apparently been in favour. But it seems that the club leaders had not shared the information, or their views on the proposal, with the club members, who have now raised some objections. Some of these objections are along the lines that young people are a nuisance who indulge in binge drinking, drugs and violent crime (just don't get me going on that issue...), others relate to the carparking arrangements which had been fully discussed and agreed by the club leaders.

The South of the Borough Neighbourhood Committee wholeheartedly endorsed the plan yesterday, and I'm hopeful that the Development Control Committee (Kingston's central planning committee) will do the same tonight.

You can find the details of the planning application here.

Update

The playground was given planning permission unanimously by the Development Control Committee on Thursday evening.

A couple of weeks ago I was in Norwich for the eVoice International Political Forum on eDemocracy. eVoice is a European project that was jointly run by a number of local authorities around the North Sea, in Sweden, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, and, of course, Norfolk County Council.

If you really want to, you can view a video of my talk entitled "eParticipation: a councillor's tale", plus the presentation slides.

At a conference yesterday I heard someone say "There are many psychopaths around Exeter and we must network them together".

It took some time before I realised that he was talking about cycle paths.

I had an email today from someone who is registered blind. That is not so surprising since I know a number of blind people and they all are keen email users.

But this one was a little unusual because Wally is 94! He was an old friend of my parents and I wrote to him recently with some family news, not knowing that he had lost his sight. A couple of emails confirmed that he would prefer me to contact him that way.

Oddly enough I had been preparing a presentation over the weekend in which I had highlighted the way that the Internet opens up channels of communication for people with disabilities.

Elderly people are also a growing sector online - in fact, my father got his first computer at the age of 82 simply so he could communicate with my brother and his family in Canada.  But I guess it is still unusual for an elderly person who has lost his sight to tackle the complexities of a PC. 

I've just been given a flyer with a picture of Debra the Zebra. If you don't know her personally then just ask any child in the Borough, because Debra visits schools and helps children to learn road safety.

Anyway, she is promoting this family event next Sunday 15th June, which happens to be Father's Day.

It's a treasure hunt 'around the quiet roads and green spaces' of Chessington.

The event starts at 12 noon outside St Paul's Church and will end in the rose garden at King Edwards Recreation Ground with some family entertainment - face painting, stunt bikes and food.

It's free - just turn up.

Ian has just been down to the Post Office in the Hook Parade. It seems that the post has been collected early today, so his letter won't now go until Monday.

And the reason? - it's Derby Day!

So Boris has finally resigned his Parliamentary seat in Henley and we're all gearing up for the by-election on 26th June. 

If you're interested in how elections work, then have a look at this blog. It's written by the Acting Returning Officer for the Henley by-election, David Buckle.

Don't be misled by the term 'Acting' as he's the man who is actually responsible for making sure that the election runs smoothly and legally. The Returning Officer, as he explains, is an honorary role.

This is a first, and should give some interesting insights into elections seen from a totally non-political perspective.

Tartuffe at the Rose Theatre is a romp. 

This production from the Liverpool Playhouse uses a gloriously witty and knowing translation by Roger McGough delivered in clever rhyming couplets. It's performed by a really strong cast - no big stars, but confident characters and perfect comic timing.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but I'm so pleased that I didn't miss it. They've just released a video with the views of some of the people who saw it this week.

Tartuffe at the Rose Theatre, Kingston

Back to last night ... The performance begins with a warning about mobile phones in a mock French accent, so we were not surprised when a voice interrupted the final onstage business, working up to the curtain call. But the actors looked rather puzzled and indecisive, and it turned out to be the firealarm, set off by the stage smoke. So off we went and we never saw the rousing two minutes or so of the play.

When we were let back into the building we joined the reception for members of the Theatre Friends, where we got a chance to meet the actors. Tomorrow there's another treat - a chance to hear a free post-performance talk, but hopefully no alarms this time.

Then on Sunday afternoon Roger McGough himself is doing a one man show at the theatre, introducing some of his poems and stories.

A letter in last week's Informer asked what was going to happen to the Moor Lane Junior School site, so I thought it would be a good idea to revisit the things I wrote about in February.  What I wrote then was this:

So what will happen at the vacant Moor Lane site?

The very welcome proposal is to use it for the new Integrated Service for Disabled Children. 'Integrated' in this context means that professionals from health, education and social care will work together as a team from one building. This will bring about a vast improvements to the experience of disabled children and their parents, who currently have to make appointments with lots of different people in different parts of the borough. 
...
The report [to Kingston Council's Executive] has a long list of the professionals who will be located at Moor Lane, and includes Consultants, Specialist Paediatric Registrars, Clinical Psychologists, Speech and Language Therapists, Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Social Workers, Children's Community Nurses, the Disabled Children's Information Service, Portage Workers, Participation Officer, Management and Administration Staff.

We have already given an undertaking that the playing field at Moor Lane will not be touched - it will continue to be used as the field for Castle Hill Primary and also by some of the other local schools. No part of the site will be sold to developers.

The Informer letter also asked why the Buckland Road site was chosen for the new all-through Castle Hill Primary to replace Buckland Infants and Moor Lane Juniors. The desire was the move the whole school to one site, using some capital funding from the Government. Quite simply, the Buckland site was a much cheaper option because it already had a number of fairly new buildings.

During this year children have been taught on both sites, but from September they will all move to the Buckland site. Some of the temporary classrooms will be relocated this summer from Chessington Community College to Castle Hill, and the building programme should get started pretty soon, I hope.