Mary Reid

I've written about my opposition to Tesco's application for a superstore and 562 homes near Tolworth roundabout.

When Tesco revealed their earlier plan in 2006, the local Conservative councillors came out strongly against it. They seem to have gone very silent this time round. Does that mean they have caved in?

Edward Davey is leading the campaign against this development. See the Every Little Hurts website.

Last month I was very concerned about Transport for London's decision to stop the Capital Call service in Kingston.  Capital Call enables disabled people to use their Taxicards for mini-cabs, a service which has lots of advantages over black cabs, especially for blind people, not least the ability to book trips.

Following protests from local users, TfL decided to postpone the decision for a couple of months but the threat has not gone away.

Please sign the petition to keep Capital Call in Kingston.

I want to use my blog to invite anyone who lives in the South of the Borough Neighbourhood to a meeting next week.

Would you like to be more involved in deciding what are the most important issues in the area? If so, do come along to Chessington Community College at 7.30pm on Wednesday 1st April.

The meeting will bring together key people who provide local public services (eg health, education, environment) as well as voluntary organisations that serve our community. And - most importantly - any local residents who want to have a say will be warmly welcomed.

Together we will start working on a Neighbourhood Community Plan. That will set out how we want things to be improved and will identify who needs to do it. 

We will also be asking for people to step forward and serve on a Neighbourhood Community Panel to make sure it all happens.

Please invite anyone who you think might be interested.

Local councillors must, by law, live (or have a business interest) in the borough, district or county that they represent. In fact, they cannot even stand as a candidate unless they meet the residency criterion. That rule does not apply to Members of Parliament, hence the row over Labour minister Tony McNulty's expenses.

In my view, there should be an expectation that MPs should live in their constituencies. If an MP chooses, for whatever good reason, not to live in the constituency, then that is a matter for his or her constituents and the local party. But the public purse should not have to pay for a second home in the constituency.

I think many of us were surprised to discover that Tony McNulty's expenses claim for just that was considered acceptable under the Additional Costs Allowance. Even he thought it was morally questionable and stopped claiming a few months ago.

The second homes allowance exists for one very good reason. MPs have to spend Monday to Thursday in Westminster when Parliament is sitting. Most constituencies are not within commuting distance of London, so it is reasonable for MPs to be covered for the expense of accommodation in London.  And reasonable should extend to a modest flat or house with maybe sufficient room for the family to visit on occasions.

Now you can rent a modern two bedroom flat close to Surbiton Station for between £1000 and £1500 per month, and maybe that should be the benchmark.

We know how easy it is to commute into Westminster from Surbiton - our own MP, Edward Davey, does it regularly. He, of course, lives in the constituency and wouldn't dream of claiming a second homes allowance, even though he would be entitled to one.

The second homes rules need to be revised. As citizens we expect our taxes to pay for MPs to be able to do their work effectively. We do not expect to pay extra allowances for living expenses that the rest of us pay for out of our earned income.

I'm hugely interested in using language that is appropriate for the audience. After all, I earn my living writing books, mainly for young people.

Back in 2002 I took on a Council portfolio that included Communications, and the first thing I did was to introduce the Better Letters Campaign. This encouraged all council officers to use Plain English in letters to residents, and gave residents a chance to report letters that they thought were not clearly expressed.

This project was successful, and although I cannot guarantee that every letter from the Council is perfect, the overall standard is markedly higher. I'm still a terrier on this issues, though, and from time to time officers get a timely reminder from me. 

Plain English is not an invention of Kingston, but is a concept that has been developed over many years by the Plain English Campaign, among others. The idea is that documents for the public should be written clearly, and should avoid ambiguity and jargon.

That seems pretty obvious to me, but it's amazing how some people think that when they write on behalf of a Council they must use a very stilted form of language. The thing that matters most is whether the person who reads the document understands what is being said.

Of course, jargon is perfectly OK when used between a closed group of people, all of whom know what it means. But it is arrogant to use jargon when the audience may not understand the terms.

So I was pleased that the Local Government Association has, at last, launched a campaign calling on councils to avoid using "impenetrable jargon". It has helpfully provided a list of terms to avoid, which include these words and phrases:

• Capacity building
• Coterminosity
• Democratic mandate
• Double devolution
• Gateway review
• Holistic governance
• Improvement levers
• Peer challenge
• Place shaping
• Predictors of Beaconicity
• Resource allocation
• Social exclusion
• Taxonomy
• Transformational

I have used all those terms myself (except the glorious 'Predictors of Beaconicity') but always in the right context, that is, when talking with people for whom this is normal technical language. None of these terms should ever appear in a non-technical document aimed at the whole population.

People living along parts of Bridge Road and near Chessington North Station will receive a consultation in the coming week.  This asks your views on a number of proposals:

• improvements to the rather dangerous Bridge Road/Sopwith Ave junction 
• new bus stop near Parbury Rise
• new pedestrian controlled crossings near Chessington North Station and Parbury Rise
• improvements to the existing crossing with a new central island

Don't worry if you don't get the paperwork because you can read it all online. You can also fill in the consultation questionnaire online.

Do let the Council know what you think - both for or against any parts of the scheme. In the end it's the councillors who have to decide what goes ahead, so we do need to hear your views. Don't write to us directly, but complete the questionnaire so that all the responses can be collated.

Where there is general agreement the work can begin as soon as May this year.

Pat Thacker claims to have made nearly 6 tons of pickled onions and over 2 tons of marmalade, all for charity! 

Today she was presented with the Mayor's Community Award at a ceremony at the Guildhall.

I read the citation and explained that Pat has been making pickles and preserves over the last 21 years for the Friends of St Paul's, and has raised at least £30,000 through her efforts.

She has not peeled every single one of those onions herself, because she has recruited a team of helpers over the years, but the unique fundraising venture would not have continued without Pat at the helm, and without her literally hands-on approach.

Much of this home-made produce has been sold at a weekly stall outside the church in the Hook Road during that time, and has become the preferred place for local people to buy all kinds of preserves, pickles and, of course, pickled onions. Pat has served on the stall through heat and cold all year round.

Pat was already a seasoned fund raiser before she embarked on her pickle marathon. When the church needed to raise £25,000 to build the St Paul's Centre, which was opened in 1983, she was a key member of the fundraising team, coming up with a number of innovative ideas.

Pat has also been actively involved in organising and running the St Paul's summer and winter fairs each year, and at every social event held in the church she could be found encouraging the catering team.

But many other people have good reason to thank Pat for her contribution to the local community.

She is a gifted comic actress, and for many years, until quite recently, played leading roles in the St Paul's Players Christmas pantomimes and summer shows. She wrote and directed many of the shows as well. The Players themselves have raised thousands of pounds for local charities through their shows over the years.

I was asked by other members of the Hook community to nominate Pat for this award, and was delighted to present her to the Mayor today.

Pat Thacker has given a great deal to the local community, and always with great good humour. I, and many others who know her in Hook, cannot think of anyone who deserves it more.

First the police cars were chasing up and down the road. Then the helicopter hovered overhead, shining its high intensity beam into our back gardens and, at one point, straight on to my face.

Any idea what was going on?

By the way, if I now say that I was abducted by aliens you wouldn't believe me, would you? But it had all the elements ... flashing coloured lights in the sky, roughly cigar shaped object, very bright beam of white light, then coloured lights making off at great speed.

Upward Curve is a small PR firm based in Kingston.

A couple of years ago when I was starting up Young Kingston Upward Curve took it on as their charity of the year and provided me with invaluable free consultancy. I had much to thank them for, and I liked working with a local company that operated with high community-based values.

The good news is that they are now looking for another local charity that they could adopt and for whom they could provide pro-bono support. I am very happy to help them find a suitable partner. So here is their information...

Upward Curve PR, an award-winning ethical communications agency dedicated to promoting social, environmental and economic issues, is searching for its perfect PR partner - a smaller not-for-profit organisation to adopt as its Charity of the Year for 2009/2010.  

Closing date for applications is 17^th April 2009. Go here for details and to download the application form.

Upward Curve PR's Charity of the Year could be any not-for-profit such as a registered charity, social enterprise or voluntary organisation, that feel Upward Curve PR could be their marketing match. 

The Agency is particularly interested in hearing from smaller organisations (whether they operate nationally, regionally, locally or internationally) that are unable to afford agency support and have limited in-house communications resources. 

As part of its ethical approach, Upward Curve believes in giving back to the not for profit and public sectors in which it mainly operates, by adopting a Charity of the Year, which it provides ongoing PR and financial support for over the year.

In previous year's Upward Curve PR has gained high profile media coverage for new services and initiatives, organised launch events, developed marketing literature, developed PR and marketing campaigns and provided help with ongoing media relations for its adopted Charity of the Year.

I was a driving through Surbiton this morning and stopped to let a mother and her child cross the zebra. She was wearing a red nose. But the child had evidently decide to do something funny for money and was walking to school backwards.

¡ǝuop llǝʍ

For three years Tesco have been trying to develop the site next to Tolworth Roundabout. They finally submitted their planning application a couple of weeks ago.

They want to build a superstore and 562 houses on the triangle of land which was previously occupied by the Toby Jug and Government buildings.

Edward Davey has set up a website called Every Little Hurts to campaign against the proposals.  On it you can find out how to register your views, and can sign a petition.

I have decided to come off the fence and campaign against this application. Why? Well, where do I start?

The site is identified in the Council's planning policies as an area for housing. That's just housing (plus maybe some community buildings), but no retail.  That alone should be enough to deter Tesco, but they seem to think they can overcome anything as simple as a policy.

Tolworth Broadway is going through a process of revitalisation.  It is already a very pleasant mix of small local businesses and a few chains, supported by Marks and Spencer under the Tower. A large superstore on the other side of the roundabout would seriously threaten the economy of the Broadway. We cannot allow this town centre to be pulverised by the giant.

Tesco already have a 24 hour superstore just a mile or so up the A3. There is no local demand for another large supermarket in the area.

The Tolworth roundabout is already seriously congested. Tesco are proposing a very complicated intersection which looks like a complete nightmare and will certainly not reduce the congestion.

The A3 is one of the most polluted roads in the whole of London. The additional traffic to and from the superstore and the homes will add greatly to the risks of asthma and worse.

Although most people are focussing on the superstore element of the plans we must not forget that they are also trying to cram 562 homes on to the site as well. The residential blocks are up to 7 storeys high.

Now we don't need more flats in Kingston; we need more family homes. All the proposed housing is in the form of flats and maisonettes, and none of them would have private gardens. This is not a good place to bring up children and yet families will be forced to live there, especially in the social housing accommodation. 

Look at the plans and make up your own mind.

Vince Cable has had unprecedented coverage for a Liberal Democrat spokesperson in the last year or two. His famous Gordon Brown put-down - "from Stalin to Mr Bean" - gave him instant recognition even in the red-tops, but beyond that he has become the most trusted financial guru in Parliament.

So once again on Monday I joined a group of bloggers in Portcullis House for another of our doughnut fuelled interviews of the-great-and-the-good within the party, this time with the saint himself.

I began by reminding him of the election in 1997 - the night when Liberal Democrats took the three Richmond and Kingston parliamentary seats for the first time - and how he was seen on the breakfast news embracing me (well, you know...) at 5am that morning.

From left, Andy Hinton, me, Helen Duffett, Vince Cable MP with Millennium Elephant, Alix Mortimer, Mark Valladares, Jo Christie-Smith, Jennie Rigg.

We then got down to serious business. 

The other bloggers asked him about taxation, bee-keeping, regulation of the financial institutions, the prognosis for the euro, public sector benefits, diversity within the party, games theory, the future of the Post Office, and blogging. He switched effortlessly from one topic to another.

Now I do struggle to understand macro-economics and have just about got my head around recession and quantitative easing, so my questions focussed on central government funding for local government - which I also do not entirely understand either. It was a great relief to hear that Vince agrees that the funding formula is anything but transparent.

He says that there is no easy fix to the formula that calculates how much each local authority is given to offset against council tax. It works well for many councils, but goes wrong for the ones with average incomes at the top and bottom of the scale. (In Richmond and Kingston the poorest residents are clobbered because of their richer neighbours.)

Vince wants local government to be more autonomous financially and this, of course, is what the Liberal Democrat commitment to a local income tax is designed to achieve.  He also believes that business rates should be retained locally. (Currently Kingston loses £40 million each year because the business rates it collects are redistributed to other councils.)

In reply to the others, Vince did emphasise how important it is to close tax loopholes, and to ensure that the lower paid are taxed less. The means to do this may vary approaching the next General Election, so we need review our policies as Government policies, and the economic landscape, change.

Our financial institutions should be regulated nationally and not rely on international regulation only. Global rules were implemented very badly in the UK in the last few years, with disastrous results. Brown has bottled out of responsibility on this.

Will the euro survive the crisis? It could go either way - it is being tested under very difficult circumstances, and some countries may break out of the eurozone.  But if the euro weathers the storm then the UK should reconsider membership because being outside has made us vulnerable.

But the big question was this - Why don't you have a blog? Vince graciously said he was happy to think about it, but wasn't sure whether he could find the time. Perhaps I need to have a quiet word with him......

Last November a new, charismatic President was elected, after a long and innovative campaign that reached right down to the grass roots. 

She ... hmm ... I'm afraid it's still a corny literary device however I dress it up ... she was greeted with genuine delight when elected as President of the Liberal Democrats. I'm pleased I played a tiny part in Baroness Ros Scott's victory, handing out yellow I'm4Ros badges at the Autumn conference.

Until she started her campaign Ros Scott was not very well known within the party, and is still not a household name across the country. The reason for this echoes one of my grouses about political life - that Westminster is over-glamorised at the expense of the real work done in local councils. Ros's political roots and achievements are to be found in local government; she was Group Leader on Suffolk County Council and is Vice President of the Local Government Association.

Our new President took office on 1st January, but on Sunday at the Harrogate Spring Conference she was inaugurated, when retiring President Simon Hughes passed over the traditional copy of John Stuart Mill's On Liberty.

The day before some of the party bloggers, including me, had an opportunity to meet her for a Q&A session. Now Ros has a very readable blog herself, intriguingly titled Because Baronesses are People too (not that anyone would ever mistake her for a vampire). She has even blogged about her 'trial by blogger', but adds that we were really nice actually.

From left, me, Richard Flowers (whose alter ego Millennium Elephant is being cuddled by Ros), Helen Duffett, Ros Scott, Jennie Rigg. Thanks to the mysterious Costigan Quist who took the photo.

We were intrigued to know whether she would translate her election campaigning style, which took her to branches all over the country, into a long term strategy for communicating with members. How could she keep the momentum up? She certainly has the energy, and wants to continue to get out and about as much and possible.

I wanted to know how, as President, she would work with the wider members and supporters - those who have little contact with the party beyond the local Focus delivery network. Ros felt that all members could be linked better together through networks based on policy interests.

She also wants to build the capacity in local parties, developing some of the strategies we had heard about from Howard Dean.  It was important to hold a balance between campaigning, policy and processes.

After her election, she personally answered about 1000 messages. Given the rather impoverished party that we are, with only a small staff contingent at Cowley Street, it is perhaps not surprising that she has no official admin support. I've a feeling she will be looking for an intern very soon.

Howard Dean spoke to a full house at the Lib Dem Spring Conference in Harrogate on Saturday. Afterwards I was very excited to be given a chance to meet him and ask questions along with a handful of other people interested in Internet issues.

This renowned Democrat was elected six times as Governor of Vermont, and has just completed a five year term as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, but has come to everyone's attention as one of the key movers behind Obama's victory.

In fact, many of us remember him as the presidential candidate in 2004 who seemed to come from nowhere to gain enormous grassroots support. In the end Dean withdrew and John Kerry won the nomination, but then failed to stop Bush in the highly controversial election in November 2004.

But Howard Dean's totally unexpected performance in that year was attributed to a style of campaigning that was new and inclusive, and which used the Internet very effectively. Many of these techniques were adopted last year by the Obama camp, both in the primaries and in the actual election.

So it was very thrilling to hear his speech (introduced by our own Edward Davey), and here it is ....

Governor Howard Dean addresses Liberal Democrat conference
Uploaded by libdem

At the small meeting afterwards, I asked him to expand on the comments he had made about fundamentalist Christians (a group that traditionally vote Republican), and asked how his approach could be extended to many other groupings. Instead of focussing on points of disagreement, he sees a huge benefit in finding common values and issues with everyone. Even if people are not ready to vote for his party, the process takes some of the heat out of the exchanges and raises the quality of the debate.

Indeed, his main message on campaigning was about bringing the human values and relationships between voters and candidates to the fore. 

He concluded with two very simple thoughts about the Internet that are often not stated strongly enough: the Internet is a tool, and the Internet is a community. Reaching out to the young people who dominate the Internet is a must for a successful politician.

Now Dean had much more to say, especially on Obama's foreign policy, so it's worth watching the video in full.

Note: Although I usually post my own photos, the ones taken by the Conference photographers were so much better so I have used one of theirs this time.

Sadly King Edward's didn't win the £400,000.

Thanks to everyone who voted.

It was Budget Council this evening, the occasion when councillors agree the Council's Budget and, as a consequence, the council tax rate for the coming year.

For the third year running the Conservative opposition did not propose an alternative budget.

This is really very odd. It is the job of the opposition to challenge the income and spending in the proposed Budget and to suggest other approaches. As one of the Tory councillors said to me on the way out "It's not like the old days, is it? We used to have a proper debate then."

In fact, in the past there used to be some real work done at Budget Council, with negotiation between the parties to achieve the best possible outcome. After quite a lengthy meeting it was then the practice for the opposition to abstain in the vote, leaving the full responsibility, quite rightly, with the controlling party group, but acknowledging the changes they had introduced.

This time the Tories did depart from their practice of the last three years in one significant way - they proposed an amendment to the Budget proposals. But instead of a detailed and helpful analysis of ways to improve the overall Budget, they simply proposed reducing road repairs by £50,000. This would have reduced the council tax increase by less than £1 per household for the whole year.

In the speeches there were all sorts of generalities from the Conservatives about how they didn't like our Budget, and how they would like to have a zero council tax increase, but all they could think of was to reduce road repairs by a relatively tiny amount! And yet they chose to vote against our Budget.....

Anyway, council tax for 2009-2010 will rise by 3.2%, which is the lowest in 15 years, and lower than most of our neighbours. 

The credit crunch is hitting Councils very hard, because they are already seeing an increase in demand for services (benefits, social services) and at the same time their day to day investment income has fallen dramatically.

The majority of the funding for the Council comes from a central Government grant, with council tax only making up the rest. The Government grant is only rising by 1.75% against inflation of 3%. So in order to achieve a council tax rise of 3.2% huge savings have had to be made.

I've just got back from a week's holiday which was mainly spent sitting by the pool in the sun, so it does seem appropriate to mention free swimming in the Borough.

From 1st April anyone under 16 or over 60 will be able to swim for free in the Malden Centre and Kingfisher.  The Council has managed to get funds through the NHS and DC Leisure to cover both of these initiatives.

You do have to register in advance (don't just turn up hoping to get in) and you can do it here from next Monday, 9th March.