A Hatchet Job on the Latest Focus

by Paul Scully | Feb 20, 2009 | News | 2 comments

Leader of the Council Sean Brennan is pictured with Cllr Graham Tope in a LibDem newsletter which attempts to justify one of the highest Council Tax increases in London.

Firstly the obvious. Conservative proposals to freeze council tax come as the Council receives £2.3m of unexpected income from HM Revenue and Customs in the form of a VAT rebate dating back to the seventies and from other London Boroughs through changes to the way the Freedom Pass is funded. This money should be handed back to residents. The LibDems are dipping into the reserves themselves. Not to help residents in difficult times, but to build a pet project, the Sutton Life Centre, which no-one in the Borough has asked for. They have provided no detail in how they can afford to keep the place open when it is built next year, thus runnning the risk of creating a millstone around the neck of local people. They are spending £8m on this. Half is coming from a grant, the other half straight from council reserves.

Secondly a quick observation. The fact that Cllr Tope is taking an axe to paper says a lot. There will be a perfectly good pair of scissors in Cllr Brennan’s office in the background, which will be more effective and cheaper. A quick glance at the Council accounts demonstrates that this is an approach that is not just limited to their paper cutting weapon of choice.

I’ve also been supplied with an alternative caption for the photo “Cllr Tope explains the consequences of refusing to pay one of the highest Council Tax increase in London.” Any other captions, comment below.

Glass Attack in All Bar One

by Paul Scully | Feb 16, 2009 | News | 3 comments

I’ve just returned from a Council meeting in Sutton. I had expected to post stories of how the LibDems passed their budget and pushed through the rebuilding of Elizabeth House in Cheam but a single feral action lasting no longer than a minute has seized my breath and takes my focus.

I was relaxing over a drink with a couple of colleagues, talking over the evening’s events when a crash of glass behind me got my attention. All I could see was a crazed, feral attack with someone sitting over another man, crashing glass into his head. Others had seen them hit and kick the man who I believe, turned out to be one of the waiters going about his job. As quickly as it started, things stopped in a sea of silence as people took in what had happened.

The police and ambulance arrived fifteen minutes later. A CCTV camera in the corner of the bar would surely had captured the attackers and the camera pointing towards their escape route should seal their fate. The rest of the staff were shocked and stunned, but retained enough composure to look after their colleague, get the emergency services in and keep the place going. They didn’t deserve this, but they deserve plenty of praise.

This isn’t an essay on crime or the fear of crime in Sutton. It could have happened anywhere. A quiet Monday night in a bar that was no more than a third full is not the first place the police would camp outside in readiness. This is an immediate reflection on a horrific reminder that there are some that think nothing of smashing razor-sharp shards of glass into someone’s face in full view of 9 or 10 people and a camera, without thought of the consequences. It is a reaction to a stark lesson that there are some in a comparatively prosperous area like Sutton who fall into the gaps of a society that is broken in parts, whether it be through alcohol, drugs, education, family breakdown or a combination of them all.

I hope the victim recovers well and that his scars heal quickly.

MP Oceans Apart From Residents

by Paul Scully | Feb 16, 2009 | News | 1 comment

This week’s Sutton Guardian showed an interesting contrast in the approach of Tom Brake MP and Ken Andrew, his Conservative challenger.

Ken Andrew has been collecting a petition against the proposed sale of the Carshalton War Memorial Hospital to a housing developer. He has gone around speaking to residents and surveying opinion. Ken told the Guardian “There was a massive response to the petition. The hospital was built with money raised by local residents after the first World War, as a memorial to those who bravely gave their lives for their country and local residents feel as passionate about keeping the Hospital as their predecessors did in financing it.”

This issue will have a significant impact on people living around Carshalton Park and in Salisbury Road as well as the wider implications for local residents with the loss of land in public ownership and a war memorial. I’ve helped a concerned resident build up a membership of over 100 supporters on a Facebook group on this matter.

Meanwhile Tom Brake has been photographed making a “Whale tail” sign as a show of support for the International Fund for Animal Welfare campaign. Now, let me explain how these campaigns tend to work. A parliamentary lobbyist will book a committee room in Parliament, sponsored by an MP and put a few bottles of wine in it. An email round robin goes around and people turn up for a few minutes of networking and wine, whilst waiting for the early evening votes in the Chamber. A cameraman will snap away at MPs standing in front of a banner. The photo then gets emailed to the MP with a sample press release saying “ is campaigning to … ”

MPs do retain some influence, even in these cynical times, so there is nothing inherently wrong with lending their support to raise the profile of a campaign. There is nothing wrong in seeking to protect the welfare of animals. However, I’ll take the person getting their hands dirty, out and about responding to local residents every time.