by Paul Scully | Jan 14, 2010 | News |
Conservative Home posted a useful General Election Brief last weekend which I missed at the time. Immigration is an issue which concerns a lot of people that I meet. It is also a topic that needs to be treated sensitively to ensure that extremists do not prosper on one hand and that debate is not swept under the carpet on the other hand, for fear of causing offence.
David Cameron told Andrew Marr that he favoured a cut in immigration to levels last seen in the nineties, in the tens of thousands rather than the 200,000 peak that we have seen in the last few years. Any cap would be fixed according to economic needs.
Last Saturday, Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Grayling announced a number of measures to crack down on abuse of the student visa system. International students studying in the UK have tripled in number since 1997. The overseas student market is worth £8.5bn to our economy but there are a significant number of students who disappear when in Britain. Measures include:
- Only the top universities will be able to fast track students through the immigration system.
- Most foreign students will be expected to deposit a £1,000 to £6,000 bond that will only be repaid after the student has finished their studies and left the country. Forfeited bond payments will be used to help pay for deportations.
- Student migrants will have to return to their home countries and make a new visa application if they want to switch courses or move to a work permit visa.
- There will be a clampdown on foreign students using the existence of UK bank accounts to borrow large amounts of money. There will be clearer requirements for applicants for a student visa to demonstrate ability to fund their studies.
- UK citizens associated with bogus colleges will be registered and tracked. 1,925 organisations have been approved by the UK Border Agency to sponsor migrant students but there are only 165 universities and Higher Education colleges in the United Kingdom.
- Greater enforcement of existing rules by the Border Police Force including more unannounced raids on colleges suspected to be bogus. There will also be closer inspection of applications from very sensitive countries. An extraordinary 13,000 visa applications from Afgahinistan and Pakistan have not been fraud-checked since October 2008, according to Tory research.
Chris Grayling told the press, “The student visa system is a huge loophole in our border controls, and despite years of promises the Government has completely failed to deal with the problem. This loophole has not only allowed large numbers of people to enter the country who would not have been able to do so otherwise, but is now a genuine security risk for us. In the current climate we cannot possibly go on like this. Our proposals will transform the system, making it much more difficult for those who want to abuse it, whilst encouraging genuine students to come to our colleges and universities.”
by Paul Scully | Jan 14, 2010 | News |
There will be plenty of information over the next four months about our manifesto, detailing the pledges that we are making to Sutton residents to make the Borough a better place to live and work. The snow has brought forward our first:
We will substantially increase the number of grit bins to ensure that residents have reasonable access to help themselves.
Stonecot resident Adrian Short has done a great service in mapping the bins across the borough. Thanks to Adrian, as well as making it easier for us to get the grit we need for our own roads, we are able to see the gaps in provision. Hackbridge, the planned sustainable jewel in Sutton’s crown, has absolutely no grit bins. Worcester Park and North Cheam have been largely forgotten. This is nothing new with some of the roads in Nonsuch ward being the worst maintained in Sutton.
Grit bins cost £90 each and the grit to fill each bin costs £9. Sutton has been in the same difficult position as all councils in London, stretched to capacity to cope with the conditions. The gritting teams, the customer service department and other areas of service who have needed to help the most vulnerable, have worked hard and managed well. However, more direction from the political leadership and a little more investment not less, would help residents help themselves.
by Paul Scully | Jan 5, 2010 | News |
View Larger Map
We seem to be in for another heavy snow storm with 10 inches or so reported to be falling in London suburbs tonight and tomorrow. There is a list of grit bins on the Sutton website. Local resident Adrian Short has done a great job in mapping them on Google Maps. The Council website also has the latest news on school opening.
However, the list and map does highlight a significant gap in emergency planning. The Council lists 150 grit bins available for a population of over 180,000 residents. This means that there is, on average, only one grit bin for every 1200 residents. To add insult to injury, some areas have only one grit bin available to local residents whereas others have over thirty. The list on the council website demonstrates that the grit bin situation has not been reviewed for at least 7 years with one described as being outside Tesco on Sutton High Street, which was closed in 2003 to make way for Asda.
The recent cold spell has exposed Sutton Council’s weaknesses in winter road maintenance, causing outrage with local taxpayers after poor gritting efforts left many residents stranded in their own homes because roads and pavements turned into untackled ice rinks. Many residents who were willing to grit their own roads – out of necessity – were dismayed to find grit bins either empty or unavailable in their area.
Google Maps shows that access to gritting bins varies significantly from Ward to Ward. For example, the Carshalton South and Clockhouse Ward is well serviced with 33 gritting bins whereas the Wallington North, Wandle Valley and Nonsuch Wards languish with only one gritting bin each. Conservatives are now calling for an end to Sutton’s ‘post code lottery’ access to grit bins and for better preparation for icy road conditions in the future.
This is not the first time that the Liberal Democrat-run Council has provoked controversy over its winter highways policies. Last year the ruling Liberal Democrats slashed the winter highways maintenance budget by £20,000 in March only to later spend £16,000 on a state-of-the-art air conditioning system for the Council Leader’s Office in July.
The past month has shown how woefully ill-prepared Sutton Council is for icy and snowy conditions. I don’t blame our hardworking gritting teams, I blame the political leadership of the Liberal Democrats for short-sighted cuts to the highways budget.
by Paul Scully | Jan 4, 2010 | News |
Recently, I promised that I would report back from my recent walk around Carshalton Village with Council officers. To their credit, most issues were tackled straight away: to my shame, it’s taken me a while to report back. I’m still waiting to hear about Scawen Wall and fees in the local car parks but here’s the rest:
- Loading Bays in Carshalton High Street – The Council have asked TfL to look into making this mixed use, both loading and short stay parking.
- Planting in the High Street – The Council have asked TfL if they would support a community-led replanting and tidy up of the planters in front of the shops on Beacon Grove.
- Promoting Business in the Village – The new ‘Core Planning Strategy’ adopted by the Council on 7th December identifies Carshalton High Street as a ‘district’ centre. This gives us the ability to promote the development of Carshalton Village and support proposals which consolidate its role as a shopping centre. Now we just need the political leadership to go out and do the promoting.
- Blocked Drains – The drains in Talbot Road and Seymour Road were passed on to be cleaned and an additional gully put in opposite 36 Carshalton Place to avoid a pool forming at the crossing point.
- Railing Replacement at the corner of the High Street and The Square – TfL have been notified of the incorrect replacement outside the Coach & Horses.
- Lime Trees in The Square – These trees are to be pruned to reduce their width and overhang to gardens. They will also be thinned out to let more light through. The Council doesn’t plan to reduce them in height as Officers are concerned this will cause them to bush out in all directions, with loads of soft sappy growth that will produce even more sticky deposits.
- Mill Lane – The cobbled area is adopted highway rather than part of the new development so allowing for some tree planting pits to help ‘green up’ the area. This would be considered as part of the public realm money that is allocated to each area in the Borough for distribution by councillors, the earliest being 2011.
- Junctions with Carshalton Road – Officers agree that junction such as Cambridge Road are hazardous and would benefit from the short stretch of single red line that goes up these side roads to be upgraded to double red lines, thus removing parked cars from the end of the roads. TfL have been informed as roads with red lines are their responsibility.
- Yellow Lines around Ringstead Road, Croft Road, Meadow Road – This is not considered to be a high enough priority. We’ll keep on pushing for better sight lines in this area.
- Colston Avenue – This is being dealt with as part of a much larger batch of projects. Objections to the schemes in this wider area are being examined with any changes to the original plans to be made by February. Any work will start in February/March.
- Yellow Lines at junction of Blakehall/Salisbury Road – Again, this is being looked at as part of a batch, with consultation ending anytime now and implementation early January.
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by Paul Scully | Jan 1, 2010 | News |
by Paul Scully | Dec 24, 2009 | News |
I’ve just been informed by Steve O’Connell, our local Greater London Assembly member, that there will be emergency utility works on the A232 Croydon Road, commencing on 4th January for about 6 weeks. This is to repair an Extra High Voltage cable located beneath Croydon Road at the junction with Cedars Road.
Working hours will be 8am-8pm Monday to Friday with weekend working as required. The first few days of work will be noisy. Traffic Management utilising two way temporary traffic signals will be set up.
We all know how busy this road can be so the early warning is welcome. No doubt it’ll affect the Beddington Lane junction at peak times so it might be advisable to stay clear as much as possible.
Conservative Home posted a useful General Election Brief last weekend which I missed at the time. Immigration is an issue which concerns a lot of people that I meet. It is also a topic that needs to be treated sensitively to ensure that extremists do not prosper on one hand and that debate is not swept under the carpet on the other hand, for fear of causing offence.
