by Paul Scully | Jun 2, 2009 | News |
I’ve taken my eye off the ball in keeping the blog up to date in recent days so I’ve some catching up to do. A couple of weeks ago, I joined Sutton’s Trading Standards officers and local ward police in Carshalton to go on a tour of the area for a Rogue Trader day.
This entailed driving around the ward looking for any signs of building works and interviewing both the contractors and residents. Part of the exercise was to look out for rogue traders who prey on the vulnerable, overcharging them or creating opportunities for distraction burglaries. However, most of the time was spent on just making people aware. This allowed residents to take simple precautions so they did not fall victim to such scams. It also made contractors aware of the borough’s Safer Sutton Trader Scheme, which acts as both security for residents and an advertising opportunity for contractors. We finished off at a mobile exhibition in Carshalton Village where crime prevention officers were on hand to offer advice to residents.
I certainly appreciated the time spent by council officers and police officers explaining their roles and the effect that they have. Trading Standards is a small department that often gets overlooked as a lot of their work goes unsung. Even on our short trip, the police picked up some useful intelligence that may help prevent crime in the ward. That’s got to be time well spent.
by Paul Scully | May 22, 2009 | News |
I joined the Council’s Trading Standards officers and police officers from the local Safer Neighbourhood Team.
by Paul Scully | May 22, 2009 | News |
Until Cllr. Eric Howell intervened, Sutton Council was one of a small number of London boroughs which did not officially support employees who may want to serve in the Territorial Army as Reservists.
Eric Howell got in touch with Sutton Council’s Chief Executive to get Sutton signed up to the SaBRE (Supporting Britain’s Reservists & Employers) campaign as a ‘supportive employer’. Only 9 out of the 32 London boroughs have failed to support SaBRE’s aims. Sutton was one of them.
My colleague Eric is an ex-serviceman who fought in the Suez Crisis. He was disappointed to discover that SaBRE had written to the Liberal Democrat Leader of Sutton Council asking for support, but did not receive a response.
Eric, along with fellow councillor Cliff Carter, came into contact with SaBRE last month when they went to support Sutton’s very own reservist unit at the General Officer Commanding (GOC) Trophy Challenge – a new military skills competition. Sutton’s TA Unit, the 210 Transport Squadron of the Royal Logistical Corps, is based in Stonecot Hill.
Commenting Eric said: “There was a motion at the last Council Meeting referring to the Armed Forces but it neglected to mention Sutton’s home-grown TA Unit, the 210 Transport Squadron. Along with several colleagues I witnessed their highly impressive skills first hand at the GOC competition last month. Sutton should be immensely proud of their achievements.
“As the borough’s largest employer it’s about time Sutton Council got its act together to officially sign up to the SaBRE campaign. Over 70% of other London Councils endorse this campaign to give support to our brave Reservists – why isn’t Sutton one of them?”
by Paul Scully | May 16, 2009 | News |
The BBC have an extraordinary story this morning. There are 4.5million people on waiting lists for social housing and around 100,000 new build homes lying unsold and empty. Housing Associations are refusing to use a government fund to buy thousands of these to plug the gap because they are not of a high enough standard. Apparently, unlike private dwellings, social housing needs to be of a minimum size and built to a higher standard.
Is it just me or are you looking at this, scratching your head too? Sutton has the second worst housing stock in London, requiring £125million to bring all of their homes to a basic liveable standard. People across the country are living in social housing that may be built to a minimum size, but have tenants packed in like sardines with children sharing rooms with their parents. Enough damp and condensation is produced in many places to solve the drought problems in the south east and mould is prevalent, bringing on asthma and other such complaints. Yet a partial solution is being knocked back by those who cannot see the wood for the trees.
Millions of people in the UK have scrimped and saved for deposits, taken on bigger and bigger mortgages as the housing market exploded, in order to get a foot on the ladder. Many had to have a size of family to suit their circumstances and size of home, rather than the other way around. The social landlords that are eschewing the empty properties are peddling an ideal that is not available to those who can just about afford their own home and is not helping those who can’t either. They need to get out of their reasonably sized, ivory towers, built to an excellent environmental standard natch, and join the real world. If they have the cash, buy the homes. Take advantage of the 10 year NHBC guarantee to put right any of the faults and snags.
by Paul Scully | May 16, 2009 | News |
David Cameron gave up on his planned Party Election Broadcast on TV this week to turn his attention to the only political issue of the week, that of MPs’ expenses. Speaking directly to the camera, he detailed the action that he and the parliamentary party were taking now to tackle the disintegration of public confidence in politicians. He started the broadcast with that rarest of words in politics, sorry.
As others have reported, this approach demonstrated that at least one of the leaders actually realised the severity of the problem and was prepared to address it rather than ploughing on regardless. In stark contrast, the Labour party put out an anti-Conservative video, almost totally unrelated to the elections ahead. Sutton resident Adrian Short has highlighted the disingenuous approach of the LibDems in their election literature. It is ironic that the main proponents of greater proportional representation in elections mislead people to think that the European election is a two-horse race here, with statistics from the last General Election to back up their claims, when it is in fact a regional election. On June 4th we will be voting for a party list of candidates to represent the whole of London in the European Parliament. The LibDems may be close to the Conservatives in Sutton, but this is far from true in most other parts of the capital. This is not an election where you need to consider voting tactically. Simply put the cross next to the party that you believe represents you best. If you need help working this out, have a look at the website Vote Match.
by Paul Scully | May 15, 2009 | News |
Several trees have been felled to cover the MPs’ expenses story over the last week and there is little that I can add apart from my horror at some of the more excessive stories and my disappointment that the majority of the MPs who are working hard trying to
accomplish what they set out to do when seeking election, are being tarred with the same brush. Local councillors tend to get written off as feathering our own nests as well, despite the fact that there is no scope for expenses as far as I am aware, beyond travel for lead councillors representing the authority on official non-political business.
Gordon Brown hasn’t come out of this well but he has been consistent in his slightly creepy detachment from reality. Have a look at these two videos of interviews filmed a couple of weeks apart. The first is a Channel 4 interview about the Youtube appearance and his 11th hour backtracking from a daily allowance (known in Brussels as SOSO – sign in, sod off.) The second is a more recent appearance on BBC when he was caught on the hop by David Cameron’s firm line. Both times he tried to accuse the interviewer that they had their facts wrong. Both times, the interviewer was spot on.
I’ve taken my eye off the ball in keeping the blog up to date in recent days so I’ve some catching up to do. A couple of weeks ago, I joined Sutton’s Trading Standards officers and local ward police in Carshalton to go on a tour of the area for a Rogue Trader day.
