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by Paul Scully | Jun 2, 2008 | News |
The Sunday Telegraph had an interesting Sutton story in it yesterday. Instead of taking the Old Testament approach suggested in my title, a group of inter-denominational church-goers have got together to act as “Street Pastors” in Sutton High Street on a Friday and Saturday night.
Rather than preaching to them about the error of their ways as some may assume, they are there to ‘do what it says on the tin’ and offer pastoral assistance. Their bags contain flip-flops to help keep girls upright and thermal blankets for those hitting the chilly air whilst dressed up for a hot, sweaty club.
I have met a few of these Street Pastors in their day jobs and spoken to one pair whilst they were on duty – No, I wasn’t in need of flip-flops or assistance:) – and I am pleased that they are there. We don’t have enough police officers to cover the drinking holes in Sutton as well as the rest of the borough so initiatives like this should be encouraged. That is not to say that this should be to the exclusion of tackling those people whose night out turns to causing trouble and violence. Such a concentration of pubs and clubs at the top of Sutton may contain the situation in one area but it also makes it a no-go area for many.
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by Paul Scully | May 31, 2008 | News |
I awoke to some horrific news this morning. Carshalton does not often hit the national news, let alone a breaking story. Two children aged 5 and 4 had died with a 6 month old seriously injured. A man and a woman in their thirties had been arrested at the scene.
If you haven’t seen the news already, you can read the story on the Sutton Guardian website or on the BBC. I won’t add to any speculation. The police are doing their job and journalists are doorstepping neighbours in Park Lane and Rotherfield Road. The truth will out.
What can I add? Precious little. Just a thought for the poor innocent children that have taken the full force of a twisted turn of events. Whatever can bring someone to the point that they can take a life is beyond me. A life that I have brought into this world; impossible.
When my son half-heard the headline of a stabbing in Carshalton he picked up the copy of last night’s Evening Standard with a hard hitting front page about knife crime, sighing that it had been all for nothing. However, this type of tragic story cannot be legislated for and is difficult if not impossible to predict. It is a rarity that just happened to come to Carshalton for one mad moment. Knife crime as a whole still needs our urgent attention.
We will be asking whether the family were known to social services and so if staff were aware of any potential for problems. Apparently they had not long moved in. We will take stock, not jump to any conclusions but breathe a heavy sigh tonight.
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by Paul Scully | May 27, 2008 | News |
Boris has started his Mayoral term at a canter. With sweeping changes in City Hall and initiatives to make good his election pledges of making our streets and transport safer and City Hall more accountable, he has built up quite a head of steam.
One announcement that was made today gathered little attention but will be welcomed by many. According to the Evening Standard, traffic lights are going to be rephased across the capital to ease congestion on busy roads. More cars will be allowed through on each green phase. Although this will mean a slightly longer wait for pedestrians, it will also allow them a longer crossing time which will improve safety.
Boris said, “I do want to make sure that traffic flows more smoothly in London. I think we can do that without any prejudice to the rights and needs of pedestrians or vulnerable road-users.
“I’ve discovered an appalling legacy of neglect of London’s traffic lights and it turns out that, contrary to the so-called green credentials of the last admin, there are no fewer than 727 traffic lights that do not conform to Department for Transport guidelines.
“Poor pedestrians are now being forced to sprint across. I’m assured we can not only rectify the gross neglect of traffic lights but we can also allow cars to flow more smoothly through them.”
Fortunately the picture is of a sculpture in Canary Wharf so he won’t have to spend anytime untangling that pretty mess. I hope one of his first lights for consideration is at the Windsor Castle junction in Carshalton. That way, they might be able to introduce a pedestrian phase without the ridiculous proposals of banning various manoeuvres, thus sending cars rat-running up Carshalton Park Road and Salisbury Road.
by Paul Scully | May 23, 2008 | News |
Last night’s by-election in Crewe & Nantwich sent several messages to Gordon Brown and the Labour Party. A massive 17.6% swing to the Conservatives saw Edward Timpson beat Tamsin Dunwoody to her late mother’s seat.
There is a clear sense that it is time for change. Some of the decisions made by Gordon Brown as Chancellor are coming home to roost. The decision to abolish the 10% tax band was taken last year. The regulatory system that missed Northern Rock was put in place sometime ago. The electorate did not fall for the concession made by Alistair Darling, borrowing £2.7bn to fund a tax cut for those affected by the 10% change. They railed against the “Tory Toff” negative campaigning when Labour played the man not the ball. Surely after so long in power, they should be able to set out their track record – OK, maybe not.
The LibDems fell back as well. The infamous by-election specialists were squeezed with their vote share going down. People swapped straight from Labour to Conservatives, showing that the Tories have a fantastic base to build on as people are interested in listening to them and discovering more about their policies rather than simply protesting about an unpopular Prime Minister and Government.
Enough crowing. I am pleased to see that David Cameron and CCHQ are determined to see this as a stepping stone and not go overboard. People in Crewe and Nantwich have put their trust into the Conservatives. It is up to us to repay that faith and show that they have made the right decision. We will continue to work to earn votes in Sutton and the country rather than rely on other’s misfortunes and fate. Plenty of work still to be done.
by Paul Scully | May 21, 2008 | News |
The 54 Councillors in Sutton represent over 150,000 people, yet I suspect very few know what we do on a day to day basis in their name. Sutton Scene is a corporate magazine concentrating on Council services, the local newspapers report a few political stories. The time that councillors spend in the Civic Offices gets less coverage but needs to be done. The LibDems, as the ruling group make decisions. We scrutinise them and question those decisions. Much of the work is not adversarial, instead concentrating on the general running of the Council. This doesn’t make it less important.
You’ll see in the video above, a brief run through of what happens in a typical Council meeting. Most decisions are made elsewhere, so we have been looking at ways of making Full Council meetings more relevant, more interesting and more effective…We’re still looking.
You can help. There are plenty of residents that grumble over their afternoon tea when reading the local papers. You can submit a question to the council by emailing committee.servicesATsutton.gov.uk (Change AT for @; I’m trying to avoid spam). This is then answered at the Council meeting and you will have the opportunity to have a follow-up question. There is half an hour for this and it is very underused. You see, if no-one asks questions, they think that they must be doing OK, so there’s a challenge for you. Have a look at the Council web page for dates of Full Council and other meetings. I look forward to seeing you in the Public Gallery. If you can’t sleep at night you can even listen to us witter on via streaming audio on the same website.
The BBC won’t be beating a path to my door to present any politics programmes and a ray of light affected Brendan Hudson’s piece, but I hope that my amateur effort gives you some idea about what we get up to on a Monday night.
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by Paul Scully | May 19, 2008 | News |
It looks as though the two local MPs and the Leader of the Council have been looking at the same ward breakdown of the London election results that I have.
The results that are the best indicator of the local situation in Sutton are those for the London Assembly candidate. The Conservatives won fourteen of the eighteen wards in the Borough and won the popular vote in both Parliamentary constituencies. If this was reflected in the General and Local elections, the three LibDem politicians would have failed in their quest to “Save Our Seats”.
These breakdowns are only indicative of voting trends and it is difficult to translate this to national and local politics but they are useful. The variations between elections can be seen by the ballot where people had to tick which party they supported. Before postal votes were redistributed, the Conservatives won every single ward in the Borough. It would be rather Mugabe-esque to believe that this was anything else but, as Peter Snow would have said, “Just a bit of fun.”
We’ve got a lot of work to continue over the next couple of years to clearly demonstrate the ever decreasing returns that residents in Sutton get from their LibDem politicians. What may have started as a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed administration in the 1980s has become a tired one, with few new ideas coming from the elected leaders themselves.
We will also be setting out our positive vision for Sutton. Negative politics may be effective in getting people elected. It has no place in running a Borough. Instead only innovation, inspiration and hard work will see better value for money and the very best services. Don’t forget you can help us with this by going to www.changesutton.org.uk and letting us know what you think.
The Sunday Telegraph had an interesting Sutton story in it yesterday. Instead of taking the Old Testament approach suggested in my title, a group of inter-denominational church-goers have got together to act as “Street Pastors” in Sutton High Street on a Friday and Saturday night.
