by The Editor | Mar 21, 2013 | Sutton Conservatives |
The Aspiration Budget
The Chancellor has set out a Budget for those who work hard and want to get on.
Backing Families
From 2015 we’re offering tax-free childcare. We will pay 20% of a working family’s childcare bills every year – up to £1,200 per child. A family with two children will be up to £2,400 a year better off.
Backing job-seekers
This Government has already helped create one and a quarter million private sector jobs – but with this Budget we go further. Next April we will cut the National Insurance bill of every business by up to £2000. That means they’ll be able to take on 4 people full time on minimum wage without any increase in the NI bill.
Local Conservative Parliamentary candidate, Paul Scully, endorsing the Budget said “This demonstrates that Britain is moving forward, and clearing up Labour’s mess”. Paul was out in Sutton, Worcester Park and Cheam last evening with local activists handing out leaflets that set out some of the key messages of the Budget.
You can view the leaflet here.
by The Editor | Mar 18, 2013 | Sutton Conservatives |
Weekly Bin Collections Saved
Action from Conservatives in government rescues weekly bin collections
Following a concerted campaign from Sutton South’s Conservative team, funds have been given to the Council from Local Government Minister Eric Pickles to save our weekly bin collections for the time being.
Mr Pickles has given the Council £2.8million to save this important local service to residents. The move settles residents’ widespread concern that the Council would scrap the collections as it has repeatedly tried to do in the past.
Heather says: “This is fantastic news and we’re delighted our efforts have paid off thanks to Eric in Westminster.
“Looks like the Lib Dem-run Council will have to wait until next year’s local elections before they try to axe the service again!”
You cannot trust Sutton Council to protect weekly bin collections.
Jason Hughes
by The Editor | Mar 16, 2013 | Sutton Conservatives |
Keep Calm and Speak English
In Sutton South we are delighted that the Rt Hon. Eric Pickles MP, Conservative Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, has made an announcement today that local councils should once and for all end the practice of translating communications into literally dozens of foreign languages.
The Conservative-led Government is committed to making sure people learn English to ensure communities are no longer segregated by a lack of understanding of the native tongue.
I have chased Sutton Council in the past on the cost of translation services and currently the money spent on this is unclear.
In Sutton South Ward we support the Government’s language programme to make sure that all people who seek to live here can speak English, enabling them to have the power to get on with people who live here, and also to get on themselves.
We will fight to ensure that Sutton Council adopts this approach entirely and that council taxpayers are not handed costly translation bills.
Jason Hughes
by The Editor | Mar 16, 2013 | Sutton Conservatives |
Car Park Map
The Brighton Road car park saga rumbles on…
We have intercepted a letter from Sutton Council’s Head of Parking to season ticket holders at Brighton Road car park. The letter attempts to butter them up for the scheme to flog off the car park to the large multinational firm, SubSea7.
As you will see (pictured below) the firm has put out its own glossy spin document as a warm-up act for the planned sale.
In the letter it says there’s more than enough parking for Sutton’s town centre. This really is bewildering considering many residents tell us otherwise. The Head of Parking writes that the 628 spaces at Brighton Road will be absorbed by the Times Square car park and Gibson Road (see plans, left).
Letter
Concerned season ticket holders and residents have already complained to us that this displacement of parking will add additional traffic pressures on the one-way system in central Sutton, which is already struggling to cope with current traffic levels!
The letter also explains it will give Brighton Road season ticket holders their current price at the other two car parks but this will end after 12 months, reverting to their prices instead. We think this is unfair on two fronts, first why should Gibson Road and Times Square have two tiers of fees disadvantaging current users. And secondly, when they go up after 12 months Brighton Road users will find their fees more expensive through no fault of their own.
Like residents and commuters, we are deeply concerned by this intricate scheme to lose our car park. We very much welcome SubSea7′s interest in Sutton and the jobs it will bring, but the proposals must be right for the local area. We stick by our alternative proposal that they should develop the Sutherland House eyesore.
Cllr Tony Shields
by The Editor | Mar 4, 2013 | Sutton Conservatives |
Sutton Conservatives call upon LibDems to allow Council Tax to be paid over 12 months.
Today the Conservative group on Sutton council are calling for households to be allowed as a matter of course to pay their council tax over 12 months this forthcoming year instead of the usual 10.
Changes bought in by last years localism act mean that any household wishing to pay their council tax over 12 months instead of 10 must be allowed by the local authority.
It has however come to the Conservative groups attention that the Lib Dem administration will send out demands still in the 10 monthly payment format leaving individuals to make individual requests to change their payment terms.
At the full council meeting of the 4th March the Conservatives are putting forward an amendment calling on the council to issue the demands in a 12 monthly payment format rather than the 10 proposed.
Councillor Tim Crowley Conservative finance spokesman commented;
“This year when there will be massive changes to the benefit system and also when hard pressed families are still feeling the pinch we feel it is incumbent on the council to go that extra mile to aid household budgets by letting them spread the cost of one of the largest household expenditure items over 12 months instead of 10. As the council has positive cash balances forecast for the next 12 months why do they need to get residents money in just to sit in the councils coffers?”
At the time of this press release the council are still planning to issue demands based on the old format.
March 4th 17.00
by The Editor | Feb 28, 2013 | Sutton Conservatives |
Paul Scully writes on EU Referendum
Paul Scully, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate writes in this week’s Sutton Guardian on an EU Referendum. He writes:
“Eight out of ten people in the UK want to have their say in the UK’s future relationship with the EU. We now have the first real commitment in forty years to have an in/out referendum which should not be dismissed (Letters 14th February).
Unlike the Prime Minister my default position is to leave the EU unless I can be persuaded that renegotiated terms are of significant benefit to this country. Such a renegotiation will undoubtedly be tough but not impossible. Few believed that David Cameron would lead the way in securing the first budget cut in the history of the EU; but he did.
Pragmatists on both sides of the European debate will understand why such a referendum has to be held after the next election. We have a coalition government. The Liberal Democrat shift from wanting a referendum in 2010 to rejecting the idea now makes the necessary legislation impossible to get through Parliament.
UKIP has chimed with a section of the public as a pressure group but as a party, risks pushing the country further away from its stated aims by helping to usher in a return to government by the people who negotiated the Lisbon Treaty, lost control of our immigration system and ran up a huge bill for our children to pay back in decades to come.
I know that when the referendum comes, the answer will impact on this country for at least the next 40 years. With polls swinging either side of the 50/50 mark as to whether to leave or remain, we need to make sure that the public has a clear understanding of the options and we simply have to get that answer right.”
