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Marina Yannakoudakis Reports Back From Brussels

Marina Yannakoudakis Reports Back From Brussels

Matrina Yannakoudakis MEP reports back from Brussels

Matrina Yannoukadakis MEP reports back from Brussels

Tackling FGM at home and abroad

Marina Yannakoudakis London MEP kicked off the New Year by meeting with the Orchid Project to discuss the brilliant work they do to help eradicate Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) by partnering projects in Africa. Greater awareness of FGM is desperately needed.

Charities such as the Orchid Project can offer great insights into how to tackle FGM. Thousands of women and girls in London are currently at risk.

Marina is planning conferences to help raise this issue both in London and Brussels. For more information contact: marina.yannakoudakis@europarl.europa.eu

Raising awareness of allergies

Marina participated in a skin prick test in support of her written declaration on allergies this month. The event sought to highlight the prevalence of allergies and encourage people to get tested. An estimated 21 million British adults suffer from one or more allergies. The UK has one of the highest incident rates for allergies in the world and the NHS spends nearly £1 billion a year on treating them. Marina will continue to raise awareness of this issue and fight for better treatment.

You can read more about Marina’s work in Brussels here

Belmont Councillor Gives Mayor A Slice Of History

Belmont Councillor Gives Mayor A Slice Of History

Cllr Peter Geiringer presents a painting of the Cock pub to Sutton's MayorConservative Councillor Peter Geiringer has given a painting showing the Cock pub, which used to stand in the town centre, to Sutton Council.  He came across the painting whilst at an auction.  The painting, which Cllr Geiringer donated at Monday’s Full Council meeting, will hang on a wall of the mayor’s parlour at Sutton Civic Offices in St Nicholas Way.

Cllr Geiringer, who has been a councillor for more than 33 years has an equal interest in art and had been looking for some time for a particular painting for Sutton.

The painting shows the Cock pub, which stood where the sign of the Cock is at the cross-roads of the High Street and Carshalton Road.

Conservatives Force Council U-Turn on London Living Wage

Conservatives Force Council U-Turn on London Living Wage

At last Monday’s Full Council Meeting, the Conservatives in Opposition tabled the motion ‘This Council endorses the wider campaign for, and commits to, implementing the London Living Wage.’  This had been raised at a previous meeting but one of the LibDem Councillors had ruled it out saying Sutton Council could not afford it. Cllr Graham Whitham tabled this motion and the item was duly debated by Councillors.  The vote was unanimous.  Cllr Whitham’s opening comments were:

Cllr Graham Whitham tabled the motion on the London Living Wage at Monday’s Full Council Meeting.

We often hear how parties can fall into the trap of ‘knowing the cost of everything and the value of nothing’. Tonight members will have the opportunity to demonstrate the value they place, on a living reward for those who have the work ethic. As Boris Johnson said when implementing  the LLW ‘it really is a win for employers as paying a fair wage fosters a loyal and motivated workforce while at the same time continues to pull many Londoners out of poverty”.

LLW just consider those three words and look at the squeezed middle word the word ‘living’ which all parties should care about.  In the UK we now see the Red Cross starting food collections for families to tackle what they see as the current food poverty challenge.  This is the first time in my lifetime and I was born just after the Second World War with all the long term implications that conflict had for this country.

The Prime Minister correctly articulates support for hard working families and the Deputy Prime Minister draws attention to what he terms are the working poor.  The paradox of low pay is that it is these very categories who are often the victims of low pay.  In many the mother is in a minimum wage job, trying to pay the bills, for the question of low pay is often a gender question with low pay mainly focused on women’s employment.

There is a mythology that paying a proper wage, the LLW, would kill off jobs.  Although the LLW may be seen as a cost for employers they will also benefit by people getting into work with a reduced reliance on benefits in the longer term, enabling Government spending to be targeted on more necessary budgets and whilst increasing spending in the local economy.

I would like to give Members, indeed everyone sitting here, something to think about.  Do you know how much per hour you are on? Possibly not. But if your income exceeds £15,500 then you are in excess of the LLW, so how many of you doing a 35 hour week or its equivalent are on less than that?

Ed Miliband made reference to 2 nations, in essence picking up Benjamin Disraeli’s theme of One Nation.  Nowadays we see this as Social Conservatism but whatever name the various parties attach to this belief their aims are the same.  Nick Clegg’s working poor need a living wage so do younger people seeking their first job.  We do not need a system where people in employment are potential victims of pay day loan sharks.  In Britain, and for the people of the London Borough of Sutton, we need a system as rightly stated by Ian Duncan Smith where work pays and by Boris Johnson who believes, as we do, thatdecent hard working Londoners deserve proper reward for their labours’,

In his second speech on this issue Cllr Whitham said:

It is Government policy to get the welfare budget down and both parties in the coalition subscribe to the philosophy that work must pay.  When it pays to work, the welfare budget will go down and tax receipts increase.   In all probability, in the short term, the wider state support of wages will remain but we can make a start locally.  If we do not, in the end, the cost will finish up here.

Currently welfare is effectively subsidising low pay.  When I started in politics it was a given that the state should not be subsidising nationalised companies. Why are we now effectively subsidising privately owned companies which in certain cases, such as the railways and energy companies, are paying substantial dividends to shareholders.

Last year the UK Low Pay Recovery report demonstrated that more than 75% of the net rise in jobs in the previous 3 years had come in low paid sectors with an average wage of less than £8 per hour.

In the Centre for London report , ‘Settle for Nothing Less’, the percentage proportion of workers paid at or below the national minimum wage in the London Boroughs shows Sutton at 5.9%, this compares with a London average of 2.9%.  Only 4 other London authorities have a worse record.  This statistic reflects poorly on this Borough.  When this Authority next makes an announcement of bringing jobs into the Borough we need to seriously look at what sort of jobs they are and what they pay.  This is why this Motion endorses the wider campaign for the LLW.

If you take the average working week as being 35 hours and you are on the minimum wage you would have to work 49 hours to achieve an income equivalent to a 35 hour week at the LLW.  If you then take into account holidays you would need to work in excess of 50 hours per week.  The situation is now worse than when I first went out to work in 1963 on a 42 hour week.

A commitment to the LLW still only sees an income between £15,000 and £16,000 for a basic working week and that in itself is some £10,000 below the London average wage.   All Members on any form of Responsibility Allowance are virtually on or greatly in excess of the LLW and of course, this is not a principal source of income.

 I started out tonight by saying that we often hear how parties can fall into the trap of ‘knowing the cost of everything and the value of nothing’.  This Motion tests each Member on their priorities when it comes to Council spending and their own values.

This Motion tests each Member as an individual and their personal commitment to ideals of fairness and compassion.  

The thrust of any Government should be to do what it sees as being right, not necessarily what is easy, this Council should do what is right even if it is not easy.

 

 

Green Eyed Monster?

Green Eyed Monster?

Recycling ranking drops

Sutton Council has boasted about its green credentials for many years, and if its Liberal Democrat administration is to be believed, it’s one of the greenest councils ever.

But this week, Conservative opposition deputy leader Councillor Tim Crowley has exposed in the Sutton Guardian newspaper that Sutton Council trails in the recycling ranks at 254th out of 352 councils on its recycling rates nationally.

Sutton plods behind all of its neighbours, Croydon, Kingston and Merton in its recycling rates, but the green propaganda from its costly spin department means you will never hear the truth from the Council.

At next week’s Full Council meeting, Tim Crowley will quiz the Council’s Lib Dem leadership on the poor scoring and its plans to dump an incinerator in the Borough, against public opinion, which will undoubtedly lead to lower rates of recycling with waste scorched to a cinder rather than recycled!

The Council’s leadership loves to slam neighbouring Tory-run Croydon whenever it can, but surely, considering Croydon recycles 44% of its waste and Sutton languishes behind at 38%, perhaps it’s a case of the green eyed monster? As you might expect, Sutton South’s two Lib Dem mouthpieces are typically silent on the topic.

Flooding At Devonshire Primary School

Flooding At Devonshire Primary School

Flooding at Devonshire Road Primary School

The recent adverse weather conditions have caused flooding at Devonshire Primary School (see pictured).

Building work going on to expand the School has been flooded because a blocked drain adjacent to it has flooded because of the conditions.

Sutton Council is refusing to accept responsibility, despite the fact that keeping drains clear is a prime function of the Council in local government.

As a member of the Sutton South, Cheam and Belmont Local Committee (which is chaired by Tony), I will be asking the awkward questions to get this matter resolved.