Manifesto Report - Part 1 - The Lib Dems
This is a two part report on the Manifesto's of the two Party's represented in the Council chamber.
This posting concerns the Lib Dem manifesto and in Part 2 will cover the Tories.
The 2006 Lib Dem manifesto is a substantial improvement on the 1994, 1998 and 2002 manifesto's which mainly set out what the Lib Dems had done rather than what they would do. You may be aware I was complimentary towards the latest manifesto at the April Council meeting.
Key points to note are:
1. Develop local residents asociations.
This could be something local ward Councillors are encouraged to develop in their representative role. We could set local targets to cover two-thirds of the borough by a Resident Assocation by 2006. We could also work with the Police to get groups to double up as Neighbourhood Watch Groups as well as Residents Associations, thus building community cohesion.
2. Devolved Area Budgets.
I hope this receives all-party support and we get a move on with our own local scheme. This could also lead to Areas then develving some money to Ward Councillors to recommend spending on within their ward, perhaps consulting with local residents Associations and the local Safer Neighbourhood Team. Surrey County Councillors each get £20,000 a year to spend, why can't we develop something similar.
3. Become a Museum Authority.
If we doo this perhaps we could then bring in free admission to the Heritage Centre and thus bring it attendance up to the much better attended, free admission Ecology Centre.
4. A New Theatre for Sutton.
I welcome the commitment to retain the Secombe until a replacement is built in a more promient place in the High Street. No reference to the Charles Cryer Theatre though?
5. Twin with a town in the developing world.
Let's hope we can develop a local consensus on this. Perhaps a number of South West London Council's can jointly twin with a place to maximise the benefits?
6. Campaign for Tramlink.
I suspect the same wording witll be in the 2010 and 2014 manifestos!!
7. School Bus Services
Good to see we want to increase the number of outborough pupils in the borough by making their bus journeys more comfortable by increasing the bumber of double deckers coming in from South Croydon!! Presumably Tom Brake through his bus campaigns now seems to support the Greenwich judgement.
8. Policing
I think now we have 18 Safer Neighbourhood Teams and ward Panels, we should let them get on with it for the next four years. In particular, we should allow each local area to develop their own local priorities and to share good practice.
9. Hospital Provision.
Lacks any detail on what the Lib Dems would like to see at LCH level let alone the CCH where unlike their MP's they are sitting on the fence. This is a big weakness of the manifesto and lets the local NHS off the hook.
10. Children's Centres and Extended Schools.
This is very important and I hope gets all-party support. One way to do this is to get local Councillors involved with their local Centre at an early stage.
11. Education Spending
Rather amusing how the manifesto says the Council has always spent above the minimum set by the government on education, especially when under the Don Brims era, the Council kept trying to reduce the amount spent on education by up to half a million a year. I am glad that in recent years, that this budget policy has been dropped.
12. Older Peoples Day services.
This is an important area and I have set out in an earlier posting some criteria as to how this might be effectively conducted.
13. Upgrading and modernising old peoples homes.
Surely this should be in the singular as having failed to sell them off to London and Quadrant and Hexagon Homes in the mid 1990's the Council looks likely to sell off the Bawtree, Ludlow and Franklin sites for housing in the coming years, leaving them with just Oakleigh to run and the purchasing of places probably at a presumably GP led Carshalton War Memorial Hospital.
14. Extra Care Housing.
The Belsize development is a good idea in principle, but was achieved by misleading existing residents, much to the embarrassment of Councillor Janet Lowne (who had made some perfectly reasonable commitments in 2002) at the time. I will cover this development in more detail in a future posting.
15. Revitalise Sutton Town Centre.
I am not convinced there is any local consensus on this and I think we need more debate on this issue. I will also cover this in kore detail in future.
16. District Centres
No reference is made to Rosehill as a District centre. Let's hope we get the money owed from the Rosehill Triangle Section 106 agreement.
17. Planning
Against "overdevelopment" but in favour of Tramlink which inevitably increases local housing density. How will we square this circle?
18. Affordable Housing.
Laudable sentiments but no detail. I hope my suggestion of developing a Sutton Tenant owned Community Land trust is taken up over the coming years. Then instead of affordable properties being "lost", we get permanent rented housing in sensible mixed developments. We could then have the Suttonh Housing Partnership working as an agent on behalf of the Community Land Trust. This is the sort of local policy that should get support from Brown, Cameron and Campbell, so lets get ahead of the game. I will cover this idea in more detail in the future.
This posting concerns the Lib Dem manifesto and in Part 2 will cover the Tories.
The 2006 Lib Dem manifesto is a substantial improvement on the 1994, 1998 and 2002 manifesto's which mainly set out what the Lib Dems had done rather than what they would do. You may be aware I was complimentary towards the latest manifesto at the April Council meeting.
Key points to note are:
1. Develop local residents asociations.
This could be something local ward Councillors are encouraged to develop in their representative role. We could set local targets to cover two-thirds of the borough by a Resident Assocation by 2006. We could also work with the Police to get groups to double up as Neighbourhood Watch Groups as well as Residents Associations, thus building community cohesion.
2. Devolved Area Budgets.
I hope this receives all-party support and we get a move on with our own local scheme. This could also lead to Areas then develving some money to Ward Councillors to recommend spending on within their ward, perhaps consulting with local residents Associations and the local Safer Neighbourhood Team. Surrey County Councillors each get £20,000 a year to spend, why can't we develop something similar.
3. Become a Museum Authority.
If we doo this perhaps we could then bring in free admission to the Heritage Centre and thus bring it attendance up to the much better attended, free admission Ecology Centre.
4. A New Theatre for Sutton.
I welcome the commitment to retain the Secombe until a replacement is built in a more promient place in the High Street. No reference to the Charles Cryer Theatre though?
5. Twin with a town in the developing world.
Let's hope we can develop a local consensus on this. Perhaps a number of South West London Council's can jointly twin with a place to maximise the benefits?
6. Campaign for Tramlink.
I suspect the same wording witll be in the 2010 and 2014 manifestos!!
7. School Bus Services
Good to see we want to increase the number of outborough pupils in the borough by making their bus journeys more comfortable by increasing the bumber of double deckers coming in from South Croydon!! Presumably Tom Brake through his bus campaigns now seems to support the Greenwich judgement.
8. Policing
I think now we have 18 Safer Neighbourhood Teams and ward Panels, we should let them get on with it for the next four years. In particular, we should allow each local area to develop their own local priorities and to share good practice.
9. Hospital Provision.
Lacks any detail on what the Lib Dems would like to see at LCH level let alone the CCH where unlike their MP's they are sitting on the fence. This is a big weakness of the manifesto and lets the local NHS off the hook.
10. Children's Centres and Extended Schools.
This is very important and I hope gets all-party support. One way to do this is to get local Councillors involved with their local Centre at an early stage.
11. Education Spending
Rather amusing how the manifesto says the Council has always spent above the minimum set by the government on education, especially when under the Don Brims era, the Council kept trying to reduce the amount spent on education by up to half a million a year. I am glad that in recent years, that this budget policy has been dropped.
12. Older Peoples Day services.
This is an important area and I have set out in an earlier posting some criteria as to how this might be effectively conducted.
13. Upgrading and modernising old peoples homes.
Surely this should be in the singular as having failed to sell them off to London and Quadrant and Hexagon Homes in the mid 1990's the Council looks likely to sell off the Bawtree, Ludlow and Franklin sites for housing in the coming years, leaving them with just Oakleigh to run and the purchasing of places probably at a presumably GP led Carshalton War Memorial Hospital.
14. Extra Care Housing.
The Belsize development is a good idea in principle, but was achieved by misleading existing residents, much to the embarrassment of Councillor Janet Lowne (who had made some perfectly reasonable commitments in 2002) at the time. I will cover this development in more detail in a future posting.
15. Revitalise Sutton Town Centre.
I am not convinced there is any local consensus on this and I think we need more debate on this issue. I will also cover this in kore detail in future.
16. District Centres
No reference is made to Rosehill as a District centre. Let's hope we get the money owed from the Rosehill Triangle Section 106 agreement.
17. Planning
Against "overdevelopment" but in favour of Tramlink which inevitably increases local housing density. How will we square this circle?
18. Affordable Housing.
Laudable sentiments but no detail. I hope my suggestion of developing a Sutton Tenant owned Community Land trust is taken up over the coming years. Then instead of affordable properties being "lost", we get permanent rented housing in sensible mixed developments. We could then have the Suttonh Housing Partnership working as an agent on behalf of the Community Land Trust. This is the sort of local policy that should get support from Brown, Cameron and Campbell, so lets get ahead of the game. I will cover this idea in more detail in the future.
posted by Charlie Mansell at 4:54 pm
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