• There’s the Star and Garter building at the junction of Upper Brighton Road and Langley Avenue. I did once notice some mud in the road on Langley Avenue, but that was in the days when it used to rain and the impression now is that the construction is being done as sensitively as possible. If I’m wrong, please let me know.
• Lower down Upper Brighton Road there are the works to the railway bridge. These are probably long overdue but they are causing problems for pedestrians as well as motorists and increasing traffic in Oakhill and Ditton Road and Ewell Road.  It seems St. Mark’s Lib Dems are claiming credit for the bridge works, but I’m not going to suggest either that they are responsible for them or that you should blame them for any inconvenience caused!
• Speaking of Oakhill there’s the ongoing works on the hospital site, with attendant heavy lorries. The impression I have formed is that materials are coming in and spoil is being taken out via Ewell Road exclusively – certainly this is the impression gained by sitting in traffic jams on the road while lorries manoeuvre in and out. Again, if I’m wrong, please let me know.
• The Red Lion site and the police pound site on Ellerton Road are still very quiet, it seems, and likely to stay that way for some time.

We don’t as yet have precise information on when all these works will come to an end. I’m sure Star and Garter will be a good neighbour to Southborough and I hope the bridge will not need further repairs for some years. Pedestrians will benefit from it becoming less attractive to roosting pigeons! The new health facility will be a boon to residents, not having been sold off for housing as some of our correspondents wanted! I hope residents’ fears about the impact of the new school on Oakhill are not realised – time will tell!

Now more than ever, the responsibility of any Mayor is to treat every penny of Londoners’ money with care. Because it’s not my money. It’s yours.

And it will only ever be used on the things that take London forward. To invest in transport infrastructure, put more police on the streets, make the Olympics a success and build more affordable housing.

Anything spare should always be passed back to Londoners.

When I was elected in 2008, Londoners were tired of 8 years of successive council tax hikes.

I promised to end the culture of waste created by Ken Livingstone and keep taxes low.

I kept this promise. We’ve frozen our share of council tax every year. And we’ve done this by ruthlessly ferreting out waste.

• We no longer spend £10,000 on a subscription to the Morning Star.
• We no longer spend £3m a year on a personal propaganda sheet for the Mayor.
• And we haven’t spent £20,000 on a lunch for Hugo Chavez. Or £30,000 on a trip to Cuba.

By working over the last three years to turn around London’s finances, I am able – for the first time in the history of the mayoralty – to cut my share of council tax.

The choice at this election could not be clearer. My record shows that, whenever possible, we keep taxes and charges low.

• We scrapped Ken Livingstone’s plans for a £25 tax on family vehicles.
• We scrapped the Western Extension of the Congestion Charge, providing relief to small businesses.
• We extended the Freedom Pass to 24 hour operation. And we put Oyster on national rail, leading to cheaper fares for many.
• And we’ve done this in the teeth of a recession, whilst increasing police numbers and protecting the investment that will help our city grow once more – providing jobs and prosperity.

Ken Livingstone’s record shows he puts up taxes and charges at every opportunity. We couldn’t afford it during the good times, and we certainly can’t afford it now.

His Labour allies on the London Assembly have already voted against a budget that freezes council tax. Next week, they will be asked to vote to cut council tax. I will urge them to do this, and I urge you to join me in sending them a message to vote the right way.

Please visit: www.borisbudget.com

Best wishes,

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London

This Wednesday 11 January, the Surbiton Planning Sub-committee will discuss the planning application for the Surbiton Water Works – Filter Beds development.  This is a controversial proposal that has been covered in several articles in the local press.

It is an opportunity for anyone from Surbiton to express their views.

So far objections have been based on the environmental impact and the effect on river users. Members of the public will have an opportunity to express their views, without the time restriction of a formal planning item. The committee will then make comments and recommendations to be fed into the Development Control Committee meeting on 23 February, where the decision will be made.

The meeting on Wednesday will also decide upon an application for a new 4-storey block of flats on the site of the garages in South Terrace. Only registered speakers can contribute to this item.

The meeting starts at 7.30pm at Dysart School (190 Ewell Road), and details and background documents can be found on RBK’s website at:

http://www.kingston.gov.uk/council_and_democracy/committeeminutes/moderngov.htm?mgl=ieListDocuments.aspx&CId=293&MId=6424&Ver=4

A major item for discussion will be the design of Tolworth Braodway. As this is a consultation it should be possible for any member of the public to air their views to the assembled Councillors.

Follow this link to support the campaign to save Surbiton Hospital. http://www.surreycomet.co.uk/surbitonshospital/. The three of us are totally committed to seeing the Hospital survive and develop into a ‘state of the art’ health care facility for Surbiton. We are also very concerned that the perilous financial position of our Primary Care Trust is still putting our hospital’s future at risk. We also hear that some in government believe there’s ‘too much hospital provision in this part of London’.

Entry on this website 13th Dec 2006:

Though we have in the past been given undertakings that the future of the Hospital is not under long term threat, this further burden on the PCT’s finances cannot but cause more anxiety about the future.

We will continue to campaign, as we always have, for the retention of the Hospital site by the NHS and its upgrading to a ‘state of the art’ medical facility for the people of Surbiton.

This elicited the following comment from Paul Sloan an apparent Lib Dem supporter:

What’s the point of every little nook and cranny having its own hospital?
It’s no distance from Surbiton to Kingston Hospital.
Why not sell the site for housing (its a superb prime site right by the station), and reinvest the money either
1. by centralising facilities in Kingston.
2. rebuilding somewhere cheaper.
The same goes for that old peoples home on Browns road. It’s an inefficeint use of a prime site. Sell it and put in somewhere cheaper like the back of berrylands, or tolworth.

To which we responded:

……….. Surbiton is not a ‘little nook or cranny’. We entirely appreciate that some services need the concentrated resources of a big sub-regional hospital like Kingston. But minor surgical procedures, convalescent facilities, physiotherapy should be available closer to patients’ homes. We have advocated a redevelopment which would embrace the services formerly provided in Surbiton with the addition, among other things, of the possible relocation of GP facilities from Oakhill, which is bursting at the seams. ….

So you see that we have never wanted to sell off the site either of the hospital or ‘that old people’s home in Browns Road (Newent House). But there were others who did.

If you want further evidence of the consistent approach of Surbiton Hill’s former Conservative Councillors on this issue I can provide it, or you can find it for yourself on this website.

Much more of the stuff the Fib Dem candidate and his agent are putting out, including in their latest spectacular work of fiction, will have them looking like Pinocchio.

The Federation ‘Scroll’

I have been reluctant to exhibit this here until now, but, as I was attacked by our opponents during the election campaign, who alleged that I was not doing enough for Council tenants and leaseholders, I have been urged to  share with you what their representatives thought of my efforts. The text reads:

The Federation of Kingston Residents’ Associations.

Presented to Paul Joseph Johnston. With grateful thanks in recognition of your support and commitment to the cause of all Kingston’s Social Housing residents throughout eleven years of stalwart service as a long serving councillor, Chairman of the Housing Consultative Committee and, above all, a generous, selfless individual.

Signed by Derrick Johnson, Federation Chairman and Sadiq Mohammed, Federation Secretary. On behalf of 6,500 grateful residents of the Royal Borough of  Kingston upon Thames.

This was presented on 3rd June 2010 together with a beautiful decanter. I am immensely grateful for the gifts, but even more for the feeling that lies behind them. My commitment to the cause continues.

The building is being constructed in units off-site, so that construction work on site will be kept to a minimum. Construction will start in the October half-term. Completion is expected in February 2011.

Hi all,

Please see below, re appeal for help for the people involved in the fire on the Cambridge Road Estate

Thanks

Richard

Jill Preston – Chair
> Cambridge Road Estates Community Group
> 61 Graveley , Willingham Way
> Kingston, Surrey KT1  3HY
> Office: 0208 547 6910
> Mobile: 07910 844427

So we sat down and thought exclusively about Surbiton Hill and its concerns and the part we have played in them. With your support we will continue with the same energy and commitment for the next four years.

• We have fought for vital repairs to School Lane and secured £15000 for new Children’s play equipment.
• We worked with Residents in Bond Road and Ellerton Road to bring to an end anti-social behaviour that blighted residents’ lives.
• We secured funding for new road surfaces in Arlington Road and Oakhill Road with new pavements in Lovelace road.
  
• Oakhill, Glenbuck Road and Southbank have been defended from developers of the Surbiton Station Carpark and supported against unscrupulous developers who broke the law.
• We helped form an Oakhill and District Residents Association to give a voice for those who are concerned about the redevelopment of the former Surbiton Hospital and Police Federation Building in Langley Road.
• We have stood by Southborough residents in their fight against Sunrise and worked to extend the Southborough Conservation Area and now we are on the verge of a break through in introducing a code of conduct for driving schools that use Woodlands Road, Corkran Road and Langley Avenue to name just three roads.
• We have attended the Southborough Residents Association, The School Lane Residents Association, Oakhill Residents and Ellerton and Bond Road Residents Associations meetings.
• We have also supported and attended the meetings of our outstanding Safer Neighbourhood Police Team.
• Hundreds of individuals have been helped confidentially and it’s been our pleasure to support you.

We have worked 52 weeks a year for 4 years serving everyone who has needed our support in Surbiton Hill. A record we are proud of and a commitment we will give for another four years, with your support.

What would they think of their Leader’s ‘commitment’ today? A meeting with leading resident representatives, originally scheduled for yesterday morning at 10.30 was rescheduled for today at 5 p.m. specifically so that he could attend it.

The organisers might as well not have bothered. He didn’t appear – nor did he send any explanation or apology for his non-appearance.

What sort of ‘concern’ or commitment is that?

For the record I was there!