Hospital site Scrutiny
The RBK Scrutiny Panel will meet next Thursday, 24th February, to discuss and scrutinise the Executive’s decision to proceed with a competition to run a school on the Surbiton Hospital site from September 2012, in spite of the fact that it dosesn’t own the land, hasn’t yet got planning permission and hasn’t clearly identified where the funding will come from to pay for it.
The meeting follows the submission of a petition signed by 107 citizens of RBK requiring further scrutiny of the Executive’s proposed course of action. It is a public meeting which anyone may attend but only those called as witnesses may speak.
This week at the cornerHouse
from Celia Harding
We have a busy week ahead at the cornerHOUSE.
There are the oneACTS 2011 auditions with lots of roles for all ages available, as well as a superb and moving show called Lifeboat which is being staged in collaboration with the cornerHOUSE.
Details of the oneACTS auditions and Lifeboat are below.
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Fancy acting in a short play? Then the cornerHOUSE oneACTS 2011 could be just the thing for you. Kingston’s most respected platform for original playwriting is looking for actors of all ages to perform in this showcase of local writing talent.
Whether you are an experienced actor or a complete novice, there could be a place for you in one of the oneACTS which will be performed at the cornerHOUSE in Douglas Road, Surbiton, from Monday, April 4 until Saturday, April 9 2011.
This will be the seventh year the arts centre has run the festival, which has become a well established and highly respected event in the local arts scene.
The annual festival of one act plays features short pieces by talented local writers – some serious, some funny, some both.
The plays are only 15 to 30 minutes long, which means that it’s a great opportunity to be involved in a show without a heavy time commitment, but you will still be able to enjoy the buzz of being part of a large, dynamic team of playwrights, directors, actors and crew, all working towards providing a week-long feast of original, quality-driven entertainment.
You can find out more about the festival and how you can be part of it by reading oneACTS 2011 – guidance which is on our website www.thecornerhouse.org or by emailing oneacts2011@thecornerhouse.org
So why not come to our open auditions at the cornerHOUSE on either Wednesday, February 9, 2011 from 7.30pm or Sunday, February 13, 2011 from 2-5pm to see what it is all about? All you need to bring with you is enthusiasm and a willingness to have a go. We are looking forward to meeting you.
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Crime and ASB: from the Home Secretary
Message received from the Rt. Hon Theresa May today,
Dear Paul,
Since Tuesday the government’s website www.police.uk has provided you with maps that show crime and anti-social behaviour at a street by street level right in your neighbourhood.
This means you can see, even from your mobile, exactly what crime is happening and where – right down to the level of your street corner. If you have concerns about the crime you see or how issues are dealt with, you can raise them with the police.
The interactive maps open the door on crime and police information. You can view crimes including burglary, violence and anti-social behaviour in a particular area by using a simple postcode search. There will also be details about your neighbourhood policing team and information about regular beat meetings.
Under Labour the police were directed by Whitehall diktat. The police spent their time chasing centrally-defined targets and not responding to the needs of the local communities they were supposed to be serving. A recent report by the police inspectorate showed that only eleven per cent of police officers were visible and available to the general public at any one time.
The government is introducing a series of measures as part of our plan to fight crime:
- Slashing bureaucracy – steps already taken to save up to 800,000 hours of police time by scrapping the stop form and limiting stop and search reporting
- Removing all targets and setting the police just one goal: to cut crime
- Introducing directly-elected Police and Crime Commissioners to ensure that police forces respond to the needs of local communities
- Providing transparent information so local communities really know about crime in their area.
These crime maps which will reconnect the police and communities through the power of information are just the start. It’s clear that this sort of transparent information is very popular as www.police.uk received millions of hits an hour on Tuesday.
I’m proud that England and Wales are world leaders in providing this sort of data. We want to build on this by working with the police and with you to explore how we can go further and faster and drive forward even greater transparency across crime, policing and justice.
Theresa May
Home Secretary
Urgent notice from OADRA
Wednesday 2 February 2011, 7:00 pm, Surbiton Hospital to be discussed at Surbiton Neighbourhood Committee
Greetings
We wanted to remind everyone that redevelopment of the Surbiton Hospital site will be discussed this evening (Wed, 2nd Feb) at the Surbiton Neighbourhood Committee meeting.
This will take place at Dysart School, 190 Ewell Road, at 7pm. An exhibition of the proposal plans will be on display before the meeting from 6.30pm.
It is a meeting of the 12 ward councillors for Surbiton, and we understand that there will be time for local residents to ask questions and express their views.
This is therefore an important meeting for our councillors to learn what people think first-hand.
Owen Palmer
It was with the greatest sadness that I learnt this morning of the death at the weekend of Owen Palmer. Owen was a long serving Secretary of the Southborough Residents’ Association and a tireless worker for all sorts of local causes. He was a very loyal and candid friend and a regular correspondent. If my phone rang at 9.30 in the morning ten to one it would be Owen wanting to discuss a local problem or just exchange ideas.
Perhaps the finest tribute to him was paid by a fellow SRA member in the citation that went with his Mayor’s Civic Award in 2009.
I have known Owen for most of the 12 years he has served as Honorary Secretary on the Southborough Residents’ Association committee. This title is a most inadequate description of the tireless and unstinting work he has done for the Association which, because of his contribution, is today recognised as one of the strongest and most effective residents’ associations in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames.
Owen is especially good at identifying potential problems early, and successfully orchestrated campaigns to resolve them satisfactorily. I have time to just give you two examples to illustrate this: in 2002, He commissioned Surrey University to conduct a survey in the Southborough area to discover the best way to control commuter parking that was then on the increase. As a result, Kingston Council then conducted their survey. The result was the present day successful non-CPZ parking scheme, which preserves the street-scene of this special area.
A second example is Owen’s liaison with Kingston Council the result of which was the raised concrete roundabout on the Langley Avenue, Langley Road, Kingsdowne Road five-way junction with the busy Upper Brighton Road. Traffic now flows more slowly and together with the two pedestrian crossings (which Owen also initiated), has created a much safer junction.
Owen has built up excellent contacts with officers and councillors in Kingston, so that communications between the Association and the Council work well. He always makes time to talk to residents, and of course he is locally very well known.
Yet another of Owen’s special talents is as effective self-appointed local mediator. He has helped resolve differences of viewpoint between neighbours on planning matters, and also when difficulties arose over major building works at Shrewsbury House School. I can report that his efforts led to successful and happy outcomes. He has also helped four local nursing homes when they applied for planning permission to increase the number of bedrooms.
Everything Owen does is done with enthusiasm, energy and care for others. He always leads from the front, and is well known for undertaking the lion’s share of the necessary footwork delivering information to the many homes in the Southborough area. His example has been the bedrock of the success of the Southborough Residents’ Association.
Owen attended Tiffin’s School in Kingston, and before retiring, was a Business Studies university lecturer in London. For another ten years, he continued to work, on a part-time basis, for Kings College and City University. He is a keen player at Surbiton Tennis Club and some years’ ago, he volunteered to help the Club secure its future survival using his marketing skills. Owen is also a member of the congregation at St Mary’s Church, Long Ditton, where he again, offers his many talents with enthusiasm and energy.
We offer our deepest sympathy to Owen’s wife, Betty. We shall all miss him. May he rest in peace.
Hospital site call-in petition
On Friday afternoon (21st January) a petition containing 107 signatures was handed in to the Guildhall ‘calling in’ for further Scrutiny the Executive decision to proceed with its plans for the new school on the Surbiton Hospital site.
The matter will now come before the Council’s Scrutiny Panel. We will keep you informed about the timetable for this. I would expect the meeting to take place fairly soon, however, as time is of the essence now. thanks to the apparent failure of RBK to heed warnings, given 12 months ago, to devise a ‘Plan B’ for providing the school places which are needed.
Surbiton Forum 