Conservatives Overturn Car Park Charges Increase
Councillor Howard Jones (Leader of the Conservative Group on RBK) has welcomed news that the decision concerning the unprecedented increase in parking charges has been deferred until Budget Council on 15th February.
The announcement comes after Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Local Government (Cons), said that pushing up parking charges was “the lazy approach to saving money”.
The Council has deferred any decision on the unpopular and outrageous hikes in both on-street and contract parking, recently announced by the Council on Christmas Eve, which would adversely affect small businesses and the viability of the town centre, after representations from Cllr Jones.
The Conservative Group Leader said ‘very sensibly they have listened to our argument and agreed that all financial decisions should be addressed in totality rather than piecemeal throughout the year and we’ll wait to see the budget proposals in February when we will be able to take a holistic view of our precarious financial situation.’
Absent friends
On Tuesday evening the RBK Executive took important decisions about the most contentious issue currently in Surbiton Hill ward, the building of a 442 pupil school partly on demolished buildings on the Surbiton Hospital site.
I was there and spoke. Graham Goldspring of OADRA was there and spoke. Mary Clark, who has no connection with the ward but cares about health services, was there and spoke. Cllrs. Howard Jones, Andrea Craig, David Cunningham and Robert-John Tasker (all Conservatives) were all there. Sandra Berry of Kingston’s Link was there. Cllrs Houston, Parekh and Self were nowhere to be seen. Not interested?
The building of the school will necessitate the closure of Southbank House and its demolition. This involves the cessation of a health facility for mental health patients. It should have been discussed at length by the Health Scrutiny and Overview Panel (HSOP) of RBK. It appears not to have been, and yet Cllr. Houston is its vice-chair and Southbank House is in his ward.
The matter might have been raised at the meeting of the HSOP on Wednesday. Again Cllr. Houston was not there.
There was a mention on the Dementia Working Group that Cllr. Houston may not be able to take part owing to other commitments. And so far, he hasn’t taken part.
I leave it to readers to draw their own conclusions.
E-petition on Hospital site
We have launched an e-petition to ask the Executive to submit to further scrutiny the process being used to build a 446 pupil school on the Surbiton Hospital site.
Please follow this link to sign it.
Ewell Road still dangerous
It was with great sadness that we read recently of the death of a pedestrian late in November 2010. He was crossing the road near the junction with Langley Road. Our sincere condolences to his family and friends.
We have drawn attention to the dangers on Ewell Road many times in the past. Indeed our posts on this remain among the most frequently visited by you, our readers. I hope RBK will take seriously the thought that children from Berrylands will have to cross this road twice a day at least if they persist in their plan to build a new school on the hospital site.
Kingston maternity expands
Kingston Hospital is pushing ahead with plans for a £7.8m expansion of its maternity unit in a bid that could secure its future, according to the Surrey Comet website. Construction of the two-storey building and refurbishment of its existing maternity ward would increase the capacity for babies born in Kingston by nearly 25 per cent to more than 7,000 a year. It would also head off the prospect of potential closure or downgrading by any future review of the NHS in south-west London, the hospital said. Questions were raised about the future of the maternity ward before the general election last year, when Mr Davey revealed documents showing closure was being considered by NHS chiefs as part of a review of the maternity and accident and emergency departments in south-west London.
Midwives said the move was inconceivable given the high demand at Kingston. The hospital delivers more babies than any other in south-west London, although it is now the oldest facility. NHS Kingston Primary Care Trust (PCT) said it and other PCTs in south-west London were reviewing the proposal.
2010 in review
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.
Crunchy numbers
A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 10,000 times in 2010. That’s about 24 full 747s.
In 2010, there were 155 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 486 posts. There were 93 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 28mb. That’s about 2 pictures per week.
The busiest day of the year was November 5th with 209 views. The most popular post that day was Fireworks display: November 6th..
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were surbiton.com, ellertonandbondra.com, WordPress Dashboard, new.kingstonconservatives.com, and search.sky.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for check your receipts before leaving the check-out, surbiton hill, surbiton hill councillors, road traffic accident, and surbiton hospital.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
Fireworks display: November 6th. November 2009
Ewell Road dangerous…’Surrey Comet’ agrees November 2007
4 comments
Tolworth Broadway December 2009
2 comments
Freedom Pass renewal: 2010-2015 December 2009
About us November 2006
Surbiton Forum 