First parking permits up, now swimming charges

One of the things about having Conservatives in power locally is that we can judge what the Tories say they intend to do nationally by how they act locally.

So when, the day after Tory leader David Cameron claims he's against high taxes, Wandsworth Tories announce they're increasing the cost of parking permits by 27%, you get a good idea of the gap between Conservative rhetoric and reality.

Another example, announced just last week is the Tories' intention to hike up admission charges to swimming pools, gyms and other fitness centres across Putney and the borough from February. This again presents us with a stark difference of approach between the Conservatives and Labour.

The Labour Government announced last year that we would make swimming free from this year for pensioners and children - and free for all by the Olympics in 2012. The Conservatives want to price ordinary people out of our pools and are more interested in another nice little earner than encouraging people to stay fit and healthy.

Ironically, at the same meeting that the Tories rammed through the swimming charge increases, they also tabled a report to make sure that Wandsworth participates in the Government's free swimming programme. That they can't see a contradiction between their approach and Labour's free swimming shows how out of touch the Tories are.