My "in your area" page

I've just overhauled the "in your area" page of this website. As well as using a new-look Googlemap, I've added a lot more pins to represent my work around the constituency this Autumn - clicking on each one brings up a balloon with more information about the event, campaign, news item or issue.

And, there's also a scrolling menu of these pins which are linked, where appropriate, to the relevant article on this blog to provide more information should you want it - in effect a constituency diary.

You can zoom in and out of the map using the controls in the top left of the map, move it around by just clicking and dragging on it and change the type of map you're viewing: the options are:

• A satellite image of the constituency
• A satellite image of the consituency overlaid by road names
• A standard Googlemap of the constituency
• Or the new, "terrain" version - the default - which I'm using because I think it's somewhat clearer and less busy than the standard Googlemap design

I hope you find the revamped "in your area" page of interest.

The Quadrant

Last night I was invited to attend the Annual Meeting of The Quadrant Residents' Association in Roehampton. The Quadrant covers Rodway Road, Akehurst Street, Umbria Street and Nepean Street.

The big issues for residents there at the moment are the huge Queen Mary's Place development of over 600 homes currently under construction, which backs right up to the edge of the Quadrant. Aside from the general disturbance caused by such a massive development, there is huge concern about both the parking impact it will cause and the added congestion upon the already slow-moving Roehampton Lane.

Plans have been mooted to ban all right turns from Roehampton Lane because of the amount of rat-run traffic through the village and Dover House estate, but such plans would also prevent Quadrant residents from getting to their homes as well, so this was a topic that received a lot of discussion too.

And the parking situation in the area has gradually worsened over the past three years, so residents were pleased to note that the council had finally bowed to demands, championed by Labour's Roehampton team last year, for a consultation on a controlled parking zone.

I was delighted to have been invited to the meeting which was well-attended, and to have been able to contribute on several of the issues discussed.

Putney in the news

Putney has been in the news twice today. BBC London News this evening led with a story on dangerous dogs and featured the attack on The Pleasance last month. It was good to see the victim of the attack recovering well.

You can watch the BBC News story here or read the summary of the story on the BBC website here.

We also learned today that fifteen years after the horrific murder of Rachel Nickel on Wimbledon Common, part of which is in the constituency, someone has been charged with the crime. My thoughts tonight are with both Rachel's family but also with Roehampton resident Colin Stagg who was falsely accused of her murder at the time and who has been persecuted ever since. While no one has yet been convicted and we need to be careful with what we say until they are, this must have been a day Mr Stagg has long waited for.

This blog one of Iain Dale's top 300 political blogs

I've just discovered that this here blog of mine is listed among the top 300 UK Political Blogs by Conservative commentator, pundit and blogger Iain Dale in his book Iain Dale's Guide to Political Blogging in the UK.

Although the Guide was published during the Party Conference season this Autumn, I've only just picked up on this because it hadn't even occurred to me that my blog would be noticed!

What's even better is that these blogs were voted for by readers of Iain's own blog over the Summer, when I was only just beginning to establish this website - so it's great to be noticed and if or when there's a reprint let's hope we'll climb the rankings.

Another example of housing neglect

On Sunday my campaign team and I were out in Southfields ward talking to residents of Brathway Road and Avening Terrace, as well as Merton Road and Morris Gardens.

Just as we found in our earlier visit to Longstaff Road and Longstaff Crescent, we found the state of repairs to the council properties in Brathway and Avening truly shocking - especially the neglect of windows. There was real anger at the refusal of the council to pay any attention to the needs of tenants in this area.

As a result, I asked Councillor Leonie Cooper, Labour's Housing spokesman and London Assembly candidate for our area, to get onto the Housing Department and find out why the Conservative-run council was being so neglectful of this area. And through our efforts, Avening and Brathway are on a list for repairs that could start next April, provided council tenants approve the schedule at a forthcoming meeting.

This is great news for the residents locally, even though it does mean another winter of draughts and higher-than-necessary heating bills, but the question must be asked: two areas of council property, two areas seriously neglected by the council - how many more examples exist around the constituency in similar urgent need of repair?

Feet for purpose

One of the issues I was briefed on during my recent visit to Queen Mary's Hospital in Roehampton was the Pediatry service Wandsworth Primary Care Trust (PCT) offers to older and disabled residents.

Being able to cut our own toe nails is something most of us take for granted: it's such a straightforward, simple duty we take care of almost without thought. But just imagine what it must be like if you are physically no longer able to. So here in Wandsworth a chiropody and toe nail cutting service is provided - and importantly it's what's called "self-referring": anyone who needs the service just gets in touch themselves: they don't need to be referred by a GP.

Chiropody is a service that is affected by the postcode lottery: there are wide variations in the range and quality of services primary care trusts provide around the country. In Wandsworth, our PCT is committed to implementing the Pediatry proposals set out by Age Concern - you can read more about them here - to standardise services and make sure those who need them can get them within the same shorter waiting times that we're now achieving across huge areas of NHS provision.

Heathrow consultation underway

You may have seen news coverage about the government's consultation on the future of Heathrow in the last few days.

This is a massive issue for the country, for the Capital and for our part of London, so it's really important not to pay attention to the noise made by politicians, pressure groups and special interests and reach your own opinion on the basis of the facts.

The Department of Transport has published a comprehensive consultation document - the full thing is 77mb and runs to 240 pages - but don't worry if that puts you off: there's a summary document and other tools to help assess the impact.

The consultation runs through to 27 February 2008: you can find out more here.

Our Safer Neighbourhood Teams

Putney now has forty Police Safer Neighbourhood Officers - members of teams that didn't exist just four years ago, and which we wouldn't have if the Conservatives had their way - they opposed all funding of them.

Here are the details of our six local ward teams along with any details of forthcoming events they're holding:

East Putney Team

Acting Sgt Matt Snowden
PC Sandrine Tanghe
PC Russ Percy
PCSO Simoni Simoni
PCSO Alison Brownlow
PCSO Douglas Cameron
PCSO Kelly Collins
PCSO Claire Fairman
PCSO Paul Henry

Write to them at: Jubilee House, 230-232 Putney Bridge Road, London SW15 2PD
Phone:020 8721 2433
Mobile: 07920 233925
Email the East Putney team

Upcoming East Putney team meetings and events:

• 28/11/2007 - 19:30 - 21:30 - Community Event - Cadets, Lytton Grove
• 09/12/2007 - 11:30 - 13:30 - Street Briefing - West Hill Road
• 17/01/2008 - 19:00 - 20:30 - Public Meeting - Putney High School
• 28/01/2008 - 18:00 - 19:00 - Community Event - Brownies, Wandsworth Police Station
• 31/01/2008 - 19:00 - 20:30 - Public Meeting - London Mosque

Roehampton Team

Sgt Peter Salmon
PC Andrew Voong
PC Amanda Kennedy
PCSO Lisa Burke
PCSO Noel Perkins
PCSO Nicky Edwardes
PCSO Fuad Osman
PCSO Marco Serrano

Write to them at: Jubilee House, 230-232 Putney Bridge Road, LondonSW15 2PD
Phone: 020 8649 3551
Mobile: 07843 065885
Email the Roehampton team


Southfields Team

Sgt David Mepham
PC Darren Hunt
PCSO Liam McLaughlin
PCSO Jacek Zebracki
PCSO Alexandra Claridge
Write to them at: 146 Wandsworth High Street, LondonSW18 4JJ
Phone:020 8721 2429
Mobile: 07920 233931
Email the Southfields team


Thamesfield Team

Sgt Roger Chapple
PC Bosede Odelusi
PC Stuart Paton
PCSO Gerald Baffoe-Bonnie
PCSO Sophie Wood
PCSO Julie Kirk

Write to them at: Jubilee House, 230 - 232 Putney Bridge Road, LondonSW15 2PD
Phone:020 8721 2434
Mobile: 07920 233924
Email the Thamesfield team


West Hill Team

Sgt Nigel Mussett
PC Glen Cheal
PC Mark Toulson
PCSO Daniel Taylor
PCSO Lisa Tyler
PCSO Laura Smith
PCSO Kirsteen McPhee
PCSO Andrew Morgan

Write to them at: 146 Wandsworth High Street, LondonSW18 4JJ
Phone: 020 8721 243
Mobile: 007920 233930
Email the West Hill team

Upcoming West Hill team meetings and events:

• 01/12/2007 - 12:00 - 14:00 - Drop-in Surgery - 26 Montfort Place SW19
• 05/01/2008 - 12:00 - 14:00 - Drop-in Surgery - 26 Montfort Place SW19

West Putney Team

Sgt Eric Ostrowski
PC Stuart Baggaley
PCSO Sharon Ellis
PCSO Michael Yates

Write to them at: Jubilee House, 230-232 Putney Bridge Road, LondonSW15 2PD
Phone: 020 8721 2760
Mobile: 07747 757590
Email the West Putney team

The Boris Johnson housing plan: LESS affordable homes

The Tory Mayoral candidate for London, Boris Johnson, yesterday came out with his plan to tackle our housing crisis: scrap all obligations on councils to ensure affordable homes are built!

Of course, it wasn't Londoners priced out of the housing market Boris chose to announce his bright idea to: it was house-builders, who would much rather reap the extra profits than honour their commitment to the areas they pile up their gated-off luxury apartments in the midst of.

Along with Wandsworth's Conservative Council - that has just about the worst record in London for building affordable homes and has almost halved the number of council homes for rent in the borough from 32,000 to less than 17,000 - these are just about the only people who would regard Boris's plan as anything other than plain stupid.

So under the Tories, we'll see even more luxury riverside penthouses along our Thamesbank, more public sites sold off for private housing, greater overcrowding, even higher house prices, more homelessness and longer waiting lists.

We desperately need more affordable homes, not less. I think the problem is severe enough in London that I don't think even Ken Livingstone is being radical enough: for the next five years I believe two thirds of all homes built in the Capital should be affordable - mainly for rent. Fat-cat developers like St George won't like that of course, but they know full well that they can still net a huge profit on the one-third of properties they could still sell.

No one can reasonably argue that there is no difference between Labour and Conservative. This is a critical problem: the Tories either ignore it (as Putney's MP does), or want to make it worse. I know Boris likes to play up to his 'buffoon' image but this is ridiculous.

Queen Mary's Hospital

Earlier this week I paid a visit to Queen Mary?s Hospital in Roehampton.

Going to a hospital isn?t something that many people would normally choose to do but if you have had reason to visit QMH ? either as a patient or visitor - you cannot have failed to have been impressed by this fantastic state of the art local hospital. I was given a guided tour by Stuart Reeves, Associate Director for Adult Services at the hospital, and saw all aspects of the hospital.

I spent some time talking to an elderly in patient on Mary Seacole ward who was recovering from a fall at home. She was full of praise for the staff and the service she has received and it was with real pride that I explained to her how the hospital, which had been all-but closed by the last Conservative Government, had been rebuilt as a result of the record investment in the NHS under the Labour Government.

During my visit I spent some time meeting with Di Caulfeild-Stoker who is the Director of Provider Services. We talked about the health problems facing the area and the way in which she and her colleagues are trying to address them. We spent some considerable amount of time talking about how best we can tackle the obesity problem. I think school nurses have a vitally important part to play in this (pardon the pun) growing problem, but there is a real problem recruiting them due in part to the lack of affordable housing for key workers.

Also as part of my visit I met and spoke with a local GP who was gave me an insight into the primary care issues facing him and other GPs operating in Putney. I was invited to come back again soon to see in further detail the vital work undertaken by our NHS and I very much look forward to my next visit.

We've stalled the closure of Newlands Hall

My petition to save the Newlands Hall on Putney Vale estate went before the Council's Housing Overview and Scrutiny Committee last week.

And despite attempts by some silly Conservative councillors to discredit it - simply because some of the signatories were users of the hall who don't actually live on the estate itself - we did squeeze some concessions from the Town Hall.

There will now be a consultation with the community about the future of Newlands Hall which, given the council's determination to close it down just a few weeks ago amounts to a major U-turn.

Congratulations to Our Lady of Victories Primary

Our Lady of Victories Primary School in Clarendon Drive was again ranked in the Sunday Times' Top 25 state primary schools in the country this week. My congratulations to the pupils, staff, governors and parents for making this such a great school.

Roehampton students' blood donors campaign

Students at Roehampton University have been campaigning in recent weeks for the antiquated and discriminatory ban on gay men being blood donors to be scrapped - a campaign I support.

This is a crazy ban that shouldn't have survived the dawn of the millennium. The NHS blood banks are hardly overwhelmed with donors; and from time to time, especially during the Winter, there are often reports that stocks are perilously low.

The National Blood Service argues that even with screening there is a small risk that infection may get through. But it is unjust and silly to assume that all homosexual blood will be infected while all heterosexual blood is safe; especially given that HIV infection (to name but one) is now proportionally higher in the heterosexual than the gay community.

All I know is that if a relative or friend of mine needed a blood transfusion, the only thing I'd care about was that the blood was safe. Whether it was donated by a man or woman, black or white, gay or straight is utterly immaterial. How the National Blood Service can believe different in this day and age is extraordinary.

Leonie Cooper for Merton & Wandsworth

Local Labour Councillor Leonie Cooper has been selected as candidate for our constituency in next year's London Assembly elections.

Leonie, who is our housing spokesman on the council, has been working with me on several of the issues I've been campaigning on like my Newlands Hall petition and the council's neglect of the Lennox estate. She is Deputy Leader of Wandsworth's Labour Councillors and has been a borough resident for almost 20 years.

The London Assembly holds the Mayor and many of the Capital's service providers like the Metropolitan Police and the London Development Agency, to account.

Our London Assembly seat covers the boroughs of Wandsworth and Merton. It's currently a Tory-held marginal, but the Conservative Assembly member is retiring.

Happy Diwali

Today, Hindus, Sikhs and Jains around the world begin celebrating Diwali, the Festival of Lights. Diwali is probably my favourite non-Christian festival: it's such an uplifting and positive idea, symbolising the victory of good over evil and given it's timing as the nights close in towards Winter.

Anyone who's visited Tooting at this time of year will see the festive lights along Upper Tooting Road - the main shopping centre: up to celebrate Diwali, not the council being a little too eager to start Christmas celebrations!

In some parts of the Hindu faith, Diwali symbolises the start of the New Year but it also commemorates the homecoming of King Rama of Ayodhya, after a 14-year exile whose people welcomed him back by lighting up rows of lamps - called deepa-wali - which is where the name of the festival originates. There are also other myths and legends as to the origin of the ceremony: in Jainism it marks the nirvana of Lord Mahavira, for example.

Diwali is celebrated for five consecutive days at the end of Hindu month of Ashwayuja (amanta). Like Easter, it doesn't have a fixed date: next year it's in late October.

I wish everyone celebrating this festival my best wishes at this time for them and their faith.

Parking penalty

I was recently contacted by a resident of a new block of flats in the heart of Putney who had been caught in an absurd parking loophole.

When new developments are given planning permission nowadays the council rightly requires the developer to provide off-street car parking spaces and thereafter the residents of these new apartments become ineligible for residents' permits in the surrounding parking zone.

But for my constituent the problem is that she bought in the shared-ownership section rather than the main development and the owners did not allocate any parking spaces for this part of their scheme. So she's now caught between the council saying they won't give her a residential parking permit for her zone and the developers who won't give her an off-street parking space either.

This is clearly unfair, and I've got involved to make sure that either the Council or the developer backs down. Fairly applied the council's policy of preventing those with off-street parking spaces from having residential parking permits as well is not unreasonable - but banning residents who don't have that luxury is plain wrong.

If you've experienced similar problems and would like my help, do get in touch - email stuart.king@putneylabour.org.uk

Latest crime figures

There was a lot of interest when I published the constituency's crime figures back in June, so I thought I'd repeat the service - not least to show the strong start Chief Superintendent Stewart Low has made as Commander of Wandsworth Police.

Crime is down in every single ward except West Hill (which was and remains the council ward least affected by crime anyway); significantly so in Roehampton and Thamesfield. Crime in every single Putney ward bar Thamesfield is below the London average. Four of our six wards have figures lower than the borough average.

Some people (including me, when I first compiled the figures) have expressed surprise at the high crime level in Thamesfield ward, but remember: it also contains our town centre, so any shoplifting or robbery that occurs in the High Street gets included in the Thamesfield figures.

Here are the figures for the twelve months up to September for the six Putney wards:



And here's the comparable table that I published in June for the twelve months up to May:

Roehampton Community Justice Court

The first Community Justice Court anywhere in London has just opened its doors in Roehampton.

This is a major new way of dealing with what are classified as relatively minor crimes, but which cause disproportionate hurt, victimisation and upset to those affected.

For the first time, local criminals will be held to account locally for their crimes; with input from the community. Experience elsewhere in the country where this method of punishment has been trialled has shown that reoffending rates fall dramatically, not least because of the added responsibility of being judged locally and being held accountable by the community they've harmed.

Cases which will be dealt with by the court include harassment, theft, possession of drugs, breaches of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders, breaches of community orders, bail or drug treatment orders, failures to appear, fraud, Road Traffic Act offences, assault, criminal damage, assaults and domestic violence. The Community Justice court can bring back offenders to the court to review the progress of their community sentences, a power which they, uniquely, have.

I fully back pinoneering new initiative by the Labour Government like this - which on top of extra Police and the 44 Community Support Officers in Putney introduced by Labour since 2001 - really should tackle so-called low level crime in Roehampton. This scheme is also important in helping residents to sleep securely at night, because although crime in Roehampton is higher than the constituency as a whole, this community is nothing like the crime den some local politicians (who really should know better) seek to paint it as.

You can learn more about the Community Justice system here.

Whitelands Park

On Saturday I had a look round the new Whitelands Park housing development off Sutherland Grove in West Hill. This used to be the University of Roehampton Whitelands College site before it moved a couple of years ago when the University consolidated in Roehampton itself.

This was one of the very last sizeable sites that the Council could have approved for affordable housing, but as usual instead of putting local housing need first it allowed over 400 top-end homes ranging from semi-detached houses to penthouse flats way beyond the means of most Putney residents.

It consists of three distinct parts: Whitelands Crescent, which is a cul de sac of nice semi-detached houses plus three residential blocks; in the middle of the site is the Sir George Gilbert Scott building - part of the old university which has been converted into flats and a private library for residents (and which also has the oddest flat numbering system I've come across); and in the north is Scott Avenue, which in the main comprises more residential blocks of different sizes, plus a smaller terrace of houses and some other "leftover" conversions from the University.

Despite this attempt by the Conservatives to polarise Putney even further what we've ended up with in Whitelands is a rather interesting mix; the only thing it lacks is affordable rented homes - which of course are the one housing tenure we need most of all.

Newlands Hall update

Over 100 Putney Vale residents signed my petition to save Newlands Hall, the community centre in the heart of their estate which the council has run down and now intends to close.

My colleague, Councillor Leonie Cooper, who is Labour's lead councillor on housing in Wandsworth, presented this petition to the full council meeting a week last Wednesday, formally entering it into the record so that the Conservative Adminstration now has to explain itself.

The next step is for the petition to be discussed at one of the Council's "Overview and Scrutiny" Panels, which are Conservative dominated so don't expect much overview or scrutiny of this cruel decision. This meeting takes place on 15 November at Wandsworth Town Hall - it's open to the public, so do come along.

Wandsworth Community Transport visit to Terracotta Army

Wandsworth Community Transport is running a special outing to see the Terracotta Army at the British Museum, and invites anyone interested to call 020 8675 7460 to reserve a place.

Manuel Button, WCT's Managing Director says: "This incredibly popular exhibition is now virtually sold out, and we were very lucky to get some tickets.

"Anyone who lives in Wandsworth and who finds it difficult to use public transport can go on our outings, but call soon as we anticipate heavy demand. We also do lots of other trips throughout the year, for both active pensioners as well as those who need picking up at home, so there should be something for everyone!"

I'm a big fan of WCT - I visited them last month and wrote about the services they provide in this month's parliamentary report - click here to read it. This trip is an example of the "going the extra mile" attitude of so many of our area's community services.

Thames Water pollute the Wandle

On September 17th, Thames Water accidentally discharged industrial bleach into the River Wandle from their sewage treatment works in Beddington.

As a result, it's estimated that over 2,000 fish died between the plant and Morden - though we can take limited comfort that Thames Water believes that the bleach had so dissipated further downstream that there has been little to no effect on the Southfields stretch of the river, which is of course part of our constituency.

This is just the latest in a catalogue of mishaps and poor service from Thames Water; which includes:

• The discharge of raw sewage straight into the Thames whenever it rains heavily
• The lamentable waste of water through pipe leaks while at the same time the company charges us ever more and lectures us about saving water;
• The poor standard of water quality revealed in the Thames report (which I covered here) and
• Reducing mains water pressure which forced residents living in blocks at the top of Putney Hill to shell out for additional pumping equipment in order to maintain their service

While Thames Water have funded the cleanup and are better monitoring their Beddington sewage plant, it's becoming clear to me that the diffuse regulatory regime governing this company (with responsibility split between the Environment Agency and Ofwat principally) is allowing this company to get away with, quite literally, murder (or at least manslaughter - of Wandle wildlife).