New Putney Papers out now

I've just published the Spring 2010 edition of the Putney Paper. For the first time ever, there are six versions of this Putney Paper: one for each of Putney's six wards: East Putney, Roehampton, Southfields, Thamesfield, West Hill and West Putney.

Local stories relevant to your specific part of our area rather than one version that tries to include stories from across the whole constituency, some of which you might not find of any relevance.

The Putney Paper - new edition out now

I've just taken receipt of 35,000 copies of summer 2009 edition of The Putney Paper. The headline is a message I think needs saying because too many Labour MPs have let the public (and yes, my party too) down really badly.

As well as setting out my position on the expenses scandal, the Putney Paper also contains stories on our continuing battle against Tory overdevelopment plans for the area - check out the Overdevelopment Line to see just how much of our borough is - quite literally - under threat.

There's also an update on Southfields Station's lift, the really unfortunate sell-off of Arton Wilson House by the NHS; some of the work the Government's been up to nationally which has gone largely unnoticed because of the expenses scandal; and our usual news round-up and su doku on the back page.

And if you've got a local gripe about a problem or issue, you can use my "Get it sorted" slip to let me know. Or alternatively, click here to go to the Get In Touch page and report it right now!

35,000 copies is the largest circulation of any publicity Putney Labour Party has undertaken in years - every single copy is delivered by local volunteers. We don't use a delivery company and not a penny of public money funds The Putney Paper. We do this because you deserve to be able to make the most informed choice possible at the next election. Such a wide delivery demonstrates that there are no no-go areas for Labour in Putney, Roehampton and Southfields.

You can read the latest edition of The Putney Paper right here.

Keeping Roehampton Safe

In March I spent a week calling on residents on the Lennox estate in Roehampton, which for those of your who know it is a somewhat isolated part of the constituency off Priory Lane.

Every night after work my campaign team and I called on residents to discuss their local priorities and concerns.

You can read more about the issues that I took up and the actions I won in a special edition of The Putney Paper delivered to the whole estate.

As you might imagine, crime and policing was raised by a number of residents - both on the doorstep and in response to my residents survey. So yesterday I met with Inspector Kevan Martin (Putney's Sector Inspector), Sergeant Mark McLeavery (Roehampton SNT) and PCSO Marco Serrano (Lennox Estate Micro-beat) to discuss the various concerns that were raised with me.

The meeting was extremely productive and it was encouraging that the majority of the issues I raised were matters already known to the police and on which action was ongoing. It bears testimony to my belief - and that of many others - that safer neighbourhood policing really is delivering results. Locally based police teams are picking up intelligence on low level crimes that have an impact of people's quality of life disproportionate to their "seriousness".

The principal issue that I wanted to raise with the police was that residents feel they do not see enough of the SNT on the estate. This is a difficulty for the police because I acknowledge and accept that they cannot be everywhere at the same time and Roehampton is a very big ward geographically. It runs from Upper Richmond Road in the north all the way south to Wimbledon Parkside.

There is a perception that the SNT tend only to be seen at the parade of shops and were thought rarely to venture furether into the estate. I was assured by Marco Serrano that this was not the case and that he visits the whole of the Lennox at least every other day on his bicycle. I was impressed with Marco, who clearly knew his patch and displayed a welcome enthusiasm for his role.

Anyone wishing to raise policing concerns with the SNT can contact them on 020 8247 7681 or at roehampton.snt@met.police.uk

Putney Paper: Lennox report-back

During my recent campaign week spent on the Lennox Estate in Roehampton, I was asked to get involved with a range of issues local residents asked for my help on.

I've today published a special edition of The Putney Paper for the estate, reporting back on the issues residents raised and results I've already managed to achieve. You can read it online here.

Many of the issues I've got results on aren't big issues that will resonate right across the constituency: they're small things that affect the quality of life of a handful of constituents.

But to me this is one of the most important parts of an MP's job: to proactively find out what needs fixing; to learn where something is going wrong; to help get things improved.

Whether it is this example from my time on the Lennox estate, or my efforts to get the potholes in our roads fixed, or my campaigning to close drug houses in the constituency: I believe I have showed that as your MP I'll roll up my sleeves, get stuck in, and deliver results for Putney, Roehampton and Southfields.

Barnes Station sucess

Before Easter I surveyed the part of Putney closest to Barnes Station about their views on issues concerning the station and the wider area.

I was pleased that the Government had rejected the plans by station managers South West Trains to substantially reduce ticket office opening hours, but I'm well aware that this is just the tip of the iceberg when it came to residents' dissatisfaction with Barnes Station.

Some of the - many - issues raised with me, and which I then took up with SWT and Richmond Council (who are responsible for the area around the station) included:

• The unacceptably poor waiting areas for bus passengers on the Rocks Lane bridge above the station
• The cleanliness of the area - including the embankment - and the fact that litter bins have been removed
• Insufficient street lighting in the area, coupled with some dangerously potholed paths and roads on the way to and from the station.

Well, I followed all these complaints, and others, up with the environment chief in Richmond, and with my contacts in South West Trains, and I'm delighted to be able to report that major action is planned on all these concerns.

As a result I'm publishing a special edition of The Putney Paper just for the area concerned. I've also put the results of the survey I undertook on my website and you can read both by visiting: www.stuartking.net/barnessurvey

New Putney Paper published

The Spring 2009 version of my Putney Paper is now available to read on this website - just click here.

In these economic times it's clear that the dividing line between the two main political parties is between those who have a plan to get us out of the global downturn and those who would do nothing.

I'm very strongly in the first of those camps; while it's evident that Putney's Conservative MP and councillors fall in the latter.

It's not just nationally that we need a plan - not least because, with the billions being invested to mitigate this recession it's only right that Putney gets a share.
In this edition of the Putney Paper, I talk about some of my ideas for recession-proofing Putney. Central to that is my long-running campaign to improve our town centre. I'm delighted that local architect Tom Jestico agreed to do some sketches for me of what a regenerated Putney High Street and town square might look like.

But we need a plan for Putney for far more than just to improve our town centre, critical though that is. Almost everyone I talk to is seriously worried about the skyscraper threat to our area the Conservatives are saddling Putney with for generations to come. The reason the developers think they can get away with all this overdevelopment is because we lack a coherent plan for Putney. One of my top priorities is to provide the local leadership that's been lacking on these issues.

And what is the purpose of building all these sky-high luxury penthouses - other than to create massive white elephants that will either remain empty for years or so gridlock our area's roads and services that Putney will cease to be the area we know and love it to be. Instead of penthouses, we need affordable homes to rent, especially at a time when some will be losing the homes they have.

I talk about all these issues and more in the new edition of The Putney Paper.

Getting them young...

George Bailey is one of our newest deliverers of The Putney Paper.

George, who delivers the Putney Paper on his environmentally friendly super-buggy (pictured below) has done such a good job for us that he's been promoted: this week he's being seconded to Newcastle to take on the Liberal Democrats who run that council for the time being...

Autumn Putney Paper now online

The Autumn edition of my Putney Paper has just been added to the website. This edition, which will go to 30,000 homes in Putney, Roehampton and Southfields, features stories on housing and overdevelopment.

We highlight that while the Tories' sole national tax announcement has been to promise to take estates worth £2million out of paying Inheritance Tax, Labour is prioritising ordinary people with help for those struggling to pay their mortgage or waiting years for a new council home because the Conservative council has sold off half our affordable housing stock locally.

We also continue reporting on the overdevelopment nightmare threatening Putney; Putney Place, the Ram Brewery site, Capsticks and the office blocks along Upper Richmond Road lying empty as their owners wait for the chance to turn them into new apartment blocks.

We report back on the results of two of our big recent consultations: in the Southfields Grid and in Roehampton, where Tories are steamrollering through their plans in the face of massive opposition from residents.

What ties all these stories together is the great opportunity the Conservatives have missed to improve our area for good. Instead, their feeble lack of a plan for Putney - and the rest of Wandsworth - has encouraged the crazy Putney Place idea, has let our High Street decline and is about to concrete over green space in Roehampton to pile up three times as many homes as are there now - hardly any for local people.

Plus, the usual su doku and an opportunity for senior citizens to sign-up to receive my quarterly Putney Pensioner newsletter.

You can read the new edition - and earlier copies, here.

Out and about in Carlton Drive

On Saturday my campaign team and I were out talking to residents in the Carlton Drive area between Putney Hill and East Putney station.

This area is one of the most at threat from the monstrous plans to build two 25 and 19 storey tower blocks on the Putney Place site opposite East Putney tube, and the "Carlton Towers" plan for the Capsticks building on the corner of Carlton Drive and Upper Richmond Road.

I've written a lot about my opposition to these plans both in this news section and the current edition of The Putney Paper, but too often planners get overly absorbed with the - important - minutaie of such proposals and forget the real people who will have to live in the shadow of such monstrosities for decades to come. That's why I chose to spend my time on Saturday talking to residents in this part of Putney.

We have to turn back these high-rise applications or else Putney will become a free-for-all for developers competing to build the biggest tower block since the last one.

Have your say on Putney Place

The long-awaited, much-dreaded plan to build two high-rise blocks across the road from East Putney tube station has finally been submitted to the council.

I am 100% opposed to this application which you can read up on here.

It is this planning development that I made the front page story of the latest edition of The Putney Paper - because while the existing Putney Place carbuncle is an absolute eyesore, my solution is to replace it with a better building of similar or smaller scale that complements the area and which our infrastructure can cope with. Instead the site's owners, Oracle, want to cram two ugly 25 and 19 towers onto this tiny triangle of land.

The planning application that has been submitted is incomplete and incredibly vague:

* It doesn't assess the impact on the environment or on local services

* It doesn't address the grotesque overdevelopment this plan amounts to, or the precedent it will set for the middle of Putney.

* It doesn't explain why surrounding residents should have to be overlooked and overshadowed, or why they think they have the right to transform Putney's skyline for decades to come.

* It doesn't talk about what proportion of the housing will be affordable

The Council must extract satisfactory, detailed and practical answers to each of these questions from the developer and tell us what it believes is a satisfactory development on this site. If it cannot or will not, this application must be refused.

Please register your views - and hopefully your objections - to this scheme. A groundswell of local protest will make it far harder for the Conservatives to cave in to the developers and blight our environment further.

You can comment online here, or email planningapplications@wandsworth.gov.uk, referencing planning application No. 2008/3321.

Putney is not Manhattan

This post is an extract of my editorial in the new edition of The Putney Paper.

Nor is it Dubai, Hong Kong or Tokyo. That may sound self-evident and in itself it's not a criticism: they are all vibrant, successful cities if you like that sort of thing.

But Putney has no tradition of high rise buildings. Those we have been saddled with have - with one notable exception - been to our area's detriment.

The ugly post-war office buildings along Upper Richmond Road; the neglected, claustrophobic Arndale estate above the Southside shopping centre and the monotonous, unconstrained riverside apartment blocks that I feel blight our riverside; all these can hardly be called local success stories.

Ironically the one recent success which has transformed part of our town centre - the Brewhouse Lane development by Putney Bridge - the Conservatives fought tooth and nail against. It's clear the Tories lack sound judgement when it comes to planning. So I'm glad that our amenity groups, including the Putney and Wandsworth Societies, are rightly campaigning on this issue.

You can read the rest of this editorial by downloading the Summer 2008 edition of the Putney Paper.

Summer's Putney Paper: out now

The latest edition of The Putney Paperhas begun hitting the streets. This edition sets out my concerns about the threat to the character of our community from plans to build high rise tower blocks all around the constituency.

I also continue exposing the Conservatives' neglect of Putney's roads and there's a major feature on tackling dangerous dogs.

I think Conservative plans to introduce a Dog Tax: a £500 license for any dog their bureaucrats consider "menacing" is just milking public fear over dangerous dogs to fleece responsible dog owners. Instead, I set out how I think the minority of irresponsible dog owners should be tackled and seek your views.

Plus, next month the NHS is 60 years old. Launched by Labour Health Secretary Aneurin Bevan in 1948 we celebrate one of Britain's greatest institutions.

There's also the usual news roundup from across the constituency, more on our Safer Neighbourhood Police teams' successes and su doku makes a comeback!

New edition of The Putney Paper - hot off the presses

We've just taken delivery of the new edition of The Putney Paper - copies of which should start arriving through doors across the constituency in the next days and weeks.

Because it's such an important issue locally, we've devoted this edition to transport. Our headline story is the long-overdue revamp of Putney mainline station - something Labour has been campaigning on for years and years (it was one of the demands of my Save Putney High Street campaign, for example).

Inside, I set out my views on Heathrow expansion - the editorial I've written can be read here - and the paper goes on to ask important questions about just how opposed to Heathrow the Conservatives really are.

I also champion my Putney4AirTrack campaign: the proposal to provide a Waterloo to Heathrow service running through Putney: an infrastructure project that should go ahead regardless of the decision on Heathrow expansion.

And elsewhere in the paper I report on Southfields' station's Olympic lift - the fact that the station is finally getting a passenger lift because it is an Olympics Station for 2012 (and not, as some Conservatives are dishonestly claiming, a result of anything they've achieved!), and on the latest bus performance indicators.

Plus a round-up of all the local news from around the constituency and your chance to have a say.

You can read the online edition of The Putney Paper here.

Su Doku solution

Anyone looking for the answer to the su doku puzzle in the Autumn edition of The Putney Paper can find it here!

Feedback from The Putney Paper

I've already started receiving comments and questions arising from the Autumn edition of the Putney Paper, still being delivered around the constituency. One constituent emailed me about the feature on the housing crisis. He made the point that my ideas about raising the Stamp Duty threshold (since imitated by the Conservatives!)weren't radical enough: that to really help Putney residents we needed an exemption far higher than £250,000.

He's partly right. The problem is that the housing pressures in London are so much worse than the rest of the country because it's so much more expensive living here. The consequence of a national Stamp Duty threshold at £250,000 - for first-time buyers only - as the Conservatives now propose is that in parts of the country that buys people a very large house; in Putney it may just about get you an ex-local authority flat in a tower block. I think they're wrong both to apply the policy nationally and only to first-time-buyers.

It's surely crazy to come up with one-size-fits-all policies like that when the country isn't one size. So my response to the constituent who contacted me was that yes, £250,000 is the absolute minimum we should be looking at locally.

But I also believe we need to increase the Stamp Duty threshold incrementally, to allow the market to absorb the changes. My worry is that if all that comes of this idea is that sellers simply increase their sale prices to match the amount buyers save by not paying Stamp Duty, the policy fails. So we need to be measured. But rest assured: my five point housing plan represents just the start of what we need to do to address this massive, complex problem - and over time, given the chance, I'll be building on these ideas.

The Putney Paper hits the streets

The Putney Paper is a brand new newspaper for Putney, Roehampton and Southfields and will become one of the main ways I communicate my work, ideas and views on the key issues facing our community in the coming weeks and years.

Copies of the hot-off-the-presses latest edition started going out on Friday, and I spent most of this weekend winding my way through the streets of West Hill delivering to residents of that part of the constituency - so everyone living in, for instance, Whitlock Drive, Arnal Crescent, Stoford and Stapleford Closes, the Ackroydon Estate and much more besides received their copy courtesy of yours truly.

But I also had a dedicated team helping deliver copies all over the constituency: you know who you are: thank you for your efforts this weekend (and there are still a few left to go out - so don't give up!).

Over 20,000 copies are being delivered - but if you get missed out, don't worry, you can read the online version here in pdf format (1.4mb).