putneysw15 Monthly Report live

In case you haven't seen, my monthly Putney Report is on the putneysw15 website here.

This month it covers improvements to Barnes Station and its surrounds, the crisis at Elliott School and why it is that Putney has a Tory MP, 18 Tory councillors, a Tory council, a Tory London Mayor and a Tory London Assembly Member, and yet it takes me to get local potholes sorted out.

Answers on a postcard please.

Our patch: safest in inner London

Over the weekend I was asked by the Putney SW15 website to comment on the latest Home Office crime figures which (unsurprisingly) echo the ones I report on here every month.

The figures show Wandsworth is the safest borough in inner London. They also chime with other opinion-polling carried out by the Council that shows an increase in the number of people satisfied with the local response to crime and anti-social behaviour.

All of a sudden, however, the Conservatives are trumpeting these figures. This after years and years of attacking and undermining our Police; misleading people about police numbers, scaremongering about their effectiveness, claiming that our area is less safe than it is.

Here's an example of the new Conservative spin - the Tory councillor who holds the community safety portfolio in Wandsworth commented: ?The Home Office?s figures confirm the findings of our own research - that Wandsworth is the safest place to live in inner London and crime rates are going down.?

Now I'll be delighted if Justine Greening and Putney Conservatives have turned over a new leaf and now genuinely support our Police - but let's just see how long it is before they next put out a press release complaining about the number of police locally or post a comment on a local discussion forum implying our safer neighbourhood officers are not "proper" police.

If they have finally woken up to the reality of policing in Putney, I hope they might even work with me on focussing resources - council as well as police - on Putney town centre so we can cut the high amount of crime in Thamesfield ward. The way to start would be to introduce town centre patrollers, who'll cut street crime by a third on previous experience in the borough.

But stepping back into the real world, the Tory attacks on Putney's Police will continue. Boris Johnson will forge ahead with his half-billion cut in the Met Police's budget. And the Tory council will refuse to introduce town centre patrollers despite the evidence and the need.

The Conservative Party isn't David Cameron. He's just a front. Behind the soft, fluffly Cameron facade, Putney's cynical, self-serving and out-of-touch Tories are the true face of that unreconstructed party.

That's why we need change locally at the next General Election.

A proportionate response

We still don't know everything we need to about the Police investigation into Conservative MP Damian Green, who was arrested last week. I'm not in the business of commenting when I don't know the full facts, though the police behaviour at this stage seems a little heavy handed.

What I do want to comment on are the quite disgraceful outbursts that have appeared from both some MPs and in the letters pages of our newspapers and even on the putneysw15 website, equating the Police conduct with "the Stasi", or "Nazi Germany" or "the KGB".

These comments, aside from being absurd the moment you give them a moment's thought, also diminish the horrifying experience of those who actually lived through that sort of tyranny.

There is no comparison between Police pursuing a complaint of possible criminal activity against an MP - who, let's remember, is not above the law - and the brutality, torture, murder and reign of terror those organisations imposed upon their countries.

We are getting to the stage in this country where people appear to believe that making the most ridiculous, inappropriate and shocking observations are the only way to grab the public's attention. Whether or not that's true, it doesn't make their comments any more accurate, honourable or respectable.

My October Parliamentary Report

My latest report for the putneysw15 website is now online. In it I talk about the two big issues of the day: Putney Place and Roehampton redevelopment.

Planet Clegg

In the past week Putney has been attacked twice. The first, as the Putney SW15 website picked up, was by members of a pro-towerblocks website, skyskrapernews.com attacking the area as "boring".

I too have been criticised by that weird little website for my opposition to Putney Place - but frankly who cares as long as we turn back this dreadful application.

But Putney was also attacked from one of its own residents last week: Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg. His comments are far more serious because they show a shocking ignorance AND demonstrate how out of touch with real people he is. This is how the Putney SW15 reports it:

"He recently was quoted as saying that the credit crunch was hitting him hard particularly after his discounted deal on the mortgage on his Putney property expired forcing him to consider giving up Ocado for Sainsbury's."

It must be truly inspirational for everyone struggling with the credit crunch to know that the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, on his meagre £61,000 salary (excluding perks, freebies and allowances, his parliamentary pension and whatever his own party pays him), living in his massive corner house in one of the most exclusive, expensive parts of West Putney, has had to forego Ocado to slum it in Sainsburys!

He then proceeded to rubbish Putney Secondary Schools, tell us all how he'll just have to go private - a remark which appears to have even stirred Putney's Tory MP to complain. And let's not even start on his belief that the State Pension is "about £30 a week".

I am hardly impartial when it comes to the Liberal Democrats but really - is this what the party of Gladstone has come to?

High Street's vacant shops on the up

Conservative Councillors in Wandsworth are now openly admitting on the putneysw15 website that landlords in Putney High Street are starting to struggle to let their premises.

The number of vacant shops in our town centre is on the increase again. In fact, we're probably back to the position we were in 2005 when I launched Labour's Save Putney High Street campaign.

If Putney High Street is facing economic difficulties, that isn't the fault of the Council - it's a consequence of the international credit crunch (though consumer spending was remarkably robust last month).

No, the charge I level at Putney Conservatives, including the MP, is that had they acted to recession-proof the High Street when times were better over the past three years, retailers would be in a better position to weather whatever economic turbulence we're in line for. I believe Shadow Chancellor George Osborne calls this "fixing the roof when the sun is shining".

My ten point plan to fix the High Street has been around for three years now; common-sense points which those of you who've taken my survey have supported hands-down. The Putney Society has been similarly vocal in its concerns about the state in which the Conservatives allow our High Street to remain. Yet the Tories have ignored us - they've even denied there's any problem at all.

For the past three years, when Putney High Street needed some political vision, leadership and direction from its elected representatives, its had none. Let's hope that High Street retailers do not pay too high a price for this absence of courage from the complacent Conservatives.

Policing and politics

With the important elections for London's Mayor and Assembly on 1st May rapidly approaching, my latest Parliamentary report for the local putneysw15 website focuses on the critical issue of crime and policing locally. It's a subject I've written regularly about on this website too.

You can read my Parliamentary report here.

"You're all the same" is a criticism often made of politicians. Well, in this election, that can't be said. There are huge differences between Labour's Ken Livingstone and the Tories.

With Labour, Putney has just about recovered from the huge loss of police the last Conservative government inflicted upon us. That Michael Howard, the former Home Secretary responsible for sacking so many of our policemen and women came to Putney the day after the 2005 general election to quit was ironic - it's just a shame he didn't manage an apology for his disastrous policy.

Now Putney has 40 Police Community Support Officers - it had zero under the Conservatives - and crime is down: Putney is one of the safest parts of London. And, if re-elected, Ken will employ another 1,000 police officers over the next four years.

I'll be talking more about the other massive dividing lines in the forthcoming London elections over the coming weeks.

My January parliamentary report

My January parliamentary report has been published on the putneysw15 website, which you can read here.

This report discusses:

• The closure of Wandsworth Museum
• The selection of Leonie Cooper as Labour's candidate for the London Assembly in May's elections
• My Save Southside's local shops campaign and how it links in with my long-running efforts to improve Putney High Street
• The extra £25 million for Wandsworth's NHS
• And our continuing-to-fall crime figures.
  

My October Parliamentary Report

...Is now online at the Putney SW15 website. This month, I talk about the non-election, three of my constituency engagements over the past few weeks and more about Wandsworth being the fly-tipping capital of London. You can read my column by clicking here.

September Parliamentary Report

My September parliamentary report - which discusses on three anniversaries this Autumn - is online at the putneysw15 website. Click here to read it.

I'm also really pleased that the southfields.net site has also agreed to start running my parliamentary reports.

My first putneysw15.com report

It?s a real pleasure to introduce my first report as Labour?s Parliamentary candidate for Putney, Roehampton and Southfields.

Some of you may know me from my eight years as a local councillor, when I was a regular contributor to this website. As Leader of Labour?s borough councillors I spent a lot of my time out and about in the constituency, taking up issues throughout Putney, Roehampton and Southfields.

I was born and brought up here so my commitment to and passion for Putney is, I?m sure similar to your own: it goes far beyond narrow party politics. Growing up I lived in flats just behind King George?s Park; I had summer jobs in both the Arndale and Putney High Street, and I turn out on Sundays for a football team in Roehampton. Local roots do matter.

Housing crisis

My first priority is housing: a national problem particularly acute locally.

This is a problem that touches us all. If you rely on council rented housing - the stock of which has been halved by this council - there is little chance of starting your adult life without moving miles away from your family, friends and community. For young professionals trying to get on the first rung of the housing ladder the lack of affordable homes to buy is the problem. The very smallest flat in Putney incurs Stamp Duty nowadays. And even if you?re fortunate enough to own your own home and perhaps have raised your family these problems affect you through your children.

Given the scale of the problem locally, housing is surely an issue your MP should be devoting a huge amount of their time and energy to. It?s not as if the solutions are complex: they?re not: we just need to be bold. This will be a regular theme of my campaign, which I?ll return to in future putneysw15 reports.

Regenerating Roehampton?

On 4 th July I attended the Putney Society meeting on the plans to redevelop the centre of the Alton Estate in Roehampton.

A major demand of local residents is that any of them displaced by the redevelopment will have a guaranteed right of return. Over 650 local people have signed a petition demanding such guarantees because they suspect the council?s motives are to replace local rented homes with private accommodation they will be excluded from. I stand 100% behind residents on this.

There were many other issues raised and as the timeframe for these plans extends beyond 2013 I?ll have plenty of chances to talk more about them. But my real concern is that without leadership residents face the prospect of little ? if anything ? actually coming of this. Roehampton doesn?t deserve to be let down again.

Wandsworth Museum

The job of an MP is not just to deal with national issues ? it?s also their responsibility to stand up loudly for the community on local issues like the closure of Wandsworth Museum. Every one of us who values the Museum is, I am sure, immensely grateful to the Hintze Foundation for their £2million lifeline. It had become clear that despite over 22,000 people petitioning to save it, the Council was determined to close it. Even with this infusion of outside cash the Museum?s future is not assured. It makes no sense to waste almost £2million just playing musical chairs with the Museum and West Hill Library when both do perfectly good jobs where they are now.

The campaign to save the Museum has been magnificent: backed by supporters of all parties and none, which is as it should be. But this debacle is the perfect answer to the question ?why bother voting: you?re all the same?. We?re not. Your vote does have consequences: good and bad, locally and nationally.

I?ve been up to much more over the past month but you?ll have to wait for my next report for more. In the meantime, my website is up and running, where I talk about these and other local issues in more detail. It?d be great if you could find the time to visit: the address is www.stuartking.net.

www.putneysw15.com

When I was Leader of Wandsworth's Labour Councillors I wrote a regular column for the popular www.putneysw15.com website.

And following my selection, it was Sandi - the editor of that website - who was one of the first in touch to say "well done" and to ask for my comments on being selected as Labour's parliamentary candidate.

The website has a vibrant discussion forum that came into its own recently as a means for local residents rightly appalled by the Council's attempts to close Wandsworth Museum, the De Morgan Centre and West Hill Library to communicate, build the mass campaign against the closure and keep the community informed of developments.

You can read the putneysw15 news article about my selection here, and I very much look forward to renewing my association with this website, which provides an invaluable source of news, information and, dare I say, gossip for the people of Putney and Roehampton.