Putney Place plans now out for consultation

The owners of Putney Place, the site opposite East Putney tube where they want to build two massive tower blocks, have at last submitted all the documentation to enable Council officers to begin deciding whether to recommend that councillors grant planning permission.

This includes a 52-page "planning statement" which is produced by contractors of the applicants rather than an independent and impartial agent, but which is supposed to represent an objective assessment of the impact the development will have on the area and a justification or mitigation for that impact.

The EIA is a detailed document and I haven't yet had the time to plough through it, but the basic application is as follows:

• Two blocks: one 26 storeys (84 metres high) and one of 21 storeys (67.5 metres high)
• 300 residential units, approximately a third of which will be what the developers call "affordable" housing
• 3,439 square metres of office space
• 114 square metres of retail space
• 443 square metres of restaurant, retail or office space
• 84 square metres of space for a cafe
• 2,862 square metres of what they call "public amenity space"
• and "New public art"

You can find all the relevant documents about this application - the reference number for which is 2008/3321 here

Are we winning the High Street improvement battle?

As someone who has been campaigning to improve the state of Putney High Street for almost three years, I welcome the Council's new announcement of further improvements to the pavements.

Slowly - too slowly, grudgingly and ungraciously, the Council is (without admitting there's any problem at all) starting to take the first tentative steps to improve our town centre.

Of course, this work isn't being funded by them - it's money provided by Transport for London and approved when Ken Livingstone was London Mayor - but new paving will have a big impact. That is, if the Council keeps them cleaner than the current greasy, grimy paving.

Likewise, if the Council is now serious about clearing away the clutter than congests the High Street's pavements for pedestrians, then that could actually be a second item ticked off from my ten point plan to save our high street. But are they just going to tinker, or are they serious about taking out the control boxes, the pedestrian barriers, the signposts, the rubbish bags and the bike racks (that should be relocated around the side street corners) that clog our pavements?

It's a shame it's taken the Conservatives three years to catch up with the Putney Society, the hundreds of Putney residents who've filled in my High Street surveys and my Labour campaign team. I wonder if the Tories are yet willing to admit there's a problem and that there is a role for local government in rectifying it? And will Putney's Conservative MP break her vow of silence on this issue to help us wield more influence with her Tory friends in the Town Hall?

If not then we're not going to make any progress on the remaining problems: high levels of street crime, flyposting, grotty shopfronts, getting a better mix and quality of shops and improving traffic flow. But whether the Tories admit it or not, keep dragging their feet or not, these problems will not disappear and nor will my campaign to Save Putney High Street.

You can have your say on the state of the High Street by taking my online survey here.

June's local crime figures

There's not much to write about in this month's crime figures - it's fallen very slightly in three Putney council wards and risen very slightly in three. Without further ado, here are the tables:



And May's comparison:

The high rise signal from Boris that should worry Putney

Today's Evening Standard reports that London Tory Mayor Boris Johnson just can't be bothered to submit an objection to a 43-storey tower block on the South Bank, the Doon Street Tower.

This is a complete reverse of his campaign pledge to block tower blocks across the capital and should be a major concern in our neck of the woods where, of course, we are under threat from several tower block plans - some of similar height to this one.

I am someone who isn't opposed to high buildings on principle: they can be appropriate in the City of London and central London. Putney isn't such a location. But that's not Boris's position. He ran for election and, I suspect, won quite a few votes, for his blanket opposition to tower blocks.

Yet today he couldn't even muster the interest to jot down a few words of opposition and submit them to the Secretary of State for Communities, Hazel Blears, who has to rule on this application following a Public Inquiry earlier this year.

If Boris can't be bothered to object to a tower block plan that was backed by a Labour Mayor, was reviewed before he was even elected and which no one will hold him accountable for, the prospects of him standing up to his Conservative allies in Wandsworth over their planning mistakes aren't high, to say the least.

We need Boris to honour his election pledges - not sell out at the first test of them.

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.

More Post Office nonsense

The Post Office has announced that it is willing to negotiate with the Council to provide replacement services for the community served by the former Lower Richmond Road branch.

But at the same time it has refused to consider negotiating a similar return of service for the area served by the Putney Bridge Road branch - on the ridiculous basis that doing so would put at risk the viability of surrounding branches that have survived to date.

The absurdity of this position beggars belief. First, which branches do they believe will lose so much custom if the branch in Putney Bridge Road is re-opened? There aren't any post offices in the locality. Only in the surreal world of the Post Office would the provision of services in Putney Bridge Road affect branches in Barnes, Parson's Green or Garratt Lane.

Second, they cannot possibly argue that basing services in St Mary's Church in Putney High Street - if indeed they are considering such an idea - would be ok for Lower Richmond Road but not Putney High Street: St Mary's is equidistant between both branches.

And third, our predictions about the failure of the Upper Richmond Road post office to cope with the additional custom - when it was already failing to provide a decent service before the two branches were closed - are becoming reality. People - especially the elderly - are finding it very difficult to get to the Upper Richmond Road branch; and if they manage that difficult feat despite the lack of direct public transport options they're met with abysmal service.

The Post Office really needs to overhaul its whole business model, because the current one that has seen these ridiculous closures in Putney is clearly flawed. They refuse to publish in any detail their financial forecasts to justify closure, their definitions of local are preposterous, and their investment in the remaining branches is non-existent.

Not good enough.

Putney Bridge disintegrates

Today's wet weather has washed away large chunks of the long-eroding surface on Putney Bridge - again the responsibility of Wandsworth's neglectful Conservative council.









The road surface here has been worn down for months and the bus lane had become warped; almost like waves of tarmac. Signs of erosion were already in evidence right across the bridge, and as usual the council had either ignored them entirely, or splodged a few dollops of tarmac into them in the mad hope that this would somehow substitute for competent road maintenance. It's simply not good enough for the Council to lay down metal sheets because they're too miserly to keep the bridge in good shape.

The Bridge is an icon of Putney: it presents our area to the rest of the world, so the state it's kept in by the council has even more of an impact than the (in itself unacceptable) neglect of residential backstreets. Just as with our grubby, run-down High Street, the Conservatives are evidently quite happy for people to get the impression that Putney is a shabby, neglected area in which no pride is invested.

That may be true of the council - but I know it isn't true of the residents.

UPDATE: Even this council seems to believe that the state of the Bridge is unacceptable as tonight the bus lane has been cordoned off. Whether that is for essential roadworks or for the Police traffic census they've been conducting all day today we'll have to wait and see.

Brewhouse Lane bays in by end of August

I've now received confirmation from the council that the changes to parking in Brewhouse Lane, which I wrote about here, will be implemented by 25th August. Good news for local residents and their visitors, who will get more parking opportunities close to their home.

It takes a little time to amend a traffic order like those that govern all Putney's controlled parking zones, and once that's been sorted out the Council needs to order new signs and provide a ticket machine for the new shared-use bays I persuaded them to bring in.

Putney - safer than other parts of London?

Every month when I publish the ward-by-ward crime statistics I usually focus on the change over the previous month.

This month it's worth looking at how crime in Putney compares with London as a whole.

Every single ward in Putney has a lower record of drug offending, fraud or forgery, robbery and other notifiable offences than the Met Police average.

Every single ward in Putney bar one has a better record on burglary and theft & handling (Thamesfield being the exception); criminal damage and violence against the person (Roehampton); and robbery (Southfields) than the London-wide figures. Roehampton has a stastically insignificant higher rate of sexual offences, which are a very small percentage of the total anyway I'm pleased to say.

Putney also compares favourably to our borough as a whole - though the pattern is very slightly different. The overall Wandsworth figure for crimes per 1,000 of the population is 99.6; the overall Putney figure is 89.9.

So what these crime figures show, month-in, month-out is that Wandsworth is safer than other parts of London, and that Putney is safer than other parts of Wandsworth. Don't let the Tories tell you different.

Here are the year to May 2008 figures:



And the April 2008 figures for comparison:

Just the ticket? Not if SWT have their way!

South West Trains (SWT) are set to announce reduced ticket office opening times later this month. Although the plans won't affect Putney Station, they are going to hit Barnes Station and Wandsworth Town, which many constituents around the edges of our area use.

Under the SWT proposals, Barnes Station will have its ticket office closed for six and-a-half hours more on Saturdays, closed entirely on Sundays, and during the week cut back by half an hour.

Wandsworth Town is even harder hit: during the week the ticket office here will be open three and-a-half hours less and will be closed entirely on both Saturday and Sunday.

These plans are bad news. Unstaffed stations increase the potential for vandalism, graffiti and other crime making them unwelcoming for the public. That's especially true for Barnes Station which is very isolated, set in the midst of Barnes Common.

Wandsworth Town is already an unpleasant and virtually unstaffed station, with its dingy, foreboding subway - and given the huge riverside developments either side of Wandsworth Bridge, the new housing at the top of East Hill and the plans for the Ram Brewery site we should be talking about expanding capacity here, not cutting it back.

If you'd like to protest these closure plans, you can sign my online petition here. Every response I get strengthens the case against closure, so please sign up.

It's working!

Kingsmere Road...................................... Hotham Road

The other day I spotted that one of the potholes I'd flagged up on this website - in Kingsmere Road in West Hill - had finally been patched by the Council. Success Number One.

On Saturday, the Hotham Road potholes had also been patched - though large chunks of this street need a proper resurfacing, not just a slapdash patching. But success Number Two, none-the-less.

These happen to be two of the earliest potholes I flagged up on this website and while the Tory Councillors will of course deny any relationship between our naming and shaming exercise and them finally getting their act together, I leave you to determine the reality.

Far too many roads remain in a disgraceful state, so if the Council thinks filling-in one or two potholes is going to make us back off and leave them alone, they've got another thing coming. Putney Heath and Victoria Drive in particular remain in a completely unacceptable condition so if I have to publish five, ten, twenty or one hundred potholes a week before they get the point, so be it.

One of the reasons it's important to have a Labour MP is because your Conservative representatives (every single one of Putney's councillors, and your MP, are Conservatives) simply will not stand up for their local patch. I will - and as you see, I get results.

Brandlehow demolition: accept the verdict

The Council is absolutely right to insist that the property developer who demolished the Grade 2 listed Brandlehow School Caretaker's Cottage start work rebuilding it immediately.

The developer responsible was prosecuted in November 2007; taken back to Court this March, ordered to reinstate the building to its original condition and pay over £30,000 in fines and costs. By the time the building has been rebuilt and his own legal fees have been calculated, the total cost of his folly will be getting on for £100,000. And that's excluding the cost of his actually buying the site in the first place. Yet despite these two Court experiences and the expense he is being subjected to, no work has yet been undertaken.

If being fined over £30,000 has been ineffective then further action appears necessary. If he fails to fulfil the obligations placed on him by the courts, maybe a further fine or a spell of community service is in order. Planning regulations exist to preserve and enhance our built environment. It is important that those responsible for enforcing these regulations are robust in their efforts in such open-and-shut cases like this.

Pothole of the week: 27 June 2008

Werter Road, which runs off Putney High Street along to Oxford Road (or vice versa as it's a one-way street!). Generally this road is in pretty good nick - though the bit around Sainsburys is decaying rapidly, but even in the few road surfaces in Putney that aren't falling apart you come across potholes like this.

The representatives responsible for this example of neglect are Putney Conservative MP Justine Greening and her three Thamesfield ward Conservative Councillors: Edward Lister (the Council leader), Jim Maddan and Rosemary Torrington.

Pothole of the week: 23 June 2008

You're sending me so many photos of Putney's potholed roads that pothole of the week is now going to be published twice a week for the forseeable future.

Last week I exposed the dreadful state of Rotherwood Road on this blog and alluded to the fact that neighbouring roads weren't much better.

Well, here's the evidence. Let's start with Putney Embankment itself - this just past the junction of Festing Road (and thanks to putneysw15 discussion forum contributors for the heads-up on this one):



Adjoining Rotherwood Road is Bendemeer Road:



And off Bendemeer Road is Gladwyn Road:



Finally (for this batch, at least) the road after Bendemeer Road towards Putney Bridge is Glendarvon Road:

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.

Rotherwood bother

I know I'm only supposed to be doing a pothole post once a week (next one on Monday, incidentally), but just look at the state of Rotherwood Road. The thing that makes Rotherwood Road stand out - and be under no illusions that all the riverside roads in this area are in a thoroughly disgraceful state - is that it's potholed along its entire length, which is a remarkable feat even for this neglectful council.

The elected representatives responsible for this sorry excuse for a road surface are Putney Conservative MP Justine Greening and the three Conservative councillors for Thamesfield ward. I have to ask, given that Thamesfield has the highest number of potholed roads in Putney: what is the benefit of having the Leader of the Council representing your area? Maybe he needs to spend a little more time with his ward?

Here are five photos of Rotherwood Road, running from the Putney Embankment end up to Lower Richmond Road:

The Politics of God

On Friday I attended the inaugural annual lecture organised by the Wandsworth Labour Party. The lecture, presented by Revd Dr Giles Fraser, vicar of St Mary's Putney, was entitled The Politics of God and was a stimulating, engaging and entertaining exploration of what I think could be described as the politics of God and church.

As you might imagine given the breadth of views within the audience, from atheist to confirmed believers, the debate was lively but moderate. The event was, by unanimous aclaim, a great success, attended by over 80 residents, many of whom were not members of the Labour Party.

The lecture begun with an exclusive preview showing of Giles' 20 minute documentary on The Putney Debates, focussed on footage shot last October when St Mary's Church celebrated the 360th anniversary of this historic event.

After the lecture and my presentation of a thank you gift to Giles (picture), Putney Labour Party and I hosted a drinks reception upstairs in the Cromwell Room which gave everyone a chance to continue the debate that has begun earlier in the evening. I was pleased to be able to make contact with representatives from a number of local churches, including Southfields Baptist Church in Wimbledon Park Road and Our Lady of Pity & St Simon Catholic Church in Hazlewell Road.

Potholes, potholes everywhere...

The race to find Putney's worst pothole intensified this week following the posting of photos from The Platt last week.

Not to be outdone, residents of Abbotstone Road, Gwalior Road, Gamlen Road and Hotham Road - all streets in the ward represented by Council Leader Edward Lister - have sent me photos of potholes they have to put up with due to the Council's neglect of our roads.

The thing I notice, going around the constituency, is not just the number of potholes but the number of road surfaces that are on the verge of becoming major pothole problems - surfaces where you can see the wear and tear, that have been patched and patched and patched but never properly resurfaced.

My message to the Council is simple: either reverse the £1 million cut you've made to the Highways budget that has reduced it by a third in just two years, or gain the reputation as the borough with the worst roads in the capital - to add to the dubious accolade of being the flytip capital of London.


Abbotstone Road


Gamlen Road


Gwalior Road


Hotham Road

You can see other examples of Putney's pothole crisis here.

Putney gets safer - again

The April crime figures for Putney's six council wards are out and show another decline in crime compared to April 2007.



The only ward to buck the trend substantially was Thamesfield - I'm particularly concerned about the amount of burglaries taking place in this ward and it's disheartening that the Council - especially given that the Tory Council Leader Edward Lister represents this area - isn't doing a lot more to help the police cut crime.

One of the things that would help tremendously here would be town centre patrollers: when the Labour Government funded two trials of such patrollers in Clapham Junction and Tooting town centres, street crime - by far the biggest problem in Putney town centre - fell by a third.

Town centre patrollers wouldn't directly cut the burglary figures, but what they would do is free the Thamesfield Safer Neighbourhood Police up to focus on the rest of Thamesfield ward away from Putney High Street, and that can only be helpful.

Regretably, when the Government street patroller funding stopped, the Tory Council chose to sack the wardens rather than find the money itself to continue the excellent service. And before the Tories scream "Council Tax rises" just think how much this Council spends producing Brightside, and how it finds the money to run off (and pay to be delivered) fancy leaflets whenever it wants to attack the government - campaigning on the rates, big time. Cutting back on propaganda would go a long way to funding town centre patrollers in Putney.

As usual in these reports, here's the comparison table for March 2008:

New entry in worst Putney pothole competition

Residents of The Platt, just across the road from my campaign HQ in Felsham Road, have a very strong entry into my Putney potholes competition. This is the state the Council has allowed Gay Street, on the estate, to fall into:



Here are a couple of close-ups of what can no longer be called a road - more like a gravel track (you can click to enlarge):



The state of Gay Street - and a lot of the roads on Putney's council estates - leave much to be desired, though of course as my earlier post, here shows, The Council aren't discriminating: they're neglecting all roads equally as dreadfully.

Do you know of a pothole worse than this one? Let me know - email stuart.king@putneylabour.org.uk or sms it to 07533 384 895 and we'll add it to our gallery. Sooner or later, even Wandsworth Conservatives will be shamed into taking action on their neglect of our roads.

Fair parking for Brewhouse Lane

Residents of the Putney Wharf development just behind Putney Bridge became the latest to contact me about unfair council parking restrictions in their area.

Just as residents of the Whitelands Park and SW15H developments - mainly, but not exclusively key workers - have fallen between two stools because they have either not been allocated or cannot afford to buy an exhorbitantly priced off-street parking space and, simultaneously, the Conservative council is refusing to even allow them to apply for an on-street residents' parking permit.

The motivation behind the policy of tackling parking stress is sound, but it is only fairly applied if residents are treated equally; by which I mean that all residents must either be given an affordable off-street parking space or, if the intent is to promote car-free living, no off-street spaces should be provided for anyone.

However, in respect of Putney Wharf we have won a small victory. I have persuaded the council to remove the permit-holder only restrictions in Brewhouse Lane - the road just behind Putney Cinema that runs down to the Thames. Because the only residents in the vicinity of Brewhouse Lane are, in fact, residents of Putney Wharf there is a strong case for the few bays in this road to be shared-use, rather than permit-holder only.

This will enable residents who do not have off-street parking spaces in the Putney Wharf development and their guests to park closer to their homes.

As a consequence of my campaigning on this and other parking problems created by the council's short-sighted, dogmatic parking scheme - behind the SW15H development in East Putney and Whitelands Park behind West Hill - Councillors have admitted that they got this wrong and are reviewing its parking policies.

I hope that residents of any future developments in Putney will therefore be spared the frustration and inconvenience that some - too many - have been subjected to.

Post@St Mary's?

The news that Revd. Giles Fraser and St Mary's Church are in discussions to see whether they can take on some of Post Office functions when the two local branches close is a glimmer of hope and I wish Dr Fraser well in his negotiations.

It's important that the council doesn't use this offer to avoid serious consideration of whether it could integrate its services with the post office - for example at the Parking Shop in Lower Richmond Road. However, in terms of location and accessibility I can think of few better locations than St Mary's Church.

The Politics of God

...That's the title of a lecture being given by Revd. Giles Fraser on Friday 6th June at St Mary's Church, Putney Bridge (click on the image for a larger version of the invitation).

The lecture's being organised by Wandsworth Labour Parties and while the audience will consist of mostly Labour Party members locally, we're extending an invitation to anyone in the community interested in hearing about the relationship between religion and politics, and contributing to the debate.

As I wrote a few days ago, last week I attended a lecture by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac O'Connor, on a related theme.

Given that today and tomorrow MPs are debating very substantial ethical issues regarding the Embryology Bill this will be a timely debate on a very topical issue.

If you'd like to come you'd be very welcome, but please let us know as we need to plan for numbers. Please email us to do so.

Mystery shoppers?

Tory Council Leader Edward Lister has been bragging about some retail survey he claims proves that Putney High Street is the oasis among town centres.

Curiously, he's provided very few details of the survey, and there's nothing about it on the council's website, which is usually the first to trumpet good news for the Conservative administration.

If anyone knows more about this mystery survey could they let me know because I'd like to read it. As you know, I've been championing the High Street for the past three years: I launched Labour's Save Putney High Street campaign coincidentally at the same time as the Putney Society raised their concerns about it. If I think there's a problem; if the Putney Society thinks there's a problem and if the huge number of respondents to my campaign think there's a problem ,why doesn't the council?

Precious little has changed since we started pointing out the embarassment that is Putney High Street - the local councillors and Tory MP for Putney are in denial that there's any problem with it at all, and Cllr Lister's spin on this mystery report is just the latest evidence of it.

I'd like to read the report in full to see what it really says. If local shops are doing a brisk trade then that's great for Putney - but it doesn't negate the greasy, grimy pavements, the uneven, cracked paving; the rubbish; the clutter; the congestion; the pollution and the poor planning that led Putney to be branded a clone high street not so long ago in a national survey.

Tell me what you think about Putney High Street: spare two minutes to fill in my Save Putney High Street survey here.

Transport Police now patrolling Putney

The British Transport Police have just set up a new team specialising in patrolling stations in South West London, including Putney.

The team of nine officers, based at station 9 in Clapham Junction will be focussed particularly on cutting down assaults, but will be taking on any policing concerns on the rail network in south west London, including drug dealing and knife crime.

The team was only launched this week, and they've already arrested what appears to be a gang member carrying a six-inch long kitchen knife who assaulted a police officer.

The stations covered by the team include Clapham Junction, Wimbledon, Richmond, Staines, Twickenham, Earlsfield, Mortlake, Norbiton, Putney, Strawberry Hill, Wandsworth Town, Kingston, Feltham, Hampton Wick, Raynes Park, New Malden, Teddington, St Margarets, North Sheen, Barnes, Whitton and Ashford.

"Where do I vote?"

It's been a few weeks since the Council sent out pollcards telling us where our polling station is in the elections this coming Thursday.

We're sending out our own cards letting thousands of Labour supporters in Putney, Roehampton and Southfields, know where to vote on Thursday. But if you want to check where you vote, you can do so on my website by clicking here.

There's a list of polling stations down the side, or you can check using the map - by clicking on the links you'll get a list of streets that vote at each station and a satellite image of the location on it.

Most polling stations are where they've always been, but a couple have changed since the last elections in 2006:

• The Putney Vale estate now votes at Stag House in Stroud Crescent, following the Tory council's closure of Newlands Hall;


• Residents of the Alton East estate are back voting at Roehampton Parish Hall (now called Cornerstone), on the corner of Alton Road and Roehampton Lane.

Out and about in Putney

The main reason I've been posting a little less frequently in recent days is because of the London election campaigning my team and I are up to.

We've been out all over the constituency, and I've just today finished adding all the places we've been too in the past month to my constituency map page.

We've been talking to you about your concerns and priorities for London in the next four years and the clear choice between the experience, tested leadership and delivered improvements to the capital over the last eight years with Ken Livingstone; and the bluster, blunder, lack of substance, lack of vision, and lack of any credibly-costed plans of his Tory opponent.

So far this campaign we've been to the Longstaff Estate, Galveston Road, Lebanon Road, Sutherland Grove, Skeena Hill, Combemartin Road, Girdwood Road, Whitefield Close, Arcadian Place, Wimbledon Park Road, Albert Drive, Hayward Gardens, Pullman Gardens, Beaumont Road, Whitlock Drive, Kersfield Road, Lytton Grove, Littlecombe Close, Arlesey Close, Chepstow Close, Whitnell Way, Gay Street, Crown Court, Waterman Street, Kingsmere Close, Felsham Road, Glenthorpe, Hanover House, William Gardens, Minstead Gardens, Aubyn Square, Toland Square and Vanneck Square - apologies if we've visited you but aren't listed above.

We've a lot more campaign stops all around Putney, Roehampton and Southfields before polling day on Thursday 01 May so look out for us!

My Post Office response

I've just submitted my formal response to the Post Office on their consultation over the proposed closures of the branches in Lower Richmond Road and Putney Bridge Road. You can download it here.

I've also submitted over 700 response cards and online petitions that residents have sent back to me: this is getting on for a 20% response rate which market research experts tell me is a very high return, so thank you if you took the time to respond to my campaign.

There are still two days to register your views - write to:

Anita Turner
Network Development Manager
Post Office Ltd.
Freepost Consultation Team

or email consultation@postoffice.co.uk

Keep track of my Don't K.O. our P.O.s Campaign

I've just added my work on saving our local post office branches to the list of key issues on the side bar. if you scroll down on the right, you'll find this the second issue listed, after dangerous dogs. That means that you can now read all the entries to this blog that I've made on the specific issue of post offices rather than ploughing through the main page or the monthly archives.

You can also keep in touch with what I'm doing on this and other local issues by signing up to my monthly e-news bulletin: click here to add yourself.

And if you haven't yet signed my online petitions, there's still time: click here for the Lower Richmond Road branch and/or here to save the Putney Bridge Road branch.

Tonight's Post Office meeting

I had the opportunity of addressing tonight's meeting on the proposed closures by The Post Office of their branches in Lower Richmond Road and Putney Bridge Road.

About 100 residents attended tonight's meeting as did representatives of The Post Office and PostWatch, which I applaud them for given the hiding-to-nothing they, unsurprisingly, got.

I made the point that sticking a poster up in the branches under threat and making available some notices within them is not close to being satisfactory consultation. Nor is the shortness of the consultation period - inexcusable given that they reached the decision about which closure proposals to proceed with back in December. And their response: that the consultation period is fixed and unmoveable, is - I understand - simply wrong.

The Council representative present was asked about the innovative approach taken by Essex County Council in taking over local branches threatened with closure. The council replied that the branches Essex are taking over have already been through the consultation process and have now been confirmed for closure, so they're further down the road. They undertook to give serious consideration to similar measures if our local branches are confirmed for closure after we've made our case for a reprieve. I welcome that.

To date over 700 of you have signed my online petition or returned the postcards I circulated locally: thank you so much for the cross-party support I've received over this. The next stage in my campaign will be to make my formal submission against closure backed up by the response cards and online petitions you've sent me.

More on this soon.

Post Offices: will Wandsworth follow the Essex lead?

Essex County Council has been negotiating with the post Office to take over the running of Post offices in their county. The BBC are covering the story here.

This issue has already been the subject of some debate on the Putney SW15 website; it's also something that Labour Councillors in Wandsworth have been investigating.

The Essex plan is important because so few local Post Offices win reprieves once they have been tagged for closure. It's of course important that any deal between the Post Office and Council Tax payers don't just end up subsidising the branches instead of national taxpayers (every week, the Post Office needs a 2million subsidy).

I'd like Wandsworth Council to look at a similar deal to save the Lower Richmond Road and Putney Bridge Road Post Office branches. Whether or not they have the courage to follow Essex County Council's lead, there are other ways the council could support Post Offices - by making it possible for residents to collect council benefits and pay council tax or rent at local branches; even by combining housing offices with post offices, possibly as part of a one-stop-shop facility for the community. There are so many innovative and enterprising possibilities here.

I commend Essex County Council - a Conservative-run authority - for its innovation. It seems to me that this is now a fundamental test for Wandsworth's Conservative council. Are they genuinely committed to saving local Post Office branches and doing the right thing for local people - or in fact do they actually want to see the Post Offices closed so that local Conservatives can continue to play politics?

Why not attend the public meeting the Council's holding this Thursday at St Mary's Church, 7.30pm and find out?

Putney School of Art expansion

It's great to see that Putney School of Art in Oxford Road is set to expand after submitting a bid for Government Learning & Skills Council funding.

It's also good to see Wandsworth Council celebrating this success - not least given that not that long ago they tried to close Putney School of Art down: only thwarted by a spectacular groundswell of local opposition from the local community.

I'm reminded of the saying about there being no-one quite as enthusiastic as a sinner who repents. Let's hope the bid is successful, and that this kicks into touch forever any attempts by the Conservatives to close Putney School of Art and replace it with another luxury apartment building.

The risk of flooding

Yesterday the Environment Agency held an exhibition and consultation at St Mary's Church about its plans to protect riparian communities like Putney from the growing threat of flooding.

Although this is a chance for us to have a say over how the powers that be protect the Thames area from flood risk through to 2100, the exhibition was as much a chance to reassure residents that Putney and London are not at any imminent risk of severe tidal flooding.

Protecting against severe flooding also needs to be offset against, for example, the visual impact of flood barriers. Many would argue that a great concrete wall along the Putney embankment similar to the one in Barnes would not be worth the loss of our riverside vistas or accessibility to the foreshore for pedestrians and rowers alike.

The Environment Agency is also looking at protecting communities that live alongside the Thames's tributaries - in our neck of the woods that means those in Southfields and Wandsworth town living near the Wandle, and the Roehampton and Putney Common areas alongside Beverley Brook.

Given that both these areas experienced some flooding during last Summer's downpours, the Agency is looking at ways of diverting "fresh water" floodwater (as opposed to tidal floodwater) onto flood plain land and away from homes; meaning in the case of The Wandle onto King George's Park, and in respect of Beverley Brook Richmond Park and Barnes Common.

But the underlying message to come out of the consultation was that London is secure from flooding; the Thames Barrier - while it needs some strengthening - is still fit for purpose for decades to come; that we do not yet need a new barrier further towards the estuary and that communities like Putney, if we do experience flooding, will do so due to freak downpours of rain rather than tidal surges.

You can find out a whole lot more about the flood risk, what the Environment Agency is proposing to do to protect us, and have your own say, by visiting: www.environment-agency.gov.uk/te2100

Putney farmers' market returns

It was good to see that the farmers' market is now back in Church Square by St Mary's Church and the Odeon Cinema, after a couple of false starts earlier this year.

If you missed it today, it's back again tomorrow and every weekend from now on, between 10am and 3pm, with around 12 stands offering free-range meats, fresh fruit and veg Speciality Cheeses, Organic and Artisan Breads, Salads, Oils, pies, fresh flowers and much more.

This is one of the very few pleasant features of Putney High Street: the redevelopment of this riverside quarter - which the Conservative Council opposed - has really shown how new life can be breathed back into a town centre.

While we look forward, desperately, to the repaving of some more of the High Street - work again paid for not by the Council but by Ken Livingstone's Transport for London - this still leaves too much of Putney's town centre cluttered, grubby, grimy and run down.

The Putney Society are rightly heralding the repaving works but I hope they won't regard this as job done: I need them alongside me continuing to crusade for a Putney High Street we can all take some pride in.

Visit my Save Putney High Street campaign pages to give me your views on how we can improve our town centre.

Post Offices push unique web visitors past 2,000

Putney, Roehampton and Southfields residents wanting to register their concern about the Post Office's closure of local branches in the constituency helped set new records for this website in February for the fourth successive month.

2,091 different people visited last month - that's up from just over 1,700 in January; with two days exceeding 200 visits for the first time ever. It's really nice to see readership of my local site grow by so much every month - so thank you very much for visiting, and I hope you find the content beneficial.

As well as the obviously huge number of visits to my campaign pages to save the Lower Richmond Road and Putney Bridge Road post offices, the real problem dangerous dogs are causing continues to make my work on this issue the most viewed section of the site.

There's only so much growth a local website with a very specific focus like this one can go on experiencing, but I very much hope you'll keep returning here and telling your friends and neighbours about this source of news in your neck of the woods.

They don't even know which post offices they're closing!

I've just heard that the Post Office branch in Fulham Road, which the Post Office claims in its closure consultation notices is "in your area" as an alternative if they shut the Lower Richmond Road and Putney Bridge Road branches - is also being closed.

London Labour Mayor Ken Livingstone is already seeking a judicial review of the Post Office's consultation on the grounds that it is of insufficient length (among other arguments) - so, if correct, the fact that the Post Office are also publishing incorrect information and don't even seem to know which branches they're attempting to close can only strengthen this case.

A quick update: I received over 140 response cards today alone, so thank you so much to everyone who has replied so far. If you've yet to send your card back please do so; and if you live outside the area we delivered them to but still want to register your views, you can do so online.

Just go to www.stuartking.net/postoffice if you want to protest the closure of the Lower Richmond Road branch, or www.stuartking.net/post for the Putney Bridge Road branch. Or why not sign both petitions?!

UPDATE 29.02.2008: The Post Office is in fact closing the Fulham Road branch at the "Putney" end of Fulham Road - the one near the junction with Fulham Palace Road; the branch referred to in their closures paper is staying open but this is the Parson's Green branch right up near Fulham Library.

Our Post Office campaign gets going

This weekend local volunteers delivered letters, posters and campaign response cards to around 4,000 homes (and 6,000+ residents) in Putney that will be affected by The Post Office's plans to close two of their branches.

If you've been out and about in Putney Bridge Road and Lower Richmond Road over the past couple of days, maybe you'll have seen that we've enlisted the support of lots of local businesses who are also displaying our "Don't K.O. our P.O." posters.

I was able to visit both local branches this weekend. Outrageously, the Post Office forced the Postmaster in Putney Bridge Road to sign a document promising not to help those of us fighting to keep his branch open: and while I'm not sure what they could do if he reneged on that promise (shut him down? - oh no, been there, done that!) being an honourable man he is abiding by his word.

That hasn't stopped us though. The Post Office thinks that just delivering four or five boxes of their "consultation" leaflets to the branches affected meets their obligation towards giving the community a reasonable say. It does not. That's why it's so important that, if you value the service your local Post Office branch provides, you write to The Post Office expressing your views; you sign my petition; you display a poster and you encourage your friends, neighbours, work colleagues and anyone else you can think of to do the same.

What's becoming clear is that The Post Office is not basing its decision on any in-depth analysis of the local economic and geographical circumstances of each branch they're proposing to close. In fact, their closure plan is so random I wonder whether they just stuck pins in a map blindfolded.

The response to my campaign has already been impressive. I'll keep you informed regularly here, but if you haven't registered your views yet please do so at:

Lower Richmond Road Post Office: www.stuartking.net/postoffice
Putney Bridge Road Post Office: www.stuartking.net/post

Don't K.O. our P.O.

I learnt late yesterday afternoon that plans have been published to close two of our local Post Office branches in Lower Richmond Road, on the corner of Erpingham Road AND in Putney Bridge Road, near Oxford Road.

Anyone who's been around in Putney for more than five minutes will know that Lower Richmond Road has already lost a post office, a few years ago, and this plan will remove any proximity to postal services for a community relatively isolated, bordered on three sides by Putney Common, the river Thames and the mainline railway.

That's why it's frankly laughable for The Post Office to claim that "in the area" are no less than five other branches: one in Barnes, two in Fulham and the others in Upper Richmond Road: a good half an hour's walk or two bus journeys just to get there.



I'm not someone who believes that post offices deserve to be kept open by some divine right. The public is subsidising the Post Office to the tune of 3 million a week because of the losses they are making. Where, in the past there have been duplicate services in close proximity and branches that are hardly used, it is right that Royal Mail considers their future. But these branches are not duplicates - they're busy and popular - and perhaps most significantly of all the area they serve is a genuine community that values their post offices.

Those are the reasons I've launched the campaign to save the Lower Richmond Road Post Office - you can find out more at www.stuartking.net/postoffice. If you're in the area surrounding the Lower Richmond Road or Putney Bridge Road post offices you'll be hearing from me soon with ways to get involved and help stop this K.O. of our P.O. - but I'd welcome your support where ever you live and whichever political party you vote for: this isn't a party political issue.

We have until 2nd April to make our views known about the closure plans: as well as signing my online petition you can also write direct to Anita Turner, Network Development Manager, Post Office Ltd, FREEPOST CONSULTATION TEAM or email consultation@postoffice.co.uk. If you could copy me in to your submission this will help strengthen our collective voice against these plans.

Save Putney Bridge Road Post Office campaign now live

I've now set up campaign pages to help residents living near the Putney Bridge Road Post Office, also threatened with closure. This is the second Putney branch the Post Office is seeking to close, after they announced plans to close the one in Lower Richmond Road yesterday.

So, if you want to support the campaign to save Putney Bridge Road post office, please click here.

And a reminder that if you want to support the campaign to save Lower Richmond Road post office, please click here.



Of course, you're very welcome to support both campaigns - the more responses, the stronger our case! And if you intend to respond directly to the consultation, do please copy me into your letter, as it will help strengthen our collective voice. The consultation address to write to can be found on the campaign pages above; to copy me in, e-mail me at stuart.king@putneylabour.org.uk, or write to me at Putney Labour Party, 35 Felsham Road, SW15 1AY.

Out and about in Horne Way

My campaign team and I, along with local London Assembly candidate Councillor Leonie Cooper, were in Horne Way - also known as the Ranelagh Estate - just beside Putney Common earlier today. This is a pleasant estate of nine 1930s blocks, nestled alongside Beverley Brook at the end of Sefton Street.

But it could be even better with a little more care and attention from the Council. We spoke to almost 100 residents in just a couple of hours. Several residents had complaints about outstanding repairs, problems with rats (given the proximity to the Brook), and no-one had ever seen their Conservative councillors - who include the Leader of the Council - on the estate.

Some residents were also really concerned about the plans by Richmond's Liberal Democrat-run Council to sell off a huge chunk of next-door Barn Elms playing fields when we told them about it. And some residents were also very keen to get the ball rolling on the redevelopment of Putney Hospital, so that they can benefit from excellent NHS healthcare on their doorstep once again.

I have recently been in touch with the office of the Minister responsible for sorting out the legal technicalities that have been delaying the work to the Hospital, and hope to be able to report progress soon. I want work to be able to commence later this year so we get these new health facilities we all deserve.

The sell-off and sell-out of Barn Elms

Barn Elms is a local treasure. It provides acres of school playing fields and other recreational facilities right on the edge of our borough, just across Beverley Brook.

Now, Liberal Democrat-run Richmond Council is planning to sell-off a sizeable chunk of the site - which would include the athletics track - to a private developer for a luxury sports centre most of us will never be able to afford.

By now, I'd have thought politicians of all colours would have understood that the consequence of selling off playing fields is unfit children and worsening obesity. That self-evident truth is clearly lost on Richmond Liberal Democrats.

Before joining my current Sunday league football side based in Roehampton Vale, I played for Fulham Compton Old Boys which was based on Putney Common just behind Barn Elms - so I'm not just sounding off about this issue - I've directly benefited from this local open space for sport.

As someone heavily involved in politics, I come across so many examples of the Liberal Democrats hypocrisy over issues like this. Just google "Liberal Democrat playing field sell off" and you'll get a tirade of examples of Lib Dems campaigning to defend playing fields - it was even a manifesto pledge of theirs - and just as many examples of Lib Dem councils selling them off. Richmond is just the latest.

Of course, it's easy to be against sell-off. Successive councils have evidently struggled to generate revenue from Barn Elms, which is no doubt a substantial drain on council tax. Equally, councils have shown time and time again that they are not the best entrepreneurs around - ill equiped to market themselves or their assets to the maximum and often excluded from applying for grants from outside sources to help finance them.

In such circumstances, I'd like serious consideration given to creating a trust or conservatorship for Barn Elms - to protect this precious land from the short-termist instincts of councillors and establish an organisation solely responsible for and interested in the protection, preservation and success of Barn Elms.

The Tories' "affordable" housing scam

Two examples of how Wandsworth Council and their developer friends are making a laughing stock of affordable housing targets have come to light this week.

The first is that the Conservative definition of an affordable home is 250,000 for the tiniest one bedroom flat on the Riverside Quarter development just past Wandsworth Park.

As usual with Wandsworth Conservatives, they've refused to build a single affordable home for rent as part of this huge scheme while the proportion of so-called affordable homes here is barely 15%, despite requirements to make 50% of these huge developments affordable.

Now the Council will say that anyone interested in their poky quarter-of-a-million pound flats (which have all been bunged close to the railway line - the Tories don't believe ordinary Wandsworth residents deserve riverside views) only has to buy a minimum 25% share of that - and for some a 62,500 mortgage is more attainable than one for 250,000.

But that's not the end of the costs. Because while you're repaying that 62,500 mortgage (that's an outgoing of roughly 450 a month) you also have to pay rent on the 75% you don't own - so add another 260 a month to that total. Plus, these are serviced blocks - so add the service charges on top.

And then, if that wasn't crippling enough, I was contacted just today by a resident of the 'affordable' section of Castle Court, which is part of the Brewhouse Lane development by Putney Bridge. For the privilege of being able to park off-street (which she has to, because the council has disqualified residents of these developments from owning a residents' parking permit) her landlord, St George, is demanding the outrageous sum of 12,000!

All this adds up to totally unaffordable 'affordable' housing. It's nothing short of a scandal that whilst our local housing crisis grows ever worse the Conservatives block affordable homes, have the front to claim a 250,000 flat is affordable, and allow their developer chums to fleece those local families.

AirTrack

Today, I'm launching my Putney4AirTrack campaign.

AirTrack is a proposal for a rail service between Heathrow and Waterloo. The beauty of the idea is that 96% of the track for this service already exists so it's an incredibly affordable infrastructure scheme - all t