SURVEY RESULTS:

Questions

A. Should Spelthorne become part of Greater London? 91% yes

B. Would you prefer to stay in Surrey?
Surrey being divided into 3 or 4 unitary
authorities or one big one like Cornwall. 91% no

C. Do you favour Heathrow expansion,
and the building of a third runway? 62% no

D. .Are you satisfied with the schools in
your area? 59% no

E. Do you think Spelthorne council should do more
to help local people on low incomes to get on the
housing ladder, by building affordable homes to
buy or to rent, especially for the young.? 87% yes

F. Would you like care for the elderly to be
incorporated into the N.H.S, as Labour plans.
At present nursing home and respite care can
cost well over £1000 per week, home nursing
care can run into the £100s 91% yes

G. Are we doing enough in Spelthorne to protect
the environment? Concerning pollution,
congestion on our roads, fly-tipping, protection
against flooding. 84% no

H. Are you in favour of on-street parking meters in
Spelthorne? 84% no

We distributed questionnaires to all of Spelthorne’s 13 wards, and although only 100s and not 1000s were given out in each ward, the response was good, and a clear picture formed.
This information will be considered when making local policy's, for next May’s borough elections.

Welcome to Spelthorne Labour Party

Does Spelthorne

Council have a

“cunning plan?”

Pictured right Ashford’s Multi-storey car park.
The top two floors closed because of structural problems.

Spelthorne Borough Council have commissioned a survey to access parking within Ashford Town Centre and the surrounding roads.

One of the reasons given for the survey is the impact of the current Brooklands’ 357 home development.

This is a bit rich coming from the Tory run planning committee who voted unanimously in favour of this second planning application — Labour voted against.

The real impact from the Brooklands development will be on hospitals, schools, and doctors surgeries already stretched to breaking point.

As the development is situated in the centre of Ashford Town it will have little effect on parking in the area, because most of its residents will walk to the nearby amenities. However it is reasonable to assume at least 100 or so cars will be trying to get out during the early morning rush, causing chaos on the roads!

A likely motive for the survey is for the council to re-introduce their plan for on-street parking meters. If they were to do so, even more people would park on the back streets. The council could then introduce residents only permits, which would make the situation even worse.

Although the parking in Ashford Town isn’t great, with the 2 hour parking limit, but
it’s adequate — far better than having to pay!

What the council could do is to either repair the multi-storey car park or knock it down and re-build, so that all floors can be used.

In a recent survey carried out by Spelthorne Labour Party
in all 13 wards, residents voted unanimously
against on-street parking meters.

Thames Water’s fine is a tap on a leaky wrist

As the Labour cavalry charge over the hill, to Britain’s rescue Jeremy Corbyn’s reformers will sort out the privatisation of public services once and for all.
Last May, Thames Water, amid fears of drought, missed its water leakage target by 47 million litres a day. That is the daily volume of 18 Olympic swimming pools. OFWAT fined the miscreants £8.5 million.
The tap on a leaky wrist which is the maximum allowed. Before that — look away if eating — Thames Water pumped 1.4 billion litres of raw sewage into the river. The offence was hit with a record fine of £20.3 million.
Who owns this necessity of life? As the name implies, you would think,
we Brits/ Londoners.
Wrong the Tories have sold it to a mysterious foreign consortia of sovereign wealth funds involving Abu Dhabi, China, Australia, Canada, and Kuwait.
Are these the sort of trade deals we can expect when leaving the EU?
We “customers” might be disgruntled, but the shareholders will not. One billion pounds in dividends in the decade buys their complicity.
But surely Thames Water have sacked their £700.000 per year boss? Wrong again. No fine for him, instead, a bonus of £54.000.
Roll on a Labour government.

Brexit under the Conservatives could result in hardship for many, dodgy trade deals with dubious nations and isolation from our former EU partners.

News Feed

20/7/18

“Surrey Fire Services on the edge, as ‘Fire Chief sacked,’ says Labour”

Cuts to Surrey’s Fire and Rescue Services are leaving ‘parts of the County in a perilous situation,’ according to Labour County Councillor Robert Evans.
‘In this very hot weather, when just a small spark can create a large fire in moments, it means Surrey’s fire fighters are operating right ‘on the edge’, said Robert Evans.
Mr Evans, who represents Stanwell and Stanwell Moor, which includes Staines Fire Station says, ‘there seem to be an ever-increasing number of times when our fire stations are closed due to staff shortages.’
On Wednesday this week Surrey was having to call in help from London Fire Brigade colleagues based at Heston. On Tuesday there was no fire engines at all covering Elmbridge, whilst on Monday, Esher, Walton on Thames, Staines and Banstead fire stations were all closed due to staff shortages.
Cllr Robert Evans said, ‘I raised this issue of staff shortages, as an emergency at the full Surrey County Council meeting on 10 July but I was fobbed off. I wrote to Kwasi Kwarteng MP weeks ago, with my concerns, but I’ve had no reply.’
‘It seems Mr Kwarteng takes no interest in Surrey’s fire and rescue service. Neither he nor any Conservatives councillors were anywhere to be seen when the battle to save our local fire station was on and now he won’t reply about the serious government funding cuts.’
‘To cap it all, the head of the fire service in Surrey has now been sacked - apparently for his repeated warnings that planned budget cuts would leave Surrey Fire and Rescue Service unable to protect the public,’ claimed Robert Evans.
Richard Jones, executive council member for the Fire Brigade Union in the South East, said: “I am in no doubt that the only reason Surrey County Council would replace Russell Pearson is so they can get someone in to do a hatchet job, solely to make cuts without any regard to public or firefighter safety.

“With emergency response times in Surrey at their slowest since 1996, the number of fires we attend and rescues we make increasing year on year since 2015, further cuts are absolutely absurd and show SCC are prioritising monetary savings ahead of public safety.”
Robert Evans added, ‘Earlier this year I was privileged to be at Windsor Castle when H M the Queen honoured Surrey’s Chief Fire Office Russell Pearson with the Queen’s Fire Service Medal and now he’s been ousted. It makes no sense.’
Since 2010, Surrey County Council have cut £20m from the service budget and they now plan to implement a further £5.5m worth of cuts between 2019 and 2021. As a result, the number of firefighters in the county has plummeted by 40% resulting in chronic staff shortages. It means several fire appliances are always unavailable to respond to emergencies because there are not enough firefighters to crew them.
In June last year firefighters and union members declared a motion of no confidence in SCC and, one year on, this motion is still in place.
ENDS
For more info: Robert Evans 07785 290546 or 01932 231471

Robert Evans
Surrey County Councillor, Labour

Stanwell and Stanwell Moor
Trainer and Lecturer
M: 07785 290546
rjeevans@globalnet.co.uk


Labour calls for resignations as Surrey’s children are exposed to "continuing harm" due to the County’s ‘inadequate’ services

The Conservatives at County Hall need to wake up and take full responsibility for their own failings in children’s services,’ says Surrey Labour. ‘Someone should be resigning over this.’

This follows the publication by Ofsted, the Government’s education inspectors, of a damning report which rated Surrey’s Children’s services as ‘inadequate’.

Robert Evans, County Councillor for Stanwell and Stanwell Moor said, ‘Our children only get once chance at education and Surrey is failing them.’

The report blames Surrey County Council’s leadership and members for failing to act on findings and recommendations made in a previous report presented back in 2014.

‘Surrey’s has more than four years to at least try and put things right,’ said Mr Evans

‘But Ofsted now says Surrey has been "far too slow to accept and act on findings and recommendations" from 2014, so it’s clear the County is failing in its duty as an education provider,’ he added.

‘Surrey’s has more than four years to at least try and put things right,’ said Mr Evans.

The report blames Surrey County Council’s leadership and members for failing to act on findings and recommendations made in a previous report presented back in 2014.

Robert Evans, County Councillor for Stanwell and Stanwell Moor said, ‘Our children only get one chance at education and Surrey is failing them.’

This follows the publication by Ofsted, the Government’s education inspectors, of a damning report which rated Surrey’s Children’s services as ‘inadequate’.

‘The Conservatives at County Hall need to wake up and take full responsibility for their own failings in children’s services,’ says Surrey Labour. ‘Someone should be resigning over this.’

‘I welcome the recent appointment of Mr Hill as the new head of the service,’ said Cllr Evans, ’but it beggars belief that the Surrey leadership can be so complacent when faced with such abject failure.’

‘For the Council’s education chief, Conservative County Councillor Clare Curran to accept that “that the support we give to children and their families simply isn’t good enough,” but not to resign, is a staggering indication of an arrogant administration that just isn’t working.’

The Ofsted report said that whilst “intervention in families had been going on often for many years”, this had not brought about any “sustainable changes”.

Surrey’s Children's Services were severely criticised especially "frontline managers and social workers” who it said, “do not routinely analyse family histories and the negligible impact of earlier phases of help" - which means children continue to be exposed to neglectful parenting, often including domestic abuse.”

‘If the head or governors of a school were criticised like this by Ofsted, then they would lose their autonomy and be taken over. They certainly wouldn’t stay in post,’ hammered Cllr Robert Evans.

‘David Hodge, the Conservative leader of Surrey County Council, must take ultimate responsibility,’ said Mr Evans. ‘Failure on this scale needs to be punished.’

ENDS

For more information Robert Evans 07785 290546