Change We Choose

 
If you are thinking of voting Lib Dem –
Not a single Lib Dem won a seat on Merton Council at the last local election and they polled only half the votes Labour polled in the parliamentary election.

 
If you want green policies for Wimbledon and beyond -
Please look again at my record. With your support i have the chance to put environmental issues at the top of the agenda and i promise to do this.

A vote for any other party than Labour helps the Conservatives.

• Labour is the second largest party on Merton Council and was just 224 voters short of winning last time.          
• Labour lost the parliamentary seat last time by just 2302 votes. 
  

 

My Priorities:

• As your local Mp my first approach will be to listen. My second will be to act on your behalf.
• My overriding goal will be to achieve positive results that answer your concerns and support your aspirations.
• Every weekend I walk around chatting to people on their doorstep. I also conduct regular surveys and surgeries to be in a position to take a lead on local issues.

My Priorities:

• Promoting new ‘green’ technologies and industries
• Ensuring that banks support investment in business
• Supporting a tax on international financial transactions

Thanks to all of you who replied to our latest newsletter ‘Streets Ahead’.  We asked you what issues you had – from dirty streets and potholes to controlled parking zones and lack of policing. We have already received hundreds of responses back which we’ll be passing on to the Council and asking for action on any specific issues raised.

We, on the other hand, believe local residents’ views should be heard, and we back them in their call for the plans to go ahead.  58% of people we contacted already travel outside Wimbledon to shop at a Waitrose or a store of similar quality, which suggests that a local Waitrose will deliver environmental benefits with less traffic congestion and pollution.

Following that review they stopped all three developments. Each of the housing associations concerned lost the public money they had invested in planning and preparation. The Council then sought to sell off the sites for private development. As a consequence of these decisions not a single home has been introduced by this Tory administration in 3 years.

 The Conservative Cabinet members took the view that in each of the proposed locations there was already too much social housing and that therefore these schemes were not appropriate in building ‘balanced and sustainable communities’. One site, 165-9 Merton Road which is opposite the Tesco petrol station has been derelict all this time and adds nothing to our neighbourhood, when it could so easily provide for several families the one thing that they need: a roof over their heads.

 At a following Cabinet further alternative proposals for affordable housing on different sites were suggested that at the time satisfied the Chair of Scrutiny (an Independent Councillor). Since that time, however, none of these alternative schemes have come to fruition, nor is there any immediate prospect that they will do so.

 Recently, outline planning permission was granted for town houses on the site at 165-169 Merton Road which is mentioned above. In relation to another site at Ravensbury Garages, Cabinet agreed in December 2006 to cease all negotiations for new affordable housing on this site and approved the sale of this site on the open market, having first sought outline planning permission. A further scheme involving Pathway Housing for supported lodgings for young people was stopped in Mitcham at some cost to that organisation. No replacement scheme has since resulted for vulnerable young people in the Borough.

 In short, rather than agree to provide more social housing, something which I feel is much needed in Wimbledon, the Tory council has moved to reject those plans on both the sites detailed above and instead has moved to sell these sites on the open market. 

Social housing is a necessity of life for many in our community, and unlike local Tories, Labour activists in Merton are committed to ensuring that those who need a home are not left out in the cold.

At the same time support to London’s buses is being cut by 37% and overall bus journeys are to be reduced by 26 million kilometres.

Boris Johnson suggests that these decisions are “not lightly taken.” However, at the Conservative Party Conference he boasted of savings in the TfL budget, so I wonder why he has not used the money to prevent these ‘over the top’ increases. Perhaps, it is because he is spending the money on removing the Western Extension to the congestion charge (est. cost £70m a year thereafter), removing the charge on the most polluting ‘gas guzzlers’ (est. cost £50m) and scrapping the bendy buses in favour of an obsolete low capacity design (est. cost £100m).

Needless to say, the overall impact of these measures for the environment is negative.  As a resident of Merton, I also observe that none of these changes benefits local people. We do, however, pay the costs. So much for Boris Johnson’s promises to outer London.

Andrew Judge

Ultimately, we need to transform the way we live and work if we are to achieve the types of change necessary. It is vital that we examine how we live as individuals, how we interact with others in our neighbourhoods and how the organisations and businesses that we relate to, or are part of, function. No action that reduces carbon is too small and no challenge to existing behaviour is too great.

Locally, we should seek to increase the energy efficiency of our buildings and where possible provide energy from renewable or low carbon sources. This should include the introduction of community heating schemes and combined heat and power systems that provide surplus electricity to the local grid.

Local transport is a big producer of carbon, especially when traffic has to crawl through congested streets, subject to seemingly perpetual road works. Everything possible should be done to reduce traffic congestion. That is why it is so important to support high quality shops and schools in every neighbourhood to reduce unnecessary journeys. Far more must also be done to support safe walking and cycling, with home zones where pedestrians and children playing have priority, a proper public bicycle hire scheme and a denser network of physically separate cycle paths.

We should also ensure that our levels of recycling are amongst the best in the country and at least 50% better than at present. We should encourage greater self-sufficiency in food supply; using spare garden land and allotments wherever possible.

The mission for Merton Council, as the local democratic body, is to become the main public agent for action in reducing carbon emissions: providing support and encouragement as well as leading by example.

Many are taking personal action, but individually and collectively we need to go further still. As a local community, I believe we have the will to make a real difference. 

Andrew Judge