Now public halls and the arts under threat from Sutton's LibDem council

Sutton’s Liberal Democrat council present their latest proposed cuts to local services (Guardian 29 August) as if it’s nothing to do with them. Yet they have frozen council tax rates for years and their party in government has enthusiastically slashed local government revenue support grants. At the same time the government continues to allow legalised tax avoidance on an industrial scale by multinational companies and rich individuals using offshore scams and other legal laundering operations to pay next to nothing to the exchequer. No wonder that soon we will have hardly any public services to show for the money we do spend. Wallington Public Hall is the last such institution remaining in the borough: ‘family silver’ (to quote Harold Macmillan) in the shape of Sutton Public Hall was demolished and sold to developers thirty years ago and we have a sterile (and usually empty) office block in exchange. That hall was paid for by public subscription and it was a betrayal of our forbears to sell it off. Furthermore, to suggest that we should close theatres and slash arts spending one the basis that not everyone uses them is an astonishing argument. Is the best vision of Sutton’s future that the LibDem regime can come up with?

Fracking - Press statement from Green party

28 July 2014 THE government’s presumption against fracking in designated areas, such as national parks, goes to show that the Coalition recognises that hydraulic fracking will harm the environment and presents significant risks. The Green Party calls on the government to offer all communities the same protection from dirty and dangerous fracking and shift energy policy focus instead towards clean, renewable energy sources and energy conservation. The latest bidding process for licenses to extract shale gas from large parts of the UK is under way (1). About half the UK is open to exploration, but tightened rules cover areas of outstanding beauty. The Green Party is the only mainstream political party fighting to stop fracking (2) being pushed through by a government which consistently puts corporate profit over people. Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion, said: “While the Government has signalled an intention to ensure some protective measures, we can have little confidence in promises of a robust regulatory framework. “We know fracking can cause water contamination and shortages, as well as air and soil pollution. And this is an industry that’s made a catalogue of errors already. But legitimate concerns over its very real environmental and health risks are falling on deaf ears. “By seeking to lock us ever-more firmly into fossil fuel dependence the Government is turning a blind eye to reason. It’s crystal clear that we need to be shifting to clean, renewable energy sources. “We need a rapid shift to a zero carbon economy and that is not going to happen by pouring resources into establishing an entirely new fossil fuel industry.” Natalie Bennett, Green Party leader, said: "The announcement from the government this morning is further acknowledgement, forced from them by the passion of campaigners, that fracking would have a damaging impact on our countryside and environment. "If fracking isn't appropriate in national parks or areas of outstanding natural beauty, then it isn't appropriate anywhere in Britain's crowded, precious landscape. "More, this decision risks focusing any fracking that happens in Britain in disadvantaged, poorer areas - Lord Howell's so-called 'desolate North'. Bennett concluded: "It needs to be stated again that fracking is a damaging distraction from our need to focus on energy conservation and renewable energy generation. We need to be working out how to deal with the 'carbon bubble', not looking for more fossil fuels to add to the problem." Fracking, a controversial technique for extracting fossil fuels, is widely opposed in countries where it takes place (3). 1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-28513036 2 http://greenparty.org.uk/values/energy.html 3 http://www.lockthegate.org.au

Life Centre faces early death?

Another Sutton Council financial banana skin could meet an early end soon as vanity project Sutton Life Centre, the geographically challenged albatross on the Sutton bypass faces up to huge losses. There is good coverage of this in the local Guardian at http://www.suttonguardian.co.uk/news/11361181.Crunch_time_looms_for_Sutton_Life_Centre/?ref=var_0 We propose a competition to come up with the best way that the money wasted on this centre might have been better spent on more mundane but important services like day care for the elderly, joined-up cycle routes or supporting a food waste collection service. Ho hum... The Life Centre attracted controversy from day one when it emerged that the council signed up to a deal to pay Chelsea FC £60,000 to promote the centre in 2012, instead of using the opportunity to showcase local football clubs like Sutton United and Carshalton Athletic.

Healthwatch Sutton- LibDem front or just naive?

My letter to Sutton Healthwatch in the wake of their allowing Tom Brake to host the whole admin for this week's health meeting on his own web site, and control the questions to be asked!! "Why if you are independent (?) have you allowed yourselves to be hijacked by the Liberal Democrat party with regards to this week's meeting in Wallington? If you are the organisers and you are truly independent, all the procedures, advice and administration re the event should be done on YOUR web site NOT on that of a local party politician! You have simply allowed them to manipulate you for political gain and undermined any faith local people might have had in Sutton Healthwatch. I also object to having to submit written questions in advance to Tom Brake. I would have no objection to submitting them to an properly independent panel of scrutiners in orderthat a good range of questions is achieved; but it's another own goal to allow the very people who might be criticised y many local people to vet the questions days in advance. Yours in disgust, Bob Steel"

Less is more with Sutton's LibDems

Carshalton High street is awash with a sea of posters announcing the forthcoming closure of the recycling banks in the High Street. Coincidentally these appeared just days after the new council was elected. "You spoke, we listened!" they proclaim. So the message is that Carshaltonians have been clamouring for recycling facilities to be shut down? I don't recall being consulted....? The official reason is apparently anti-social behaviour associated with the bins?! Very convenient, to have a tiny handful of moans about glass noise late at night as a pretext for putting further skids on Sutton Council's now abysmal rates of recycling. Just as well that Sutton's LibDem council is doing its best to build a huge incinerator, so at least our waste can be burnt instead. Good ol' LibDems, eh? They think of everything!