Stuart King (Free subscription) | 27/11/2009
As anyone who reads this blog regularly will know, housing and the environment are my two main political priorities. The two come together when we talk about the quality of our urban environment in Putney and the far poorer state the Conservatives allow our council estates to be kept in compared to the more affluent areas. In Labour's 2006 manifesto for Wandsworth - which I wrote - we devoted an entire...
JamesCousins.com (Free subscription) | 18/11/2009
Last night I attended the Enterprising Roehampton awards at Roehampton University. During my comments at the beginning of the awards I reflected that it hasn’t been a good year. We are the longest recession on record and while Wandsworth may be escaping the very worst effects we’ve still see unemployment rise significantly. Most disappointing was [...] Theoretically related posts: Weekly...
Stuart King (Free subscription) | 10/11/2009
Another Roehampton story in last week's Wandsworth Guardian (along with the collapse of the Conservatives' Danebury Avenue demolition plans) was another success story for local policing. Getting more police resources focussed on the Lennox estate, at the top of Priory Lane, has been something I've been working on for months - I reported on it in this special edition of the Putney Paper and it was an...
JamesCousins.com (Free subscription) | 03/11/2009
I attended the Regeneration and Community Safety Overview and Scrutiny Committee as Executive Member last night. The meeting was largely focused on community safety matters, and was one of the longer ones for a while, perhaps because there were some interesting items on the agenda. You can see the full agenda on the [...] Theoretically related posts: Recession kills off regeneration plans for Roehampton...
Stuart King (Free subscription) | 30/10/2009
Up until a few days ago, Conservatives in Roehampton were delivering a newsletter containing the story above promoting their dreadful demolition plans for Danebury Avenue. Earlier this week the plans were dropped. Talk about the right hand not knowing what the far right hand is doing! Particularly notable is the quote from one of the Tory candidates for Roehampton: "We need to make sure that...
JamesCousins.com (Free subscription) | 29/10/2009
The recession has finally put paid to hopes for a major regeneration project in Roehampton. The scheme had been in development for a number of years and went through seemingly endless consultations with local residents, mixed feelings from the Labour Party (who couldn’t work out if they want to improve people’s quality of life or not) [...] Theoretically related posts: Beating the recession...
Stuart King (Free subscription) | 22/10/2009
I write a lot about the river Wandle - it's important to me because I grew up alongside it in Wandsworth. The Wandle forms much of the eastern boundary of the Putney constituency;but a lot of the western boundary of it is formed by another waterway, Beverley Brook. You can view Beverley Brook at several points around the constituency: it exits into the Thames just past Leader's Gardens; winding between...
Stuart King (Free subscription) | 03/10/2009
I spent most of today with Putney Labour Party members choosing our councillor candidates for the six council wards in Putney. There is a real chance that the councillor elections next year could coincide with the general election - in which case you'll have four votes: one for your MP and three to choose your councillors. I can't guarantee this because I don't know the details of every candidate...
Stuart King (Free subscription) | 23/09/2009
If you've been at all aware of the spate of violent crimes that have afflicted Wandsworth borough - but with one exception not our part of it - in the past three or four weeks, I'm sure you'll have been as shocked as I have. The arson attack on the Masud family that cost the lives of two sisters in Lessingham Avenue in Tooting, and seriously injured other members of that family was appalling. But...
Stuart King (Free subscription) | 12/09/2009
Recently I wrote to the Council's Chief Executive and the Chief Superintendent of Wandsworth Police to urge them to take action on one of the biggest concerns I come across on the Alton estate: the impact of street drinkers on the Danebury Avenue area. I want to see an alcohol exclusion zone introduced in this bit of Roehampton that bans the drinking of alcohol in public. Your rights to buy alcohol...
Stuart King (Free subscription) | 01/09/2009
The Liberal Democrats in Putney have not updated their website since November 2008. Reproduced below is the Putney page on the Liberal Democrats' national website, which talks about all the things they're up to in our area...not exactly a lot! The Liberal Democrats have nothing to say about to Putney, Roehampton and Southfields because they accept that they cannot win here. They are a very distant...
Stuart King (Free subscription) | 17/08/2009
Earlier this month I was contacted by residents of Argento Tower, the new high-rise block on Mapleton Road in Wandsworth which overlooks King George's Park (and most of south London). They've experienced problems with groups of youths hanging around outside the block by the entrance to the park and in the children's play area, generally being rowdy but also intimidating residents and causing vandalism....
Stuart King (Free subscription) | 13/08/2009
I haven't published a full list of Putney's Safer Neighbourhood Police teams and their contact details for a while, so here it is. East Putney and Putney Hill Sgt Matt Snowden PC Chris Cook PC Sandrine Tanghe PCSO Sandra Simoni PCSO Adam Lucioni PCSO Paul Henry Contact them at: Jubilee House, 230-232 Putney Bridge Road, SW15 2PD tel: 020 8721 2433 mob: 07920 233 925 e-mail: eastputney.snt@met.police.uk...
Stuart King (Free subscription) | 03/08/2009
Wandsworth's Labour councillors have resurrected their website: http://www.labourwandsworth.org.uk/ . Between 2001 and 2006 labourwandsworth was one of the most visited grassroots political websites in the country offering news, blogs, information about councillors and candidates, and loads of local stuff down to the area you lived in. After the 2006 council elections the person who set it up and...
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