IMPORTANT NOTE: Many of the letters and e-mails received earlier can be viewed by clicking here > Stoneleigh Toilets Closure

LETTER FROM SARA's SECRETARY, MIKE SAMPSON,  IN THE EPSOM GUARDIAN, 10th JUNE:

Latest SARA News:

BOURNE HALL CELEBRATES 40TH BIRTHDAY:
Set in the heart of historic Ewell Village, Bourne Hall is celebrating its 40th Birthday this year. Since the modern building first opened its doors to the public in 1970, many have enjoyed the diverse range of services available, from the library, museum and exhibition space to its unique rooms and a vibrant café.

Built by Epsom & Ewell Borough Council in 1970 for £368,000, A G Sheppard Fidler & Associates were the architects for Bourne Hall, with local firm W S Atkins carrying out the construction. The man behind the design was Bob Loren. A skeleton of concrete ribs support the copper dome, with a ring of windows overlooking the park, while the dramatic outer lights were installed in 1999 by the BBC children’s programme Blue Peter.

Over the years, Bourne Hall has been home to rising rock stars, artists, authors and a resident cat. It has hosted conferences, festivals, parties and over 1,000 weddings. During July, Bourne Hall will host a number of events to celebrate its special 40 year anniversary. For more information contact Bourne Hall on 020 8393 9571, email bournehall@epsom-ewell.gov.uk or visit wwww.epsom-ewell.gov.uk.

CONSUMER MAGAZINE NAMES EPSOM AND ST HELIER HOSPITAL TRUST AS ONE OF THE FOUR WORST IN ENGLAND FOR HOSPITAL CAR PARKING:
Following 172 Freedom of Information Act requests, which brought 126 responses, ‘Which?’ magazine has named Epsom & St Helier Hospital Trust (Epsom Hospital, pictured left) as having one of the four worst hospital car parks in England for clamping, fining, charging and complaints.
The four worst car parks are:
• Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, which clamped 1,671 cars in 2008-9 and made almost £1.9m profit from its car park operation;
• Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust's Leeds General Infirmary, whose 10,330 fines generated £142,000;
• Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust, which has the highest charge for two hours' parking – £4;
• Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust's Royal Derby Hospital, which received the most complaints – 82
When Which? surveyed 1,001 members of the public, they found that 70% of people have experienced problems with an NHS hospital car park.
Which? also found that for 49% of NHS hospital visitors the hospital car park had made their visit more stressful.
Ms Samantha Jones, the Trust’s Chief Executive, issued a statement on 9th June saying, “I have launched a review of our car parking today to ensure we are doing all we can to strike the balance between having well run car parks, whilst making sure we do not make it difficult for our staff to do their jobs, damage patients' access to services or stop friends and relatives visiting.”

THE FULL TEXT OF RA COUNTY COUNCILLOR EBER KINGTON'S LETTER TO EPSOM GUARDIAN:
In the week we learned that Surrey is the worst place in the country for potholes it was revealed that the Conservative Leader of the County Council has increased his own personal budget for “policy initiatives” by £1 million. I am not sure whether this huge increase of 200% (from £½ million) was achieved from cuts to the highways, adult social care or the education budget, but to take £1½ million out of the County Council’s annual budget just so that the Leader can be seen to be making grand gestures throughout the year is a disgrace.
Ordinary County Councillors like me have no power to scrutinise the spending of this money before it is allocated. No doubt we will learn how it is to be distributed through one of the many press releases that spin out of County Hall on a regular basis. However, we will also be reminded on a daily basis, as we bump over the latest pothole, just what the Leader’s £1½ million might do if it were spent on improving the dreadful state of our roads.
County Councillor Eber A Kington
RA, Epsom and Ewell North

Note: This is the FULL text of the letter from Eber Kington (pictured above) published in the Epsom Guardian on 18th March 2010, showing in brown type the text edited out by the newspaper.


CONCERN OVER ADULT SOCIAL SERVICES IN SURREY:
A Care Quality Commission report has named and shamed eight local councils over their care of vulnerable and elderly people. As many as 80,000 people are living in care homes or receiving services rated as only "poor" or "adequate", according to a government inspectorate.

The names of the local councils have been revealed by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). In its first detailed survey of the quality of adult social care in England, the commission told the eight councils – Bromley, Cornwall, Peterborough, Poole, Solihull, South Tyneside, Southwark and Conservative-controlled Surrey County Council – that they must make improvements as a priority.

Stephen Burke, of the charity Counsel and Care, said: "The report shows that despite some improvement overall, the standard of care experienced by many vulnerable older people living in care homes in England still remains completely inadequate. More work needs to be done by local councils and care providers to ensure that personalised services become a reality for all older people and carers regardless of whether they live at home or in a care home, including access to good information and advice."

SPEEDING AND RED LIGHT CAMERAS IN STONELEIGH:
More than 1,000 traffic-cameras used to catch drivers jumping red lights are to be converted so they can also trap speeders. In January the traffic light cameras at Stoneleigh Park Road, at its junction with the A240 Kingston Road (southbound) and the A240 Kingston Road, at its junction with Bradford Drive (northbound), were upgraded and will now be able to record both red light violations AND speeding motorists. They will become fully operational as soon as the necessary signage is in place.


The traffic light camera was originally used to measure red light offences. Nowadays the camera can also be used in combination with speed measurement, similar to that of a Gatso speed camera. So you could end up with a speeding offence as well as a traffic light offence, if you go through a red light camera.  

Points and Penalties: Being prosecuted in the UK by a traffic light camera can result in a minimum of 3 penalty points and a fine. The fine amount is currently under review by the government and may increase in the near future.


COUNCIL VOTES UNANIMOUSLY TO AWARD THE FREEDOM OF THE BOROUGH OF EPSOM & EWELL TO THE PRINCESS OF WALES'S ROYAL REGIMENT:
At a Special Meeting of Epsom & Ewell Borough Council held on Tuesday 5th January 2010, borough councillors voted unanimously to approve an amended resolution put forward by the Chairman of the Council's Strategy & Resources Committee, Cuddington Ward Residents' Association Councillor Keith Mann (pictured left), to award the Freedom of the Borough to the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment.
Councillor Mann's amended resolution read:
"In recognition of their service over the years and in the current conflict, the Borough Council of Epsom and Ewell confer the Freedom of the Borough on the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment and that The Chief Executive and Chairman of Strategy and Resources Committee, be delegated to prepare an address or casket containing an address at a cost not to exceed £2,000 for presentation to the Regiment by The Mayor on a date to be determined."
Commenting on the unanimous vote in favour of the amended resolution he had proposed, Councillor Mann said, "I am pleased to support this decision in recognition of this regiment and its established history. The Council honours all members of the armed forces and we will be making a presentation to the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment in due course."

A CLEAR MESSAGE FROM THE EPSOM GUARDIAN (12.11.09) TO SURREY COUNTY COUNCIL:


BBC SURREY HEADLINES RA CHAIRMEN'S COMPLAINT ON COMMUNITY GANGS RE-SCHEDULING:
The chairmen of all three residents’ associations in Surrey County Council’s Epsom & Ewell North Division have angrily condemned the County Council’s “appalling and disgraceful” re-scheduling of the Community Gangs - the County Council’s contracted workforce provided by Carrillion and Ringway which carries out a range of general highways repairs.

Neil Bevan (Cuddington RA), Bill Slaughter, Stoneleigh and Auriol RA (SARA) and Les Duplock (Ewell Court RA) pictured left to right, are furious that it has been more than three and a half months since the Community Gang last carried out any highway maintenance in their Division, which covers parts of Ewell, Stoneleigh and Worcester Park. The chairmen’s anger was increased when their Epsom & Ewell North Division Residents’ Association County Councillor, Eber Kington, informed them that he has now been advised that the Community Gang will not be in the area again until week commencing Monday 2nd November - some four months since the last visit.

Speaking on behalf of all three RA chairmen, SARA Chairman Bill Slaughter, said, “It is an appalling and disgraceful fact that the last time the Community Gang was in Epsom and Ewell North carrying out general highways repairs was in week beginning 13th July. They were due to be in the Division again in the week beginning Monday 31st August. That was postponed. Their next visit was scheduled for Monday 7th September, then re-scheduled for Monday 14th September, then re-scheduled again for Monday 21st September – at which point they were whisked off elsewhere to wash road signs!”
The RA chairmen’s fury at the lack of attention to highway maintenance in the Epsom and Ewell North Division came in response to a self-congratulatory press release issued on 16th October by the beleaguered Conservative-controlled County Council – the only Conservative-controlled council in England and Wales to be given the lowest possible 1-star rating by the Audit Commission earlier this year – in which it was claimed that, ‘‘Street signs around the county have had a wash and brush-up as Surrey County Council’s community gangs devoted a week to cleaning them.’’
Defending removing the Community Gangs from their usual tasks, Tory County Councillor Ian Lake (the same councillor who tried unsuccessfully to arrange the secret sell-off of Nonsuch Mansion House!), the County Council’s Cabinet Member for Transport, was quoted in the press release as saying, “When road signs get dirty they are hard to read … cleaning up the signs improves the look of the neighbourhood, making it a place that residents can feel proud of.”

Bill Slaughter denounced Councillor Lake’s remarks saying, “The poor standard of repair work to our potholes and kerbstones might suggest that the average Ringway and Carillion worker probably does operate at the skill level of a road-sign washer. However, I think that it should have been possible to employ some temporary unskilled labour to wash road-signs whilst the Community Gangs got on with the jobs that our residents really want done – road repairs.”

On Wednesday 4th November, BBC Surrey's Breakfast Show presenter Nick Wallace headlined the issue and featured an interview with SARA Chairman Bill Slaughter, which followed earlier comments on the show by Cllr Lake.

To listen to Nick Wallace's live interview with Bill Slaughter, click here > BBC Surrey, 4th November 2009.

SURREY COUNTY COUNCIL LOSES DATA ON “THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES”:
Local councils have an unfortunate knack of ending up in the headlines after suffering data loss incidents. Either because of their obligation to report such events or because some aspect of their operations results in an inordinate amount of risk, councils dominate the Information Commissioner’s Office’s guilty list. In the past year, Conservative-controlled Surrey County Council reported the loss of thousands of details of children and families on lost county council-owned laptops and BlackBerrys.
From: Information Age, 21st October 2009, by JJ Robinson. 

DAVID SMITH MADE AN HONORARY FREEMAN OF EPSOM & EWELL:
At a special meeting of Epsom & Ewell Borough Council on Wednesday 4th November 2009, Mr David Smith (pictured left), the Council’s long-serving former Chief Executive was made an Honorary Freeman of the Borough. David Smith, Chief Executive of Epsom & Ewell Borough Council, retired on 31st July 2009 after 23 years of service.

The decision to leave followed David’s continuing recovery from a stroke in October 2008. A solicitor with a career in local government, David Smith joined Epsom & Ewell Borough Council as Chief Executive in 1986.

In moving the motion to confer the title of Honorary Freeman on David Smith, RA Councillor Eber Kington (Ewell Court Ward) paid a glowing tribute to Mr Smith, saying that, "As the youngest Town Clerk and Chief Executive in Surrey, David had set about introducing more corporate ways of working, involving more junior officers in decision making and building a team that pulled together rather than spending time fighting the Chief Executive. However, that engagement with people was never about you personally.  For you it was about ensuring the reputation of this Council as a listening organisation, caring about the needs and aspirations of residents, partners and indeed members of staff within the organisation itself.  And it was also about getting the job done.  For you understood that engaging directly with individuals and organisations was crucial to ensuring that you carried people with you and that the change you felt was so necessary came about."

Councillor Kington recalled David Smith's "phenomenal memory" and called it "a quality upon which councillors in particular came to rely", adding that, "We never ceased to be amazed by your ability to remember notes, memos and letters filed away several years previously; your ability to instantly recall Council and Committee decisions taken long ago, and crucially your ability to pronounce on the Council’s constitution – even while the next point of order was being shouted (politely) from the ranks of over-excited councillors in the chamber.  To be able to recall information, explain it clearly, and at a moments notice, is a rare skill and one that we came to appreciate and rely upon over the years."

Listing many of David Smith's outstanding achievements, Councillor Eber Kington singled out the massive part David Smith played in preventing Conservative-controlled Surrey County Council's secret planned sell-off of the Grade 2*-listed Nonsuch Mansion House in Nonsuch Park - a plot discovered and foiled at the time by SARA. Praising Mr Smith's long and arduous battle with the Tory-led County Council, Councillor Kington addressed David and said, "It was you and absolutely no one else who negotiated Surrey County Council into conceding that its plans for the commercial sale of the House were flawed and that the Nonsuch Park Joint Management Committee was the natural guardian of this local heritage site."

David Smith joins a distinguished list of Honorary Freemen of the Borough. The title has only been conferred 15 times in the 75-year history of the Borough Council.

CRONYISM CLAIMS “DIFFICULT TO REFUTE” SAY SCC’S AUDITORS:
Surrey County Council waived normal procurement procedures for Common Purpose contract. Surrey County Council's waiving of normal procurement procedures for a £41,000 contract with leadership training charity Common Purpose made it difficult to refute allegations of cronyism, the authority's auditors have found. 

The internal review, seen by Third Sector, says officials failed to set out the need to send four employees on a leadership course in 2008 or to assess alternative providers. The review says this made it hard for the authority to demonstrate that the courses, for which the council paid Common Purpose £41,000, were value for money. 

It also says that a number of senior council officers had previous dealings with Common Purpose, although there was no evidence that any had benefited personally from the Surrey contract. But it says their successful application to waive normal procedures had led to allegations of cronyism that "though false, are difficult to refute".
From: Third Sector, 27 October 2009, by Paul Jump.