2009 News

Campaign to protect local Library 10th January 2009

Today Helen, local residents and Conservative Councillors David Fraser, Mick Amson and Nick Kilby joined together for the second year in a row, to protest against threats to the library. This vital local service is cherished by residents, who value having the library round the corner making it easy to drop in. As well as borrow books residents value the wide range of activities such as story time sessions for under 5's, homework club, reading groups and computer tuition. Helen is adamant that the Library “doesn’t go the way of so many other community services – downsized, cut back, and finally killed off.”

Helen calls for assurances on new primary school places 14th January 2009
Today Helen met with Patrick Leeson, Kingston Council's Director of Learning and Children's Services after she found out that there are still not enough primary school places for September 2009. The Council are already planning additional classes but local parents are concerned that the classes will be at the wrong school, forcing them to drive across the borough to take their children to school. Last year over 200 children were left without places before the Council added additional classes in portacabins at schools around the borough. The Council will be holding a consultation on primary school places in the next few months. Helen has said that she “will continue to liaise with parents and ensure that their views are properly taken into account by the Council."

Shadow Minister visits Kingston Business Crime Reduction Partnership 20th January 2009
Helen Whately, the Conservative Party Parliamentary Candidate for Kingston and Surbiton, welcomed the Shadow Minister for Crime Reduction, James Brokenshire MP, to Kingston on Monday. James Brokenshire was in Kingston to meet representatives from the local Business Crime Reduction Partnership and hear about their work to reduce retail crime and make the town centre safer. The Conservative Party has launched a Retail Crime Commission to consider ways to combat shoplifting and other crimes against retail firms. The Commission is expected to publish its recommendations in the Spring and the visit to Kingston gave the Shadow Minister an up to date perspective of some of the challenges facing local businesses. During the visit Helen Whately explained the impact that crime and antisocial behaviour were having on businesses in Kingston and other local town centres. Helen said: "I was delighted to welcome James Brokenshire to Kingston today. As Shadow Home Affairs Minister he is taking a leading role in the Conservative Party's policy review on retail crime."

"Today's visit was an invaluable opportunity for me to raise the issues that concern local business owners here in Kingston and Surbiton. I was able to discuss with James what we would do to help shops in smaller town centres, such as Surbiton and New Malden, who are not part of a Business Improvement District (BID) and would struggle to afford the contributions were one to be established. I hope that a future Conservative government will consider reinvesting a proportion of business rates to fund local crime reduction initiatives and infrastructure improvements, particularly to help smaller town centres and parades." "These are difficult economic times and shoplifting is an additional blight that local businesses could well do without. This Government has down-graded the importance of combating shoplifting with a large proportion of offences going unreported and unpunished – they have a great deal to answer for and I for one will continue to hold them to account."

Surbiton Parents Launch Petition calling for Local Schools for Local Children 7th February 2009
At 10am on Saturday a group of Surbiton parents gathered on the Iron
Bridge at the junction of King Charles Road and Cranes Park to launch
a petition calling for 'Local schools for local children'. This is in
response to the continuing crisis in primary schools in the Borough.
  Last year there was a shortfall of 200 places until the council put in
 place last minute 'bulge' classes. This year the shortfall is believed to
 be around 300 places, and the council's attempts to anticipate extra
numbers still fell short. The five 'bulge' classes which they put in place
 in advance have proved woefully inadequate.

Local parents are worried and frustrated. When the original bulge
classes were put in place, Surbiton parents feared long school runs
because none of the extra classes were in the central Surbiton/North
Berrylands area. Thanks to the council's commitment to put the extra
bulge classes where they are needed, the risk of long journeys is now
 reduced. The problem now is overcrowding in Surbiton schools, with
so many extra children being squeezed onto constrained sites.
Parents' are particularly frustrated that the council failed to prepare
properly for this years' expanded intake, given not only the extra
numbers last year, but also a lack of places going back at least
four or five years for children in Surbiton.

Parents are launching this petition calling on the council to make sure they provide local school places for Surbiton children this year, and also, take action to solve the problem for 2010. Helen Whately is supporting parents in this campaign; "The council should have been prepared for even greater numbers this year. This is the second year running that the problem has become a crisis. This is taking liberties with one of the most important responsibilities of local government - providing children with an education. They must not let this happen again in 2010".

She also believes a new school will probably be needed; "I expect several schools will have to expand permanently, but that alone is unlikely to be enough. I think Surbiton needs a new primary school."