Newsletter Jan/ Feb 2024
Dear Residents
And here we are heading for spring! There’s plenty to be optimistic about with inflation starting to come down after Covid and the Ukraine War, energy prices reducing, immediate cuts to national insurance and another tranche of housing support and cost-of-living support payments. We hope to see a better economic outlook soon.
Post Office Scandal Continues
Questions are still to be answered over Ed Davey’s role in the handling of the Post Office victims and the subsequent lucrative contract which he had with the law firm which handled their prosecutions. But why didn’t he just apologise? Radio Jackie talks to the former Surrey Post Office sub-postmistress, Seema Misra, who was wrongly jailed while pregnant in 2010 after £74,000 went missing while she was using the Horizon IT software. Radio Jackie tells her story and gives her view on where responsibility lies.
These heart-rending stories are still emerging as we wait to see the compensation awards being rushed through by the government while it is yet to be clear whether the taxpayer, Horizon’s Fujitsu, or the Post Office and all of us, their customers, will foot the likely £1b bill. Meanwhile the Post Office has suggested that we give up Saturday Post Office opening and deliveries to trim their costs. Was the inconvenient closure of Kingston Post Office also a cost-cutting exercise and probably money-spinning development opportunity too? Let me know what you think.
The Mayoral Election
We will go to the polls in just over 70 days on May 2nd to vote for the next Mayor of London. Will you be giving Sadiq Khan a mandate for another 5 years?
As Mayor he is responsible for three main things: transport (TfL), crime (Met Police), housing (planning). With ULEZ taxes on people who can’t afford a new car, he has raised over £50m, which he recently used for a pay increase to avert a tube strike, is he using South Londoners reliant on cars to pay for North London’s better-off transport system? With the Met Police still in special measures, knife crime and acid attacks in the news daily, has the Mayor made us feel safer on the street? And with rental properties in the city in catastrophic short supply and rents going through the roof, have young people been given the support they need? The choice will be between Labour’s Sadiq Khan and Susan Hall, the Conservative candidate who has promised to stop ULEZ extension day one and tackle crime and knife crime. You decide.
We’ve been out on the doorstep this last week in N Chessington, near my first childhood home, and we have heard first-hand how much ULEZ has cost you in a year when it’s been hard to afford anything more than getting by. Couldn’t the Mayor have just added a free emissions test to the MOT instead?
If you have a moment to share your views on ULEZ here
https://www.helenedward.uk/campaigns/kingston-residents-survey
Pharmacies
I went to visit New Malden’s independent Pharmacy and it’s been great to see how well the PM's new Pharmacy Prescription service is already working! The new counter service for advice and prescriptions was buzzing and will put patients’ minds at rest now they can access fast medication in an emergency. It will cut waiting lists in doctors’ surgeries and hospital A&E (where I volunteer and see first-hand the minor injuries). Early antibiotics could cut very serious illnesses such as sepsis (I nearly lost my daughter to sepsis so I know how fast and fatal this can be.)
National Apprenticeship Week as apprenticeships double in Kingston!
New figures out show that the number of young people signed up for apprenticeships in Kingston has more than doubled in a decade to 5,960. Today over 5.7 million people have started an apprenticeship under a Conservative government. In 2010, had you said that you could become a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, or an accountant through an apprenticeship, no one would have believed you. Fast forward 14 years, working with over 5,000 businesses, we have made this a reality with 700 different apprenticeship routes that can take you into jobs in nearly 70% of occupations – all the way from nursing to law, and accountancy, and even space engineering.
"One of my key campaigns is about choice in education and it's great to see apprenticeships playing such an important role in opportunities for young people. I mentor at the Kingston University Beyond Barriers programme and The Princes Trust and am passionate about supporting young people's confidence and career choices."
"I am thrilled to have started my new school governor role at our local state academy. I am so impressed with the ambitions for our sixth formers with a wide curriculum of academic subjects as well as sport, drama, arts, and nutrition. There is a big emphasis on work experience to bridge school to work with organised liaisons with business partners. A Childcare BTEC is taught in a special partnership with the nursery based inside the school, which benefits both students for training and teaching staff with little ones, encouraging teachers back to work in a supportive and nurturing environment."
"I am particularly concerned about the threat of a Labour government reducing the number of Apprenticeships and the Parent Tax on independent schools including special needs schools, which will reduce choices for families."
Parent Tax Petition
Parent Tax is an incredibly damaging policy which gives hard working families less choice not more, some of whom make incredible sacrifices to choose the right school for their precious child, including special needs schools - and who in their right mind would want to stop parents doing the best for their children? This is a Labour class-war jealousy-led policy that will cost all taxpayers a fortune when they pick up the bill for many more children joining the state sector. The Labour Party have also threatened to add business rates as well as VAT which would make the independent sector extinct within 5 years pushing the entire cost of independent schools on to the taxpayer. Is this about a fairer education system or the politics of envy?
Sign here… This petition has 97k signatures!
Kingfisher Update
We went to check out the plans for the long-awaited new flagship Kingfisher Leisure Centre. We were impressed by the attention to detail and experience of the project leader – but it will still be 2027 at the earliest, thanks to our Lib Dem council, before we see our reconstructed Kingston Kingfisher leisure home. Safe single sex changing rooms are a priority for me as a mum with daughters and for many women and girls and I'm keen to ensure that this provision is planned for the new Kingfisher community pool. Please read my letter and reply and write to me about this issue if you have any concerns.
https://www.helenedward.uk/news/kingfisher-swimming-pool-safe-single-sex-changing
Korean Event
Honouring Our Fallen with British Korean Society, talk today from Chairman Martin Uden at the National Army Museum with Marcel Lee and Yeung Ik Kim, understanding British Servicemen in the Korean War, about our shared Korean history and the human stories of young soldiers who gave their lives to the cause.
River Survey
Have your say on the river survey which looks at environmental aspects including flooding alongside practical access parking and enjoyment of nature.
Richmond Park Survey
Your experience matters – whether you walk your dogs like me or love a picnic in the summer with the kids or you’re a fit cyclist! I have suggested more parking at Kingston Gate carpark which can get very full.
https://s-6f6788-i.sgizmo.com/s3/i-8677VNibXQpWFzA96V-6729818/?sguid=8677VNibXQpWFzA96V
Safer Streets
I wrote to the Kingston Council about the £183k Home Office funding received to make Kingston Streets Safer. Let me have your views on how safe or not you feel in Kingston town centre. (I have growing up girls and I promise I'm here to listen and stand up for you - I'm a mum – that’s our job, isn’t it?) [email protected]
How’s your Evening Survey?
As part of developing Kingston’s Evening and Night Time Economy Strategy Kingston Council is conducting a survey to gather insights, preferences, and concerns about Kingston after dusk. With daughters who like to go out and the family business in pubs, I know how important this is. https://www.kingstonletstalk.co.uk/.../kingston-s-night.../ or email [email protected]
Holocaust Remembrance
The Holocaust Act of Remembrance Ceremony in Kingston Memorial Gardens Holocaust Act of Remembrance Ceremony was especially moving for me as I remember the stories of survival I’ve heard from extended family and friends. Keeping the flame of Remembrance Pledge alive is as important now as it has ever been with world affairs dominated by Middle East genocidal conflict, and humanitarian crisis. Follow our prayers, poems, and service here.
https://www.helenedward.uk/.../holocaust-act-remembrance...
Thai Pongal
Happy Thai Pongal to the New Malden Tamil community this month celebrating harvest festival and Tamil cultural heritage month with vibrant colour, dance, and music as we also remember the atrocities and wish each other peace and tolerance and prosperity. So proud to celebrate with you in style wearing a beautiful saree lent to me by lovely Mary, thank you.
Surbiton Station
We are waiting for the consultation result but please have your say on Surbiton Station here before it’s too late. The proposal is way too high, and the developers are playing games with a 17 storeys proposal. In my interview with Radio Jackie, I did my best to stand up for local residents’ concerns.
https://www.kingstonconservatives.org.uk/.../17-storey...
Julian Jessop on The Economy
Lower tax, lower inflation, lower interest rates and mortgages? What would make most difference to you? Many questions from the audience at our Pint and Politics speaker event with Julian Jessop, IEA and independent economist.
Join Us
Here we are at our lovely Burns Night celebration. As speaker on behalf of the Lassies, I said ... A woman’s place is in the House … (of Commons)!
Become a member https://www.conservatives.com/join
Can you help us deliver leaflets about ULEZ for the mayoral election? Or come to one of our great events?
Conservative Record
What have we achieved in our 14 years in government? From educational reforms in schools and universities and international league table PISA performance up from 27th to 11th in the world, to record employment levels, to universal credit and national living wage, to same sex marriage, to investment in tech and the fastest vaccine roll out in the world.
While it was a bad week for Labour, with a full U-Turn ‘Cancelled’ on their headline policy of £28b Green Investment. A vote for Lib Dem is a Vote for Labour. Do we really want to go back to Square One with a no-plan Labour government?
Tell me what you think.
Thanks for all your interest and support.
Very best wishes
Helen Edward, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Kingston and Surbiton
Promoted by Gia Borg-Darcy on behalf of Kingston and Surbiton Conservative Association, both of 3 Bridle Close, Kingston, KT1 2JW
https://www.facebook.com/HelenEdwardCWO/
