Latest……….Conservative Misrepresentation and Distortion!

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Yet again we are disappointed at the misrepresentation of the truth that is presented as the Conservative Manifesto.

Their main claim is that the Residents Group cannot be trusted to use your hard earned money responsibly. Yet they are well aware that the Residents Group ran the Elmbridge Borough Council successfully between 1992 and 2006, and by the end of this period the Council had been recognised as one of less than 10 Excellent Local Authorities in the Country.

They try to compare Council Tax increases from different time periods, ignoring the different external pressures in different time periods. During the 5 years that they have chosen as their reference period, Elmbridge did indeed increase its Council Tax. But Council Tax is paid in £s and pence, not percentages. Over the 5 year period to 2006, the Elmbridge portion of a Band D Council Tax payment went up by £65.85, but the real pain was caused by Surrey Police and Surrey County Council – controlled by the Conservatives – putting their part of that Council tax bill by £398.87, over 6 times as much. In fact the Elmbridge share of your overall Council Tax bill actually fell during this 5 year period.

Part of the reason that the Elmbridge part of your Council tax went up is that the Residents Group guided through the project to replace the aging ( and expensive to run) Walton Swimming Pool and Elmbridge Leisure Centre with the Xcel Leisure Complex that is now pictured in the Tory manifesto. The Conservatives opposed this, see the Minutes of the Council Meeting of 29 September 2004, but now claim the credit for it. The success of the new Leisure Complex and funds from redeveloping The Heart in Walton – another project initiated during the time the Residents group were in control and completed in mid 2006 -  have helped the Conservatives’ budgets ever since.

They claim Members Allowances have been frozen for 2 years, but fail to tell you that when in November 2008, the Residents’ Group Councillors first put forward the idea of freezing Members’ Allowances, the Tory Leader of the Council described anyone supporting the idea as “crackers”. Cabinet recommended a 3% increase for 2009 / 2010. Only at the Council Meeting in December 2008, when an amendment proposing that allowances should be frozen, was put by a Residents Group Councillor seconded by a Liberal Democrat Councillor was there a backbench revolt amongst Conservative Councillors, and the amendment carried.  More seriously, the Tory manifesto conveniently omits to tell you that increases pushed through earlier in the Conservative Administration have seen the Leader’s Allowance increase by over 46% ( from £8,215 to £12,000) and each Cabinet Member’s Allowance increase by over 36%, both far more than the 18% inflation figure they use.

Arts, Leisure and Enjoyment. This section will bring a wry smile to those who remember last year’s long and ultimately successful campaign  by many local Arts Groups to save the position of the Arts Development Officer. The comment about replacing and upgrading playground equipment in our parks and recreation grounds will ring hollow in the ears of those waiting in vain for local paddling pools to open. Their opening times have been cut from 19 weeks to 6.

They say loftily that “we shall seek to transform the old Walton Library into a community hub…..”  They do not say that they have allowed it to lie empty  for 3 years whilst they get round to thinking about what to do with it, whilst the nearby Citizens’ Advice Bureau has had to endure substandard accommodation for well over a decade. It is only after mounting pressure from The Walton Society Councillors that the Conservatives have finally decided to move ahead with this project. Similarly, they have sat on their hands for the last 5 years when it comes to considering the future of The Playhouse, only agreeing to a limited refurbishment when it became necessary to meet current regulations.

Accountability and Transparency. They say “Conservatives know that greater transparency means wiser spending.” So why do they seek to hide away their negotiations with Surrey Police for a lease contract for space in the Civic Centre in Esher – potentially worth over a £1 million? This important decision has been delegated to a single Officer in consultation with a single ( Conservative) Councillor, and when we asked that the final decision been made openly at a Council meeting, all the Conservative Councillors present at that Committee meeting closed ranks and refused the request.

The “Big Society” covers even bigger misrepresentation of what is going on. Conservatives at Elmbridge have cut £15,000 – more than half – from the grant to the Lower Mole Countryside Management Project (LMCMP), which organises voluntary work worth an estimated £77,000 a year. Not to be outdone, the Conservatives at Surrey County Council are now proposing ( SCC Cabinet March 1^st) that they stop providing administrative support to LMCMP, which is quite likely to result in the whole project collapsing. 

So much for the Big Society locally!