a fresh start for greenwich- our manifesto for the royal borough
TRANSCRIPT
A fresh start for Greenwich Our manifesto for the Royal Borough
Local elections
May 2014
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Foreword
Dear resident,
Greenwich Conservatives are pleased to present our manifesto for 2014, setting
out our priorities for action if we are elected to serve the people of the Royal
Borough.
Our Councillors and candidates have a strong record of standing up for local
people and taking positive action to improve our local communities. We have
worked hard to give a voice to those who find themselves ignored by the Council,
and to offer an alternative to the current administration.
A fresh approach is badly needed. Labour have run Greenwich Council for over
forty years, and have become increasingly arrogant and out of touch. Their
priorities are wrong, and residents in the borough are suffering as a result.
Taxpayers’ money has been wasted on biased propaganda and vanity projects
whilst Council tenants have to put up with damp and mould-infested homes.
Local shops struggling to survive have been hit with a ‘Pavement tax’ and planned
higher parking charges. Many parts of the Borough feel they have been neglected
for too long by a Labour Council that simply doesn’t listen anymore.
It really is time for a change.
These local elections are a vital opportunity for residents of the Royal Borough to
have their say on how the Council is run. The choice is very clear: More of the
same failed Labour approach, or a fresh start with the Conservatives. We hope to
have your support on 22nd May.
Yours sincerely,
Councillor Spencer Drury
Leader of Greenwich Conservatives
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Our key priorities:
Quality education and more choice for parents
Improved local healthcare
Lower parking costs
Real support for small businesses
A better deal on housing
An end to Labour’s waste
A fairer deal for the whole Borough
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A fresh start for Greenwich Our Manifesto for the Royal Borough
Greenwich Conservatives have a track record of delivering
results for residents across the borough. Labour has been in
power locally for many years, but we have provided an
alternative voice and held them to account, exposing their
arrogance and waste.
Electing more Conservatives to the Council will make that
voice even stronger, and provide the change we all need. A
Conservative administration at the Town Hall will make a
positive difference, and the following pages set out our plan
of action.
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Quality Education
For too long, education in Greenwich has not met the expectations of parents,
and has let down their children. Many have to use schools outside the borough
to get the education they want. Labour have denied choice and opposed good
new schools opening in the Borough. We want to give children the best start in
life, and we plan to:
Bring a grammar school to Greenwich by allowing Bexley Grammar to
expand to a new site in this borough.
Support the creation of more free schools and academies to give parents a
choice of good schools.
Set up a new ‘Greenwich Futures Fund’ to widen university access, and
support a new technical college in Eltham.
Create more primary and secondary school places across the borough to
ensure the increasing population is properly supported.
End the policy of placing more temporary classrooms in existing primary
schools.
Improved local Healthcare
Local authorities now have a bigger role in helping shape local health provision,
and we will seek to use these powers to secure improvements. We need to plan
properly for new services to meet the needs of local people, rather than simply
hoping they will appear as the population increases.
We will support the creation of an Urgent Care Centre at the new Eltham
Community Hospital to reduce pressure on Queen Elizabeth A&E
We oppose the closure of the Grabadoc out-of-hours GP service, and
support local GPs’ plans to improve healthcare across the whole borough.
We will ensure new doctors’ surgeries and dentists are included in major
new housing developments as a matter of policy.
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Lower parking costs
Sensible parking policies are necessary to ensure a proper balance between the
needs of residents and different road users. But under Labour, charges for
parking and increases in the cost of residents’ permits have been planned
without proper consideration of the effects. We will:
Halve the cost of residents’ parking permits across the borough.
Cancel Labour’s plan to introduce parking charges on Eltham High Street
and the Old Dover Road shops at the Blackheath Royal Standard.
Transport
Under Labour, the Council leadership have allowed personal vendettas and petty
politics get in the way of achieving a better deal on transport. Their refusal to
work with the Mayor’s cycling adviser put us at a disadvantage in bidding for vital
funds, and risked damaging important relationships with Transport for London
and other partners. They have also failed to consult properly with residents or
conduct necessary research into large infrastructure projects. Conservatives will
work constructively to get the improvements we need.
Support for Cycling: We will encourage more cycling by introducing new
measures to make it safer, including Dutch-style separate cycle lanes, and
aim to develop these across the borough. We support the London Cycle
Campaign’s ‘Space to Cycle’ campaign, and want to see Greenwich
become a truly cycle-friendly borough, taking full advantage of the record
investment in cycling from the Conservative Mayor of London.
Better rail links: We will work with Network Rail and put pressure on train
operating companies to improve services through mainline stations,
especially the Eltham/Kidbrooke line where the new Kidbrooke Village will
lead to increased demand.
Buses: We will work constructively with Transport for London to improve
bus services in the borough, including better links between areas not
currently well served.
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Cutting congestion: We will pursue measures to reduce traffic congestion
in the borough, particularly on the Blackwall Tunnel approach. We support
the option of a new tunnel at Silvertown, if it can be demonstrated this will
reduce congestion and air pollution. We oppose Labour’s proposal for a
bridge at Gallions Reach, and will demand proper transport modelling and
further research before any new river crossings are approved.
Support for small businesses
Small businesses are a vital part of our local economy, and their success sustains
communities and benefits us all. We want to do much more to support them to
recover as the national economy grows. The Labour Council has failed to
understand the needs of business, hitting them with extra charges and failing to
consult them on their disastrous so-called town centre “Masterplans”.
We will end Labour’s ‘Pavement Tax’ on local shops, which was introduced
without proper consultation and has hit businesses with unfair new
charges.
We will create Local Enterprise Zones to support smaller parades of shops,
and scrap business rates for new businesses in their first year in targeted
areas.
We will conduct a full review of Labour’s ‘Masterplans’ to take account of
the needs of small businesses.
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A better deal on housing
Council tenants and leaseholders have been taken for granted by Labour for far
too long. Poor maintenance and disgraceful levels of mould and damp have been
tolerated, whilst residents face increased charges and little accountability for
what they pay. We think people deserve better.
We will improve housing maintenance and make it a priority to get rid of
damp and mould to ensure homes are fit to live in.
We will scrap Labour’s plan for a new £12 million service charge for
Council tenants, saving each household £100 or more each year.
We will put an end to Labour’s overcharging of leaseholders, and ensure
the charges they pay are subject to proper transparency and
accountability.
An end to Labour’s waste
Labour’s spending priorities are wrong, and too much of taxpayers’ money has
been wasted. Mismanagement of major projects has led to millions of pounds of
extra costs, whilst money has been cut from local community groups. Labour
Councillors voted to keep their £100,000-a-year pensions perk for sitting
Councillors, whilst Conservatives voted to abolish it. We would:
Conduct a full review of Council spending to identify waste and
inefficiencies.
End the taxpayer funding of trade unions (£200,000 per year),
Close down Labour’s Greenwich Time propaganda newspaper and scrap
excessive spending on vanity projects.
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Safer and cleaner neighbourhoods
It is a basic job of the Council to ensure the streets of the borough are kept clean
and safe, and people expect no less. Proper street cleaning and working with the
local police to tackle anti-social behaviour can make our communities feel safer
and more friendly. We will:
Continue to support neighbourhood policing for every ward and extra
officers for the Borough.
Prioritise dealing with anti-social behaviour and vandalism.
Protect the weekly bin collection service.
Ensure road sweepers follow the refuse collectors around the borough.
Put the Council’s street-cleaning contract up for tender and end the
heavily-subsidised dominance of the Cleansweep service.
A fairer deal for the whole borough
A vote for the Conservatives is a vote for a fairer deal across the borough. Many
areas feel they have been neglected in favour of others. Meanwhile, the Council
has become more out of touch and arrogant, with decisions taken by a handful of
Labour politicians without proper scrutiny. The culture of politics in the Royal
Borough needs to change. We will:
Create area committees with specific responsibility for budgets and
actions in their areas. This will make Councillors much more responsible
for improvements in their local communities.
End the bias towards some parts of the Borough at the expense of others,
by introducing a fairer spending policy.
Fully review the Council’s constitution, with input from local residents, to
open up and improve local democracy.
These are just some of the changes a Conservative
administration would bring to
The Royal Borough of Greenwich.
It’s time for change
Vote Conservative on 22nd May 2014
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Printed and promoted by Matt Hartley on behalf of Greenwich Conservatives, both of 74 Westmount Road, Eltham SE9 1JE.