GAVIN BARWELLMy p la n for Croydon

Westfield and Hammerson’s investment won’t just transform our shopping centre, it will encourage others to invest here

Immigration can be good for Britain, but overall numbers must be controlled

Five years ago, Ashburton was a failing school. Conservatives closed it in the face of Labour opposition and today its replacement Oasis Academy Shirley Park is rated as outstanding.

Crime in Croydon is falling, but it is still too high

GAVIN BARWELL - My Pla n for Croydon

Croydon’s getting safer. There were 3,000 fewer crimes in the year to March 2014 than in the previous 12 months. But it’s still too high in certain areas.

I’m particularly concerned about violent crime, including domestic violence, which is going up. I also want to see changes to the way the police use their stop and search powers. In the past, far too many innocent people from black and minority ethnic communities have been stopped.

I will always take a zero tolerance approach to crime – unlike my Labour opponent who, commenting on the recent fatal illegal rave at the Royal Mail building next to East Croydon station, said “youth is about exploration, pushing boundaries, seeking out fun and moulding your personality”.

A zero-tolerance approach to crime

Controlled immigrationAllowing hard-working people with the skills we need to settle here is good for Britain. But we’re a small, densely-populated country so there needs to be a limit on overall numbers - and allowing low-skilled people to settle here makes little sense.

This Government has reduced immigration by more than a quarter, but at the moment we don’t have control of who comes here from Europe.

We need to change our relationship with the EU so we can reduce these numbers.

A decent education for all our children

I want all children in Croydon to go to a great school so that where you are born doesn’t determine your chances in life.

Conservative councillors closed low-performing schools and replaced them with new academies. As a result, Croydon schools are now better than the national average and improving more quickly. But some are still not good enough.

I’d like to see parents have a wider choice of schools. In particular, it would be great to have a grammar school in Croydon.

And it would also be great to have a university campus in the town centre, making it cheaper for local people to study for a degree.

A strong economy that provides a job for everyone who wants one

To change Croydon for the better, we need a strong national economy. Labour gave us the worst recession since the 1930s and the biggest deficit in peace-time history. Under this Government, the UK is growing faster than any other ad-vanced economy, the deficit is down and unemployment is falling faster than ever before (it’s down nearly 40% in Croydon).

But I want everyone in our town to bene-fit from the recovery. For that to happen, we need to:

stick to the plan that is working nationally;

deliver the Westfield/Hammerson redevelopment of the Whitgift Centre as quickly as possible;

transform the environment in the town centre so that people are more likely to visit and invest here;

Croydon could be one of the

best places in the country to

live. We’re part of the greatest

city in the world, yet on the

edge of the beautiful North

Downs countryside.

But we have our problems

too - an unattractive town centre, insufficient

infrastructure, inequality and

a reputation problem that the 2011 riots made

much worse. Things have started to improve

recently, but there is still a lot to do.

This is a summary of my plan for how we make

Croydon the place we all want it to be. You can

read the whole plan at

www.gavinbarwell.com/vision

I’d love to hear what you think of it - email me at

gavin.barwell.mp@parliament.uk or write to

133 Wickham Road, Croydon CR0 8TE.

Gavin BarwellMP for Croydon Central

offer small and medium sized businesses tax incentives to relocate here; and

regenerate our district centres like Central Parade and Portland Road.

If we do that, we can achieve the dream of full employment – a job for everyone who wants one. And we should increase the minimum wage so that everyone gets a fair reward for their hard work.

Affordable housingLabour talk about affordable housing, but they mean council and housing association homes. What people want is homes they can afford to buy.

We have to face up to the fact that we need to build more homes - otherwise, prices will keep rising and home ownership will go back to being something for the privileged few. But we need to build them in the right places – principally the town centre – not on our precious green spaces.

Building more homes will also help to keep rents down in the private sector. I will oppose Labour’s silly plan to impose a £200 per property tax on all private landlords, which will just get passed on to tenants.

We also need to build more council homes. And we should stop giving them to people who have only lived in Croydon for a year.

Enhanced infrastructure to support our growing population

We urgently need a new, larger A&E Department at Croydon University Hospital

We need more homes, but we mustn’t concrete over precious green spaces. Building in the town centre is the answer

Fair funding for our public servicesHistorically, a number of the systems used to distribute funding for different public services have been unfair to Croydon.

Working with others, I’ve managed to get the police and schools systems changed. As a result, we’re getting 117 extra officers and our schools will get about £12 million more next April.

Now we need to change the systems used to distribute the NHS budget and funding for local councils.

Croydon is getting an extra 117 police officers

We need longer and more frequent trains to tackle overcrowding

Keep in touch with Gavin’s work for Croydon at www.gavinbarwell.com @gavinbarwellmp www.facebook.com/gavin.barwell.mp

Better healthcareThe NHS saved my life when I had cancer as a child. It is one of the best things about this country.

Some people get good care at Croydon University Hospital (CUH - or Mayday as many still think of it). But the recent inspection identified areas where care needs to improve. There’s a strong case for making changes at other hospitals in south west London so we get more senior doctor cover at CUH 24 hours a day seven days a week.

One issue I am particularly passionate about is mental health. I introduced a law to try to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness, which often stops people seeking help. I will fight to ensure mental health services in Croydon get the priority they deserve.

People oppose building more homes because they worry our infrastructure couldn’t cope. The answer is to improve our infrastructure. I will work to deliver:

improvements to the A23, Croydon’s key link to the motorway network;

extra capacity on rail services to central London;

an expanded ticket hall at East Croydon station and a link from Cherry Orchard Road to the new northern entrance of the station;

increased capacity on and extensions to our tram system;

funding for more school places (we’re already getting eight times what we got from the last Government); and

a new larger A&E Department at Croydon University Hospital.

Promoted by Ian Parker on behalf of Croydon Conservative Federation, both at 36 Brighton Road, Purley, CR8 2LG. Printed by OPT Complete Print Solutions Ltd, Trend House, 58 Coulsdon Road, Coulsdon, Surrey, CR5 2LA

GAVIN BARWELL My Pla n for Croydon

Why did our Labour Council not prosecute the group of travellers who dumped this rubbish?

A cleaner environment

Labour were right to focus on the state of our streets and open spaces in the recent local election campaign. But they’ve been running the Council for over 100 days now and things are no better. The answer is to catch the people responsible and punish them, rather than just cleaning up after them, as well as making sure everyone has access to and uses a wheelie bin and recycling boxes.

And we need to reduce air pollution, encouraging people to get out of their cars by making it safer to cycle.

Our pensioners have worked hard for this country – we need to look after them in their retirement

We need to renovate the Fairfield Halls so it can put on a much wider range of events

One of the things that would make Croydon a better place to live, as well as attracting people to invest here, is a richer cultural life. I will support:

the renovation of the Fairfield Halls so that it can put on a much wider range of events;

new leisure centres in New Addington and the town centre; and

improved facilities at Lloyd Park so that it compares with somewhere like Battersea Park or the new Queen Elizabeth II park.

A richer cultural lifeA fairer societyI will set up a mentoring scheme for bright children from families where no-one has gone to university before, in order to help them achieve their potential.

I will oppose Labour’s plans to give some out-of-work families more in benefits than the average working family earns.

And I will fight to protect key pensioner benefits like the Freedom Pass.