Following Monday 5th July announcement that the Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove has taken the decision to bring to an end the Building Schools for the Future programme (BSF), Deputy Leader of the Council Liz Green is confident that funding will be found to build the North Kingston School and expand our existing secondary schools.

Kingston’s Liberal Democrat Administration has pledged to take a report in July to the Meeting of the Council’s Executive that will ensure that Kingston Rowing Club is safe for future generations.

Announcing the news, Leader of the Council, Councillor Derek Osbourne said:

Kingston’s Liberal Democrat Administration welcomes the news from the coalition government announcing that gardens will no longer be classified as ‘previously residential land’.

Welcoming the reclassification, Executive Member for Planning and Regeneration, Cllr Simon James said,

Cllr Derek Osbourne, the Leader of Kingston’s Liberal Democrat Group is continuing his campaign to save the Royal Borough’s local services from aggressive cuts and closures, following the local Conservative’s electoral pledge to slash £24million out of the Council’s budget.

Kingston Conservatives withdrew a question to be asked of the Liberal Democrat administration on Tuesday evening just one hour before the Council meeting started, to avoid embarrassment about their own party’s blunder.

At last night’s meeting of Full Council, Conservative, Labour and independent members of Kingston Council voted in favour of a Liberal Democrat motion calling for transparency from NHS London about the future of critical services at the local hospital.

At last night’s meeting of Full Council, elected members voted down a misleading and inaccurate Conservative motion attacking Kingston Council’s value for money.

The motion, moved by Conservative front bencher Paul Johnson said:

At last night’s meeting of Full Council, Kingston’s Executive Member for Community Safety was asked to comment on the press comments of Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Richmond Park, Zac Goldsmith, when he said that local “police [are] stretched and not always able to respond to [incidents of recorded crime] immediately”.

At last night’s meeting of Full Council, Kingston’s Executive Member for the Environment was asked about the incidence of illegal dumping of waste in the borough.

Cllr Bob Steed replied: “According to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affair’s latest Flycapture database, Kingston has the lowest incidence of fly tipping of the 32 London boroughs.

To the Editor, Surrey Comet

Sir

Cllr Dennis Doe wrote into your paper, March 19th ‘No five year delay on primary school plan.’ He mentions two sites which he claims are of sufficient size and could be built as quickly as new primary schools on Surbiton Hospital site. Well, simply he is wrong.

At last night’s meeting of the Executive, Kingston Council’s Lead Member for Libraries and Museum Service announced that the Heritage Lottery Fund is making the Royal Borough a “priority for funding”.

Sir,

In last week’s paper, the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Richmond Park attacks Kingston’s success in achieving one of the lowest incidences of crime in London. He claims recorded crime statistics are “meaningless” because the “figures cannot take into account unreported crimes and don’t alleviate residents’ fear of crime.”

When Conservative councillors praised the budgetary decisions of the Mayor of London at Full Council last week, Deputy Leader of the Council Liz Green raised her concerns that Boris’ budget was disproportionately hurting local residents who regularly use public transport.

Kingston’s ‘Fairtrade Councillor’ and Executive Member for Sustainability have welcomed Fairtrade Fortnight by taking part in “the big swap”.

Cllr Bart Rickets and Executive Member Bob Steed signed up to the initiative online and swapped their regular fruit, chocolate, biscuits and wine for Fairtrade graded products.

At last night’s meeting of Full Council, Kingston councillors approved the Liberal Democrat administration’s budget which delivers the lowest Council Tax rise in Kingston’s history at just 1.9% – but protects front lines services and spending to invest in new schools and classrooms for the Royal Borough.