Quiz the Councillors & Candidates - Local Election Q&A

[LocalEditorWandsworth]

The local elections are coming up on 22 May and we know from our talk boards that you all have thoughts and concerns about local services.

With this in mind, we've asked a panel of local councillors and candidates, including the Council's Education and Children's Services supremo (we figured there might be a lot of questions on those particular topics ) to pop in for a Q&A.

Taking part will be:

• Councillor Kathy Tracey, Conservative councillor for Wandsworth
Common and Council cabinet member for Education and Children's
Services
• Councillor Wendy Speck, Labour councillor for Latchmere Ward
• Councillor Antonia Dunn, Conservative councillor for Bedford Ward
• Sophia Parker, Labour candidate for Bedford Ward
• Fleur Anderson, Labour candidate for Bedford Ward
• Jon Irwin, Lib Dem candidate for Tooting Ward

[We asked representatives from both the Green party & UKIP to join us but they haven't replied yet.]

All you need to do, is POST YOUR QUESTIONS ON THIS THREAD over the next week and our 'panel' will be along to answer them on Friday 16th May.

Brief bios of all the politicians taking part follow, in case you want to ask specific questions of any of them.

Councillor Kathy Tracey, Wandsworth Common, Conservative Cabinet Member for Education and Children's Services
Kathy is responsible for Education and Children's Services throughout the Borough. She has lived in Wandsworth for 40 years and been a leading member of the Council for over 20 years. She has four children and is passionate about education and making sure all the local schools are as good as the best.

Councillor Wendy Speck, Latchmere Ward, Labour
Wendy has been active in local politics for many years, in Battersea and elsewhere. A former Head teacher and current school governor, she is passionate about education and giving all children the best possible start in life. She believes in fairness and treating people as we want to be treated. She works hard for her residents and like to get around to talk to and with them.

Councillor Antonia Dunn, Bedford Ward, Conservative
Antonia has lived in Wandsworth for over 20 years and has three children at schools in the Borough. She has been a councillor for 12 years and has also served as a school governor at three different schools. In addition she is a member of the Balham Town Centre Partnership and Bedford ward's Neighbourhood Watch.

Sophia Parker, Labour candidate, Bedford Ward
Sophia lives in Tooting Bec. She's got a 22 month old and a 5 month old so between looking after them and trying to get elected as a Labour councillor things are pretty busy! Before the children arrived, Sophia worked at the NSPCC where she campaigned to end child cruelty.

Fleur Anderson, Labour Candidate, Bedford Ward
Fleur has lived in Balham since 1998 and has four children aged between 8 and 16. She works for international aid agency WaterAid. Fleur has been involved in lots of local campaigns, including stopping cuts to Wandsworth One O'Clock Clubs for pre-schoolers.

Jon Irwin, Lib Dem candidate for Tooting
Jon has lived in Wandsworth since 2009 and is involved with various local groups campaigning to improve the area. He is currently leading a Safer Streets campaign in Tooting and is keen to crack down on fly-tipping and see the boarded up shops on our high streets put to better use. He says that if he is elected he will "make sure that local residents have a real voice that speaks up for them at the council".

Does the council believe that the creation of bulge classes in the last 2 years at Earlsfield Primary was properly considered and planned for regarding the consequences that would arise for the Sept 2014 intake? (specifically the massive contraction in catchment area due to siblings of the bulge years, a year before more more capacity is being created at alternative schools).

Could the council have managed this situation better, and are they satisfied with the impact it is having on local families?

Are there any plan to reinstate the Windmill and Bolingbroke One O'Clock Clubs? We were told the space was needed for nurseries but these are only running in the mornings (as they actually always did). If the space isn't needed after all can we have the One O'clock Clubs back please?

Given how oversubscribed the primary schools seem to be, are there any plans for a new secondary for when the 'bulge' children feed through? Is the Bolingbroke Academy oversubscribed yet?

There are always lots of discussions about renting to get into a school catchment area and it does happen near us (between the commons) making it more difficult for genuinely local families to access our nearest schools.

What is the Wandsworth Council policy on this? Are there any plans to introduce measures to stop short-term renters playing the system?

One for the Labour candidates/councillors:

You've said you'd freeze council tax if you get control of the Council. Doesn't this mean everything else will have to stay pretty much the same too? If not, where is the extra money going to come from to fund changes?

We've just had confirmation that Lois Davis, Green Party candidate for St Mary's Park Ward will be joining us on Friday too.

Lois has lived in Wandsworth for over 20 years. She was Deputy Chair of the Belleville after school club in the 90's, Chair of Goulden House Residents co-op in the 90's, on the branch committee of UCU (the university lecturers union) and more recently active in Wandsworth Green Party and in anti cuts campaigns - particularly the bid to save Battersea Park Adventure Playground.

To EVERYONE:

Do you agree with the leader of the Council saying last month (Wandsworth Society hustings meeting) that National and Local Planning Policies are only guidelines?

• if Yes, don't you think that the full team of officers working on defining statutory planning policy should be scraped to save money as this is unnecessary?
• if No, do you think this is normal that statutory policies are ignored doe the subjective and potential overall benefits (and funding) provided by major developments?

I live on Belleville Rd but my son didn't get a place at Belleville and has instead been placed at Westbridge Primary School (near Battersea Bridge, 2 miles away and a long walk or awkward bus journey with a 4 year old and a pram to push). All of our nearer schools are full (not just Honeywell and Belleville but also Alderbrook and High View).

What I would like to know is:

The council have known how many children would be starting school this year for 3-4 years, it's called registering a birth. Why have they not planned for this?

Are there any plans to open a new primary school in this area? If not how does the Council plan to deal with increasing demand in future years? Can Belleville/Honeywell be forced to take bulge classes (as HV already has)?

Why did they only build a single story extension at the Belleville Meteor site? Why not build it three stories high and have 90 children not 30?

How come Bolingbroke Academy has a 120 children intake, when Belleville's site is much larger (and has outside space) has only 90 children.

Why the council had to close 1 O'clock clubs in the first place ? Nurseries run in the mornings-the Windmill used to be run on regular basis like that-in the morning nursery and in the afternoon 1 O'clock and worked brilliant that way. All closed 1 O'clock clubs could be modernized and adapted to needs for nurseries and 1 O'clock clubs.
With all of the empty buildings in Wansdsworth which council owns there was enough of space for required nurseries- there was no need to close 1 O'clocks.
We as a tax payers are very angry- it have had a huge impact on our lives and even bigger on our kids lives-younger kids and babies have got no place to play safely. Normal playgrounds are not safe for very young kids with older one running around. Not everybody can afford to pay for available play groups.

Why nobody listens to us ?- at least now we know who to vote on in next elections.

I use communal bins for rubbish & recycling and I have an extra kitchen bin for recycling so I can fill orange sacks before taking them outside. I have been trying to get more sacks for ages and when I finally spoke to someone at the council they said anything in an orange sack goes straight into landfill!!

Is this right? Does the rubbish we separate for recycling go to landfill anyway, in which case why encourage us to go to all the bother of separating it in the first place.

Adding my question now as Mumsnet is blocked at my work .

When is the Triangle One O'clock Club going to re-open? It was supposed to be March but it was still shut last week. Why is it taking so long? Is it really going to re-open at all?

Our question is for •Councillor Kathy Tracey, what actions are the council going to take to protect The Romany Scout site on Lyford Road from aggressive attack from potential developers and sale by Magdalen Tennis club ? The site is supposedly protected by restrictive covenants to keep it as amenity land for the community to use. It is a vital community site used by generations of local children as scouts, cubs , pensioner groups , our community playgroup has been there for 38 years providing much needed support to young mothers and toddlers . Will the council uphold the convenants to protect this vital community site from developers , so that local children can continue to have a wonderful space to be scouts and cubs and local mothers will have a daily playgroup ? We would welcome her opinion on this ...Thank you

Another rubbish question: why do you allow rubbish to be collected so seldom and to be left out on the streets so long? We live in the Nightingale Triangle and it regularly turns into a rubbish dump, complete with rubbish outside everyhouse, plastic bags that have been opened by foxes because the bag has been put out many hours before etc.

All of my local friends agree that we would happily pay more council tax not to have this health hazard on our doors. Why on earth is it tolerated? Why cannot we have something like the Molok (see picture) which allows people to get rid of rubbish at a time that is convenient to them without littering the street and encouraging vermin?

Also, why is the reclying not separated? How can you re-use it when paper is mixed with glass, plastic etc? If the objection is that people would not separate properly, why not have a card that gives you points for taking recycling to the recycling plant or fines for those who do not separate the recycling properly? The card scheme has been in force for a few years where my parents live and the points can be used to obtain recycling-friendly goods and services from the local council (e.g. recycling boxes, compost for the garde, free collection of bulky rubbish) or can be devolved to charity. There is also an annual lottery where you get as many entries as you have recycling points. The vollage ahs gone from 60% recycling to over 80% in a year....

Morning all,

I'm a bit early, but thought that I'd post up a few responses to the questions already raised this week.

Jon

EarlsfieldDad, mumbleema, CJAG, mrsmum1, honeywellhopeful

School spaces & planning for growth

It is always going to be a challenge to manage school spaces particularly when there is significant changes in the local population. Wandsworth is a very attractive borough to live in, and this has been reflected in our population growth over recent years.

More, clearly could be done to manage this better. Having proper planning policies in place which are adhered to I believe is key to ensuring a fairer and better outcome for all. With a growing number of young families living in rented accommodation it is certainly a challenge to try to prevent people playing the system.

1mzeta78, CaptainNjork, localparent

One O'Clock Clubs – Services – Council Tax – Rubbish

Council Tax only represents about 5% of our councils revenue stream, and legislation passed nationally prevents councils from increasing council tax by more than 2% without holding a local referendum. In that respect both the Conservatives and Labour groups highlighting not raising Council Tax is a misnomer.

Running local services for local people does come at a cost. There is certainly need for a sensible debate that properly looks at the sort of services that local people would like to see, and balance that up with how best to fund those services. With the One O'Clock clubs, and indeed the buildings which Wandsworth Council owns, they could certainly be put to better use for the community whilst not needed at other times. Having a strong local voice that can put forward those ideas from local residents is something that a Lib Dem team would certainly provide.

Rubbish is an issue which certainly crops up a lot in Tooting. With the collection taken the day after the street cleaners have been around, it certainly seems like a lack of thought has gone into putting the contract together.

CJAG

On the planning issue, me and my team hold the view that policies should be viewed in that light and adhered to. The role of the council is to stand up for local people, and ensure that the right balance is struck when negotiating with developers.

The total laissez-faire attitude of the Conservatives has allowed developers to get away with far too much. Particularly with regards to affordable housing, something which is essential if we are to continue to have a diverse local community, and not create ghettos of people of certain demographics or income levels.

OlimMeminisse, julieh1

Recycling is certainly something that me and my Lib Dem team would like to see improved on. If empowered to do their job free of political hindrance council officers often have very good ideas and are keen to move them forward. For too long, local people and campaigners have witnessed our politicians get in the way of remedying these things. It may take an initial investment to save in the long run, but ultimately shouldn't our politicians have a view for the future, and not be just interested in the next set of elections?

to Earlsfield Dad
I know you're talking about a local issue here but it think it is worth noting that the Council has been supportive of the Conservative's national free school policy - which has broadly lead to new free schools appearing in areas many of which already have good provision. In contrast Labour would prioritise new primary school places in the areas that need them most. We'd want to work with parents, scholls and communities to ensure that thee is new capacity in place in good time, where it is needed.

The bulge classes at Earlsfield School for 2012 & 2013 were created because of need due to the unprecedented rise in pupil numbers in the Earlsfield area. While it might slightly distort the catchment area of the school due to sibling entry the vast majority of the children come from within the catchment area for those years. Earlsfield School is a very popular, high performing school that has had a reducing catchment area for several years. Earlsfield’s community has over the last five years changed considerably with older residents moving on and being replaced by young couples who are happily making Wandsworth their long term home. This is because they are confident they can bring their children up in a vibrant diverse community with high performing schools.

EarlsfieldDad - hi there - I don’t know if you saw the Wandsworth Guardian this week but the Labour leader Rex Osborn criticized the council for selling off some of the best primary school sites in the area – all to be turned into luxury flats. I think you’ve hit the nail on the head, the council really hasn’t appreciated just how stressful the process can be for families, and how much pressure local parents feel as a consequence of this total lack of planning ahead. It’s hard to believe how poorly it’s been managed, given how predictable the consequences of bulge years are (ie siblings, as you say!)

Both the Windmill and the Bolingbroke centres are running stay & play sessions. They are being run by CBCS at the Bolingbroke and open every day including Sundays. The Windmill is open Tuesday and Thursday afternoon and run by The Play People

There are enough secondary places for those children up to the 2020 year of entry. Several of the Council’s Secondary Schools have spare places or are planning expansion over the next few years. With pupil numbers still increasing at primary age it might be necessary to have a new school ready for 2020 and the Council is looking into this.

I have in the past asked officers at the Town Hall to investigate a specific complaint where we had details and found it to be untrue. However if you have specific complaints let us know and we will of course investigate.

CJAG - I can’t say I’m expert in this area but I do agree with you that we’ve got a problem with planning policy in Wandsworth. We hear about it a lot on the doorstep – people feel that development is out of control, and that there’s nothing they or their neighbours can do to stop it. I certainly feel that the conservative administration puts major property developers first, instead of the views of residents.

Labour have pledged to reverse the Tory ban of local residents at planning meetings, to give us all a greater say in front of the committee about developments affecting where we live, for example. We would also ensure that all new residential schemes include more homes that are genuinely affordable for both renters and buyers – this is so important, given what’s happening to house prices and rents round here - wandsworth has some of the steepest rises in prices in london and that's saying something.