David Cameron has launched new services to give mums and dads the support they need.

The Government has set out plans for the biggest reform of Special Educational Needs (SEN) for 30 years.

On 11 May 1812 Spencer Perceval, who had been Prime Minister for three years, was assassinated in the lobby of the House of Commons. He is the only British Prime Minister to have met a violent end.

The Government's priorities for the coming parliamentary year have this afternoon been set out in the Queen's Speech 2012.

Prime Minister David Cameron will today visit a business in Essex where he will give a speech on the economy.

Conservative Party co-chairman Baroness Sayeeda Warsi has congratulated Boris Johnson on his re-election as Mayor of London.

The Conservative Party co-chairman, Lord Feldman, today announces he has appointed Ben Gummer MP to be his Parliamentary Adviser.

Greenwich Council has admitted that it gave away a 99 year lease on the Hornfair Lido but its organisation then had to buy it back as a cost of £125,000 prior to development this summer. 

 

At Call-in meeting called last Wednesday by Conservative Council Group Leader Spencer Drury was to check whether an extra £125,000 being allocated to the project represented value for money.  The £125,000 was in addition to the quarter of a million pounds already allocated to the scheme by the Council and £2m from Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL) as part of its contract with the Council (and so also paid for by council taxpayers). 

 

The Call-in took the form of a comprehensive review of the new plans for the Lido which had not been placed in the public domain until this meeting.  The last time the Lido was discussed in public was in October 2009 when the Council claimed that a private company (Open Waters) were going to spend in excess of £10m adding a diving centre to the Lido and making it an ‘iconic resource’.  Conservatives had raised concerns over the lack of credibility of the Open Waters plan from the start and in meetings received guarantees that the Council would be able to retrieve the lease to the company if they could not deliver on their commitments.  However, at Wednesday’s Call-in answers to questions from Cllrs McCarthy and Glover made clear that despite the fact that the Council had given Open Waters the lease for free, GLL had been forced to pay around £125,000 to buy back the lease from the company.

 

On Saturday, ex-Kidbrooke with Hornfair Councillor Graeme Coombes visited the Lido, where work on GLL’s plans has already begun.  Graeme said “I am appalled at this waste of Council taxpayers money.  I was assured by Council Officers that should anything go wrong with the Open Waters bid (and it was distinctly fishy from the start) it would not cost any money to retrieve the lease.  Now, we find that Greenwich Council is having to pass an extra £125,000 to GLL, which almost exactly matches the cost of buying back the lease from Open Waters.  In this case, Greenwich residents have paid the price of the Council’s incompetence not only in monetary terms but also in the closure of the Lido in recent years.”

 

Conservative Group Leader Cllr Spencer Drury, who called the meeting on Wednesday said “I was generally pleased with the realistic and achievable plans which GLL has for the Lido.  It should be open this summer and with luck in 2013 will have a fully operational gym and café in addition to the pool itself.  The pool will also be heated which will be something of a relief for those of us who swam there previously.  The Conservative Group on the Council is generally supportive of these plans although we regret the time and expense that it has taken to bring them to fruition.”

 

Spencer continued “One curious feature of the plans is that the Lido will be made shallower.  The existing pool has a 3.6m deep end but this will be reduced to 2m and half of the pool will be level at 1m.  This means that the Council is gaining the equivalent of a full 25m pool with 1m depth, which does bring into question the reasoning behind the two shallow ends proposed at the new ‘Heart of East Greenwich’ pool.  Surely this space will be enough for all those who wish to enjoy aquarobics in the borough.”

 

UPDATE (30th April):  It now appears that the situation may be worse than we initially thought we 853 reporting that the lease actually cost GLL £175,000 to buy back from Open Waters.  I imagine Council Officers made the mistake after being asked on the hoof at the Call-in meeting.  This means that the Council's decision to give the lease to Open Waters for free has cost this borough's residents either through raised taxes or through higher fees at the Lido £175,000 purely to buy out a diving firm which did not seem to go anywhere near any water.  What a farce!

Sayeeda Warsi has sent her best wishes on St George's Day.

Deputy Chairman (Membership & Finance), Thomas Turrell joined newly elected University of Greenwich Conservatives Chairman, Oliver Clark and Deputy Chairman (Political) at the University of Greenwich Open Day in order to promote ongoing campaign to get Boris Johnson re-elected as Mayor of London and Cllr. Alex Wilson elected as London Assembly Member for Greenwich and Lewisham. There was an interest in the stall and many students took leaflets with them. The group used an ipad to open up the campaign website for Alex Wilson to promote his hard work further, having the picture of when Alex came down to help the Conservative society at their fresher’s stand in September 2011.

The University Labour society failed to turn up showing that Labour doesn’t care about students unless there is a story behind it. Thomas said “Today not only have we improved on our own presence in the University we have shown that only the Conservatives come to speak to students around the clock, not just it gets media attention! We have had a range of students come up to us today, whether they are socialist and Conservative to say how disappointed they are by the way that Labour ignored today but how pleased they were that the Conservatives have given up their Saturday to come speak to them! This is because we care. We have been asked on tuition fees but we are here to explain the system not to scare monger and lie about the changes as Labour and the NUS have insisted on doing.”

On Thursday 29th March 2012 Deputy Leader of Greenwich Council Conservative Group, Nigel Fletcher and Deputy Chairman of Greenwich Conservative Federation, Thomas Turrell attended and spoke on the Panel of Lewisham Conservative Policy Forum for a debate entitled “Is the Concept of a Political Union within the EU really best for the UK?” Nigel had to take of his usual Euro-sceptic hat off and become a Pro-European for the purpose of the debate. Nigel was teamed up with Association Chairman for Lewisham West and Penge Conservatives to argue for the Yes team meanwhile Thomas teamed up Steve Bell, the Vice-President of the National Conservative Convention and Regional Chairman for South East Conservatives to argue for the No team. Andrew Credgington, Former Chairman of Greenwich University Conservatives who was the panel Chairman for the evening.  

Despite a great performance from Nigel and Ross at the end of the event only 1 person in the audience voted YES with the rest of the room voting NO as their answer to “Is a Political Union within the EU really best for the UK?”
 

David Cameron has launched the Conservative Party's local election campaign with a speech in Derbyshire.

I want to send my very best wishes to everyone celebrating Vaisakhi today.

Greenwich Conservatives have joined calls for the Council to build a proper large pool with a deep end in their ‘Heart of East Greenwich’ development.

 

Greenwich Council, which is one of the sixth Olympic Boroughs. decided  that the new large pool would be a ‘V’ shape composed of 1 metre deep (or shallow) at both ends, and 1.5 metres deep in the middle.  This design effectively means that the swimming pool would be unsuitable for use by competitive swimming clubs, as the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) recommends a depth of 1.8 metres for swimmers to practice dives in. 

 

The Greenwich Swimming Club (GSC) which currently operates from the Arches Leisure Centre located near to Greenwich Town Centre has made it clear that this would mean their swimmers would not be able to practice diving.

Leader of the Conservative Group Councillor Spencer Drury raised the issue of the depth of the swimming pool at an Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting on the 4th April where he was assured that the issue was not the cost of building a deeper pool but the way the Council intended that it be used.  Spencer raised the possibility of a retractable floor but was informed that while this had been considered at an early stage the technology was not thought to be good enough for it to be considered a viable option.  However Spencer has subsequently found out that the Corby International Pool in the East Midlands has been built using this technology.

 

Spencer said “I feel that building a new swimming pool in an Olympic borough without the facility for it to be used by a competitive swimming club is ridiculous.  There has been a swimming club in Greenwich Town Centre for years but after this change, the nearest place a competitive swimmer will be able to train is Eltham (or if it opens) the open-air Charlton Lido.  I fear that this design has more to do with the Council wishing to interfere in an area that it does not understand rather than improving competitive swimming facilities and performance in Greenwich.

 

 “As cost is not an issue and the pool will be in the basement, I think it must still be possible for the Council to adjust the design to allow for a real pool to be created in the centre of Greenwich – not just an advanced paddling pool.”

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Greenwich Council’s Labour Cabinet has agreed its controversial ‘Masterplan’ despite strong local objection from retailers like Marks and Spencers.

 

The four highly controversial documents labelled ‘Masterplans’ are intended to encourage growth across the borough as part of an overall strategy (which the Cabinet has yet to publish or agree).  The plans cover four distinct areas: Charlton Riverside; Woolwich Town Centre; Eltham Town Centre and Peninsula West. 

 

In the report to Cabinet on Monday (2nd April) it was suggested that ‘In overall terms there was considerable support for the proposals.’ However, any serious consideration of the actual responses reveals this to be an outrageously optimistic view of the public responses to the consultation.  While in Woolwich and Peninsula people broadly accepted the plans, which were less controversial, in Charlton and Eltham, many residents expressed serious reservations about how the vision had been translated into the planning proposals which the documents make. 

 

This is particularly true of Eltham where the plans are essentially to create less parking and more residential flats.  In the consultation document, the representative of the Tudor Barn based in the Well Hall Pleasaunce wrote “Underwhelming, best describes this effort. Imaginative, dynamic and insightful it is not. The vision for the development of Eltham Town Centre suffers from a frustrating vagueness and reliance on jargon together with the adoption of unexplained assumptions. A vision for the future of Eltham Town Centre requires a really confident grasp of the present and I did not feel that the writers had adequately displayed this element of the brief.”

 

Marks and Spencers, who have a thriving business on Eltham High Street also objected.  “The proposal shown diagrammatically in the Masterplan would result in the loss of much of the existing Marks and Spencer surface car park. A decked car park appears to be suggested in its place. However, this is not an aspiration of the company, it is unclear how many spaces would be provided but it may well result in a loss of capacity, there are no indications of how it would be funded, whether this would be viable and what operational arrangements would be in place. It is not at all clear that suitable parking could be provided within the land along with the new building (offices or residential) that the Masterplan shows on the road frontage.” (more on page 253)

 

Conservative Leader and Eltham Councillor Spencer Drury said “The rushed nature of these plans and the subsequent consultation process means that I have grave doubts about whether the finished documents actually reflect the best outcome for our borough for the next 15 years.  More time and effort should have been made to include residents in this process. When you have strong objections from leading retailers, maybe it is time to re-think your strategy.

 

“In Eltham the objections, not just from local business but also from many residents seem to have been completely ignored. I do not understand why the Labour party bothered with a consultation in the first place as, certainly in Eltham, they are pushing through highly unpopular plans.   What with their proposals to bring in parking charges on the high street, it seems to me that Labour are set on destroying Eltham Town Centre all together.

 

“Even our Eltham MP failed to respond to the consultation which is a deep concern. Eltham needs to be defended against this Woolwich based Labour Council  as they seem determined to destroy our town centre with more flats and less parking..”

Greenwich Council has announced its intention to resurface of the junction of Westmount road and Rochester Way.  This will mean that from 10th April 2012 for three nights, the junction is expected to be closed from 9pm until 5am the following morning. 

 

During the overnight resurfacing works, Westmount Roadat its junction with Rochester Way will be closed. Local traffic wishing to access these roads will be diverted mainly via Well Hall Road and Eltham High Street with a local diversion through Glenesk Road and Dairsie Road.  The Rochester Way road will remain open under two way traffic lights.

 

The Council will be providing an antiskid surface to the area’s leading to the signals to highlight a new cyclist waiting facility. The new facility should be installed a short while after the surface work has been completed.

 

The Council has informed Eltham North Conservatives that this is a weather permitting operation but advance warning signs will positioned at the junction informing of the intention to complete this work.

 

If any residents require further information or have special needs that the Council should be made aware of, please contact Greenwich Council on 0208 921 5759.

I want to send my very best wishes to everyone this Easter.

I want to send my very best wishes to everyone celebrating the festival of Passover.

David Cameron has sent his best wishes for Easter.