Welcome to the second edition of my insider’s blog. You’ll see that I still haven’t got the length quite right! You can read the first edition here.

“Was it a surprise?”

Since the elections in May, a number of people have asked me if the best ever local election results for the Lib Dems in Merton came as a surprise?

Quite simply, no.

We had a plan, we knew how to measure our campaign and had predicted the range of outcomes. The results were within our expectations – and fortunately towards the higher end of what we hoped. But they  were not a surprise.

But it highlights how many people see elections, essentially as something random that happens.

Commenting on the Liberal Democrats’ amazing victory in the recent Tiverton and Honiton Parliamentary by-election, the Lib Dems’ director of field campaigns, said the result was “thanks to going door to door, listening to people’s concerns and explaining how the party would make things better.”

And that’s what we did too, and will continue to do here in Merton.

Making a liberal difference

To much press fanfare, the All England Tennis Club (AELTC) announced it was going to give free tickets to the Wimbledon Tennis Championships to refugees from Ukraine in the borough. Now there are many other refugees locally, specifically groups from Afghanistan and Syria, and the key for us is that all people should be welcomed.

Treating one group differently to another doesn’t sit well, and so Liberal Democrat councillor Paul Kohler pressed the AELTC to extend their kind offer. I am pleased that ultimately the AELTC have reflected on what he had said and would now be hosting refugees from Afghanistan and Syria who are living in Merton and Wandsworth on the ‘middle Sunday‘ of the Championships – and providing transport to help them get there.

Behind the scenes

Much of the work we do takes place behind the scenes. This month I’ve been working on my colleagues in the Lib Dem group office in the Council to implement new ‘workstreams’ to support my new councillor colleagues. There are also regular briefing meetings with senior Council officers.

We’ve also been preparing for the upcoming July full Council meeting. Full Council is where all councillors come together to hold the administration to account. When people think of council meetings this is probably the kind of thing they imagine, and some councillors do seem to think that they’re in Parliament or at Prime Minister’s Questions …

The theme of the meeting is “Supporting residents’ who are most in need and promoting the safety and wellbeing of all our communities with an emphasis on Health Inequalities.”

This means that a report is prepared detailing the work the Council is doing in relation to this area, and councillors get to ask questions and propose changes.

We feel that the report highlights gaps in the Council’s work with regards to breast cancer screening, childhood immunisations and reducing self-harming by young people.

We’re also calling for a review of the walking and cycling ‘infrastructure’ – aimed at increasing the number of children cycling and walking.

Labour councillors want to use this meeting to repeat their opposition to the NHS’ changes at St Helier hospital, which has formed their main election campaign for years. The Conservative councillors aren’t proposing anything substantive.

In another part of the meeting, Liberal Democrat councillors will be pushing Council bosses to make good commitments on the London Living Wage to sub-contractors, by taking steps to become an accredited Living Wage Employer. This forms part of our ongoing campaign on this issue. Labour councillors also have a somewhat vague motion on cost of living crisis. The main focus is the Government (which clearly has a part to play) but we’d like to see more from the Council on what it’s going to do.

You’ll be able to watch the meeting itself on the Council’s YouTube channel.

The dusty ‘corridors of power’ …

Last month I reached out to Council bosses to call for a cross-party ‘waste summit’ to address the ongoing issues with litter and flytipping across the borough. There are many reasons to do this, but particularly the negotiations around the extension (or otherwise) of the waste management and street cleaning contract offers an opportunity to forge a consensus about the best way forward, and to increase people’s understanding of the issues and compromises.

Sadly, this was rejected out of hand by the new Labour Leader of the Council. Apparently because “Residents gave the Labour Party 41% share of the vote at the last local elections… Your proposal is merely an attempt to circumvent the will of the people of this borough, and it is undemocratic”.

It wasn’t a surprising response, but disappointing nonetheless.

In slightly less depressing news Liberal Democrat councillors secured cross-party backing for the idea that the Council’s administration should “consider ways of bringing collection of waste closer to the community”. One of our local election manifesto pledges was to introduce regular pop-up “community waste collections” and I am pleased that we may be a step closer to that.  As a formal recommendation was made, the Council will now have to produce a response on how it will achieve this. We’ll continue to press for action.

The Council’s scrutiny Panels and a number of other committees met in June. These were the first ‘proper’ meetings for a number of councillors. A particular highlight was the success of Liberal Democrat councillors for West Barnes ward in securing the backing of the Council’s planning committee to reject an application to build on the LESSA playing fields. The site is protected in the local planning rules, the Local Plan. The Local Plan requires that the site cannot be built on if it can be reasonably demonstrated that there is a viable sporting use. It wasn’t felt that the developer had provided enough evidence of this.

My colleagues in Raynes Park met with South Western Railway and Network Rail to discuss the application for “access for all” funding to make the station step-free. There seems to be real potential to secure this funding this time. Last time we only got them so far.

Deputy Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Jenifer Gould had some success in that she recently made an introduction between charity TRAID and Merton Council officers. TRAID is a charity working to stop clothes from being thrown away, and Merton is now promoting doorstep collections by the organisation.

Out and about

Councillors attend a number of civic and other events – particular highlights for me this month were:

• Armed Forces Day Flag Raising at the Haig Housing in Morden, with veterans, representatives of the Gurkha community and the Mayor of Merton and other councillors.
• Joining with Council green spaces teams, the Council’s contractor and the Chair of the Friends of Dundonald Rec to talk about the up-coming “Green Flag” assessment – to talk about improvements and plans for my local park.
• Attending the Polka children’s theatre (which is in Wimbledon and just outside the boundaries of my ward) with my 6 year old to see the press night of their new production The Pirate, the Princess and the Platypus.

Down your street 

As local councillors we regularly help people solve local issues and problems as well as work on local priorities. This month we have:

• Supported neighbours of three large building sites where there are planning enforcement issues, as best we can. I have also lobbied the councillor in charge of planning with regards to delays in enforcement and planning departments.
• Alerted people to the application for a 24 hour on and off licence at the new Travelodge on Hartfield Road, and ensured, in discussion with officers, that sales would be limited to hotel guests between 11pm and 10am each day.
• Met with Transport for London to discuss noisy trams at the junction of Hartfield and Kingston Roads (and the sitting traffic/poor air quality).
• Lobbied Merton Council and Love Wimbledon for more pavement cleaning in Wimbledon Town Centre. Discussed putting more trees and greenery in the area around Wimbledon Theatre with Council officers.
• Organised for abandoned cars to be cleared from Hartfield Road and Rothesay Avenue.
• Arranged for the Council to hold consultations to: (1) tweak parking bays to allow refuse trucks to get down Rothesay Avenue; (2) to change shared Pay and Display bays on Graham Road to “residents only” so there’s more parking available.
• Raised the problem of large numbers of delivery bikes blocking parking bays and stopped on double-yellow lines in the town centre with the Council and local police.
• …. As well as many other things – get in touch if we can help.