Letter from Cllr Jones

Cllr Howard Jones

Leader of the Conservative Group

DATE: 29^th October 2013

Dear Liz and Bruce

Until now The Conservatives have refrained from making any statements on the charging of Derek Osbourne as we wished to maintain his right to a fair trial. The former Liberal Democrat Leader of Kingston Council, was given a prison sentence today for amongst other things possession and distribution of the most foul types of child pornography. The serious nature of the charges and his sentencing put a line under part of this affair.

We all share enormous compassion and sympathy for Derek Osbournes’s victims; we hope they have the strength to rebuild their shattered lives. Closer to home Kingston’s already tarnished reputation on child protection issues has been further damaged. Kingston’s residents need urgent independent and verifiable reassurance that their elected representatives are up to the task of child protection and must be able to publicly and openly restore public confidence in Children's Services. 

The foundations of public confidence are built on open and frank disclosure of facts. We cannot move forward without first drawing a line on the past. Consequently, I am requesting that the Chief Executive of Kingston Council and the current Lib dem leader Liz Green to commission an independent investigation into the ”Derek Osbourne” era of Council leadership. This investigation should have cross party involvement and findings should be made available to the public. 

The basis for the investigation and review are not covered by the police investigation and should include at a minimum the following:

1.      Much hard work is being undertaken to repair the immense damage and restore public confidence in Children's Safeguarding Services. However, the public have a right to know how this terrible situation arose and what was Mr Osbourne’s involvement in and influence over the management of Child Safeguarding?

2.       To what extent was Mr Osbourne involved in child-related activities in Kingston and was his involvement purely of an administrative nature?

 3. We know that under Mr Osbourne’s leadership the Council made substantial financial grants to youth groups, many in the theatrical and performing arts sector favoured by Mr Osbourne. The public, especially parents, need to know the extent to which Mr Osbourne steered public funds towards his pet projects and whether he had any involvement in these outside his formal duties as Council Leader? Was due diligence followed when the recipients of these grants chosen?  Were all those engaged in these activities properly covered by the necessary criminal records checking at the time?

As a matter of urgency, faith and confidence in Kingston Council and Councillors must be restored. Kingston’s residents need to know the truth, no matter how uncomfortable it might be. Only after we have established this we can begin to move forward to rebuild our reputation and perform our duties in a manner which commands public respect, trust and confidence. 

Kingston’s Conservatives remain committed to cross-party support to the Council on this important issue and offer to lend our assistance in ensuring this process is open and transparent and does not become shrouded in secrecy.

The damage caused by these events and Derek Osbourne’s admission of guilt needs to be scrutinised and any wrong doing publicly purged.

Yours sincerely,

Cllr Howard Jones

Group Leader

Ex lib dem leader

Ex Lib Dem Council leader Derek Osbourne has been sentenced to two years in prison for downloading and distributing indecent images of children. The court heard how Osbourne used an Internet pseudonym to distribute the images depicting children aged between three and ten being subjected to sexual abuse. The prosecutor said this was a spectacular fall from grace for an individual who was in a position of significant public trust. At the time of his offending he was the Leader of Kingston Borough Council and was responsible for the welfare of hundreds, if not thousands of children. He committed these abhorrent offences in direct contradiction to the position of trust and responsibility. Mr Zinner prosecuting, said he must have known what he was doing would significantly contribute to the cycle of harm suffered by victims of child sexual abuse and exploitation.

Cllr Howard Jones Leader of Kingston Conservatives, wrote an open letter to the Chief Executive and current Leader of the Council calling for a review into Osbourne’s time at the Guildhall. Cllr Jones said ‘Residents will want to know he has not in any way allowed his private activities to impinge on his work ar any decision making he has made. He was obviously very devious in his pornographic activities – let’s be absolutely sure there is nothing that will leave us with mud in our eyes in six months time.’  

Full Council 8th Oct

Full Council – 8^th October 2013 

The Conservative Leader of the Opposition Cllr Howard Jones presented a motion, seconded by Cllr Priyen Patel, on the future of our high streets titled “Give back the control of the Community to Residents”. The motion called upon the Council to lobby the Government alongside other Local Authorities in order to gain more control in planning law to stop clusters of shops (like estate agents, betting establishments and pay-day loan companies) from blighting our high streets. 

Cllr Jones said that in New Malden there are already 5 betting shops and with the current law as it is this may increase. Cllr Dennis Doe noted that having lots of the same type of shop in one area doesn’t benefit our local economy and we needed the power to be able to prevent this. Cllr Patrick Codd explained that Kingston was once 3^rd on the league tables of the most desired shopping centres to shop in but we have dropped to 14^th because of a failure in traffic infrastructure. If we didn’t deal with the issue of the current overload of road works, we would not only lose customers from betting shops infiltrating our high streets, but also lose customers from all shops due to the current gridlock throughout Kingston. Cllr Priyen Patel concluded that if we did not act, we may become a town centre like Harrow, which has been considered to be family unfriendly and scares away prospective shoppers. Cllr Lynne Finnerty and Cllr David Cunningham also spoke on the motion. 

The motion passed unanimously.

Cllr Julie Pickering asked the Lib Dem Administration 2 questions. The first was regarding the Surbiton Health Centre Needle Exchange Service and the Leader of the Council’s decision to act without adequate evidence to support her. The second question was regarding why the Administration failed to inform residents and ward Councillors about Orchard Hill College using the Beaconsfield Resource Centre during building works, despite requests to be kept informed. Both questions were inadequately answered by the Administration and the Lib Dems openly admitted they had made a mistake with the failure to communicate to residents regarding Orchard Hill College.

Finally, 4 items passed quickly and unanimously. These items were the Council Tax Reduction Scheme, the HIV Prevention Consortium section 106 agreement with Croydon, the Health and Wellbeing Board working arrangements and the changes to Committee appointments. 

Better watch our speed

 20’s Plenty for Us Press Release 11 Oct 2013

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) have toughened up guidance on enforcing 20mph limits.  Speed offences where people live will not be tolerated.  Better enforcement both increases compliance and the safety of the UK’s streets.

ACPO have issued new guidance to forces on how to police 20mph roads (see http://www.acpo.presscentre.com/Press-Releases/ACPO-marks-refreshing-of-speed-enforcement-guidance-26e.aspx).   This comes in response to the dramatically increasing number of places democratically agreeing wide area 20mph limits plus requests from Transport Ministers, the Get Britain Cycling Enquiry and many campaigners.

Officers could soon hand out a speeding ticket and three points or offer drivers an education course and therefore avoid points on the licence. Motorists caught driving between 24mph and 31mph would be offered the speed awareness course or a fixed penalty notice fine.  Up to 34mph, they could be fined, and if they were speeding at 35mph or more they would be reported to the courts.

Already over 12m people live in places like Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and the City of London where 20mph limits will cover the majority of roads.

Founder of 20’s Plenty for Us, Rod King MBE, commented :-

“This is very timely. Many of our cities are rejecting the 30mph limits for most roads in favour of a life-enhancing 20mph limit that is becoming the norm rather than the exception. Whilst compliance comes from people understanding the benefits that come when we all drive below 20, the police play an important role in endorsing that through enforcement. Good policing comes from responding to communities and elected representative wishes and the overwhelming number of those want the police to play an active role in making those communities safer, more liveable and secure.”

20’s Plenty for Us National Campaign Manager Anna Semlyen said

“ 20mph limits are law.  Bad drivers can and should be made accountable for their actions. Speeding is anti-social, incredibly dangerous and warrants dealing with strictly. Tougher local roads policing is good news for everyone, especially the young and vulnerable.”

Our ‘Time for 20’ initiative asks the Department for Transport to allow authorities to sign exceptions to 20mph limits which cuts the cost of implementing 20mph limits by up to 50%.  http://www.20splentyforus.org.uk/its_time_for_20.htm

Our 209 20’s Plenty for Us campaign branches are at http://www.20splentyforus.org.uk/local_campaigns.htm

Our 36 Briefing Sheets on 20mph limits are at http://www.20splentyforus.org.uk/briefings.htm

See this press release at http://www.20splentyforus.org.uk/Press_Releases/Police_Toughen_20mph_Limit_Enforcement_Guidance.pdf

20’s Plenty For Us campaigns for a 20mph default speed limit in residential streets without physical calming.  Web www.20splentyforus.org.uk  Twitter @20splentyforus

For more information contact

Anna Semlyen 20’s Plenty for Us Campaign Manager anna.s@20splentyforus.org.uk 07572 120439

Thank you

Instead of standing up for hardworking people the last Labour Government, of which Ed Miliband and Ed Balls were senior members, fought bitterly amongst themselves and let the British people down. They left Britain with a deficit of over £150 billion, increased unemployment, a broken welfare system and uncontrolled, mass immigration.

We are firmly on the side of hardworking people and we are clearing up the mess that Labour left behind. There is a long way still to go, but in less than three and a half years: the deficit has been cut by a third; businesses have created 1.4 million new private sector jobs; benefits have been capped and net immigration has been cut by a third. We will continue to strive to make our country great again with your help.

LIB DEMs

Lib Dem poll suggests 75% of voters reject party, No surprise there. 

Prospective Kingston Conservative Councillors Meet Michael Gove 2nd Sept

Prospective Kingston Conservative Councillors Meet Michael Gove

Prospective Conservative Council Candidates for the 2014 local elections met with the Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove tackling issues that are of concern to residents across the Borough.

Local candidates spoke to the Secretary of State about issues concerning the new North Kingston Free School, early years education and student career advice.  The Secretary of State agreed to take on board the views of local conservative prospective candidates.

New Malden Councillor Ken Smith, who organised the meeting said "I was delighted that Michael Gove took time out to meet with our young prospective councillors in Kingston.  Our schools and their standards are of core concern to parents across the Borough and we were very pleased to champion the issues that matter so much to residents."