Dear Kingston Borough Residents
This is probably one of the busiest times of the year for all of us isn’t it? You’ve been keeping me busy for sure – thank you!
Kingston Recycling Hackathon
What an amazing session with the Kingston Recycling Hackathon led by Kingston Uni, Martha Mador, and Bob Bollen at the CornerHouse Arts Centre discussing food waste and developing a food recyling hub as well as how to involve schools and young people and address plastic packaging waste and recycling . There’s so much to do here and it was brilliant to see how many people care about this and working for the community. Well done Kingston Voluntary Action for all your great work here . Fantastic to visit Save the World Club and seeing the incredible "Harry Potter Room of Requirement"!
Conservation with The Kingston Society and Saving St Andrews Square
It was fascinating to attend The Kingston Society event and learn about our conservation areas, protecting our architectural heritage characteristics and sign up for the heritage walks in Kingston Old Town, The Groves and Southborough conservation areas .. as well as protecting Surbiton’s beautiful Victorian St Andrews Square against the invasion of a 15m telecoms mast… You’ll be relieved to hear that all our petitions really did work and permission was refused!
Surbiton Festival
Then it was Rock and Roll at the fabulous Surbiton Festival on Saturday 23rd September bringing out the sunshine and community vibes and great fun to admire the dancers and vintage cars, balloons and market stalls. Huge thanks to the Met for community policing in great spirit and to the brilliant marshals and event organisers that put on such a fantastic event.
Kingston Hospital AGM
Then I attended the Kingston Hospital AGM and was so impressed by the incredible work and achievements including the new A&E Triage speedy boarding patient flow and clock, award-winning Maternity unit, the Theatres improvement project and new inhouse Endoscopy, Willow Wing, and staff well-being programmes plus nation-leading virtual ward technology happening around the hospital with investment for the new government-funded natural light ICU and hats off to Kingston Hospital Charity fundraising to bring 3D printed orthodontics and new refurbs and equipment to maternity - even while recovering from covid, exhaustion, staffing shortages and strikes. So much to admire about this strong management team under Joe Farrar, Sukhvinder Kaur-Stubbs, Yarlini Roberts, Tracey Moore, Cathy Maker & Rob Aldous ... so much to admire as I head off to my second day of volunteering at A&E ...so much to be grateful for our brilliant NHS!
Take my survey here and tell me about your own health concerns.
https://www.kingstonconservatives.org.uk/NHS23
Cost of Living Support
We are proud to help families who need it most in our Kingston Borough. This week we announced millions of families will receive the second of three £300 Cost of Living Payments between 31 October and 19 November, helping the most vulnerable people with day-to-day costs as we deliver on our promises to halve inflation, grow the economy and reduce debt. Putin’s war in Ukraine and our recovery from the pandemic has seen inflation rise – this is a tax on people’s income and is causing pressures on household budgets. That is why between 31 October and 19 November millions of families on means-tested benefits will receive a second Cost of Living Payment, totalling £900 across three payments – with some families receiving £1,350 of support in total. Payments will be made automatically, and eligible pensioner households will also receive a further £300 payment later this year as an addition to the Winter Fuel Payment. https://www.kingstonconservatives.org.uk/news/helen-edward-welcomes-record-cost-living-support-most-vulnerable-kingston-surbiton-next
ULEZ Update
Did you follow the ‘Give us a Brake’ Campaign with The Sun? The PM shows he has listened to our overwhelming response Kingston Upon Thames say no to ULEZ expansion and adopts a more practical realistic and consensual approach so people aren't forced to make unaffordable choices at such a difficult time. A balanced affordable consent-building approach is essential to achieving our green investment agenda. The ULEZ extension to outer London and Chessington green fields has shown everyone how damaging it is to force people to do something they cannot afford, that penalises independence and mobility in our elderly, penalises small businesses and the high street, and hurts lower income residents - with negligible benefits. Rishi Sunak said “I care about reaching Net Zero by 2050 but on the current path, we risk losing the consent of British people. No one has yet had the courage to look people in the eye and explain what’s really involved. That’s wrong, and it changes today with a new approach to meeting Net Zero.” Now we are working hard with our candidate for London Mayor, Susan Hall to make a London Plan which cancels ULEZ from Day 1.
Policing Event Chessington
It was great to meet with the Met Police SW London BCU Neighbourhood Policing Inspector, Christopher Hunston, and local team for South of the Borough at the Chessington Ward Panel Meeting, to review stats of categories of crime including drug offences, burglaries, theft from motor vehicle, and motor vehicle theft including motorbikes and vans. (I had my own car stolen last week so believe me I know how painful that is!) We also discussed the Speed Watch programme and the Violence against women and girls Walkabouts (last one was so informative) next one 14th October 1pm from Chessington S Station... plus the results of the Smart Survey results on residents sense of safety in their community 83% agree or neutral, which crimes most concern our residents including burglary, drugs and theft from vehicles... and what you say you wanted from our police .. tackling ASB, apprehending and prosecuting and visible policing as well as considering your individual questions and suggestions and tip-offs for localised neighbourhoods - keep them coming [email protected] and [email protected]
KCoC Events
If that wasn’t enough to keep me out of trouble, I also managed to slip in a couple of those fantastic events with the brilliant Kingston Chamber of Commerce.
Networking Breakfast
The Networking Breakfast is always a fantastic way to meet our local entrepreneurs and businesses and charities. Hosted at the fabulous Wych Elm pub as you can see we were packed with interesting people to meet.
Green Marketing Event
Great event with Kingston Chamber of Commerce Barwell Business Park discussing benefits of green credentials for business and importance of language in appealing to customer audiences, while still asking fundamental questions about cost and pace on the journey to net zero … do customers want a balance between a blue sky and greener grass thinking and what it will actually cost to get there?
Update on Kingston Half Marathon
Training session in pouring rain and high wind - I'm not cut out for this military boot camp stuff! But it’s all for a noble cause bigger that a bit of rain! Thank you for all the incredibly kind donations and faith in me to complete the Kingston Half Marathon for the RBK Mayor’s Charitable Trust and Kingston Charitable Foundation where I am a trustee! I think these photos should make you laugh at my training efforts!
https://www.justgiving.com/page/helen-edward-1693933617728
Kingston Charitable Foundation
We also had our quarterly board meeting last week and discussed our fundraising plans. We raise money to support community groups in our borough that are doing great work or where there is real need. If you think your own community group deserves support come along to our Meet the Funder event on 11th October.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/meet-the-funder-tickets-721087571337
Conference CPC23
And finally… the party conference closed today and here’s what the PM had to say …
For too long politicians from every party have put short-term interests ahead of Britain’s long-term future. But with your support, we’re ending that now.
We’re putting long-term health needs first. We’re taking action to end the single biggest cause of preventable death, raising the smoking age by one year, every year to create a Smoke Free Generation. And we’re introducing the first-ever long-term NHS workforce plan, which will double the number of training places for doctors and nurses.
We’re putting long-term education needs first. That’s why we’re bringing together A levels and T levels in a new Advanced British Standard.
Over the last four days of Conference, we’ve shown Britain what it means to have a Conservative government.
We’ve seen a Work and Pensions Secretary with a long-term plan to get more people into work.
We’ve seen a Home Secretary with a long-term plan to secure our borders.
We’ve seen a Chancellor with a long-term plan to halve inflation and grow our economy.
We’ve seen a government putting Britain’s long-term future ahead of short-term politics.
The PM talked about Service, Family, Work as his three guiding values … and I would like to say they are mine too.
I’m looking forward to meeting you soon but please do write to me with your problems and questions and I will do what I can to help you.
Best wishes
Helen Edward
Conservative Parliamentary Spokesperson for Kingston and Surbiton
[email protected]
https://www.facebook.com/HelenEdwardCWO/
https://twitter.com/helenedwardcwo
