As Councillor Judge launches his bid to become the MP for Wimbledon I thought it would be timely to re-cap on some of the Labour administration’s failed policies in Merton that he has presided over on the council just since the local elections in May.
Merton Adult Education - the Labour administration pledged to close down the MAE Centre on Whatley Avenue claiming that doing so would create a saving. Thousands signed petitions to save the centre and no satisfactory evidence has been provided by the council that it would actually save money from its closure.
Parks - Coun Judge proposed handing responsibility for maintaining Merton’s parks to an unaccountable waste board with no experience of managing parks.
Bulldoze Dundonald Rec - Coun Judge finally got the go-ahead for his long-held ambition of bulldozing the Dundonald Recreational ground to expand Dundonald School in the face of intense opposition from local residents, rather than building a much-needed new primary school nearby. It has only been in the wake of this bulldozing that Labour have done a U-turn on allowing free schools into the borough, prompting Coun Walker to resign from council committees.
Wheelie bins - whilst claiming that cuts were needed in other crucial areas such as adult services mentioned above, Coun Judge launched a pilot scheme for wheelie bins in Lavender Fields. The pilot is costing £115,000, and to bring them into the whole borough will cost £7 million. Coun Judge admits that rolling it out to the rest of the borough is currently not his intention, though you have to wonder what the point of the pilot is if he does not intend to roll it out to the rest of the borough.
Rainbow Estate - the Labour administration supported proposals for the redevelopment of this site, even though current proposals are far too dense, there are insufficient parking spaces, the local infrastructure is not in place to cope with the proposals, and the proposals will potentially jeopardise a Crossrail 2 station being built at Raynes Park.
Coun Judge is clearly hoping for collective amnesia on an unprecedented scale amongst the electorate of Wimbledon if he expects to win votes here on May 7th. Much better to vote for and re-elect our long-serving MP, Stephen Hammond.
Michael Bull
Conservative Councillor for Dundonald Ward
- Send your letters to: letters@wimbledonguardian.co.uk
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