5 million good reasons to vote carefully

I didn't make the Cheam North and Worcester Park Local Committee last night as I had a PC to revive with a deadline of today. Fortunately I managed to coax it back to life so I now have access to all my notes without the hassle of extracting the hard disk and sticking it in something else, which is nice.

In news with a wider appeal there's activity inside the Huntsmans Hall so the promised 6-week refurb is under way with the promise of a lounge bar to look forward to.

The Local Guardian seems to have had a splurge of Worcester Park news over the last couple of weeks and that continues with the story of how one local resident has unfortunately made a name for himself in New Malden.
"A Worcester Park man has been warned he faces jail after launching into a vicious attack on his former partner in New Malden High Street. Kieran Timoney, of Kingshill Avenue, Worcester Park, admitted kicking and slapping his ex-girlfriend and tearing a chunk of her hair so hard he created a bald patch. "

and also the story about the Worcester Park filmmaker, Akash Lockmun, who has won an MTV award together with his creative partner for an anti-knife crime movie.

Probably the most significant story though is the failure of the £5 million "Smarter Travel Sutton" scheme to make any impact on traffic in Sutton, one of its stated targets. The Sutton Guardian again relates,
"The £5m Smarter Travel Sutton scheme has failed to reduce traffic congestion over the past two years, it has emerged. The three-year partnership between Sutton Council and Transport for London (TfL) promoted sustainable transport to 75,000 householders. At a board meeting last week TfL praised the “behavioural change” scheme for encouraging more Sutton residents to cycle, walk and use public transport. But the organisation admitted road traffic levels were cut by only one per cent, in line with other outer London boroughs. Ben Plowden, Smarter Travel director, said: “Therefore the growth in the use of sustainable modes has not yet translated into a direct impact on traffic levels across the borough.” "

£5 million!?!?! That's the amount of money that went AWOL from their accounts in an Icelandic bank and 20 times the amount that they were proposing to save by removing transport from disabled children. I wish I'd made it to the Council meeting now to hear what was said.