Thousands of climate change protesters have settled on Blackheath where they plan to make camp for a week. Starting from the tea hut and spreading out over the heath, the protestors claim, on their website, that they have chosen Blackheath because it is within view of the City and near the River Thames. The police are monitoring the situation and filmed the protestors as they arrived. 

Blackheath Westcombe Conservative Councillor Alex Wilson who lives near the site and visited the camp within hours of them arriving said “Lewisham council representatives were there immediately  but I was disappointed by Greenwich council who, yet again in our opinion, have been very slow in responding. Comments I have seen suggest that Greenwich Council feels it is nothing to do with them, even though it will clearly affect Blackheath Westcombe. If any residents have any issues or problems do feel free to contact your Conservative Councillors as we are keeping a close eye on the situation.”

Leader of Greenwich Conservatives Cllr Spencer Drury said: "As a long-term member of Friends of the Earth, I fully support the environmental agenda and efforts to deal with climate change, but I do not feel that this camp, in the middle of one of the greenest residential areas of London is an appropriate way to promote the environmental message.  Indeed, I suspect that it may attract negative publicity and so damage more serious attempts to deal with green issues in a constructive, long-term way.  I am not sure why Blackheath has been identified as the right place for this camp as previous events have been by notable polluting venues like Heathrow or Drax power station."

Conservatives last week revealed that the closure of Charlton Lido to the public for the summer is not to allow vital works (or refurbishment) to take place but because the Labour Council has failed to sign the right paperwork to allow a private firm to take over. According to a notice from Greenwich Council pinned to the gates stating that the Lido will remain closed for the next 18 months.

Greenwich Conservative welcome the refurbishment of the Lido, but Labour in Greenwich are all talk and no action – they should either open the Lido or start the works, preferably opening the pool for the summer and then starting the works in the autumn. Surely this is just common sense?”

Eltham North Councillor and Parliamentary Candidate for Greenwich and Woolwich Spencer Drury said "Graeme is absolutely right about this.  I visit the Lido with my family when it is open and its closure will be a real loss to young people across the borough this summer.  I can't understand why this has happened and I hope that the Council responds to pressure from the Conservatives to sort this situation out within the next week.  Not content with demolishing the Eltham Lido, they have now closed the one which remains - in my opinion, Labour really don't have a clue how to run this borough."

Even more money spent on ‘Cleansweep’

At the Cabinet Committee meeting on 16^th December the Labour Cabinet Members present decided to spend another £2m on propping up the ailing ‘Cleansweep’ system which Greenwich uses to sweep the streets.

The extra £2m is in addition to the £750,000 which was allocated to help ‘Cleansweep’ in the spring budget agreement and which Councillors were told was needed “to improve the quality of the operation”.

The report to the Cabinet Committee reported vast improvements in the service from over a third of roads below acceptable standards for litter and detritus in 2006/07 to one fifth of all roads in 2007/08.  However, there is no evidence that the extra £750,000 has improved the situation as the number of dirty streets rose from 17% to 19% between February and the current report.

The report requesting an extra £2m be allocated contains an admission that ‘Cleansweep’ is not doing the job and poor supervision is part of the problem.  The report states quite clearly that the low level of current supervision means “there’s a potential for schedules to be missed and for quality of work to decline.” The report goes on to suggest that the extra managers will be able to check all the work to be done on a given day has been completed and “take appropriate corrective action” if the streets remain dirty.

Greenwich and Woolwich Prospective Parliamentary Candidate Cllr Spencer Drury commented “Labour’s decision to allocate another £2m to this service reflects their inability to control Council spending or even properly plan for a year ahead.  In February we were told that three quarters of a million would sort ‘Cleansweep’ out, but now it appears that this was a fantasy.  We know that the new bins system has increased the demands on the street cleaners as they have to remove the mess left when foxes rip open the rubbish bags, but the Council ignored our suggestions.  Personally I think employing additional street sweepers is more likely to produce cleaner streets rather than extra managers.”

“Labour’s system needs a complete overhaul – one-fifth of our streets are a mess and Labour boast of this as an achievement. It is typical of Labour at the moment to throw more money at the problem but not get the results required.”

The 39 year old who is married with two children, beat two other candidates to fight the parliamentary seat in the next general election. 

Spencer who was born in Woolwich and has been on Greenwich Council for six years, said: 

“I am delighted to have this chance to represent the people of Greenwich and Woolwich at the next General Election.  After ten years of a Labour Government and nearly forty years of a Labour run council the people of Greenwich are suffering. At a time of looming recession, I think people have lost faith in labour at every level and we need a change.

“I want to give Greenwich and Woolwich residents the strong leadership and voice that it so desperately needs.”

CONSERVATIVES in Greenwich are today calling for the Labour Council to apologise for using taxpayers’ money to launch a vicious attack on the Mayor of London Boris Johnson.  

The Labour Party used the front page of the Council’s newspaper Greenwich Time to run a headline of ‘Sold down the river’ which attacked the cancellation of the unfunded Thames Gateway Bridge project as a “kick in the teeth” for “hundreds of businesses and thousands of residents”. 

The article contained extensive and unquestioned statements by Labour Council Leader Chris Roberts – who coincidentally happens to be one of the last people to edit the paper before it goes to press. 

In 2006, Greenwich Time was estimated by the previous Mayor of London Ken Livingstone to be the most expensive Council publication in London.  Labour claim that the costs of Greenwich Time have fallen despite doubling the number of issues since Boris Johnson became Mayor in May. 

Leader of the Conservative Group Cllr Spencer Drury said “It is absolutely disgraceful for the Labour Party to use a newspaper paid for by tax payers as a Pravda-style paper to present, as fact, its own propaganda.  Labour attack Boris while ignoring the fact that one of the Labour Councillors has been in Australia since March and another has been forced to resign from a post over bullying allegations. It is absolutely clear that this Greenwich Time attack is pure politics.” 

“Greenwich Time is a politically one-sided waste of money.  Cllr Roberts should withdraw his purposely misleading statements and apologise for this misuse of Council resources.”

The extent of the Council's neglect of the Mycenae House Community Centre has been starkly revealed in its own report - over £800,000 is now needed for repairs and refurbishment. The Council is, apparently, only prepared to contribute £250,000 even though it has realised over £1.6 million for the sale of its neighbouring Woodlands building - the balance being diverted to help pay for the Council’s new offices in Woolwich Town Centre.

On Sunday 5th October, half-marathon day, Stratheden Road, Vanbrugh Park, Westcombe Hill, and Mycenae Road were among the roads to be barricaded and closed off to traffic. With the closures in Woolwich and Trafalgar Roads vehicle access to or from the Westcombe area was, at times, more or less impossible.

Had local residents been relying for information on Greenwich Time, now after all issued weekly at some cost to them, they would have been sorely disappointed as only the road closures down in Greenwich were mentioned Blackheath Westcombe residents would be justified if they felt let down by both Greenwich Council and the organisers on this occasion. Given the potential disruption from this type of event, however worthy, local residents need early, accurate and full information to be made available. This, and the lack of consultation about the event, are issues being taken up by your Conservative Councillors.

Greenwich's Labour Council flew six people (including two Labour Councillors) business class to see the Olympic Games in Beijing at a cost of £25,000 to Council taxpayers.

At a time when the Conservative Mayor of London Boris Johnson chose to fly in the cheaper economy class, Greenwich Council flew Councillors and officials to China for the second time this year. The size of the party was one of the largest in London, exceeding the Newham delegation where the Olympic Park is being built.

Ironically the Labour Council claims that the trips were to "help promote Greenwich",  but has funded them by delaying the recruitment of a Head of Tourism for the borough. In recent years, the Labour Council has also cut funding to the Chinese Community School in Greenwich.

Blackheath Westcombe Cllr Geoff Brighty said "If Boris Johnson can fly Economy as the Mayor of London, why does the Labour Leader of Greenwich Council need to fly Business Class at the taxpayers’ expense?"

Conservative Councillors from across Greenwich have led the fight against the Government’s plans to cut services at hospitals across South East London. The plans include removing emergency services like the A & E from Queen Mary's Hospital in Sidcup and planned surgery and some children’s services from Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in Woolwich. Labour claim that the reduction in services will improve hospital care, but Conservatives believe the cuts are driven by the huge debts in local hospitals.

Conservative Leader Councillor Spencer Drury asked the Council to stand up for the people of Greenwich during the consultation on the cuts, but Labour chose to prevent public debate, boast about improvements and did not respond to the consultation process at all (despite promises to do so).

Spencer said "We have maintained constant pressure on the Council over this and I have been shocked by their failure to defend our hospitals in this process. They are putting their loyalty to Gordon Brown above the people of Greenwich who will face longer waits, more overcrowding and potentially worse services as a result of these cuts.

"The QEH is £9m in debt each year as a result of the poor deal this government signed with private companies - it is not Eltham residents' fault and they should not be punished for it."

Spencer has written however, to support the development of an Eltham Community Hospital, which while it will not replace the lost A & E, will help a limited number of patients.

In January 2008, national league tables for 5 A* to C grades at GCSE revealed Greenwich had the lowest pass rate in the country. Plans for a new building for St Paul's Academy are at least 3 years behind and a new John Roan school will be 5 storeys tall with a playground on the roof. Labour Councillors have blamed teachers and parents for failures in education, but Conservative Education spokesman Cllr Dermot Poston said "Conservatives believe that smaller schools which are independent of the Council create more of a community, are more responsive to parents and better for children."