Dominic Raab MP: Brexit Britain will be a modern, dynamic and global player

Dominic Raab, Conservative MP for Esher & Walton, discusses the future of Brexit and the Government's recent announcement about Heathrow expansion in an exclusive article for the Molesey Conservatives.

Two big national issues will affect all Molesey residents. While the recent High Court ruling has created some additional uncertainty, it’s only a bump in the road. It won’t derail Brexit. In March, the government will begin two years of negotiations with the EU. Meanwhile, our economy continues to defy the referendum predictions of doom, with manufacturing and employment posting further growth. The IMF now predicts Britain will be the fastest growing economy in the G7 this year.

Looking towards our future relationship with the EU, the government is working towards maintaining the free trade we currently enjoy. However, should the EU demand imposition of trade barriers, the UK retains some key advantages. Our exporters have already been boosted by the weakening of the pound, and are now in a much stronger position to compete internationally. Also, any tariffs that the EU imposes would, presumably, be reciprocated by the UK government. This would bring in around £12bn to the UK coffers annually, and could be used to support vulnerable business sectors.

Now, the UK must work up a positive offer to our continental friends. We should aim for a continuation of barrier free trade, stronger co-operation on security matters and sensible reciprocal arrangements on visas and visa-waiver. If we approach Brexit with a positive and constructive mindset, we can secure a strong deal. Brexit Britain will be a modern, dynamic and global player – and the country can go from strength to strength.

Beyond Brexit, the government has announced proposals to expand Heathrow airport. There is a compelling economic case, based on increasing long haul passenger and freight connections, to strengthen the UK’s international competitiveness. The government also announced a mitigation package of measures to safeguard air quality and protect local communities from disproportionate noise levels. Working with our energetic Molesey team of Conservatives, I will spend the months ahead nailing down the detail of specific assurances for Elmbridge. There is an opportunity to reduce current noise levels that we must grasp.

Arrogant MRA kills resident and retailer petition for parking controls

Earlier this year we prepared petitions for roads near Hampton Court station asking the Surrey County Council Parking Review to address a long-standing problem over weekday rail commuter parking blocking all spaces on roads near Hampton Court station rather than parking in the under-used station car park. The petitions were overwhelmingly supported by 356 (82%) of residents and 52 (88%) of retailers and traders.

The Parking Review has now been completed and was presented at the Elmbridge Local Committee meeting on Monday 3 October. Our proposals were rejected out of hand with the review team not even bothering to consult us or any of the road leads who were involved in preparing the proposals!

Searching questions were asked at the Local Committee meeting by Conservative councillors from other parts of Elmbridge who understand the problems we are facing but it became clear that Molesey’s councillors, all of whom are from the Molesey Residents Association (MRA) are wholly against our proposals. Comments made by the MRA Councillors cast doubt on the veracity of our petitions, the motivations of our residents and the needs of our valued retailers and traders - some of the MRA’s comments are printed below. (Ernest Mallet MRA: EM, Stuart Selleck MRA: SS):

"This is a petty proposition, being advocated by residents who don’t want people to park outside their houses" (EM)

"This is going over old ground and I don’t support it" (SS)

"We don’t know how the petitions were done or what was said to people at the time" (EM)

"The roads are fully parked up and this proposal would cause displacement" (EM)

"If we employ professionals (the review team) we need to listen to them" (SS)

"I believe that if the petitions were done properly, the majority would not support the proposals" (EM)

The Parking Study’s objectives were to improve road safety, increase access for emergency vehicles, improve access to shops, facilities and businesses, increase access for refuse vehicles, buses and service vehicles, reduce traffic congestion and better regulate parking. We strongly believe our proposals were aligned with these objectives and that the reasons given for rejecting them were incorrect.

We have not given up on this so we now feel residents should register their disappointment that our well-researched and strongly supported proposals were rejected out of hand based on an inaccurate rationale and understanding of what we are trying to achieve.

We may yet be successful in persuading SCC and our reluctant MRA Councillors to listen so we ask you to make your views known by emailing the SCC Officer who led the review, Adrian Harris (adrian.harris@surreycc.gov.uk) with cc’s to the Chairman of the Local Committee, Margaret Hicks (margaret.hicks@surreycc.gov.uk) and to Peter Szanto (moleseypete@gmail.com). It’s important that every resident who signed the original petition now backs that up by sending a protest email as there is nothing the MRA would like better than to kick this into the ‘long grass’ and for it never to be seen or heard of again.

It only took 52% to take the UK out of the EU so why is it possible for the MRA to ignore 82% of local residents – MRA’s ‘democracy’ in action!
The reasons given by the SCC Parking Review Team for rejecting residents and traders proposal to introduce a one-hour weekday morning parking restriction in roads near Hampton Court station are flawed. The reasons for rejecting in the report are shown below in black. The responses in support of the proposals are in red. These were not listened to by the Molesey Residents Association Councillors.

2.6 We have decided not to progress this idea further for the following reasons:

The residents in these roads, broadly speaking, have significant levels of off street parking, and therefore have little need to use the on street parking space. Our policy is only to introduce a permit scheme where residents have real need to park on street, and where there is little or
no off street parking available.

• The proposed permit scheme is not designed to create more spaces for residents in the specified roads. Indeed it will not, since it is only for one hour in the morning on weekdays. This is an opportunity for SCC to demonstrate integrated thinking on rail and road transport, since the proposal is purely designed to encourage rail commuters to park in the station car park which has plenty of free spaces and was designed for them.

The parking strategy agreed by the local committee looks to stop introducing schemes that can cause displacement. This scheme would certainly displace vast numbers of vehicles, probably to streets that are already under heavy parking stress, and where residents have less off street parking (e.g. Kent Road, Park Road, Pemberton Road).

• Far from causing displacement, the proposal is designed to address existing displacement of rail commuters who are currently parking on these roads, blocking the spaces for the whole day. 
• The large station car park is typically less than one third full, since rail commuters park on these streets to save themselves the car park fee.
• This blocks all the spaces in the streets for shoppers and visitors to Hampton Court, and the cafes and restaurants in the area.
• The cost for a shopper parking in the station car park is £6.50 if parking before 4pm, irrespective of the time they are parked; hence the station car park is not an option for most shoppers and visitors.
• Commuters can purchase weekly/monthly/annual season tickets for the station car park at significant reductions. An annual season ticket costs £720 (under £2 per day).
• Since the proposal is purely for a one hour morning restriction it is simply designed to drive commuters to park in the place which was designated for them.
• The streets suggested for the change were specifically selected to minimise displacement to streets further away, since the walking time to and from the station would be 14 minutes or more. It is unlikely that a significant number of commuters would do this.

The existing uncontrolled space provides opportunity for local workers, who may be on relatively low pay, to park and work in the local area.

• Regarding parking spaces for local workers, the Retailer survey submitted to the review team included data from all the traders. It had asked all of them this specific question. Most had no issue with staff parking. Several did and this could be easily resolved by staggering the one hour morning restriction in the different roads, as was suggested to the review team in the submission. Indeed by moving the commuters to the station car park, more spaces would be available for staff for most of the day, since commuters tend to block the spaces before most of the shops and cafes/restaurants are open..

There are already limited waiting parking bays for shoppers in the Hampton Court area, such as Bridge Road, and Creek Road. It is difficult to conceive that there is a need to create what would be two or three hundred more parking spaces for shoppers to the area.

• The limited waiting parking bays for shoppers in Hampton Court area are very few, nowhere near sufficient for shoppers and visitors to cafes, restaurants and Hampton Court. I have been there numerous times when they are all occupied. It is a complete misrepresentation to say that the proposal is seeking to create two or three hundred spaces for shoppers. The whole of the roads were included to address the concern of displacement. If the review team felt that only limited parts of the roads should be included, they should have assessed this as part of the review.

Particularly in the case of Palace Road and Wolesey (sic) Road, if parking were restricted to residents only for an hour, it is likely that both traffic flows and traffic speeds would increase dramatically in these roads over that time period. The current parking practices here helps to slow
traffic.

• The comments on reduced parking by commuters on Palace and Wolsey Road  causing a dramatic increase in speeds are not credible.
• Many of the spaces would be taken by shoppers/visitors if they were able to park there, hence little/no change
• Currently commuters speed down these roads in the morning in a desperate attempt to find spaces and catch their train at just the time children are going to school. If they were forced to use the station car park, which has plenty of spaces, we believe that road safety would be improved

We have in the past introduced controls to prevent obstructive or dangerous parking, and we are looking to introduce a couple of additional sections of yellow line within the area to eliminate further
such problems (see Annex 1). However, we do not think that congestion or safety issues are prevalent in these roads.

• Additional yellow lines at junctions are welcome, but do not agree that there are no safety concerns on these roads

As a county council, one of our key objectives is to help support the economy. Removing all day parking from all of these roads could damage business and have a knock on impact on the local economy of the area

• This is ridiculous. The overwhelming majority of retailers and traders were in favour of the proposals which only involved a one hour restriction in the morning. Are the MRA and Officers saying they know their business better than the people who own/run them?

In the past it has also been suggested that parking should be controlled here to enable street cleansing. This is not a valid reason to introduce permanent parking controls. Parking can be temporarily suspended to enable street cleansing operations, as is the practice that happens
across the county already.

• Suspending parking doesn't help if commuters ignore it as they have done in the past.

Molesey Hospital saved - but what happens next?

 

I am very pleased to confirm that Molesey Hospital has been saved from closure, following a meeting by local NHS decision makers in Leatherhead on Friday afternoon. Former Molesey councillor Peter Szanto and I attended for the Conservatives along with MRA members and concerned residents, many of whom turned up with placards and banners showing support for the hospital.

Surrey Downs Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) held a public consultation on four options it was looking at to change how and where it will provide services in future. Two of those options involved the closure of Molesey's 120-year-old hospital and the transferral of its 12 beds to Cobham Hospital, which we had argued all along was impractical due to the poor public transport links, and undesirable given that the population of Molesey is greater than in Cobham. It makes better sense to site a community hospital in the area of the most potential patients, right?

The GP-led CCG voted unanimously for 'option 2' which concentrates changes in Epsom and Ewell area and grants Molesey a reprieve. Everyone was delighted! James Blythe, director of commissioning and strategy for the CCG, called the consultation process "robust" and called the responses from Molesey "significant". He went on to say that it was desirable to have bed based units in key areas of the Surrey Downs patch, including in North Elmbridge.

Peter and Steve ahead of the Leatherhead meeting

However he went on to characterise Molesey Hospital as having "significant physical challenges", ie in need of repair and they would "absolutely retain services but we would look at what sort of building and where". So clearly there are still a number of unknowns going forward, principally what will become of the current Molesey Hospital building? Reading between the lines it sounds like Mr Blythe and his colleagues feel that a modern facility is required, but will this be built on the current site or will the existing estate be sold or part sold to pay for a new hospital on another site, if so where?

So overall great news and all credit to the fantastic Molesey community who have really got behind the cause of the hospital. But all of us - residents and local politicians - need to keep a close eye on how things develop going forwards.

Decision time for Molesey Hospital

Philippe Bassett, Peter Szanto and Debi Oliver at the consultation

THE governing body of Surrey Downs Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) meets next Friday to decide whether or not to close Molesey Hospital.
The crunchtime meeting will be held in open public, at Leatherhead Leisure Centre in Guildford Road, KT22 9BL, from 1pm. We encourage you to go along and join us in showing support for keeping Molesey Hospital open.
Why is closure even being considered? The CCG came into being in 2013 and decided to undertake a review into how services will be provided across the five community hospitals it runs. This review included a 14-week public consultation with events across the CCG catchment area including one at Mole Hall (pictured) which was well attended.
Should Molesey Hospital close then its 12 hospital beds would transfer to Cobham Hospital, which is a newer facility but poorly very served by public transport. We estimate it would take an hour from West Molesey to Cobham by bus and about £30 return by taxi. As well as the beds, the outpatient services would also be "relocated" to the community. This is incredibly worrying giving the strain on existing GP surgeries in Molesey such as Glenlyn.
James Blythe, Director of Commissioning and Strategy at Surrey Downs CCG admitted that NHS Property Services could sell the hospital site if it were found to be surplus to requirements.
Click here for our interview with the CCG's James Blythe.

Will Molesey RA councillors listen to residents over parking?

Peter Szanto in Wolsey Road with lead petitioners

MORE than 350 East Molesey households and 52 retailers backed the Molesey Conservative petitions for parking controls earlier this year.
We have been calling on Surrey County Council (SCC) to introduce a weekday morning one hour period of residents only parking in Wolsey Road, Palace Road and other streets in the vicinity of Hampton Court Station.
This would encourage rail commuters to use the near-empty station car park instead of blocking the spaces in East Molesey residential streets. It would stop drivers hurtling dangerously around these streets looking for spaces, improve safety for people exiting driveways and would benefit Bridge Road retailers by creating parking capacity during the day for shoppers.
The petitions and supporting evidence were submitted by former Molesey councillor Peter Szanto and will be considered as part of the County Council's review of parking in Molesey.
Peter and colleague Steve Bax have respectively campaigned on the issue of commuter parking in streets close to Hampton Court Station and had intended to steer it to a successful conclusion if they had been elected in May. But now it will be for Molesey's Residents Association councillors to help bring about changes or stand in change's way.
Peter is sceptical given their past opposition, and said: “The RA councillors have opposed any parking controls. The question being asked now is whether they will listen to their constituents this time, in light of the safety concerns and supporting local businesses.
“We petitioned over 430 households and received support from well over 80%. Out of 59 traders and retailers 88% were supportive, so there is clearly strong local support for these measured proposals."
If the petitions are deemed by Surrey CC as worthy of acting upon, they would form part of a range of proposals to be debated by Borough and County Councillors at the Elmbridge Local Committee on October 3rd.

Green light given to new secondary school for Molesey and Walton

Shortly before he stepped down as Prime Minister, David Cameron gave the go ahead for 31 new free schools - including one for the Molesey and Walton areas.
ElmWey Learning Trust, who run Heathside School in Weybridge, submitted a bid to the Government for funding to open a free school by September 2019. Their business plan was accepted and the next stage is to find a suitable location for the school of up to 900 students aged 11-16.
This could be in either Molesey or Walton but the fact the new school will be called Heathside Walton-on-Thames rather suggests that Walton is the preferred choice. So far the shortlist (if there is one) has yet to be made public.
We do know that the new school will be able to call on existing expertise at Heathside Weybridge, it's sister school, which is rated Good by Ofsted and Outstanding for leadership. Conservative MP for Esher & Walton, Dominic Raab, is also supportive and has promised to work with ElmWey and Surrey County Council to help the new school get established.
Molesey Conservatives' Steve Bax has been outspoken about the need for a new secondary school and welcomed the recent announcement: “This is great news for Molesey," he said. "Few things matter more than giving children the best start in life and a good quality education. I hope a suitable site can be found soon and we'll be keen to see if we can help.”

Lloyds bank closing in East Molesey

Lloyds bank is pulling out of Molesey on Monday (July 25) when its branch in Walton Road is due to close.
The decision to quit is being blamed on a lack of footfall with the ridiculously low figure of "28 personal and business customers" said to be visiting the branch each week, now that that the majority of transactions are now carried out over the internet and smartphones.
Lloyds said branch visits had declined by 19% reduction since last year as 73% of East Molesey based non-business customers use other branches or the internet.
We discussed the situation with David Jupp, chairman of Molesey Business Network (MBA), who is worried that the bank's demise w
ill have a detrimental effect on the town centre.
He said: “When Tesco built the Hurst Park store I predicted then that it would be the first nail in the coffin of the shops along the Walton Road.
"When Barclays in West Molesey closed about 2 years ago, at that time questions were asked of Lloyds if closure was planned. When Saturday opening was suspended last year I again asked if this was a prelude to closure and again a negative was received. However, I now disbelieve the statements that were provided to MP Dominic Raab as I feel plans were in place some time ago.
The statement we received from Lloyds Bank reads: "The East Molesey branch will close on 25th July. We have made the difficult decision to close this branch because of the changing way customers choose to bank with us, which has resulted in customers using it less often.
"The way customers fulfil their banking needs is continuing to change and we have seen a significant decline in customers using this branch.
"Customers can continue to use any other branches in our network, such as Walton on Thames branch, and the local post office is a short distance away where customers can manage their day-to-day banking needs. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause customers.”

Thoughts on the recent Borough Council elections in Molesey

Steve Bax and Debi Oliver with MP Dominic Raab on polling day.

Politics is a funny old business. Sometimes you're up, other times you're down. For the Molesey Conservatives the 2016 Borough Council elections were definitely a low point, though we are determined to rebuild and return stronger.
For anyone who hasn't seen the results, they are posted here. In summary though, our political opponents the Molesey Residents Association won all six of the Molesey seats in the new 48-member Elmbridge Borough Council. Myself (Steve Bax) and my hard working and effective colleague Peter Szanto lost our bids for re-election, and our ability to deliver on the important causes we have championed for our residents - from parking controls to Heathrow noise - will now be much more difficult.
This year's elections were the first to be fought along the new wards drawn up by the Boundary Commission. They agreed to a Conservative proposal to reduce number of councillors from 60 to 48, a more appropriate number for today's council, and redrew all the wards. In Molesey the old North, East and South wards were replaced by Molesey East and West, but around 1,500 former Molesey East voters were moved into Thames Ditton - the Molesey Conservatives wrote to the Commission opposing this illogical and unsatisfactory move and warned voters would be disenfranchised. They went ahead anyway.
In Molesey West our three local candidates, Richard Doxford, Philippe Bassett and Inna Spektor, fought on a strong Molesey manifesto with proposals for saving the Hospital, improving Molesey Heath and to press for a local secondary school. They put up a good fight but clearly the MRA is still very entrenched in West Molesey and the Conservatives have a lot of work to do to win hearts and minds.

West Molesey champions Inna Spektor and Philippe Bassett.

Most disappointing was the result in Molesey East where the MRA topped the poll with 1,576 votes, 1,517 and 1,437. Steve Bax finished fourth with 1,159, Peter in fifth with 925 votes and Debi sixth with 888. The unusual situation this year where everyone had 3 votes appears to have benefitted Labour and the Greens who picked up votes, though UKIP was in last place and suffered a poor result which was mirrored across Elmbridge.
After the shock of the result - we expected a close fight with the MRA but not to be hundreds of votes adrift - I spoke to the Surrey Advertiser after the result. I said: "I'm really proud that I was able to represent the people of Molesey East for the last two years. It was an amazing privilege and a really fulfilling part of my life. I hope I can be back one day but at the moment I don't really know where we go from here."
It is difficult to pinpoint exactly what went wrong in East ward this year, but to my mind there were three main factors: first that national factors played a part, government unpopularity and the rows over Brexit badly affected the Conservatives across Elmbridge; second the boundary changes which stacked the deck heavily in the MRA favour by moving 3,600 voters from the former West Molesey wards where they dominated, into East ward which the Conservatives won in the last two years; and third a nasty, negative eve of poll letter from the MRA highlighting that Peter, Debi and I live outside of the ward that will have damaged us with East's new voters.
It is a huge disappointment and deeply frustrating to see all of the gains from the last two years wiped out in one stroke, especially as Peter and I had been making such good progress. We now know the political lay of the land and the nature of the challenge. Our task is to consolidate our existing supporters and win supporters in the new roads that have joined the ward. We believe this work is in Molesey's interests as we are providing a democratic alternative to MRA unhealthy one-party rule in Molesey.

Molesey Conservatives welcome secondary school plan

Molesey parents may be interested to know that an application has been made a for a new secondary school to serve the needs of our area.

ElmWey Learning Trust, which operates Heathside School in Weybridge, has submitted a bid to the Department for Education for funding to open a free school. If it gets the go ahead, the search would be on for a suitable school location in Molesey or Walton. The school is planned to open with its first 150 students in September 2019.

The Molesey Conservatives have long argued that our town needs its own secondary school to meet the local demand and avoid the need for children to travel by bus or car to Esher or Walton. So we welcome this proposal and look forward to hearing more of the detail and helping to move things in a positive direction as much as possible. Councillors Steve Bax and Peter Szanto recently spoke to the Surrey Comet about the proposals - see here.

Speak up to save Molesey Hospital from closure

Steve Bax & Peter Szanto outside the hospital

As we advised in the October 2015 edition of the Molesey News, the future of Molesey Hospital is hanging by a thread. It is now vital that residents make their voices heard in the consultation process.
Surrey Downs Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has been evaluating the future of our community hospitals. Public consultation is well advanced. It started on 28th January and ends on 5th May.
The consultation is on the four options recommended in their report in September last year. Two of the four options involve the “transfer of Molesey inpatient services to Cobham Hospital and transfer of outpatient services to suitable location(s) within East Elmbridge locality”….ie the closure of the hospital.
Your Molesey local Conservative team has been actively fighting Molesey Hospital’s case. It delivers healthcare and rehabilitation to the people of Molesey on their doorstep, whereas Cobham is not easy to get to by public transport.
Councillor, Dr Peter Szanto (whose wife is a retired doctor) has met with the Director of Clinical Services, visited the hospital and staff, attended the consultation launch event on 2nd February at Molesey Community Centre, provided input to the consultation process and advertised details on Twitter and Facebook.
We have been fighting for the future of in and outpatient services at our hospital, but it will be an uphill battle since Cobham has more beds and is a newer facility. Hence it is vital for you to speak up in the consultation process.

Peter with residents at the consultation event in February

We published the contact details for providing your input back in our October edition; we make no apologies for repeating them again:
You can comment by filling in the online survey at the Surrey Downs CCG website at www.surreydownsccg.nhs.uk/get-informed/our-projects/community-hospital-services/
Or email contactus.surreydownsccg@nhs.net or write to FREEPOST RTEY-LSGG-UHBE, Surrey Downs Clinical Commissioning Group, Cedar Court, Guildford Road, Leatherhead, Surrey, KT22 9AE. Contacting by SMS through textphone on 07912 998809 (please note this is a text only service for the deaf, or hard of hearing).
For 120 years Molesey Hospital has supported and cared for residents in their time of need, now our hospital needs us. Please make your voice heard to keep the hospital open.

Boundary Commission publishes new council wards for Molesey

The Boundary Commission has now confirmed its proposals for the new council ward arrangements in Elmbridge. There will be 16 wards of roughly equal sizes, each served by three councillors, which makes 48 borough councillors overall (a reduction of 12).

These changes will take affect in May 2016 when elections will be held to appoint all 48 of the new borough councillors. In Molesey the Commission has decided to scrap the three current Molesey East, South and North wards and replace them with two wards - Molesey East and Molesey West. The Molesey Conservatives believe this to be a good arrangement as it preserves the existing villages of East and West Molesey and is a better solution to the artificial north-south divide which was suggested earlier on this process.

However we are very disappointed that the Commission has not listened to either the Molesey Conservatives or Molesey Residents Association, nor indeed residents, to keep everything north of the River Mole in the East Molesey ward. Instead Bridge Road (with the exception of the shops), Bridge Gardens, Cedar Road and Close, Summer Road, Avenue & Gardens, Esher Road and all off chutes down as far as Imber Court will be moving to the new and enlarged Thames Ditton ward. We believe this to be a poor outcome for our residents in these streets who live in Molesey and identify themselves as part of the Molesey community. The decision to make them part of the Thames Ditton council ward must seem baffling and confusing.

Much of what is currently Molesey North and South will merge into the new Molesey West ward but with Hurst Park, Kelvinbrook and the streets off it, Molesham Way, Abbey Walk, Avern Road and Gardens, Spring Gardens and Langton Road, moving into the new East ward.

The next stage will be for the proposals to go through Parliament where they will formally approved in time for elections on Thursday May 5th 2016.

You can see the proposals in full here.