A Liberal Democrat perspective on religious freedom

Guest speaker, Lord Eric Avebury, and our local MP Edward Davey, the Liberal Democrat Shadow Foreign Secretary, will talk and take questions on foreign affairs.

Friday 16th October 2009, 7:00pm for 7:30pm at The Shiraz Mirza Trust, Manor Park Hall, Malden Road, New Malden KT3 6AU

Everyone welcome to enjoy an Indian Cuisine three course dinner. Tickets £30 available from Edward Davey's office on 020 8288 0161

Health campaign hots up

NHS Kingston is now consulting on a radical shake-up of local health services aiming to provide:

• Longer opening hours, with new “walk in clinics” at some GP practices
• Fewer visits to hospital and shorter waits, with several appointments in one visit
• Improved quality of healthcare by better professional integration
• More health services, closer to home, so outpatients and some diagnostic tests are in the community

Read more about it and find out how to have your say now.

People Who Help Us

The latest title in the children's series People Who Help Us is 'Member of Parliament' by Rebecca Hunter. It features me going about my everyday life, from having breakfast with my wife and son, to sitting in the Commons.

The details are:
Member of Parliament (People Who Help Us) by Rebecca Hunter (Hardcover 2009) £10.99
ISBN-10: 184234546X

You can order the book from Amazon.

Funding to expand Kingston schools

The Liberal Democrat campaign to secure local schools for all children entering primary education this September has been successful.

But Kingston will need to spend more than £20 million on expanding existing schools and building at least two new ones, which will require significant funds from national Government.

Sign the petition calling for the Government to provide the necessary funding for an expansion programme for Kingston’s primary and secondary schools

Update - Tesco's plans for Tolworth

Tesco have announced that they are withdrawing the planning application for a superstore and 562 homes near Tolworth roundabout!

Thank you to everyone who has supported this huge campaign - you have really made a difference.

Right: Ward councillors, Vicki Harris and Rolson Davies celebrate with Edward Davey MP.

My parliamentary allowances

MP's allowances have been in the news recently, so I wanted you to know that I have published mine here

Kingston Business Survey

To complete the online version of my Kingston Business Survey please click here.

All responses will be kept confidential and no company or employee names will be disclosed.

This survey is open to all businesses in Kingston Borough. Paper copies of this survey have been sent to many businesses already. If you have not received one and would like a paper copy please contact my office on 020 8288 0161.

Economic survey

I would like to know how the cost of living rises and current economic climate is affecting you.

Please help me get a complete picture of the effects in Kingston and Surbiton Constituency by completing my online survey. Click here.

Also ... Read my articles about Vince Cable's ideas for recovery from this economic crisis here and here

Air Quality Campaign

Latest news

The European Commission has launched legal proceedings against the United Kingdom and several other EU Member States for breaching air pollution laws. Read my reaction to this.

Keep the air monitoring site open

Air quality by the A3 has been poor for some time, so it is a nonsense for the Government to close its air quality monitoring site in Tolworth. We need this monitoring site to give us up-to-date statistics in order to oppose Tesco's plans.

Queue Watch!

Post Office Queue Chaos Hits Borough - read the worrying results of my survey

Local people will be astonished to learn that Post Office Limited think the queues at Surbiton, Kingston and New Malden Post Offices are acceptable.

Can you help me monitor and cut queuing times at local post offices?

Gaza

You can read my views on Gaza, in an Informer article and in a debate in the House of Commons.

Station Re-zoning Campaign

Good news at last!

Davey and Johnson to work together on re-zoning Kingston & Surbiton train stations

Background

Boris breaks election pledge on campaign to re-zone Kingston and Surbiton

Read my letter to Mayor Boris Johnson calling on him to make good his election pledge to support this campaign

Annual rail tickets from Kingston and Surbiton could go up by over £400, unless a new campaign to re-zone the two stations succeeds.

Nearly 20,000 local season ticket holders could be clobbered by this outrageous fare rise.

Both stations are only 12 miles from London, much closer to the average distance from London for zone 5 stations.

In fact, 23 zone 5 stations are further away from their London terminus than Kingston and Surbiton.

All we are asking for is equal treatment.

Read more and sign the petition

Climate Change

The Climate Change Bill has been debated by MPs recently. Read about the Lib Dems campaigns on this vitally important subject.